record DIRECTLY to .mp3 from external source, in this case, vinyl.

[Todd The Kiwi]

do you guys know what will do this?
i want to copy some more vinyl into my pc but i'd like to record straight to mp3 not .wav
i've got the latest sound forge (7.0b) so ideally i'd like a plugin of sorts for it
but the help files show no such function.
is there anything else that will do this?
google isn't being too helpful, hence this post... :carrot:

[krazyd]

Why are you wanting to record straight to mp3? It might be easier (and better quality) to record to a lossless format like FLAC first. That way you could experiment with mp3 encoding parameters without having to re-rip the vinyl.
Either way, foobar has a record function which allows you to choose samplerate, bits per sample and number of channels, and then specify a CLI encoder. Haven't done much recording with it myself but it probably gives reasonable results. The advantage of this is that foobar can analyse the recorded file with replaygain which can then be applied to the track during conversion to mp3, resulting in a full volume mp3. (I'm assuming that the recorded vinyl might be of low volume or something..)

[Tropics]

... and you could do the same using qcd and the line-in plugin :grin:

i would do it using audacity (http://audacity.sf.net) though and also do the saving-to-mp3 with it or save it to wav first and do the conversion with dbPowerAmp.

[Todd The Kiwi]

thanks, i'll try these suggestions (i forgot about the line in plugin)
if they don't do straight mp3 recording i'll have to do what i did last time
record the vinyl with sound forge and save 1 copy as .wav and 1 copy as .mp3 then squish the .wav into .ape and burn it, i have a dvd burner now so 4.7 GB disks not 700MB ha ha sweeeet.

[Todd The Kiwi]

yo tropics, your plugin just crashed my pc :(
standard install, no weird shit running, am i missing something?
anybody else have problems with it too?

[Tropics]

there was one bug report but that one didn't really help - so if you have any further tips how to reproduce the problem i would love to repair it :cry:

[Todd The Kiwi]

i installed it (without qcd running) to the default path
opened qcd, your plugin was already ticked, in the config i left the settings 'as is' i then 'loaded' "line in://" (i think that's it) i couldn't figure out how to actually record so i attempted to clear the playlist and thwack! dead as a puddin'
default skin and no weird plugins, also when i say "crashed" it was more like a freeze even hitting "the big button" on the front of my machine took a while to happen for some reason...
before we get too carried away here (1) - i don't need the winamp plugin manager do i? (i do have it but the linein.dll is in a different folder, and yes i tried it in the wainmger folder and it wasn't recognised)
(2) - will this enable me to record as .mp3 or just record ?

[Tropics]

actually its "linein://" (without a space). encoding is started by right-clicking a playlist entry, then select convert to mp3.
1. no you don't need the winamp manager plugin, it is not a winamp plugin but a true qcd one.
2. as you know already by the above description, it really allows you to record directly to mp3 :laugh: if you select convert to wav, it will do that.

i will have a deeper look at the crashing stuff, maybe i can find something ... but that won't happen before the weekend. i want my plugins to be as stable as anything :ponder:

[Todd The Kiwi]

actually its "linein://"
i just copy/pasted from here (http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?plugin=144)
i think i'll wait for you to say you've tinkered with it before trying it again
the idea is wicked man, just my cup of tea.

p.s i just noticed "Eddie Munster" has a bsod problem with it
none of that here fortunately.
Eddie Munster if you're reading this post some info here so tropics has some more to go off
i think i've provided all i can...
thanks tropics.

[Tropics]

I looked thoroughly, but i have absolutely no idea what could cause this. Additionally, I have that plugin in my playlist for weeks now and it never crashed.

Please help me find the bug. The file attached is version 1.1 with additional logging functionality. It will create the file "c:\linein.log" with information what it is doing. Please unzip it to your plugin directory and then run QCD and wait until it crashes. Then either post the file here or send it to me via email (qcd at only-tropics dot de).

[Todd The Kiwi]

run QCD and wait until it crashesha ha ha classic.
ok sweet as mate, i'll suss it our later when i return from work
i have all day tomorrow to break my computer ;) :cheeky:
make sure you have your pms turned on too man, thanks for the update =)

[hedge]

you have your pms turned on too man
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
now theres classic :P

[Todd The Kiwi]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
now theres classic :Pdammit, i just realised what i said...d'oh! :cheeky:

[Todd The Kiwi]

ok tropics mate, your plugin is flogging my pc half to death :skull:
nothing fancy just a total freezing of windows which requires a 'hard reboot'
attached is the logfile thingy *with added comments*
can anybody else reproduce this too?

[whitebrotha]

You have two ways of doing this (accordning to me):

Use CDex (http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/) Analog LINE-IN recording function (it's free but not very good)

or (the best option) use Steinberg Audio cleaning Lab. This is a public forum and i will not link to illegal downloads, but if you happen to go here (http://www.thepiratebay.org/) and search for "steinberg" that's not my buisness ;)

Steinberg is the best option because it's advanced audio cleaning (removes hiss, pops, noise ect...) wich i think is very importand, especially when it comes to good ol' stuff like Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead or Bob Marley. But be careful so u don't remove the soul of the sound,mate...

