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cd_how-to_s [2016/02/02 18:26]
keith created
cd_how-to_s [2016/02/02 21:24]
keith
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 **10. Use bliss to help manage your music library.**\\ ​ **10. Use bliss to help manage your music library.**\\ ​
 bliss(external link) is an excellent tool to manage your music library. It can find missing cover art and upgrade existing cover art. It can restructure the directories and files in your music library. It can help with Genre and Year tags. You can install it from the VB GUI Upgrade page http://​vortexbox/​upgrade.php.(external link) The first 100 "​fixes"​ are free, then you have to pay for more. It's well worth the cost. bliss(external link) is an excellent tool to manage your music library. It can find missing cover art and upgrade existing cover art. It can restructure the directories and files in your music library. It can help with Genre and Year tags. You can install it from the VB GUI Upgrade page http://​vortexbox/​upgrade.php.(external link) The first 100 "​fixes"​ are free, then you have to pay for more. It's well worth the cost.
 +
 +<​=>​END<​=>​
 +
 +====How To Rip CDs to Artist/​Album Directory Structure====
 +By default, the VB Auto Ripper rips each CD to a directory named "​Artist_-_Album"​. This results in all of your albums appearing directly in the /​storage/​music/​flac directory. In my opinion, it's better to to rip CDs to an "​Artist/​Album"​ directory, so that all CDs for a single artist are in a separate subdirectory. This results in a cleaner directory structure that's easier to navigate. Here's how to do it:
 +
 + 1. Login to your VortexBox; see How To Login to your VortexBox
 +
 + 2. Edit the Auto Ripper config file:
 +<​code>​
 +nano /​etc/​ripit/​config
 +</​code>​
 + 3. Change the line
 +<​code>​
 +dirtemplate="​$suffix/​$artist - $album"​
 +</​code>​
 + to
 +<​code>​
 +dirtemplate="​$suffix/​$artist/​$album"​
 +</​code>​
 + 4. Write the file **//​(control-O)//​** and exit **//​(control-X).//​**
 +
 + 5. Restart the Auto Ripper: In a browser, go to the VB Auto Ripper page http://​vortexbox/​ripstatus.php(external link), and click the "​Restart Auto Ripper"​ button.
 +
 + 6. When you rip a new CD, it will be stored in an Artist/​Album directory under /​storage/​music/​flac.\\ ​
 +
 +Other Recommended Changes
 +By default, the VB Auto Ripper creates a .m3u playlist file in each album directory. I have never found a use for these playlist files. Here's how to keep them from being generated:
 +
 + 7. Edit /​etc/​ripit/​config:​
 +<​code>​
 +nano /​etc/​ripit/​config
 +</​code>​
 + 8. Change the line
 +<​code>​
 +playlist=1
 +</​code>​
 + to
 +<​code>​
 +playlist=0
 +</​code>​
 + 9. Write the file **//​(control-O)//​** and exit **//​(control-X).//​**
 +
 + 10. Restart the VB Auto Ripper as in step 5 above.
 +
 +
 +Restructuring existing albums to an Artist/​Album structure
 +If you have already ripped a bunch of CDs using the default ripper settings, and want to restructure them to use an Artist/​Album structure, you can use bliss to do the restructuring:​ http://​www.blisshq.com(external link)
 +
 + Bliss can be installed on your VB from the VB GUI Upgrade page http://​vortexbox/​upgrade.php.(external link) Bliss provides 100 "​fixes"​ free, then you have to pay for more. It also can be used to find/​upgrade album artwork. It's an excellent tool and is well worth the cost.
 +
 + On the bliss web page at http://​vortexbox:​3220(external link), go to Settings > File Organization and select Custom Folder and file structure. Specify the rule as
 +
 +<​album_artist>/<​album_name>/<​tracknumber:​nn>​_<​track_name>​
 +to get the same structure as produced by the VB CD ripper with the dirtemplate change in step 3.
 +
 + ​Select Move files and folders Manually or Automatically and click Apply Rules, and bliss will go to work.
