Found a way to embed album art into an .ogg file!

[SUBMAN1]

Cool deal! There were some old tools that you could compile yourself to do this one at a time before, but finially someone made an app that can do it for you!!!

That is if you don't mind running Beta software:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/beta/Medi...1045_Debug.exe

It pulls it automatically from Amazon like other apps.

Now let me see if I can mess with the dll's and get a customized ogg compression engine in MM. Then I could ditch CDEX and just use this from now on. I need near lossless compression in my music. I can't stand most lossy formats like MP3 or even normal ogg.

-S

PS. I wonder if Twonkymedia will now pick this up and transfer it over the network to my media player (DSM-520)? Need to test!

[August]

I have no idea what you just said but it sounds cool...

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by August

I have no idea what you just said but it sounds cool...

Well i recognise the word ogg cause i mess round with them in sh2/3, otherwise me either

[Camaero]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Cool deal! There were some old tools that you could compile yourself to do this one at a time before, but finially someone made an app that can do it for you!!!

That is if you don't mind running Beta software:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/beta/Medi...1045_Debug.exe

It pulls it automatically from Amazon like other apps.

Now let me see if I can mess with the dll's and get a customized ogg compression engine in MM. Then I could ditch CDEX and just use this from now on. I need near lossless compression in my music. I can't stand most lossy formats like MP3 or even normal ogg.

-S

PS. I wonder if Twonkymedia will now pick this up and transfer it over the network to my media player (DSM-520)? Need to test!

What kind of a sound system do you have to be able to tell the difference between MP3 and a normal CD? I honestly can't... Maybe I have been around too many top fuel dragsters without ear plugs or something.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Cool deal! There were some old tools that you could compile yourself to do this one at a time before, but finially someone made an app that can do it for you!!!

That is if you don't mind running Beta software:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/beta/Medi...1045_Debug.exe

It pulls it automatically from Amazon like other apps.

Now let me see if I can mess with the dll's and get a customized ogg compression engine in MM. Then I could ditch CDEX and just use this from now on. I need near lossless compression in my music. I can't stand most lossy formats like MP3 or even normal ogg.

-S

PS. I wonder if Twonkymedia will now pick this up and transfer it over the network to my media player (DSM-520)? Need to test!

MP3 works for me, but embedded lyrics would be nice too. Found ALSong(think maybe indirectly from one of your posts) which pulls the lyrics if available each time, but embedded would be nicer since I'd rather my player doesn't connect to the net.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Camaero

What kind of a sound system do you have to be able to tell the difference between MP3 and a normal CD? I honestly can't... Maybe I have been around too many top fuel dragsters without ear plugs or something.

Don't even get me started, but MP3's are extremely flat if you haven't noticed. In short, the version of Vorbis I use is a specially tuned version with no restriction on bitrate, so if a file needs 700 kbps to reproduce a particular high, it will get 700 kbps. If it only needs 100 kbps or less to reproduce a certain sound, it will get only 100 kbps or less to reproduce the sound.

MP3's have a very harsh sound around 8 khz (my estimation of the frequency). Of course MP3 were never designed for use as an audio compression algorythm, but sort of fell into the job over time, so I can't fault it for this. Ogg however 'was' designed for audio compression and is probably the best 'lossy' compression engine available, and constantly (though not always) achieves the award for best lossy engine out of all contestents, including MP3Pro. As you can see from my writing above however, I use a 'near lossless' specially tuned version of the ogg files in most of my compressions. It is leaps and bounds over the best possible quality that can be reproduced by MP3.

To me, it is near impossible to distiguish between the source CD and the ogg file itself. In tests of my master recording (which include Pink Floyd the Wall on 24k gold CD's) tests, my friend and I could hear no difference between the master CD and the compression, and this is played through a stereo that is in the 5 digit range in cost. The only noticeable difference is the signal to noise ratio loss as generated by the playing computers sound card itself, but of course this can be fixed by buying a more expensive sound card. The next step up from this is hardly a step up (though it is actually a minor step up), but that would be a an actual lossless file such as FLAC.

If it tells you anything, CD's sound terrible to me over pure analog or even the later generation of digital music. So when it comes to compression, I need my compression to sound at least as good as the original CD that produced the source file.

If I fed you some comparrisons, you would be able to tell the difference, even on cheap computer speakers if I told you what to look for. Truth be told however, I doubt I would even need to tell you what to look for since I'd expect you'd be able to hear it yourself.

