Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with software and mp3

Does PC software exist that can compare the contents of 2 computer folders that each consist of tens of thousands of individual mp3 files, in order to find discrepancies between the two folders?

kristin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:41:32 -0800

I have two drives, and each folder has some overlapping music, some music that isn't in the other folder, and some corrupted files (due to fire damage), which is why I cannot just merge the two together and let the duplicates of one overwrite the other - I don't want to overwrite a 'good' song with a corrupted, unplayable version. I am looking for software that could map the contents of both folders and show me which files they have in common, which would then identify which they do not, and allow me to create a new, clean, folder of music that has no duplicates and no corrupted files.

Does this software exist? Or, is there a better way to do this? Because the thought of doing this manually is making me a little sick.

What is the best old version of Winamp?

SouthCNorthNY — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:10:32 -0800

What is the best old version of Winamp? I like the Music Library feature, but it seems like the new versions run slower. If you know of any other resource-light mp3 players, please post them as well. The software will be used on an 1.33Gz Intel Atom Silverthorne.

itunes whut?

saysthis — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:25:43 -0800

I have a 100g+ and growing music collection that needs proper management. Currently I just dump it in to winamp and hit shuffle, but that doesn't help me tag or organize the stuff, and sometimes the transitions between songs are pretty jarring, e.g. it'll jump from Tortoise to Black Flag. I'm looking for software or winamp plugin(s) that can fix both these problems: Specifically, the music player I want will do these things:
1) Support tagging and adding a song to new playlists as I'm listening.
2) Maintain a solid tracklist of things already played, so that I can go back and add details as I need to.
3) Have some kind of bpm/tempo/whatnot analysis intelligent enough to separate my experimental noise tracks from my snarly garage rock from my dub, and preferably with graduated beat transition management.
4) Not hijack my system with adware or pester me for constant updates.
5) Gotta be able to function off a network - the player computers and server where the music is stored are different devices.

Optionally, I'd love it to gel with ptunes or core media pocket player, but that's not a dealbreaker for me right now, since my phone can't hold 100g.

AND, if it's got an on-the-fly language switching or some kind of multilingual profile support, oooooh! We're a bilingual household, and it significantly lowers usage barriers for the wife if she only has to learn to click one button for her language.

Does this exist? Please say yes.

Audio files for non-audiophiles

fusinski — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:27:21 -0800

What is the simplest way (free or otherwise) to convert M4P and M4A audio files to MP3 en masse?

Is there software out there that can add a sort of sonic watermark to an mp3?

stokast — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:13:05 -0800

I'd like to start an music blog, but don't want to irk musicians by sharing their music without their consent. Is there software out there that can quickly add some sort of sonic watermark to an mp3? I don't mean this kind of watermark, more of a sound that appears periodically to show it's a copyrighted work. A beep or computer generated voice or whatnot. Preferably something that does batch processing.

I guess it'd be fairly easy to do with any kind of audio editing software, but I'm trying to minimize the steps I need to take.

Can I save, in mp3 form, the songs recommended to me by Pandora, on a Windows PC?

newfers — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:33:06 -0800

Is there anything approximating a Windows-based version of the OSX application PandoraJam, allowing me to record tracks suggested by the Pandora website? I purchased an amazing shareware program for my Mac, called PandoraJam... It records and downloads all music recommended by the wonderful music recommendation site Pandora.

I would love to have a similar program on my Windows-based PC, but other than some very clunky solutions, I can't seem to find a piece of shareware/freeware that would do the trick easily, and preferably legally, though that isn't a prerequisite :)

Help? Anyone? Please?

I feel like the Flash at a disco.

Shepherd — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:05:07 -0800

Why is MP3 playback sssuuudddeennllyy gggrriiinnddiinngg doowwnnnn? Until about six months ago, give or take, I could listen to MP3s on my computer pretty much regardless of whatever else I was doing. I did a pretty routine wipe everything/reinstall everything (XP Pro, upgrading from SP2 to 3 after the reinstall) back in May.

Recently, the MP3 player has started to grrriiinnnddd when I do pretty much anything on the computer. I've gone from WinAmp to QCD to Billy to try to minimize the program's CPU "footprint," but it persists. The songs start to stretch out, like HAL at the end of 2001 but with more digital artifacting. The MP3 players never crash, but stutter and grind to a halt, then slowly get up to speed, then start staggering again.

This happens when I open a program, or a document, or save something, or copy a file from one folder to another, or check my e-mail, or load a Web site like MetaFilter, etc. etc. Pretty much everything other than typing or moving the mouse -- and sometimes it just starts to spontaneously stutter as well.

I have an up-to-date Avast!, Ad-Aware and ZoneAlarm (free versions of all) showing no viruses, malware, etc. on my computer.

