I need info. on MP3+G format and good ripping sftware

I'm new to mp3+g and I'd like to get info. on what the best method and software choices are . I've got a huge CD+G collection and I'd like to be able to reduce the amount of discs I have to carry to my weekly karaoke show.I've heard if burned to dvd media I could fit close to 700 songs on one disc compared to 15 songs per disc I'm using now, I understand this format is somewhat new to the scene but if anyone out there has any useful information I'd appreciate any advice , thanks

 

Greetings Karatone:

I recently have ripped a very large collection of CD+G myself using software called Audiograbber, by Jackie Franck:
http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/

Fortunately for you, this software has been freeware since early February. If you go into the menus, there is an option to rip with CD+G subcode data intact, which is very handy indeed... not only that, but in supports drives that will only do subcode data reading, but not hardware de-interlacing.

This should help.

Also, there is a good freeware tool available for playing back MP3+G in winamp:


http://pages.infinit.net/belier/

Hopefully this stuff helps you out.

Keep in mind that CD+G subcode data has ABSOLUTELY NO error correction like audio does (Solomon Reed), so your discs are very sensitive to scratches, and artifacts will appear on scratched discs. You can, however, manually edit the subcode data and fix it with a CD+G repair utility, but this is very difficult.

I also have more information for you, but you may have to e-mail me to find out... If you'd like anything, feel free. I'm at:
supacon /\T punk-ass d07 com

Take care,
Supacon

 

Oh, FYI, the software for fixing CD+G errors is at:
http://www.cdgfix.com/

There is an old freeware version of CDGFix here, but v2 is much more useful as it automates the more mundane tasks.

I've used the freeware version to fix a single song once, and it took three hours. Needless to say, one wouldn't have time to go through 300 Discs with this!

For the more popular songs that are damaged badly though, this could be very useful.

 

supacon have you by chance read the forum rules on posting.If that is your address

quote:

supacon /\T punk-ass d07 com


maybe you missed point 10:


Quote10. Don't post your email address to the forums! Spambots love dumb forum users who post their email addresses to public sites and grab those addresses and you will soon discover the wonders of penis enlargement kits and other really useful products posted daily to your inbox.

 

Heh... I'm not retarded.
I'm hoping that the address is disguised enough that a bot wouldn't pick it up. Besides, I hardly care anymore, as I already get several hundred messages a week that are pure garbage (even long before my e-mail address was posted ANYWHERE), and most of it is now filtered by SpamAssassin by my e-mail host.

This address is also only an alias, so it can be easily disabled.

Again, I'm not retarded. I use protection

 

well i am glad u r using protection but i never said you were retarded.

Even though your reply indicates........
but
quote:
[address is disguised enough that a bot wouldn't pick it up well]

other people can and probably will spam you .
Also its still an email address in what ever form you want to call it and according to the forum guidelines this is not permitted.

please edit your post before the moderators do

andmerr

 

Hmm... what I was getting at is that I really don't care all that much.

If the moderators want to edit my post, they can go right ahead. The rule about e-mail addresses is entirely for the sake of the person posting... I understood the risks posting an e-mail address entails, and I really think I can live with it.

Ciao,
Supacon

 

Heh... it's nice to see somebody post something actually relevant to the topic... CD+G Ripping!

This was something that I struggled with for quite a long time, and when I figured out how to do it at a reasonable cost (Audiograbber wasn't free until recently so I actually bought a license), I literally spent almost all my free time for a month straight ripping CD+Gs.

As an aside, I have developed some perl scripts that may be useful to Karaoke people:

One fixes ID3 tags so that artist names are arranged
Firstname Lastname in the ID3v1 tag... (when I entered everything in, it was all Lastname, Firstname, which many people found confusing)

The second script is more complicated and uses some very sophisticated algorythms to detect and filter duplicates from a list, then generates a list with no duplicates. (about 30% or more of my collection was duplicates and triplicates and such).

If anyone thinks they can use these, Lemme know. You know how to e-mail me by now

 

thanks for the reply ,I see that you have mentioned a program I've never heard of (i'll do some reading up) but my real goal is to be able to burn these mp3+g files to either a CDR or DVD disc to be played through the Cavs player. Could you tel me if you know how to accomplish this task? I think the files the cavs player uses are called MCG format which are propietary to the Cavs player. I appreciate any more tips or advice on this project,thanks again

 

Whoa... you got me there. I've never heard of a "CAVS" player.

It makes much more sense to me just to get a laptop full of your MP3+Gs, and connect the laptop's video out to your T.V., and then have fun playing them all with Winamp. It'd probably be a heck of a lot easier and more versatile in the end. (Not to mention that a laptop is much easier to haul around than a Professional CD+G player, and several boxes of CDs.

Is there a link somewhere where I could read more about the CAVS thing?

 

Alright, found the link:
http://www.cavs-usa.com/

Have you already invested in hardware from these guys? If so, what is the unit you are using?

MP3+G is very simply, and MP3 file, and a cdg file.
They are separate files, and the CDG is just the raw subcode data exactly as it is on the disc... no compression at all. (Tests I did indicate that these files will compress to about 10% of their original size, which is probably the basis of KMF format and other compressed karaoke formats).

I see CAVS talking about MCG files... I've not heard of those until now. I'd imagine that the software they have will help, but only if you help them substantially first.

Personally, I've DJed using computers for about four years, and I've always had the best luck with free software, mostly... (odd as that may seem).

Anyways, karatone, have you checked out the demos available from CAVS's website?

 

oh, another thing...
One BIG advantage of ripping them all to your computer and playing them back there is being able to search your archive online, using the id3 tags and such.

