MD: Recording from Internet Radio to MD (was: MD and MP3 technologies are merging)

[Eric Woudenberg, Minidisc.org Editor]

Michael,

"Michael Hoffman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> http://www.musicmatch.com/download/radiomx_intro.htm
> ~~128 stereo Kbps (ATRAC3?) internet radio (I'm listening now).  No
> interruptions, just brief station IDs, start of songs do a 1-second fade-in,
> can skip about 10 songs before you must wait or switch stations to skip some
> more songs.  A hint of the future.  I consider 128 Kbps stereo typical
> FM-quality.

Thank you for the hot tip Michael! I've signed up (it's $5/mo. (or
$40/yr) but there's a 14 day free trial with the surrender of your
credit card info).

The music is very nice, I've been listening to the "World Beat"
station. I've been recording from it too, getting a tasty 2.5 hours
per blank of good music in LP2 mode. I'd entertain a discussion of the
ethics of this. It is "home recording from radio" after all, in analog
in fact -- last I knew this was still solidly in the realm of fair
use.

And I've finally figured out how to make my PC into a usable Internet
MD recording station. I'm using the Xitel MDPORT-AN1. Unfortunatley
even though Musicmatch 6.10 allows you to set its audio output device
to be different from the current Windows prefered output device, it
seems to ignore the setting and use the Windows setting instead. (I
filed a bug report). So, I had to take these steps:

o In Internet Explorer, Tools->Internet Options: "Advanced" tab, turn
  off "play sounds".

o In Start->Settings->Control Pannel->Sounds and Multimedia: "Sounds"
  tab:

  * set all "Windows" sounds to "(None)"

  * set the "Windows Explorer" sounds for "Complete Navigation" and
    "Start Navigation" to "(None)"

o Set the terminal emulator I use (CRT) to not use audible bell.

o With the Windows Task Manager, set "mmjb.exe" to "realtime" priority
  (right click on the mmjb.exe entry).

And that's all there is to it! :-) (an absurd hassle IMHO). But I can
record and work without interference. (And my PC is finally quiet!)

I'm using an MZ-R900. It marks the tracks nicely during the inter-song
gap. I listen as I record. Songs I don't like (or that I've recorded
already) I skip with Musicmatch. Later I go back through the MD and
delete these tracks, they're obvious because their durations are too
short for normal songs.

Comments? I'd like to write this up and put it on the MDCP. I'd be
happy to add other's experiences in. Anyone else recording from
Internet Radio? Any other tips?

And has anyone tried something like TotalRecorder? I looked at the
documentation, and it seems to me that it might actually be more
hassle than recording to MD (you'd have to cut up the big long tracks
it outputs). Maybe TotalRecorder could perform an automatic track
marking during silences like MD gear does. (You'd think that with all
our network and computing infrastructure something a bit more elegant
would be possible wouldn't you?).

I can imagine someone reverse engineering the MusicMatch packet stream
coming into the PC. It would be wonderful to get the track names onto
the MD too (accusations of conspiracy and trafficking aside).

Rick

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