 +
 + Note that restructuring existing FLAC albums can break playlists and mirrored mp3 albums that don't match the new FLAC directory structure. If you use the Logitech Media Server TrackStat plugin, that will also be broken by restructuring your albums. So be careful if you do this.
 +
 +<​=>​END<​=>​
 +
 +====How To Rip From a Second CD/DVD Drive====
 +By default, VortexBox rips from the internal CD/DVD drive at /dev/sr0. It's also possible to rip from a second CD/DVD drive; either another internal drive, or an external USB CD/DVD drive. Here's how:
 +
 + 1. Plug the USB CD/DVD drive into your VortexBox if you want to use it to rip.
 +
 + 2. Login to your VortexBox; see How to login to your VortexBox.
 +
 + 3. Edit the Auto Ripper config file:
 +<​code>​
 +nano /​etc/​ripit/​config
 +</​code>​
 + 4. Change the line
 +<​code>​
 +cddevice=/​dev/​sr0
 +</​code>​
 + to
 +<​code>​
 +cddevice=/​dev/​sr1
 +</​code>​
 + 5. Write the file **//​(control-O)//​** and quit **//​(control-X).//​**
 +
 + If your second CD/DVD drive has a different device name, like /dev/sr2, use that instead of /dev/sr1 in step 4. You can check the devices by entering
 +<​code>​
 +ls -l /dev/sr*
 +</​code>​
 + 6. Restart the Auto Ripper: In a browser, go to the Auto Ripper web page http://​vortexbox/​ripstatus.php(external link) and click the "​Restart Auto Ripper"​ button, or enter
 +<​code>​
 +service vortexbox stop
 +service vortexbox start
 +</​code>​
 + from the command line.
 +
 + 7. The Auto Ripper will use the second CD/DVD drive at /dev/sr1 instead of the internal drive at /dev/sr0.
 +
 +<​=>​END<​=>​
 +
 +====How To Rip A CD That Will Not Rip Due To Beginning Hidden Track====
 +
 +**HiddenTrack**
 +Feel free to edit the troublesome CD list at the end of this page.
 +
 +Some CDs have a Hidden Track at the beginning (Track 00) that can cause the auto ripper to hang. The following routine will force it to rip.
 +
 +Do the following:​\\ ​
 + 1. Get to the command line in your VortexBox (either by plugging in a monitor or using a remote tool such as putty.)
 + 2. At the command line, Login using username **//​root//​**,​ Enter your password as set when you installed.
 + 3. Type the following into the command line\\ ​
 +<​code>​
 +service vortexbox stop
 +</​code>​
 + 4. The command line will say "​Stopping vortexbox daemon:​OK"​
 + 5. Make a note of how many tracks your troublesome CD has by counting them on the back cover. Make a mental note.
 + 6. Type the following into the command line (where MentalNote is the last track number from earlier).
 +<​code>​
 +ripit 1-MentalNote
 +</​code>​
 +
 + 7. This will force the autoripper to rip tracks numbered 1-MentalNote ignoring the hidden track 0.
 + 8. Put the kettle on (British), Grab a cold one (Others) & keep an eye on the command line.
 + 9. CD will be ejected once ripped.
 + 10. Type the following into the command line to put things back to normal\\ ​
 +<​code>​
 +service vortexbox start
 +</​code>​
 + 11. Voila.
 +
 +
 +Troublesome CDs
 + David Gray - //White Ladder//​\\ ​
 + ​Queens of the Stone Age - //Songs for the Deaf//
 +
 +<​=>​END<​=>​
 +
 +====How To Update Replay Gain Tags for FLAC Albums====
 +Replay Gain (RG) tags are used to adjust for volume differences between different albums that may have been mastered at different volume levels. For more info, see
 +
 +http://​en.wikipedia.org/​wiki/​Replay_Gain(external link)
 +http://​wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/​index.php?​title=Replay_Gain(external link)
 +
 + These tags are supported by a variety of players, including the Logitech SqueezeBox hardware players, and many software players as well.
