How to rip streaming audio?

[Talon87]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=5481664 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5481664) , then click on "Hear the Performance." This is what I would like to rip. Suggestions outside of "order a CD"? (I like their specific rendition of the piece. ¬¬)

[PiccoloNamek]

Use a sound recording program to record the output if your sound card directly.

[Talon87]

Sound recording programs include ... ?

[PiccoloNamek]

A bunch of different programs.

How about I just record it for you?

[Talon87]

That could work. :o Though I would like to be able to do it in future for myself, so if the programs are easy to download and operate I may as well be introduced to them.

[PiccoloNamek]

You're a super-genius, you can figure it out. ;)

Anyway, do you mind if I encode this in MPC format? It is already heavily compressed, and I don't want to compress it any more than I absolutely have to. MPC is much more transparent than MP3. Plus, I don't have an MP3 encoder on this PC right now.

If you don't use it already, download foobar2000. It can play MPC and OGG vorbis files natively.

[Talon87]

foobar instead of fubar? That's a new one on me. :)

I've been using VLC on this new PC until I decide from whom I wish to mass-install all necessary video and audio codecs.

MPC is fine, though I've never heard of it before. So long as it plays in VLC -or- MPlayer -or- Windows Media Player.

[PiccoloNamek]

Well, it looks like you'll be downloading foobar then, because I'm not reencoding this.

http://www.foobar2000.org/foobar2000_0.9.4.3.exe

Foobar is the best audio player, anyway. It is very small, unobtrusive, uses little memory, and support almost every audio format natively. (No need to download any codecs!)

(Sendspace link coming soon.)

[Doppleganger]

I'll take the opportunity to ask Namek something:

Namek, I've got a PC recorder and I've noticed that there are jumps with recordings. Let's just say I'm listening to something and I put on the recorder - when I play the recording back, there are lags in the record even if no such lag appears when I hear it in real time.

How does one elliminate this problem?

[PiccoloNamek]

I'll take the opportunity to ask Namek something:

Namek, I've got a PC recorder and I've noticed that there are jumps with recordings. Let's just say I'm listening to something and I put on the recorder - when I play the recording back, there are lags in the record even if no such lag appears when I hear it in real time.

How does one elliminate this problem?


What do you mean by "PC recorder"? Anyway, the problem is most likely caused by the fact that the computer simply can't keep up with outputting the sound, recording it at the same time, and writing the recorded data (in real time, no less) into the program's temporary file, which means the CPU has to take time away from the playback program and dedicate some time to the recording program, causing skips. (Well, this is how Cool Edit Pro 2.0 works, anyway.)

Also, for Talon: http://www.sendspace.com/file/6le2yj

[PiccoloNamek]

Did you get the file? I went to a lot of trouble to record and encode it! :oops:

[Talon87]

Dude, it was huge! 8O 77 megs for a music file?

Namek: That "music file" was 38 minutes long. ¬¬
Talon: Yeah -- so? :?
Namek: -_- ... that's, like, 10 songs.
Talon: Huh? :?
Namek: If you assume an average song to be 3 minutes and 50 seconds long, that comes out to about 10 songs' worth. Where each song file would be about 7.7 MB.
Talon: And your point is ... :?
Namek: For how long it is, it's not that big.
Talon: .........
Namek: ..........
Talon: ........
Namek: C'mon, say it. -_-
Talon: MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE!

:P ;)

Anyway, I don't know if it's just my ears or what, but I hear a faint static (pretty stable frequency, so it's easy to ignore if I choose to). Did you introduce that, or did your technique simply "pull out" inherent static in NPR's stream? Audiophile and awesome friend that you are, I know I can trust that you spent 30+ minutes more on this than you ought to have :P , but I just wanted to ask because I was curious.

[PiccoloNamek]

Well, I used a codec designed for high quality encoding, and use the lowest possible level of compression. The WMA file was already heavily compressed, and I did not want to add further artifacts.

As for the static, I cannot hear any, nor can I see any on the file's waveform/spectral readout. I'm actually surprised it came out as clean as it did.

Also, the original file had a sample rate of 22.5khz, which means that the file you have no contains no high-frequency information above 11khz. If you really like this song, I suggest you find it on CD soon.

[Talon87]

Imagine the static that sounds like somebody saying "Shhhhhhhhhhh" at like 1 dB. Y'know what I mean? The one you hear sometimes when a speaker is turned up far, far too loudly and you can hear the live feed? That's the noise -- except I hear it while listening to Beethoven at a pleasant 40-50 dB.

[PiccoloNamek]

I don't know what to tell you. Check your play back settings and equipment. What application are you using to play the file? I hear no such sound on my system, which is arguably superior to yours (no offense) so I know there isn't anything wrong with the file itself. I'm listening at around 75-80db.

Here is an image of the end of the file, showing just how quiet the background noise level is: (The highlighted area)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/ ... ayback.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/PiccoloNamek/Playback.jpg)

[Talon87]

I hear no such sound on my system, which is factually superior to yours (no offense)
Fixed. :) :oops:

[PiccoloNamek]

Well, what I meant was that a better will be much more revealing of flaws than a lesser one.

Does your computer have onboard sound? I wonder if the noise could be coming from the hard drive or other components.

[Talon87]

I am using onboard audio, yes. My speakers are Altec Lansing model number VS-2120.