New Audio setup

[rtarver]

All,

I've been reading through the various threads and haven't come to a definitive conclusion.

I have about 50GB of audio in mp3 format with embedded tags. I have an older version of JRiver (11.0), but would update if that's the best route. I haven't found any threads that indicate that the CQC media repository can crawl an existing directory and create entries.

My goals are:

1) have server load 2-4 audio drivers with a multichannel audio card.
2) have clients be able to select music and pipe to 'their location'; I'll have the output of each driver sent to a distribution system (yet to be designed).
3) be able to have any client 'sync' music throughout all zones with appropriate password

I have an m-audio card in mind, so I should have sufficient outputs (suggestions/comments welcome).

My media is currently on a NAS, and I would prefer to keep it there rather than move it to the server.

I plan on having the server serve up music (it's a little bit of load but should be able to handle it). It's only a dual core Atom but has been doing fine so far.

I must admit I'm struggling a little with getting audio setup. I looked at the various options; filetag, itunes, jriver, cqc, but couldn't tell which would be the best option for my current media situation. We don't buy much new music these days, so a weekly or monthly ripping/import session wouldn't be an issue, but I don't want to go through my whole library again.

Given my current library, which route would you guys suggest? Is there a step-by-step somewhere online that would walk me through audio with other than cqc media repository since it doesn't look like I can use it with my existing media.

Thanks,

edit:
I also pointed the filetag repository to a unc path of \\tnetstorage\public\shared music\ Any issues or concerns with this? Once that's done, is there somewhere I can go to see what media was found and 'imported'?

Russ

[Dean Roddey]

Probably J.River would be a good option for you ir you are doing lots of individual files, as apposed to ripping CDs. It'll let you manage the metadata of those files easily enough. And it makes it a lot faster for CQC to load it, since it only has to parse an exported XML file instead of scarfing through wll the files for metadata every time it starts up. You can use the CQSL audio player for the output. It'll work with any repository the same.

[rtarver]

I have a number of files, but I'm one of those dudes that rips the whole cd, even the songs I don't care for too much. It somehow bothers me to not have the whole cd. 95% of the music I have is appropriately folder'd and tagged with artist and album categories and came from the original cd. We don't really purchase by-the-song.... I prefer the whole album.

I'll look at getting JRiver updated. Will CQC work with version 11?

Russ

[rbroders]

I have always used the File Tag Media Browser, and I'm not sure why you would want to use anything else. It gets Genre from the tags, and also pulls cover art from the directory (not sure what file it looks for). If you have ever used Windows Media Player all the tags and cover art will be ready. I have 16GB, and it only takes a minute to load (which only happens when restarting the server, or after a force load). Point it at a UNC path. After it loads, you can use the Admin Interface's Field Browser to see the number of Titles (mine has 304)

You can use the CQSL Audio Player (x4 if you like, each assigned a different output device).

You can't really 'sync' different Media Renderers (like the CQSL Audio Player), but you can copy playlists from one to another (search for my macro).

--Bob

[rtarver]

I guess I would need to have an audio switcher that could sort out the syncing. We can put a man on the moon, so surely we can sync some audio.

I'll take another look at file tag. I just got jriver up and running, seeing my music now, but not cover art. I think I saw something about there being issues with embedded art.

Russ

[rbroders]

I have had problems with embedded cover art. Mostly due to the broken splitter which comes with windows I think. Putting a copy of the cover art into each track of an album seems pretty stupid to me anyway. I used Mp3 Tag Tools V1.2 to remove the pictures from my tracks.

With a proper audio switcher, you aren't really syncing the audio, you are just driving all the output zones from a single source.

My setup is distributed. I have lots of touchscreens and they each have dedicated media renderers, amps and speakers. For whole house mode, I'd like to sync the renderers to a master, but that isn't possible right now.

--Bob

[Dean Roddey]

You can use our repository and just use JRiver as a kick starter, to make sure all the metadata for the already ripped stuff is good, then you can do an import into a fresh CQSL repository, and then pick up from there and use it from there forward. There's a little utility to do the import. Let me know if you want to do that and I'll show you how to use it. It's just that ours can't get metadata for single tracks. If you are ripping CDs, then it can get the metadata. For movies it can get it from the online My Movies database if you sign up with them for access.

[rtarver]

Thanks Guys,

I guess my original term sync'd was from a listener perspective; I want all music in all locales to be the same. I foresee this with an audio distribution panel that has multiple in/out and can drive all the outs from one of the ins.

I set up both filetag and jriver last night. When viewing from filetag, I get my coverart. When viewing from JRiver, no cover art. I agree, embedding into each mp3 is somewhat wasteful. If I remember right, that had something to do with disply on my ipod... it's been a few years so I can't remember for sure.

I'll consider the port from JRiver to CQC repository. I do all my rips using EAC, but I imagine there may be comparable products out there now. I use DVDProfiler, but am not married to it. It was the best way at the time to get video data into ML. They now have their own subscription based product that they are pushing.

Russ

[Dean Roddey]

If you use our repository, you can use it for both movies and DVDs, which is one advantage. And it will do the rips for you. You can use WMA lossless with our our repository. It won't be any different from flac. Lossless is lossless and they both uncompress back to the original content. And that's also an advantage since as soon as it's ripped it's there in the repository and available, so there's no intermediate step to get the repository aware of it.