 +
 + RG tags are especially useful for adjusting for volume differences between tracks from different albums. I have my SqueezeBox players set to use "Smart Gain", as recommended by several SqueezeBox experts:
 +http://​forums.slimdevices.com/​showthread.php?​t=87061(external link)
 +
 + The VortexBox CD ripper automatically computes Replay Gain tags after a CD has been ripped to PLAC. However, many people import FLAC files from other sources which do not have Replay Gain tags in them. These may be from CDs ripped on other platforms, or hi-res FLAC tracks downloaded from the Internet.
 +
 + At present, there is no VortexBox GUI button to compute Replay Gain tags for these FLAC files, but a command-line script, apply_replaygain.pl,​ can be used to do this. This script is available in VortexBox 2.2 and VortexBox 2.3 systems.
 +
 + Note: This script uses "​metaflac --add-replay-gain"​ to do the actual Replay Gain tag calculations. metaflac is part of the flac rpm package from the Fedora repository.
 +
 + ​VortexBox 2.2 (Fedora 16) and VortexBox 2.3 (Fedora 20) now use flac-1.3.0. The version of metaflac in this package can handle sample rates of 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 18.9, 22.05, 24, 28, 32, 37.8, 44.1, 48, 56, 64, 88.2, 96, 112, 128, 144, 176.4, or 192kHz for Replay Gain calculations. Make sure your VB 2.2 system is up to date so you are running this version of the flac package.
 +
 + ​See ​
 +man metaflac
 +for more info; check the "​--add-replay-gain"​ option.
 +
 + Also note that metaflac requires all FLAC tracks in an album directory to have the same sample rate and number of bits for Replay Gain calculations. So if you downloaded hi-res FLAC tracks from the Internet, and want to compute RG tags for them, make sure you store them appropriately. metaflac Replay Gain calculation will fail if it encounters FLAC files with different sample rates or number of bits in a single album directory.
 +
 + Here is the usage information for apply_replaygain.pl:​
 +<​code>​
 +# Applies replaygain tags to all .flac files found within the
 +# specified directory tree.
 +#
 +# Album gain is also calculated for all files within each directory.
 +#
 +# Usage:
 +#
 +#  apply_replaygain.pl [options] [directory]
 +#
 +# Options:
 +#  --processall ​     Default behaviour is if all files in the directory
 +#                    have ReplayGain information (specifically,​ the
 +#                    REPLAY_ALBUM_GAIN tag) then the directory is skipped.
 +#                    This option recalculates ReplayGain information
 +#                    for all directories.
 +#   ​--info ​          ​Output information (directories processed, etc.)
 +#   ​--debug ​         Output debugging information
 +#
 +#  directory is the directory to scan for flac files. If omitted, the
 +#  current directory is processed.
 +</​code>​
 + To recompute Replay Gain tags for all FLAC files in your music library:
 +<​code>​
 +nohup apply_replaygain.pl --processall --info /​storage/​music/​flac > /​var/​log/​replay_gain.log 2>&1 &
 +</​code>​
 + To only compute Replay Gain tags for FLAC files without RG tags in your music library:
 +<​code>​
 +nohup apply_replaygain.pl --info /​storage/​music/​flac > /​var/​log/​replay_gain.log 2>&1 &
 +</​code>​
 +
 + This runs as a background job and does not tie up the terminal session, and will continue to run if you log out of the terminal session. The output is sent to /​var/​log/​replay_gain.log.
 +
 + To monitor the progress of the script:
 +<​code>​
 +tail -f /​var/​log/​replay_gain.log
 +</​code>​
 + You can break out of the monitoring by entering control-c.
 +
 + You can also run this as a foreground job, but it can take quite a while to complete, and will tie up the terminal session. Output comes to the terminal, and is not saved in a log file:
 +<​code>​
 +apply_replaygain.pl --processall --info /​storage/​music/​flac
 +</​code>​
 +
 + If you want to compute Replay Gain tags for just some of the FLAC files in your library, use the pathname to that directory instead of /​storage/​music/​flac. For example,
 +<​code>​
 +apply_replaygain.pl --processall --info /​storage/​music/​flac/​HD_tracks
 +</​code>​
 +
 +<​=>​END<​=>​
 +
 +=====How To Install Crip (A Command-Line Ripper/​Encoder) on VortexBox=====
 +The VortexBox Auto Ripper sometimes cannot rip or encode a CD. There are several alternatives to try if you have a troublesome CD.