-S

PS. Even CD's have a limitation of 44,100 samples a second with a 16 bit (65,535 possible levels of sound) resolution. If you look at some of the standards that have appeared since the beginning of the 2000's, you will find formats like DVD-Audio with support for 192,000 samples a second, and 24 bit (over 16 million levels of sound) resolution. Are you starting to notice that some of the CD's you buy are double sided? This is why! If I put you in my house and made you close your eyes, you would swear a concert if being played in front of you and know exactly where each musician is sitting. That is why!

[Tchocky]

It's all the same if you're listening to rubbish :p

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

It's all the same if you're listening to rubbish :p

Good point. i didn't think about that.

[Camaero]

Interesting! I was just listening to The Wall today, so I will use that in my question. I have never heard a 24k gold CD... What kind of a difference would I hear if I listen to my version of The Wall and then went over to your house and heard yours?

Also, not to run your thread off with my own questions or anything but I have been looking for some good quality headphones. What do you think of the Sony MDR V6? Or do you, or anyone else have better recommendations?

Just curious what I am missing out on.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Camaero

Interesting! I was just listening to The Wall today, so I will use that in my question. I have never heard a 24k gold CD... What kind of a difference would I hear if I listen to my version of The Wall and then went over to your house and heard yours?

Also, not to run your thread off with my own questions or anything but I have been looking for some good quality headphones. What do you think of the Sony MDR V6? Or do you, or anyone else have better recommendations?

Just curious what I am missing out on.

The normal The Wall CD has been normalized for a general audience. The version I have is a direct copy from the masters. It will have more dynamic range than the version you have. Think little details missing or that don't stand out very much in your version will stand out in mine.

Headphones are a touchy and personal subject. Best plan is to listen to your stereo and gather an idea as to how you would like them to sound, and then go listen to some. As for Sony, Sony really doesn't make anything good anymore. All they do now is bank on their name to sell product, but if you actually open up anything they produce, it is typically cheap junk for components inside. They did used to be good in the 70's though, so if you are after older equipment, older Sony stuff usually is pretty decent and reliable.

-S

PS. If you want one, this bid ends in a few days - currently at $200. It will probably go for double or tripple that. I'm guessing at least $450:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pink-Floyd-THE-W...QQcmdZViewItem

[Camaero]

I see, well thanks for answering my questions! I should probably spend my money on a new reciever before I get the 24K The Wall. Mine was in the low three digit price range and doesn't even have true 5.1. My speakers are some old Pioneers which are actually pretty decent.

By the way, did you get Media Monkey to work with your modified OGG files? Any easy way of telling how you modified the OGGs to get them to sound flawless?

It has been so long since I ripped my cds that I probably have forgotten how much better the original sounded. Actually, on many of my cds, I just open the case, rip to my computer, and keep the original in perfect condition by not using it. I spent part of last night reripping The Wall and Darkside of the Moon in OGG format. I am currently waiting for certain people to wake up so I can blow the walls down and try it out.

Thanks again bud.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Camaero

I see, well thanks for answering my questions! I should probably spend my money on a new reciever before I get the 24K The Wall. Mine was in the low three digit price range and doesn't even have true 5.1. My speakers are some old Pioneers which are actually pretty decent.

By the way, did you get Media Monkey to work with your modified OGG files? Any easy way of telling how you modified the OGGs to get them to sound flawless?

It has been so long since I ripped my cds that I probably have forgotten how much better the original sounded. Actually, on many of my cds, I just open the case, rip to my computer, and keep the original in perfect condition by not using it. I spent part of last night reripping The Wall and Darkside of the Moon in OGG format. I am currently waiting for certain people to wake up so I can blow the walls down and try it out.

Thanks again bud.

I used CDEX to encode the files.

I made MediaMonkey embed the album art (I will try to modify MediaMonkey to encode a near lossless file in the future, but for right now I am going over my collection and just using it to update the art), but now I am screwing with Taglib (http://developer.kde.org/~wheeler/taglib.html) to try and get it to extract it, and transfered over the net with MediaTomb (http://mediatomb.cc/) so that it displays on my Dlink DSM-520 (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=438&sec=0). I'm still messing with something else too on MediaTomb right now, so progress is slow.

Oh - You're welcome by the way!

-S

[Camaero]

Sorry, got one more question for you SUBMAN

I am using CDEX as well. When I select the OGG format and use the highest quality setting which is 500kbps, is that what you used and said that you couldn't tell the difference between the master and the copy?

Thanks a lot for your help. I have a hopefully nice pair of headphones on the way and I want to get a headstart on re-ripping my CDs to as nice of a format as possible.