The Steel Guitar Forum

I want to add audio samples to the music page of the Forum Catalog. I need an easy to use, inexpensive (under $100) software tool that does the following:

1) Rip a song from CD
2) Clip a 30 second segment
3) Fade in / fade out
4) Save as lo-res .wav (8k mono) and .mp3

Does anyone know of a product that does this? It has to have a fast, easy to use interface and it has to work under both Windows 95 and NT.

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<I>Sierra Session S-12 (E9), Speedy West D-10 (E9, D6),
Sierra S-8 Laptop (D13), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (D13, A6)</I>

Bob, check out GoldWave. It may do what you want. I have a registered version. It cost $60 canadian, less than $40 US at the time I bought it.

http://www.goldwave.com

That looks pretty good, but it doesn't appear to rip songs from CD. You have to record them, which is a more error-prone process. We would need to get the levels right for every session.

Since this project will take several weeks, and be ongoing as we add more CDs, I want to put together a process that will be very consistent over time. Ripping is a key element.

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<I>Sierra Session S-12 (E9), Speedy West D-10 (E9, D6),
Sierra S-8 Laptop (D13), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (D13, A6)</I>

b0b
perhaps SOundForgeXP from Sonic FOundry the folks who brought us ACID may fit your bill...it does a LOT for the bux...and is NT friendly
I don't think it rips, but Adaptec's Easy CD Creator does and it's free with most CD-R recorders (another reason to spend more money)
or find a shareware util that rips then use SOundForgeXP

b0b:
Try this address. Program is $34.00 to register but is worth every penny. I use it a lot for my steel clips. You will still need a program to record the .wav files with, but this will rip a whole song off of a CD to .wav format or to MP3.
As an aside, DO NOT record your planned .wav files at 8-bit!! At that rate, they will pick up a lot of white noise directly off your sound card. Far better to record at 16-bit mono.

http://www.streambox.com/Products/Ripper/StreamboxRipper2009.exe <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Graham on 28 February 2000 at 10:25 AM.]</p></FONT>

I've had good luck saving 44k stereo files to 8k mono from a little freeware program that I have, but it is deficient and buggy in other respects. You're right though - I would never actually record in 8k mono.

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<I>Sierra Session S-12 (E9), Speedy West D-10 (E9, D6),
Sierra S-8 Laptop (D13), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (D13, A6)</I>

b0b -

I have a program that I got specifically to rip files from CDs that I never used. I'll take a look when I get home tonight, and if it does what you want, I'll be glad to donate it the cause.

John

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MSA D-10
'63 Gibson Hummingbird
16/15c Hammered Dulcimer

I used MusicMatch to do the CD ripping and mp3 encoding.

The newer version no longer does Real Audio (RA). Sonic Foundry has products that do RA.

Peggy:
The Streambox listed above also does RA files. Also has a built in equalizer which works both in playback and recording/encoding.
Very versatile program.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585

Does it do clips, and fade-in - fade-out?

b0b:
Unfortunately, no clips, fade-in or fade-out. Need a regular sound editing program such as Cool-edit, Goldwave, etc. for doing that.
It is basically a ripper/Real Audio converter which will save to .wav, mp3 or windows media files formats.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585

Right. What I really need is one program to use as a production tool that will do all 4 steps. Am I dreaming?

b0b:
I don't know of ONE program that will do all 4 of the things you want to do. I use two programs to do them with. The ripper to get the .wav files from either Real Audio or CD's, then Wave-se to get the segment I want (Intro, break etc) and to edit it as far as fade-in, fade-out, or to raise or lower the gain and to save it as a .wav file.
That segment can then be brought back into the ripper and encoded and saved as an mp3.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585

If you find this dream tool let me know as well. MusicMatch used to do RealAudio and that went away with Ver. 4.

Goldwave will extract from CDs with the appropriate dll. It's mentioned on their website, just download and go. 8-bit can be foggy sounding but with Goldwave you'll find a good compromise between quality and size and it does all the editing you'll need.