 + If you have a Windows machine with a decent optical drive, you can use dBpoweramp, an excellent ripper/​encoder that costs US $38. This is a highly recommended option. See http://​www.dbpoweramp.com(external link).
 +
 + ​Another alternative is to download and install crip, an interactive command line ripper that you can run on VortexBox. See http://​www.bach.dynet.com/​crip(external link).
 + ​Here'​s how to do it:
 +
 +
 +Installing Crip
 +1. Login to your VortexBox; see Login.
 +
 + 2. Download the crip source code:
 +<​code>​
 +wget http://​bach.dynet.com/​crip/​src/​crip-3.9.tar.gz
 +</​code>​
 +
 + 3. Unpack the source code:
 +<​code>​
 +tar xzvf crip-3.9.tar.gz
 +</​code>​
 +
 + 4. Install crip in /​usr/​local/​bin:​
 +<​code>​
 +cd crip-3.9
 +cp crip /​usr/​local/​bin
 +</​code>​
 +
 + 5. Create the crip config file:
 +<​code>​
 +cp criprc_example $HOME/​.criprc
 +</​code>​
 +
 + 6. Edit the crip config file:
 +<​code>​
 +nano $HOME/​.criprc
 +</​code>​
 +
 + 7. Change the following lines in the config file:
 +<​code>​
 +encodeto = vorbis
 +</​code>​
 +to
 +<​code>​
 +encodeto = flac
 +</​code>​
 +Next
 +<​code>​
 +editor = vim
 +</​code>​
 +to
 +<​code>​
 +editor = nano
 +</​code>​
 + You can also set editor = vi if you know how to use vi. If not, nano is a better choice. There are other configuration options you can change; read the comments in the config file and change what you want. When you are done changing the config file, write it with control-o and exit with control-x.
 +
 + 8. Create a rip directory:
 +<​code>​
 +cd
 +mkdir rip
 +</​code>​
 +
 + You are now done with the Crip installation.
 +
 +
 +Running Crip
 +9. Turn off the VortexBox Auto Ripper:​\\ ​
 +<​code>​
 +service vortexbox stop
 +</​code>​
 +
 + 10. Insert the CD into the optical drive.
 +
 + 11. Run crip:
 +<​code>​
 +cd rip
 +crip
 +</​code>​
 +
 + 12. Answer the questions that crip asks. You will have a chance to edit the filenames and the tags for each track. See the README file that comes with crip and also the crip tutorial: http://​bach.dynet.com/​crip/​tutorial-2.5.html(external link)
 +
 + 13. When you're happy with everything, proceed with the rip.
 +
 + 14. When the rip and encode completes, move the FLAC files to the appropriate place in /​storage/​music/​flac;​ e.g.\\ ​
 +<​code>​
 +mkdir /​storage/​music/​flac/​Artist/​Album
 +mv *.flac /​storage/​music/​flac/​Artist/​Album
 +</​code>​
 +
 + where Artist is the name of the artist, and Album is the name of the album.
 +
 + 15. When you're done with the troublesome CD, eject the CD and restart the VortexBox Auto Ripper by\\ 
 +<​code>​
 +service vortexbox start
 +</​code>​
 +
 + 16. Get cover art for your CD, either via the VB GUI "Get Cover Art" function, by using bliss, or by downloading it yourself from http://​www.amazon.com(external link), Google Images, or http://​albumartexchange.com(external link). If you download the cover art, put it in cover.jpg in the album directory.
 +
 + 17. Have SqueezeBox Server rescan your music library to pick up the new album.
 +
 + 18. Enjoy your new music!
 +
 + 19. If you have more CDs that you want to rip with crip, start with step 9.
 +
 +
 +<​=>​END<​=>​
 +
 +
 +
 +
cd_how-to_s.txt ยท Last modified: 2016/02/02 21:27 by keith