[Tropics]

Thanks Todd. It looks like a problem with the "Stopping" function, so I rewrote that one. Please test :) It still writes the good old log file, please delete the old logfile before using.

[Todd The Kiwi]

Please test :)sweet as man, i'll hook into it later.
fingers crossed aye ;)

be careful so u don't remove the soul of the sound,mate...i use sound forge, i just prefer it for some reason.
my recorded vinyl stuff doesn't get any click/pop 'restoration'
'warts 'n' all' sounds better aye ha ha ;)

'addendum': if tropics plugin works
recording to mp3 will remove lots of excess noise, or rather it wont be recorded.

[Tropics]

fingers crossed aye ;)

please tell me it's working :cross-eye

btw, i know some parts of this thread would belong into plugin development. when todd says this plugin is better further discussion will be moved there. :cheeky:

[Todd The Kiwi]

sorry mate, no such luck.
this plugin is just raping my computer :cry:
i'd really like to hear from some other humans aye, i can't be the only one with this problem, can i? :ermm:

updated log >

[Tropics]

i'm sorry but i have to make your computer crash again :depressed
it is clear now which function crashes, but i still have no idea why. so all this updated plugin does is add more logging (every 2nd line now). please run it as soon as you can, well, you know the procedure ;)

[Tropics]

ah no wait i just had an idea. i moved one command that might be it. i also added exception handling at some other point.
even if this version doesn't crash, give me the log file. it might contain more info.

[Todd The Kiwi]

don't you like my computer tropics?
am i your only guinea piglet tester :confused: ha ha ha ha

i'll be posting the abuse reports right here... :dead:

[Tropics]

i love your computer. it is the only thing that is standing between me and more 0-25 points ratings without bug reports :grin:

[Todd The Kiwi]

ha ha, funny.
anyway here are two logfiles for you to puzzle over
they don't make 1/2 a shit of sense to me mate ha ha ha

[Tropics]

now i know in which line it crashes but i still have no idea why :depressed
so i just changed a few bits and pieces and maybe this code layout is better

[Todd The Kiwi]

thanks for trying dude =)
what really puzzles me is NOBODY else is posting 'error reports' of their own :puzzled:

p.s your avatar freaks me right out man ha ha ha :cheeky:

[Todd The Kiwi]

it shat itself again man.
does it matter which playback plugin i'm using?
also i have my onboard sound turned off in bios
and i'm just running my m-audio 2496 do you reckon this could be a spanner in the works ?

[Tropics]

i wish there was a possibility to test this on my own pc ...
do i interpret the logfile correctly when i say that you press play, and press stop, and after pressing stop it crashes?
which output are you using? not that i think that it makes a difference, but who knows.

i`m lost :depressed

[Todd The Kiwi]

i dies using wavout and directsound
and yeah as soon as i load linein:// it starts 'playing' so i have to hit stop
if i right click and select convert etc it asks me if i want to stop playback before converting
either way it crashes.
we have a few more things to try, i can turn my onboard sound back on, reinstall qcd, remove m-audio 2496, unplug stuff restart a few more times and get back to you...
that won't be for about 12 or so hours though.
shit i have to go i'm going to be late for work.
thanks for your help tropics.

[Tropics]

ah ok. i have "linein://" always in my list, so no automatic playing here. i don't know what to say, i just can't get it to crash. it is rock stable on my pc. i tried all 3 input devices i have available: realtek ac97 onboard audio, audigy 2 and the usb webcam. all work as expected. i don't think un-/reinstalling is the answer, but it might be helpful to try other devices. if you could enable your onboard audio and test the plugin with it, that could give a hint. other than that i'm out of ideas and i don't know what to do.

thank you very much for your help! i still hope we can resolve this.

[Todd The Kiwi]

re-enabled onboard sound, it didn't crash my pc woo hoo!
it recorded nothing though, i reckon your plugin just doesn't like my soundcard, which is a pity because it cost $500 and i intend to use it :P
a bit more tinkering and i'll post some more mutant freak out error reports :biggrin:

[Tropics]

we're getting somewhere finally. i guess that means i have to install a forth audio device ... i'll have a look if i get the error with the m-audio revolution 7.1 that is lying around here somewhere.

[Todd The Kiwi]

ok man i think it's something to do with the recording rather than the playback
i can get stuff (not recorded) to play with the current setup
but the stuff ex-linein.dll just has no sound.
i can record with sound forge though
which means it is possible just it's just how that's the question...
i reckon your plugin doesn't want to let my soundcard record via "line in"
my amp/turntable/tuner/tapedeck/dvd player is plugged straight into my card
(my line in 3.5mm jack is empty)
does this mean it isn't using my line in or do they 'meet up' somewhere ?

more logfiles...
let me know when to stop posting these man, they are all much of a muchness
pretty much ;)

