help

 

most of the concerts that i am sharing here are recorded in “flac” format (“free lossless audio compression”).  the exceptions are when a show is only available in another format (e.g., i’ve demuxed the audio from a video), and are always provided in their original format (sometimes, i might also provide a flac version).

flac, well really any format, is easy to play these days — pick an audio format, and most audio players support it or have plug-ins that will allow you to play it.  even car audio players are starting to support other formats (like flac, which my last car-rental could play from a usb thumb drive).

still, to help you out, here are links to tools for listening to, downloading or manipulating .flac (and other) music files

  • listening & watching
    • foobar2000  foobar2000 audio player (play cd, mp3, flac, etc): my personal favorite – plays everything, loads fast, clean simple interface
    • vlc videolan (play most types of video & audio files.  can also do some conversions, and you can record clips from an existing video)
    • winamp (play cd, mp3, flac, etc): newer versions of winamp support flac
    • flac player+ (play flac on iphone):  play flac on your iphone (and many other audio codecs such as mp3, aac, wma, rm…)  on an iphone, the link should open flac player+ in the app store
  • downloading & verifying
    • biglybt (bittorrent client, for downloading ‘torrents’) (from developers formerly with vuze/azureus)
    • trader’s little helper (decode, encode, create/verify checksums, create .torrent files for uploading)
    • mediainfo (view technical and tag data for video and audio files and, i discovered, a lot of picture formats too)
  • recording & editing sound
    • audacity (free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds)
  • transcoding & tracking
    • ffmpeg (“complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video”).  great, but you do need to learn the syntax.  i’ve moved almost completely to ffmpeg for any transcoding, demuxing, tracking demuxed video and creating short samples.
    • mp3directcut (“fast and extensive audio editor for encoded MP3 and AAC. Without re-encoding directly cut, crop, split and join your tracks, create fades on MP3 and much more”) great.  handles mp3, aac, mp2/mpa, mp4/m4a.  i find this better than cd wave editor (which can use the same cue sheets, with minor changes like “wav” instead of “mp3”).
    • cd wave editor (split .wav files into tracks) great.  handles wav, flac, ape, w64 (anyone seen those last two lately?).  more intuitive than mp3directcut, but not as powerful.
    • track duration v.06.xls (an excel file that i use to calculate track durations from the start times & start times from the durations, for use in tracking audio demuxed from a video.)
    • avidemux (free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks [link to sourceforge page, as homepage is just links])
    • mediacoder (a universal media transcoding software – a.k.a. convert formats)
    • tsmuxer (transport stream muxer.  i’ve used this to pull the audio out of some video files [“demux”])
    • dvd audio extractor (create audio files from a dvd or from video files, as flac, wav, mp3 or “demux” for original format)
  • file system
    • bulkrenameutility (powerful rename features; change time-date stamps; some other features; and a decent user interface)
    • 1-4a rename (one of the best mass file renamers, and i’ve gone back to using this!)
    • setfiledate (utility to alter the time and date of one or more selected files or folders.  look under ‘freeware’.)
  • cover design (does anyone still burn their music to cd for listening?)
 Posted by at 16:43

  13 Responses to “help”

  1. Dear fellow Pete
    Yesterday, I guess, you posted – kindly, I shall remark – an Anita O’Day presentation. This is a MOST, to our old Jazz lovers! I tryed to use my original PW (“e#t)d1nq*@a#J@Rn”) and the “machine” didn’t accept it. When I tryed to get a new one, through the “machine”, again it wasn’t accepted (“http://cipjazz.eu/wp-login.php?action=rp”). It seemed weird to me, this new one, ’cause it’s the address of your site; anyway…I suppose that I made any mistake on it. Thanks for your return and have a wonderful new year and a good day!

    • hi cezar,

      you should be able to download without signing in.

      note the password in the comments to the posting. (i suggest copy it, e.g. ctrl-c)
      click on the download link.
      when prompted, enter the password (i suggest paste it, e.g. ctrl-v)

      that said, i’ll have a look at the login process — and thanks for telling me that it’s a problem!

      regards,
      pete

  2. hi
    just found your bloog, which is great
    tried to download anita o’day, but it requested a decoder
    can you send it?
    is it the same for all posts?
    THANKS A MILLION
    Joao

    • hi joao,

      thanks for the kind words.

      if you’re looking for the download key, it’s in the comments to the posting.

      if you’ve successfully downloaded the .zip file and are trying to decode it, there are lots of zip utilities on the internet. i use winrar ( http://www.rarlab.com/ ).

      regards,
      pete

  3. ahmed abdullah sextet – 14 september 19

    hello!…
    the post does NOT have password for the download…can you FIX that please…looking forward to listen that GIG…
    THX!…

    keep them floowing…

  4. I have forgotten my password. HELP

    • no worries, allen, you don’t need to join to download. the only password you need is in the comments of each posting.

  5. Hello Pete
    hello!…
    the post does NOT have password for the download…can you FIX that please…looking forward to listen that GIG…
    THX!…

    keep them floowing…

  6. Hi Pete
    hello!…
    the post does NOT have password for the download…can you FIX that please…looking forward to listen that GIG…
    THX!…

    keep them floowing…

    thanks Jean

    • hi jean, glad you’re enjoying the shows. could you leave your comment on the posting in question? i can’t tell which posting you refer to. regards, pete

  7. Caros Senhores
    Não consigo fazer download dos albums. A password não está sendo aceita. Por favor me ajude.
    Obrigado.

    Dear sirs
    I can’t download the albums. The password is not being accepted. Please help me.
    Thank you.

    • hi carlos,
      it is best to copy-and-paste the password, to avoid typos. tell me, which shows are causing problems for you?

      pete

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