I've used the Ctrl-Alt-Del resource manager to see what's hogging resources, but the open programs like Firefox, Celtx, Thunderbird, etc. all clock in about 25K for CPU resources, and this "grinding" often happens when I'm running at about 50% of CPU in use.

Nothing on my computer has changed in terms of hardware since before and after this big reinstall and the consequent MP3 grind. No major software changes, either. It's really danged irritating. Is it SP3? General resource creep making all the programs that used to not kill my system resources suck up all my system resources? The difference between six months ago and now is extraordinary: I used to be able to just listen to music while doing whatever, and now everything makes playback stutter and stall.

I've reached the limits of my knowledge. Insight, folks?

Lightweight MP3 app for OSX?

rathikd — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:09:37 -0800

Looking for a lightweight MP3 app for OS X, any suggestions? I'm looking for something, preferably free, to preview MP3s in OS X in a way they don't automatically get dumped into iTunes. And before you jump on VLC, no. Nothing wrong with VLC, it's just not the droid I'm looking for. While we're at it, anyone know of any good ID3 editors for OSX? Bonus points if these two apps are the same but not necessary.

Thanks.

Podcasts for Rio Carbon?

YoungAmerican — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:42:45 -0800

Is there software to automatically manage podcasts on my Rio Carbon Pearl? I'm looking for something that will function like iTunes for an iPod or Zune for a Zune -- keep only unplayed shows on my player, download new shows when I run the software, etc. Are there any iTunes alternatives which will handle this on my Rio Carbon? I'm running XP.

Help me automagically assemble ~1 hour of new music per day, to listen to on my commute.

primer_dimer — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:57:40 -0800

Help me automagically assemble ~1 hour of new music per day, to listen to on my commute. I've recently been cursed with a 30-minute commute to and from work each day, and I want to turn it into a blessing in disguise by using it to listen to some of the wonderful music that's available freely on the world wide web. Ideally what I'd like is some sort of mp3 aggregator that would take a list of sites that I specify, and each day download 1 hour's worth of music onto my mp3 player. Searching for "mp3 aggregator" brings up a few likely sites, but before I dive in and start exploring them I'd be interested to know if you have any suggestions. I'd like to include music from sites like music.mefi (of course!) as well as individual artist pages and sharity sites like those mentioned here.

I'd also be interested in any kind of software that might help me do this. I'm running Linux, and am quite happy to fiddle around with bash/perl/java if it will get me closer to a solution.

How to shorten an MP3 without clipping the ends?

howling fantods — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 07:30:48 -0800

I have an mp3 I'd like to use as a ring tone, but it's 2 seconds too long. I don't want to cut off the beginning or end, but is there some other way to shorten it to 30 seconds? What software (OS X please) can do this? I realize some options might make it sound slightly off, but it's a ring tone so I shouldn't be too bothered by it.

Snip snip snip...Oh no my music!

softlord — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:03:08 -0800

At work, we have to deal with many many requests for audio clips. That is, receiving a CD, cutting 30, 60 or 90 seconds (or some other arbitrary length) from some or all of the tracks and turning them into MP3 or FLV files for use on our websites. I'm searching for a way to better automate this process, as it is unbelievably tedious process as you can imagine. My ideal solution would be able to insert a CD (or take a set of mp3 files) and run a program that would let me select start and end points for all tracks or each track individually, select a format (mp3 required, swf/flv nice but not absolutely necessary) and press a button to have it executed. Does anyone know of such a beast?

iTunes cleanup questions.

lou — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:47:06 -0800

I want to clean up my iTunes library. How do I rename my music folder? How do I get rid of duplicates? and dead links? Here, I'll explain what I'm trying to do in more detail.

1. All my music is in a folder in my root directory, called "mp3". This is a throwback to some ten years ago when mp3's is what you would call digital music. It's not anymore, and now I've got AAC, M4A, etc. I'd actually like to just call the folder "music" (I have all my pictures under "photos" not "jpegs" for example) but I'd break all the links in iTunes if I did that. Re-importing the library is not an ideal solution because I'd lose my playlists and ratings. So if I change the music folder name, can I edit the library to reflect it? ie. look for all instances of "/mp3" and replace it with "/music"? Is there special software needed? where do I even find the library database?

2. Occasionally I do get exact duplicates of my music in my library because I'm sloppy. While iTunes does give me a list of duplicates, they're matching on ID3 tag data (like artist and track title). That's not very useful for me-- I need a list of duplicates that are matching on filename, so I can get rid of the actual duplicates.

3. What iTunes really needs is something that will also scour your database and give you all the dead links, not just tell you if it tries to play a song that's not there. Is there a way (third party or not) to do this?