[Todd The Kiwi]

getting closer still, it is a bit of a butcher job though
to get your plugin to work i have to use the onboard sound to record
and i have to plug a cable from my headphone jack to the line in.
sound forge can record using my m-audio card as the input (and without the extra cable)
but your plugin can't for some reason.
my amp with all the cool shit plugged into it is plugged straight into my card.
i have nice cables and good plugs but i have to use some $2 piece of crap 3.5mm cable to record all my tunes...there must be some way we can get this to work mate.
also when the volume is the same during playback of vinyl and
playback of vinyl recorded with your plugin, it sounds like there is too much bass and some distortion
the same thing recorded in sound forge sounds sweet as (no distortion or excessive bass)

so in short -
we need to get your plugin to a state where it can use my m-audio card as the input device.
(without crashing qcd) incidentially, if i choose to end the task (qcd) in taskmanager
nothing happens, all these restarts have been manual (pushing the big button on the front)

here's some logfiles and pics to keep you entertained ;)

[Tropics]

thank you very much for your help, but i have bad news. i just can't get the plugin to crash, it doesn't generate an error on my m-audio card. i can't fix it :cry:

[Todd The Kiwi]

dang :ermm:
could you mutate the WINAMP (http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=84040) one?

[Tropics]

since the source code is not available, that doesn't help me much. i already downloaded the source code of audacity and will compare how they do stuff with how i do it. so i'm not giving up, but it will take some time till i get results. in the meantime, the plugin has been removed from the download section until i can get it stable.

[Todd The Kiwi]

let me know if you need a lab rat... :cross-eye :cheeky:

[Todd The Kiwi]

Winamp Input Plug-In Manager / Winamp LineIn pluginsod it! this doesn't work either, what the fudge is going on :mad: other line-in thread (http://www.quinnware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=22343#post22343)

[acushla]

Hi guys...what'ya doing? Wanna go to the movies?

[Todd The Kiwi]

Hi guys...what'ya doing? Wanna go to the movies?canadian humour?

TROPICS - the latest .dll works mate! no crashing! woo hoo! :silly:
actually i'll probably email the rest of the info to you, just thought i'd give you a public thank you =)

[Todd The Kiwi]

righto, all is well now.
THIS LINK (http://www.tropictech.de/uploads/in_lineinput_1.2.exe) will start the download of the latest linein plugin (1.2).
thanks to tropics for his dilligence =)

p.s rex being the only dude here who has a hyperthreading pc that i know of (?)
have you tried this plugin man, did it work?

ha ha i like this pic http://www.tropictech.de/uploads/smil420139d5e70a1.gif

[Todd The Kiwi]

for some reason qcd sits on 100% cpu while i'm doing this while sound forge cruises at about 5% :cross-eye is this because qcd is converting at the same time as recording and sound forge is just recording?

[Tropics]

good question. doesn't seem to have something to do with the encoding, it also does it when you only "play" the line input.

[Todd The Kiwi]

yeah it does, i hadn't noticed that
probably because i have no need to play the linein:// stream though.
so what's up with that then, is it fixable?

sounds like time for more http://www.tropictech.de/uploads/smil420139d5e70a1.gif

[Tokelil]

What was wrong since HT was the problem? (If you dont mind educating me...)

[Tropics]

actually i don't really know if it's a hyperthreading issue, but the problem never appeared on my athlon so that's my guess ;)
it was a multithreading issue. two threads were making calls to waveIn... windows api functions, and obviously they were getting in the way on some pcs. i now rearranged the code so that all those functions are in one thread, that fixed it.

todd: you really love the smiley don't you :silly:
that's the good thing when you have your own forum, you can add all the smileys you like. my favorites: http://www.tropictech.de/uploads/smil41eb0863ad8b7.gif and http://www.tropictech.de/uploads/smil41eb0534d54b7.gif
the 100% usage is reproducable here, so i can use my own pc for testing.

the plugin has a 0 rating from "Eddie Munster" and a really bad comment, but the issue has been fixed - is there a way that one can be removed?

[Todd The Kiwi]

yeah mate i dig the smilies.
i think you'll have to convince "a mod" to remove eddies rating
i'm going to rate it now, since it does exactly what i want i'm giving it a 100%
let me know if if you need the soft pink underbelly of my p4 again ha ha ha http://www.tropictech.de/uploads/smil41eb0534d54b7.gif

yeah that smilie rocks man.

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

I tried the line in plugin on my hyperthreading machine but couldnt get qcd to do anything. Used default mp3 encoder/decoder. Directsound (cross-fading) out. In volume control i had line in selected for recording. My tv card uses line in for playback so technically it should record sound from my tv like windows sound recorder can. I followed to exact same instructions that Todd gave me. (i.e. open URL: linein:// and right-click to convert to mp3 or wav. Nothing happens when i do that. So...i dont know man what i'm doing wrong.

[Tropics]

the only thing that comes to my mind that would make it fail silently is when another recording software is open or running. apart from that, i guess you did everything right. the least thing that should happen when you 'play' linein:// is the time should count up :cheeky:

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

I got it to work when i moved the linein plugin to the top of the list. Maybe you should mention this in the plugin description. Good job man making this thing :)

[Todd The Kiwi]

interesting, mine works even at the bottom of the pile...

[Tropics]

yep, mine was at the bottom since i began development. maybe another input plugin catches the linein://?