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LinuxNetMag #2
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If you want to generate Mp3s on your own
this would become complicated very fast and take a long time, because you
have to use many different tools.
MP3-IDEs unifies all single parts in one tool and offer a comfortable
platform.
[ MP3Studio | Grip
| XCD-Fnord | GTKmp3make
| cdr | --links--]
IDE is the abbreviation of Integrated Development Environment
and means that many different programs are combined in one. Also for MP3s
IDEs are available and ripper, encoder and sometimes players
are controlled by one program.
The TCL/Tk program MP3Studio unifies
a Mp3 player with a playlist editor, DAT player, CD ripper, encoder, sample
editor and an audio mixer with a clear front-end.
CDparanoia is the used ripper and has already been implemented
in the tar packet.
To use the CD ripper you have to start the program as root because
a normal user does not have access to the CDRom device. With
the ripper you choose the tracks but you cannot rename them. Additional
the program does not respond during ripping and we miss a display that
shows the status: How many tracks have been read? How many tracks will
be read?
The biggest problem is that MP3studio creates all chosen tracks
in the wave format in the first step and than, in a second step,
it encodes the MP3 files. There is no chance to remove files during the
process. You need a really big harddisk to work on a whole CD (about
1 GB).
The used encoder is l3enc, programmed by the Frauenhofergesellschaft.
This program is not free and MP3Studio does not offer a configuration to
choose another encoder but bladeenc supports the l3enc options and
it is possible to copy bladeenc into the MP3Studio folder and rename it
to l3enc. Then MP3Studio uses bladeenc instead of l3enc and does not find
any differences, but you do not get shown the progress any longer.
The MP3Studio offers a big innovation. It uses an own deamon
that runs in the background and works on a waiting list of the files that
have to be encoded to mp3 files. If the system has enough free resources
the deamon uses them. Otherwise it does not do anything. This deamon makes
sure that work with the PC is still possible.
XCD-Fnord is still
in development (Screenshot)
but has already offered to work comfortably. The program uses either bladeenc
or 8hz-mp3. The names of the tracks are downloaded automatically from a
CDDB server.
Grip is an IDE
that plays CDs, too. If you put a new CD in the drive the program contacts
automatically a CDDB server to get the names of the tracks. Which
CDDB server will be contacted is configurable, also a proxy can
be configured. The advantage is that you do not have to rename the ripped
files.
The selected encoder is usually bladeenc but you can configure
any encoder because the submitted options are also configurable but you
loose the progress display, too.
The program uses the data from the CDDB server to write the
right ID3-Tag into the mp3 file that can be read out by some
mp3 players (e.g. freeamp).
During ripping and encoding a status display shows the
percentage of the process done.
If you want to encode more than one file the program will finish one
file, remove the wave file and than start the next track. This program
needs as few space as possible.
An advantage and disadvantage of the program mp3make
is the small configuration (Screenshot).
MP3make is useable at once but is does not have any possibilities to configure
the program to your own wishes. If you want to generate mp3 files uncomplicated
and fast this program will be a good choice. The supported encoders are
l3enc, 8hz-mp3, mp3enc (Frauenhofer's mpeg 3.0) and bladeenc. The names
of the tracks are downloaded from a CDDB server but which one it
uses is not configurable.
cdr does not have
a GUI on the contrary it is a clear terminal program (Screenshot).
But this is not a disadvantage because the program offers menus that are
easy to use.
The strong point of cdr is a big configuration tool.
The supported encoders are bladeenc, l3enc and 8hz-mp3. Also identifying
tracks with support from a CDDB-server is possible. Comfortable
is the possibility to generate mp3s directly from the track. Files, that
have already been encoded, are removed automatically to save diskspace.
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