Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:48:03 -0800
From: Chris Waters <xtifr@debian.org>
To: buug@weak.org
Subject: Re: [buug] "record" mp3/ogg?
On Tue, Dec 21, 2004 at 10:30:45PM -0800, Ian Zimmerman wrote:
> But I want to create files from external source -
really, whatever
> the sound card happens to play. That's because I'd like to
retire
> my stereo, but only after converting the really valuable
LPs and
> tapes.
Very easy. Just about any sound editing tool will allow you to record from your sound card's line-in. However, there's a program specifically designed for what you're trying to do: gramofile.
http://panic.et.tudelft.nl/~costar/gramofile/
Or, if you're running Debian, "apt-get install gramofile". :)
Also, I have to say, if you're really planning to dump your LPs and tapes, you might want to make lossless archives of the music (or, at least, the more valuable, less easily replaceable bits) compressed with FLAC instead of ogg or mp3. Make oggs too, for playing, but keep archives of the FLAC files on CDR or other backup medium. Then, if you ever want to transcode to a newer or better format, you'll still have the pristine originals around.
From rick Tue Dec 21 23:38:59 2004
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:38:59 -0800
To: buug@weak.org
Subject: Re: [buug] "record" mp3/ogg?
Quoting Ian Zimmerman (itz@buug.org):
> Hi, I'm a rank beginner with digital sound, hence this
question.
> There seem to be plenty of programs to "rip" tracks from a
CD,
> save them in the lossy format of the day, and maybe
reassemble
> them for burning on another CD. But I want to create
files
> from external source - really, whatever the sound card
happens
> to play. That's because I'd like to retire my stereo, but
only
> after converting the really valuable LPs and tapes.
After
> a very short search I have not found any way to do
that.
>
> Maybe I am asking the wrong question? If so I'm sure
Rick
> will correct that :-)
Since you didn't have much luck with picking something to _record_ sound files, I tried a Google search on "capture sound Linux".
First of all, it appears that MP3 encoding utilities like BladeEnc accept stdin, so you should be able to read directly from a sound device file, as specified on the command line. That seems like the most straight-forward way, off the top of my head.
There's also a sound-capture client for the relatively obscure sound server named JACK (or JACKit), detailed here: http://desktops.linux.com/desktops/04/08/09/1513255.shtml?tid=25
This thread...
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/261684
...suggests you should be able to use KRecord or audicity
directly for the purpose you have in mind. Consensus seems to
favour audicity.
This article...
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/10/20/1423245
...says to use something called "ecasound" to do the capture
from /dev/dsp, and then audicity to clean it up (if
necessary).
There's a Freshmeat category with a mere 130 entries in it: http://freshmeat.net/browse/115/
'Hope that helps. (I'd not gotten around to considering this problem before.)
To: buug@weak.org
From: Ian Zimmerman (itz@buug.org)
Date: 23 Dec 2004 22:41:44 -0800
Subject: [buug] Early summary [Was: "record" mp3/ogg?]
Ian> Hi, I'm a rank beginner with digital sound, hence this question.
Ian> There seem to be plenty of programs to "rip" tracks from a CD, save
Ian> them in the lossy format of the day, and maybe reassemble them for
Ian> burning on another CD. But I want to create files from external
Ian> source - really, whatever the sound card happens to play. That's
Ian> because I'd like to retire my stereo, but only after converting the
Ian> really valuable LPs and tapes. After a very short search I have
Ian> not found any way to do that.
A quick run down the list of people's suggestions:
1/ I was unaware that general-purpose audio file editors like audacity can record line-in. It certainly seems to contradict the "one job well" maxim, but I guess we've come a long way (toward hell, that is).
Had I known, I probably wouldn't even have posted, because it's the record (or capture) part that I was missing. Thanks for pointing out that it's worth saving to a lossless format, though.
2/ vsound is for recording audio output of programs, and thus isn't applicable to my situation.
3/ ecasound seems like exactly what I am looking for. It even has an Emacs interface :-)
4/ gramophile can detect and cut tracks, but I really hate its half-arsed curses UI. (It doesn't even react to screen size change.) It would have been much better off with a straight CLI like ecasound.
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 16:23:34 -0800
To: Ian Zimmerman (itz@buug.org)
From: Chris Waters (xtifr@debian.org)
Cc: buug@weak.org
Subject: Re: [buug] Early summary [Was: "record" mp3/ogg?]
On Thu, Dec 23, 2004 at 10:41:44PM -0800, Ian Zimmerman wrote:
> A quick run down the list of people's suggestions.
> 1/ I was unaware that general-purpose audio file editors like audacity
> can record line-in. It certainly seems to contradict the "one job well"
> maxim, but I guess we've come a long way (toward hell, that is).
Well, actually, you can record using nothing but cat(1). What you can't do (at least not easily) with cat is set the sample rate and the mixer/channel-select controls. Once you've got something that can do controlled playback of raw sound data, though, you're about 95% of the way to making something that can record as well, So, while in general I agree with you about the bloat issue, in this case I think it makes sense to provide the extra feature.
The Linux sound card interface is dead easy once you look into it.
> 3/ ecasound seems like exactly what I am looking for. It even has > an Emacs interface :-)
I've actually edited raw sound files in emacs. There's even a live concert recording up on the Internet Archive now that has emacs in its lineage, thanks to your truly. :)
Uncompressed sound file formats are dead easy once you look into it.
> 4/ gramophile can detect and cut tracks, but I really hate it's > half-arsed curses UI (it doesn't even react to screen size change). > It would have been much better off with a straight CLI like ecasound.
Bummer. I've heard good things about it, but never actually tried it. The filters designed for clicks and pops (as often found on vinyl) seemed like a pretty useful feature too. Trapping SIGWINCH is not difficult. Did you send in a bug report?
One last thing I should mention: if you ever plan to burn your sound files to audio CD, you should make sure the data is a proper multiple of the audio CD sector size, or you may end up with coasters. The "--sector-align" option for FLAC is a good place to start.
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:14:25 -0800
To: Tony Godshall (togo@of.net)
From: Chris Waters (xtifr@debian.org)
Cc: buug@weak.org
Subject: Re: [buug] Early summary [Was: "record" mp3/ogg?]
On Tue, Jan 11, 2005 at 10:11:29PM -0800, Tony Godshall wrote:
> According to Chris Waters,
>> One last thing I should mention: if you ever plan to burn your sound
>> files to audio CD, you should make sure the data is a proper multiple
>> of the audio CD sector size, or you may end up with coasters. The
>> "--sector-align" option for FLAC is a good place to start.
> cdrecord now handles this automagically, at least when I
> feed it a stack of .wav files.
It's true that cdrecord will pad the tracks if you tell it to, which will prevent you from creating coasters, and that's a good thing. However, it pads each track (or each track that needs it), which can cause an audible click or pop, as the sound level suddenly drops to zero and then leaps back up. This is especially noticable with live recordings. The FLAC "--sector-align" option actually borrows a few bytes of data from the next track to pad out the current track size, which ensures that there are no audible artifacts between tracks, which is why I recommend it.
> sox works great for me for recording from line-in.
Ah, I hadn't noticed that, but I'm certainly not surprised. Sox is an awesome and indispensible tool for anyone working with audio on Linux, IMO.