When I DJ, I use a handy (shareware) tool called
MP3 Manager by Petr Strnad
( http://www.volweb.cz/str/ )
I have set it up with a separate instance for Karaoke, so that they are in separate databases. (You'll have to ask if you want to know how I did this... a few tricks are involved).

When I encoded everything, I used a program called Exact Audio Copy to enter in my track data (because it's got very good entry and database capabilities). Then I exported each CD to a local copy of the FreeDB, and configured Audiograbber to use that.

I know it sounds complicated, but it worked really good, and it is a free way (EAC is free too) to get around the limitations of all these programs...

In the end, I had a very nice collection of music, which was very easy to search.

By using my script, I can make a nice CSV file with no duplicates, then import it into Excel and make a fancy spreadsheet to print out my books. No manual data entry required! It's great... so easy now.

Anyways... if you want to go down a similar path, I could be of help to you, but I'm not so sure if I can if you choose to use all this kind of proprietary hardware and such (which I'm mostly unfamiliar with).

 

thanks for all the great info. I'll be looking into possibly picking up a laptop cause it sounds like it would save space ,but you know how PC's are ,a good reliable pc can cost some $$$$ I'll have to make a decision one way or the other if I really want to jump into this format with both feet, or just kind of get my feet wet,by learning about the options first, thanks again!

 

People are contacting me about my scripts, so I'll put info about it here.

Unfortunately they are not real user friendly, so I hope you have some programming experience. You'll
have to install ActivePerl (which is free), and perhaps edit some paths and such in the scripts to get them working for you.

I really could spend hours documenting this crap, but here's a
quick and dirty intro:

http://www.fullspec.ca/cdg/id3_fixartist.pl
id3_fixartist
-------------
Goes through a directory branch and uses ID3v2 info to determine
the format of the artist names. If they are in
"Lastname, Firstname" format, it corrects it to "Firstname Lastname"
format, and then saves this result in the ID3v1 tag ONLY... it
does not actually change the ID3v2 tag, so you still have the
original information there.

Configuring:
edit line ~85 with your path, i.e.
my $rootDir = 'F:\Karaoke';

Executing:
This works:
C:\>perl id3_fixartist.pl

the program prints out a log... if you want to save this to a file:
C:\>perl id3_fixartist.pl > changes.log


http://www.fullspec.ca/cdg/id3dedupe5.pl
id3dedupe
---------
Scans MP3s for duplicate files, and then generates a list of MP3s
without those duplicates in the list. This does not actually
touch the files. It automatically tries to change artist names
into a "Firstname Lastname" format if they are in
"Lastname, Firstname" format.

Configuring:
Most notably, add your Karaoke directory to this line:
my $rootDir = shift || 'F:/Karaoke';

Executing:
When you execute Perl at the command prompt, you'll have to
use an operator to output all the results to a file... like:
C:\>perl id3dedupe5.pl > karaokelist.txt

Then give the program some time to do its thing... it goes through
some very complicated comparisons that can take a long time with
large archives (exponetially longer with more files)... but it works.
If you understand how the program works, you can tweak the results
a bit (if you think it's pulling out too many or too few files).


Hopefully you can find them useful.

 

Does anyone know how to fix MP3+G files that display properly on the computer (even after .bin conversion) but will not burn right (no gfx of f'd up gfx on a real player) ?? Is this copy-protection or bad downloads? I am familiar with the CDG format (subcode, instruction set, etc) but can't figure out why these seemingly good files work only until burning on a cd, even ax 1x speed. Thx.

 

KJBombay: Wow... you can download them? Like, off the net? I never knew there was a big repository available. Anyways, when you burn them to a CD, you've got to make sure that you use software that actually writes the CD+G subcode data. To be honest, I am not aware of good software that does this well, although I have come across things along that line.

It might be worth starting a new thread to ask about CD+G capable software.

I used to use CDRWin to READ CD+G, so that I could copy such discs... but actually creating them from MP3+Gs is a bit different.

Just so I know, has anyone ran into a forum where they talk about CD+G's' karaoke, and MP3+G related stuff?

 

check out
http://www.sax-n-dotty.co.uk/download.htm
the programme is absolutelty fabulous and there is also a forum in there as well.
also this little beuty
http://www.karaokeinfo.com/cdginfo/?fkd_home
if you purchase this you will find the "holy grail"
hope that helps
mortus

 

Mortus, that Karaokeinfo thing you pointed out looks kind of fishy to me. I've seen people like that that sell you, for a large amount of money, a link to a web page where you can download things freely available on the net anyways.

Is that really worth the $40 they want?
!!!(HURRY!!! OFFER EXPRIES _TODAY_ AT MIDNIGHT!!!!)

 

i can assure you that the product you are buying is well worth the money as i bought it myself,
basically you get a pdf document (58 pages) that tells you every thing you need to know about downloading cdg/mp3+g files (free) and how to burn them, how to fix them,what programmes you need to do all the above.
yes some of the programmes are freely available on the web but some you have to pay for, but with the links they provide and the info they give you,you'll get a discount, also you can then register on their forum and all you need to know about the prog's and help with d/loading the files will be there for you.
also the link about sax&dottys is an excellent one for running your karaoke show from a laptop, basically the programme allows you to play the mp3+g file from the zip. so there's no need to be unzipping from zip to mp3 / cdg files then haveing to convert them to .bin files and takeing up nearly a gig of h/d space for each cdg disk that you make.(trust me this is an absolute pain in the ar**.)
plus there is a new version of the programme due imminently that will by all accounts also allow you to rename the files/ print off your own books / show the punters who's up next.
hope that is of help to you (if you purchase the s&d programme give me a mention, cheers)
p.s the "offer" is a permanant one, i too thought i had to be quick but trust me it will still be there tomorrow and the next day,
if you need anymore help then let me know,
mortus