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Baldrick_NZ
February 4th, 2012, 08:38 AM
So this might be useful to anyone who is looking for a quality recording from CD, and playback app.

I've spent sometime researching and trialling different options that work for me.

Firstly, I was looking to rip files to a lossless (almost original CD quality) file. I chose FLAC (free lossless audio codec) for this. I also wanted to rip to a more compressed format that I could use on a flash drive. The lack of quality of mp3 was pretty much evident, even when encoded to 320kbps. I found that ogg-vorbis files encoded at 256kbps was much better.

The software I have finally settled on is:

- RipOff - CD ripper.
- Vorbis Gain - Normaliser for ogg vorbis files
- Guayadeque - Music Player
- EasyTag - ID tagger for FLAC, ogg Vorbis and other files.

The things that sold me on RipOff were the simplicity of the GUI, the ability to change the quality level of FLAC files and that it Rips them in a file format I want.
With Vorbis Gain, it's used via the terminal as a command, but again very easy to use.
Of all the Music Players I tried out, I'd have to say Guayadeque satisfies all my needs, from a decent cross-fade mechanism to a truly beautiful listening experience. Oh, and it's lightweight.
I don't use EasyTag all that often, but it's handy to have when ripped files using CDDB aren't as accurate as they could be.

RipOff currently supports Wave, FLAC and ogg vorbis, so if you want your files ripped to anything else, either check out other rippers or rip to FLAC using RipOff and then use SoundConverter to convert from FLAC to whatever file you want.

All five apps are easy to install from the software centre, and run well from my 'puter on a stick' - Ubuntu 12.04 (Alpha2) booting from an 8gb Flash drive.

nothingspecial
February 4th, 2012, 08:46 AM
Not support.

Thread moved to The Community Cafe.

rudihawk
February 4th, 2012, 09:52 AM
I haven't used Guayadeque yet, but after this post I plan on trying it!

Rodney9
February 4th, 2012, 10:59 AM
Just downloaded Guayadeque from the Software Center but it is very slow and buggy, dialog boxes dont show anything, added directory doesn't show.

Oh well you have to try them to find out, sounded good though.

Rodney

nothingspecial
February 4th, 2012, 11:04 AM
Just downloaded Guayadeque from the Software Center but it is very slow and buggy, dialog boxes dont show anything, added directory doesn't show.

Oh well you have to try them to find out, sounded good though.

Rodney

The version in the software centre is old. Install the svn version from ppa.

Instructions, support etc here

http://guayadeque.org/forums/index.php?p=/page/installing#InstallPPA

Rodney9
February 4th, 2012, 11:27 AM
The version in the software centre is old. Install the svn version from ppa.

Instructions, support etc here

http://guayadeque.org/forums/index.php?p=/page/installing#InstallPPA

Thank You, This version works.

Rodney

sffvba[e0rt
February 4th, 2012, 01:19 PM
Was tempted to try Guayadeque out myself after reading this as I had just removed Rhythmbox (I am seriously not impressed with the switch back personally in 12.04)... but I had already started to install a gem of a find in Clementine :D


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nothingspecial
February 4th, 2012, 01:27 PM
If you want to use the latest guayadeque in 12.04, you will have to build it yourself.

The instructions can be found at the link I posted.

rudihawk
February 4th, 2012, 01:57 PM
Was tempted to try Guayadeque out myself after reading this as I had just removed Rhythmbox (I am seriously not impressed with the switch back personally in 12.04)... but I had already started to install a gem of a find in Clementine :D


404

I've installed Guayadeque not all that impressed to be honest. Busy downloading Celementine now! -> My never ending quest for a music player continues!

satanselbow
February 4th, 2012, 01:58 PM
- RipOff - CD ripper.
- Vorbis Gain - Normaliser for ogg vorbis files
- Guayadeque - Music Player
- EasyTag - ID tagger for FLAC, ogg Vorbis and other files.


And an alternate set of tools - with not crossover at all!

K3b - rip to single flac/cue for archiving
flacon - split tracks to flac (also for archiving)
soundconverter - convert to 320 mp3 for network media drive
mp3gain - front end for mp3/vorbisgain
puddletag - tidy up tags + add coverart

decibel - linux audio player on my machine
foobar / winamp - windows players on other machines in the house

Plenty of options out there ;)

sffvba[e0rt
February 4th, 2012, 02:59 PM
I've installed Guayadeque not all that impressed to be honest. Busy downloading Celementine now! -> My never ending quest for a music player continues!

Tell me what you think :) (My only gripe at the moment is the fact it doesn't seem to want to work with last.fm, keeps saying my log in info is incorrect...)


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rudihawk
February 4th, 2012, 04:02 PM
Tell me what you think :) (My only gripe at the moment is the fact it doesn't seem to want to work with last.fm, keeps saying my log in info is incorrect...)


