Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ThatAdamGuy]

Forgive me if this is covered in an FAQ somewhere (I did check earlier), but if I purchase MC beta 10 and I want to record songs off of Internet radio stations without loss of fidelity, do I still need to buy a program like Total Recorder (which apparently uses a custom driver to bypass the sound card's driver, theoretically resulting in less audio data loss), or does MC have something similar built in for recording?

I futzed around with the MC recorder for a bit, but didn't have much success :|

[markp99]

I use T.R. and love its functionality.  I especially appreciate the fact that it can capture the Title-Artist info from the playing application and auto split the stream into individually named files.  Very slick.

I find audio quality (primarilly iPod listening) to be fully adequate.

T.R. in combination with MusicMatch's ArtistMatch feature allows me to capture lots of music that I am very likely to enjoy.  I can capture >100 new titles overnight.  When I discover new material that I really do enjoy, I place my order for the CD media at SecondSpin...  

I use MM's SuperTagging feature to lookup the tags based on filename...works very well for me.  Yes, lots of steps, but gives me very good results...

MC is my library manager...not my stream ripper or tag lookup utility...

[zevele10]

MC recorder quality is very very good....
BUT..
Unlike Total Recorder, you have to set the volume control.

You have to check and set the right controls from the  soundcard extented panel.
Must of the time , you get it by click on the speaker icone in tollsbar

[loraan]

I started using TotalRecorder back during the MJ v8 days. I don't know if the reliability of MC's scheduler has gotten better since then, but in those days it had some problems. Unfortunatley, I don't remember specifically what they were. All I remember is that I wanted to set it up to record some radio programs (from line in) and I had problems getting it to record on the schedule that I wanted it to. That was my motivation for buying TotalRecorder.

These days, I am so used to TotalRecorder that I don't think I'd go back to MC's recorder, even if the bugs have all been worked out. I think that TR offers some functionality that MC doesn't have, including:

- Built-in editing. With TR, it is very easy to do the basic editing tasks that are usually required when recording from an analog source--specifically: trim the beginning and end of the clip, split the recording into sub-clips, and normalize volume.
- Bulletproof scheduling. Scheduling has never failed me with TR. Parameters of each scheduled job can be specified individually, including recording format, how the file name is saved (including a time/date stamp if you like).
- Ability to record ANY sound that goes through the sound card. THIS IS TR'S BIG DRAW! TR installs a custom sound driver that sits inbetween the O/S and the "real" sound driver. The O/S plays sound into TR's driver and TR passes the sound on to the "real" driver. But it can also pass the sound to the TR program! That means that you can record, with bit-perfect accuracy, streams that you normally couldn't record. E.g. I can record RealAudio streams as they playback so that I can listen to them later. I can extract audio from DVDs just by playing the DVD on my computer and clicking "record" in TR.
- More codec choices for output. TR includes several pseudo-esoteric codecs that nevertheless can come in handy if you're compressing non-music sounds (e.g. talk radio, etc...). Honestly, this is a small plus, since I usually write out to 44.1 PCM wav format and then use MC to convert to WMA, but it's worth mentioning.

MC's recorder is nice to have, but I see it as a "bonus" on top of MC's main functionality: library management and playback. For serious recording, I personally prefer TR.

[zevele10]

Can see things like it:

If you record a lot of streams from internet ,still use Total Recorder , or think about get it

If not , you do it just from time to time ,no need.

Beside it, you cannot record Rhapsody and iTunes with Total Recorder.

You can with MC

It is a kind of bonus as you say.
But , as far as my unlimited test with all others free Recorders can tell, the best around.

A  little of a pain in..somewhere ... to set volume level.
But when done , you get the best sound when recording cassettes or LPs

[LisaRCT]

I do like and prefer Total Recorder for most use http://www.highcriteria.com/,
but recently found Ripcast and thought it worth a mention.
http://www.xoteck.com/ripcast/download.php

It works well for internet streams (read: internet radio only I believe)  and is Free! (althoug it is 'NAG-ware') with a paid (No-Nag!) Version available.

What is nice is that it does not need to be placed between your audio driver and the system as it records directly from the internet.

Of course since Total Recorder will capture ANY audio source or format  it has far more versatiity.


I guess that doesn't answer your question about MC's sound recorder but I have not put much time into getting that to work satisfactorily . . .  now if only Total Recorder's features and methods could be incorporated into MC10    

[zevele10]

FreeAmp rip on the fly with tags any mp3 streaming playlist....Very Cool

Concerning MC recorder.
The general volume settings are the same than with any other Recorder.
It is not there that is humous in the pita.
It is the 'automatic sound level setting' who takes a long time to set.
Other programs give you a 'OK' when Mc is still telling you to turn up or down the volume.

But , and because of it , the result sounds much better with MC Recorder

[ThatAdamGuy]

Wow, thank you for all the thoughtful replies!  I definitely appreciate the info .

Though I must admit, I'm a bit surprised by this:

> Beside it, you cannot record Rhapsody and iTunes with Total Recorder.

Is this because these services are proactively protecting against such recording with TC, or are there just some incompatibilities?

[loraan]

I'm skeptical about TR not being able to record iTunes, etc... I can't say for sure because I've never tried it, but based on my understanding of TR's architecture, the program (iTunes, etc...) should never know TR is there. To the program, it should look like it's playing into any normal sound card.

The only way I can think of that a program could get around this would be by supplying its own proprietary sound drivers and only allowing the program to play into those drivers. But I would be very surprised if that was going on!

If I'm wrong, then please, educate me!

[zevele10]

You cannot record Rhapsody , this i know because i tried.
And it is on the Total Recorder site, have a look

[JimH]

This thread has wandered off into a discussion that borders on illegal.  I'm going to close it.