I'm on iTunes 7.3.1.3, on WinXP. I haven't updated to the newest version of iTunes yet, but since I never notice any substantially new features on minor upgrades I doubt newer versions will do what I need it to, and only heightens the likelihood of breaking with outside software.

I need mp3 editing software

BradNelson — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 21:14:37 -0800

I need Mac software to let me edit out "stage talk" on some mp3s. I have a few mp3s of live recordings, many of which have annoying stage banter at the end or beginning of the track. So, I need a (Mac) program that will allow me to easily edit a few seconds/milliseconds from either the end or beginning.

Are there any essays or studies naming and analyzing the concept of 'freedom' as developed on the internet?

Lockeownzj00 — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:56:34 -0800

Are there any essays or studies naming and analyzing the concept of 'freedom' as developed on the internet? What I mean to say is, there seems to be a strain of ideology that is prevalent amongst serious Internet users: in this highly utopic fashion, it says that things "should" be free. Software "should" be free, operating systems "should" be free, filesharing "should" be free, music "should" be free*. My question is:

What is the source of this? Why are people so easily motivated to become part of it? How does it differ from political ideologies which are so similar and yet so reviled (communism/anarchism)? How has it inoculated itself and separated itself from the bad stigma of aforementioned ideologies?

I know there have been sociological studies on "da internet" before, but I'm looking for something particularly on this topic. If you've any ideas yourself, feel free to contribute.

*not that i disagree with any of this. i'd number myself with them. which is precisely why i want to know why i think this way.

Decent windows CD-labelling software?

whir — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 02:01:15 -0800

Is there any windows software for designing labels for my mix CD's which doesn't completely suck? I'm hoping someone can give me a recommendation for some software that I can run on windows to generate labels for (audio) mix CD's that I burn. For the most part, I'm interested in stuff that I can use to print to those adhesive CD labels packs that one can buy at office supply stores (eg, the ones that stick on the top of the CD itself - I know this is not great for the CD's longevity, but that doesn't worry me much since these are mostly audio CD's coming from mp3 sources, and the mp3's are backed up elsewhere).

I don't need anything incredibly fancy, but I do have some requirements for the software:

* It should be able to import a playlist (probably m3u) and I should then be able to print a track list on the CD itself. I'm OK with writing a script to generate a .txt file from a playlist to feed into the program of need be, but I don't don't don't want to need to copy and paste from Windows Explorer into a track list in the labelling application.

* It should be able to bend text around the axis/center of the CD, so I can write the album title in letters around the diameter of the disc if I want to.

* It should be able to print on most of the CD labels I am able to buy around here (from office supply stores). I don't mind a small offset, but I'd like for there to be no white arcs showing on the CD after I'm done. I'm OK with buying only one specific type of CD label brand to go with the software if need be.

* It should be able to use a jpg/gif/png/etc file as a background to the image.

* It would be nice if it could handle jewel-box type labels as well.

* Open-source would be nice, just on principle.

*The ability to print labels for data CD/DVD's would be a bonus, too.

* It should not be as buggy as bejesus.

Up until now I've mostly been using the CD-label application which comes with Nero to make my labels (I mostly use Nero to burn the CD's themselves). It actually meets most of my requirements, but sadly, it is far buggier than bejesus and I can never get it to match its output to the labels I buy.

I am by no means a Photoshop or Illustrator expert, but I do own both of those programs. I've tried to print some labels based on manufacturer's illustrator templates before, but found it pretty difficult to actually get Illustrator to do what I wanted it to, so I'm hoping for something a little more accessible.

ogg -> mp3

jlub — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:58:13 -0800

Please suggest a Windows or Linux tool to batch-convert ogg files to mp3. I ripped a lot of CDs over time, and thinking I was clever I ripped them to ogg format. I recently bought a car that has a CD player that will play mp3 files, but not ogg files. I would really like to find a tool that:

is free (or very cheap)
will batch-convert all the files in one go
will maintain the directory structure of the original files
will maintain the tag information

I searched around a bit but I haven't found anything. Any suggestions?

Where on god’s green earth can I find a decent media player to handle my (120gb+) MP3 collection?

jkl345 — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:05:48 -0800

Where on god’s green earth can I find a decent media player to handle my (120gb+) MP3 collection? I have 120 gb + of music that I can’t seem to get any media player to handle adequately. Any suggestions on one to try? Or how to make the big ones actually work quickly with this many files? Ideally I’d like something that can:
- Cost nothing (although I may be willing to donate a little something to the perfect tool since no one seems to be able to handle my music collection)
- Handle multiple formats (Mp3, WMA, aiff, etc..)
- Ability to change tracks quickly (Everything seems to lag and it’s really a buzzkill at parties.)
- Ability to build playlists
- No extra junk or ads installed
- Oh, and PC friendly.