404

I love it, it's fast, seems quite efficent. -> as a foobar2000 user on windows I don't care much for how it looks, but I have a large collection and a music player must be efficent and powerful.

Also it's working fine with last.fm for me :KS

Double check your login information?

wolfen69
February 4th, 2012, 06:28 PM
but I have a large collection and a music player must be efficient and powerful.


Can you tell me what that means? I used to have 35,000 mp3's, and all I know is, I click mp3, it plays. I drag album (folder) into any music player, album plays. I can make playlists with almost any music player. What else is there? Sometimes I get the feeling that some people are more into how it looks, and playing with the configuration, than they are about actually listening to music.

This post wasn't meant to sarcasm, or smart alecky, I'm serious about wanting to know why people are so picky. If it plays music and playlists, what difference does it make?

rudihawk
February 4th, 2012, 07:05 PM
Can you tell me what that means? I used to have 35,000 mp3's, and all I know is, I click mp3, it plays. I drag album (folder) into any music player, album plays. I can make playlists with almost any music player. What else is there? Sometimes I get the feeling that some people are more into how it looks, and playing with the configuration, than they are about actually listening to music.

This post wasn't meant to sarcasm, or smart alecky, I'm serious about wanting to know why people are so picky. If it plays music and playlists, what difference does it make?

For me personally?


Should be light on resources
Fast startup
Searching for songs should be near instant
Decent Library management options


I've found that some media players lag when searching for songs, which grinds my bones. So what might be a minor annoyance for some, is non-issue for others. I think people are picky for lots of different reasons, I know I'm not a huge fan of Banshee because I just don't like how it works. I guess I could use it if I had to.

You have a point, I completely get what you are saying. I could use any music player and I could get along perfectly fine, but it's nice to have choice and to find one that works well for how you listen to music. :D

I think it's kind of like web-browsers? FF/Chrome/Opera/Epiphany/Safari etc all open web pages, and let me browse the internet. If it allows me to browse the web what difference does it make? -> all comes down to what the user prefers to use.

Perhaps I'm a bit picky with my music players :)

incandescent
February 4th, 2012, 07:40 PM
What else is there? Sometimes I get the feeling that some people are more into how it looks, and playing with the configuration, than they are about actually listening to music.

Personally, I feel that dealing with a GUI I don't like detracts from the musical experience. I pay a lot of attention to design in everything, and music apps are no exception. If I am cycling through my collection of music, I don't want to spend time thinking about how awful the play button looks.

My personal favorite music apps:

rhythmbox - Simple, fast, effective... and pretty. I love the ability to drag-and-drop album art. Also, the search function is speedy and responsive. I don't know how it does it, but it navigates my 10.4 GB music library effortlessly.

audacity - While I record all my own work to cassette, Audacity is my digital workhorse. It is extremely useful for transferring the cassettes to a digital format, and there is a vast number of plugins available for it - I currently have 209. Another useful feature: the ability for Raw Data import, which is very useful for making interesting, glitchy electronica beats from all kinds of files.

asunder - Simple CD ripper. There isn't much I can say here, because it just works. The option to rip to FLAC is especially useful.

vlc - VLC seemingly plays every single file format ever invented - at least, it has played everything I've thrown at it. I was once confronted with an audo file of a type so obscure I could find no information about online. I opened it in VLC and it played like a dream.

johnnybgoode83
February 5th, 2012, 01:51 AM
Clementine is easily the best music manager on Linux in my opinion and Guayadeque is the second best.

My only gripe with Clementine is a small one, it can't copy album art to my iPod. It's not a deal breaker though as I never browse by album art anyway.

Baldrick_NZ
February 5th, 2012, 07:07 AM
Clementine is easily the best music manager on Linux in my opinion and Guayadeque is the second best.

My only gripe with Clementine is a small one, it can't copy album art to my iPod. It's not a deal breaker though as I never browse by album art anyway.

Yeah, I used Clementine before Guayadeque, but found Clementine didn't play nice with the Global Menu (ie: File, Edit, View, etc... didn't show up after a short while of use, making it difficult to quit). So it had to go.

sffvba[e0rt
February 5th, 2012, 03:25 PM
I love it, it's fast, seems quite efficent. -> as a foobar2000 user on windows I don't care much for how it looks, but I have a large collection and a music player must be efficent and powerful.

Also it's working fine with last.fm for me :KS

Double check your login information?

Will check again (but I am sure my info was solid)...


Yeah, I used Clementine before Guayadeque, but found Clementine didn't play nice with the Global Menu (ie: File, Edit, View, etc... didn't show up after a short while of use, making it difficult to quit). So it had to go.

Hmmm... now that you mention it I don't have any menu items in Clementine (thought it didn't have) (Have menu items now so ignore that)... Maybe I will have to rethink using it then :p


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