Cool bonuses I'd dig:
- Star-ratings or some other form of dynamic play lists are appreciated
- A graphic equalizer or some sort of preset system is appreciated, too.
- FoxyTunes control-ability would be cool, too.

I’ve tried all the big ones and they seem to fail each in different ways:
- Windows Media crashes regularly
- MusikCube plays for a few songs then will literally skip—like an old record—on a song.
- WinAmp locks up and just rotates the names of songs in my library.
- I hate iTunes, Musicmatch, RealPlayer and all players that add extra junk not related to the music player, and iTunes seems to need id3 info, which I don’t have for everything… and I also work in a directory structure, which I think iTunes hates.

Any cool tool suggestions OR suggestions how to optimize/use one of the big dogs for a massive library this size, would be greatly, greatly appreciated! (I really like WinAmp.. but I can’t deal with that random rotating bug!)

Midi to Mp3 converter software?

ob — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 08:18:44 -0800

I'm looking for a cheap/free programme that would enable me to convert a Midi file into a Mp3 or Wav format I'm running Sibelius 4 (on Windows XP) and I've created a midi file and I want to play around with it in Pro Tools, but Pro Tools doesn't recognise the file. I thought that by converting it, it might work...

OS X MP3 player with good "shuffle" ability?

odinsdream — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 16:55:02 -0800

Looking for: OS X MP3 player with good ability to scroll through long files easily and accurately. I'd really like an easy way to go through MP3 files that last about an hour or two (downloaded radio shows, commentaries, etc.) with a nice long shuffle bar. iTunes has a scrollbar where one pixel this way or that way shifts me about a minute or two in the audio. VLC doesn't seem to be any better. Audion is only slightly better. If the scrollbars were just longer!

So, what I'm looking for, is a free mp3 player that lets me say "Whoa, what was that?" and shift back 10-15 seconds, or scroll through a show to find a particular phrase or segment.

Any ideas?

Playlist file-per-folder creator?

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 00:32:40 -0800

I'm looking for a freeware playlist-file generation tool for a large mp3 collection on Windows XP. I have about 80Gb of music, organized into folders by .../Artist Name/Album Title/blahblahblah.mp3. I'd like to be able to point an application at the top of my folder tree and have it iterate down through folders and write playlists into each folder where it finds mp3s. It would take way, way, way too long to do it all by hand, unfortunately.

Does such a thing exist?

Mac mp3 stream players?

lbergstr — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 11:29:09 -0800

What Mac software should I use for listening to mp3 streams? I stream a lot of albums off a private Andromeda server. iTunes is sort of annoying: I have to delete streams from my library after listening, and Andromeda playlists arrive out of order (I believe these are .pls files?) Are there better programs for this, or am I using iTunes incorrectly?

MP3 Player for WindowsME

duck — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 08:14:01 -0800

MP3 Player for WindowsME: I'm looking for a free MP3 player that will work with WindowsME. I cleaned up my harddrive last night, uninstalling programs I don't use anymore, finally finding the spyware files that were driving me crazy and defragging the hard drive. While I was at it, I uninstalled the downloaded MP3 player that I never liked anyway. But now I can't find a replacement.

Must have features: Plays MP3s off a queued list. Fairly simple to use.

Ideal features: Ability to tag and generate playlists based on tags (as per someone else's earlier question, but the suggestions I tried from there (i-tunes, musicCube) don't work on WindowsME). Ability to rip CDs.

No gaps

fixedgear — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 14:44:10 -0800

I need a way to make a CD from my iTunes library with no gaps between songs. Ideally it would fade one song out and fade another song in, just like it does when I use 'Party Shuffle.' Oh yeah, it has to be free. Roxio Easy CD Creator will do it if I upgrade for $70 or so. There must be something out there, I just can't seem to find it. The gaps between the songs are ruining my spinning mixes, I want 45 minutes or more of seamless music.

Looking for free/cheap CD ripper

AstroGuy — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 11:38:15 -0800

I'm looking for free (or cheap) basic CD ripping software for Windows so I can make MP3s to play on my PDA. This is a followup to my Palm vs. PocketPC question. Despite the advice of most people there, after trying both I opted for the PocketPC (got the Dell Axim x50v and really like it). Palm was just too Mac-like for my tastes.

Anyway, I'd like to rip some of my CDs to MP3 so I can play them on my Axim and I'm looking for a good app to do this. Nothing fancy, just basic features, but should be capable of variable-bitrate formats since I'm working with limited (flash) memory here. I bought the 512MB CF card with it, but I'll probably get a 1GB card and use the 512 with my camera instead.

I did the Google search but it found a gazillion hits and I'm wary of spyware/malware on anything unknown. So what do you folks recommend?