Grateful Dead

I've got a few shows from sugarmegs that are an entire show in one 3+ hour track. What is a good way to split this big track into seperate, song length tracks so I can burn them down to CD, or to an ipod? Any advice would be welcome. I've been looking around and there seems to be software that claims it will do the job, but I don't want to buy anything until I can gain more knowledge on the issue. Thnx.

So I have just started to get involved in this whole ripping and burning of CDs and storing information on my computer this year and am starting to have lots of questions which I hope some of you can answer. I have Windows Media Player on my computer which is a Gateway laptop bought at the end of last year. When I started using the media player to rip music it offered several options of how to store information. I chose Windows Media Audio as the way to rip. I wonder if I should have chosen the Windows Media Lossless. Am I losing a lot of sound quality? Is the Windows Media Audio much higher quality than the mp3 option? I usually store all the music I get from the vine on my computer and then burn it to disc and play that. If I store it all in lossless it will fill up my hard drive. Then I would need to find other ways besides my computer hard drive to store the data. What is the easiest way to do that? I don’t know if I want the storage of music in yet another format to become a major hobby. (You wouldn’t know that the way I’ve been signing up for the vine.) I am not interested in being a vast reservoir of highest quality sound to trade I just want lots of good quality to listen to. What I do have from the vine I have shared with several of my deadhead friends around here and we are all pretty happy with what we are getting from it being stored as Windows Media Audio. It is much higher quality than the most of the tapes we listened to during the 70’s, 80’s, early 90’s. Are folks saving the vine discs in what format? What do you do with this stuff and what are your thoughts on the sound quality of the formats? Most of my listening is done with a Harman Kardon amp and BIC 6 speakers that are now 32 years old or on a high quality Panasonic portable disc player, so I am Old School and I still have those tapes. I ramble, how about some feedback on this ramble. Thanks. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

i store my shows in flac/shn format on Dvd's and then burn them onto cd's when i want to listen, or listen direct from the discs via foobar 2000 on my computer Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Hal,For storage and trading, shn or flac is the best. Here is why - shn and flac are digital file formats. This means that they do not degenerate when copied multiple times (like tapes, you lose sound quality every time you copy an audio file). Also, digital files can withstand disc abuse better than audio files. If you scratch a disc with audio files on it, you are screwed. Not necessarily so with digital files. For listening, I would suggest burning as wav audio files. These are much more player friendly - can be played on most newer home and car CD players. No so with WMA files. When I send discs out on the vine, I burn them as wav files to CD. You can covert these to shn or flac files using Traderslittle helper. You can then store these digital files on CD or data DVD for backup in case the audio CDs get damaged. Also, lossless digital files take up about half the space of wav audio files. (The beauty of data DVD is you can store about 4 shows on a single disc). You can also burn multiple audio CDs from the digital files without losing sound quality. The one thing you don't want to do is take an audio CD, convert to digital then trade that file with someone who is expecting pristine digital files 'cause once you have converted to wav, then back to digital, you have "broken the seal" so to speak. Hope that helps. Richard

I'm starting to get there. Here is another question. Is wav the same as Windows Media Audio Lossless or is wav something I need to download? I do know about not trading music that is not lossless. Remember that too from the days of tapes. I have been one of those guys lower on the totem pole that has generally benefited from the generosity of folks like you rather than an active trader. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

Hal,Go here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV It explains this better than I could. Peace, Richard

What Takes Up Less Hard Drive Space?

when I right click and save files from the tapers section they are saved as mov files how do I change them to wav or mp3 so i can listen to them in my car?????? J

To decode I use xACT. Because it is in English I am not really happy with it. To me it is hard to understand technical English. But as far as my search results took me, there is no German program to do the job. On the other hand I only needed a little trial and error to work flac files with just a few mouse clicks. Decoding shn files for the first time I got an error message for each file, stating that it "has no silence to trim from either end". I "solved" this by adding and decoding one file after the other. Yesterday I tried to decode some shn for the second time. Same error for most of the files. And this time one by one did not help. Neither any of the other options I tried, because the program allowed me to click/choose them. Any help, that really helps, is appreciated. Maybe someone knows a jamband and also (German) user friendly program, working on an iMac. andré

Hey Andre - I have Xact on my iBook which I use for all my music transfers. I have never had any errors of the kind you have mentioned. Im sorry you have had trouble with it. It seems very straight forward and easy from my usage. I open up the file(i.e.) show and hold down the apple key while single clicking on every shn or flac file (which highlights the title) and then double click on the last file.(which animates the xact monky icon) It automaticly loads into xact. In xact I make sure it is set to transpose to wav and then I tell it where to send the wav file (i send it back into the folder with the flac/shn) I then take the wav files and highlight them like I did with the flac/shn files and the last file will animate my iTunes and xfr the wave file there for burning or changing to mp3 for my ipod... Hope that helps... Eric

Thanks for your reply, Eric ! the procedure I do, is a bit different, regarding which keys I use to transport files into xACT (click/highlight the first, scroll down to the last, then press the .... button for writing capital letters and click on the last file I want to be added. Then they are all highlighted and I press "add files". You might try it this way, sounds faster than the way you desribe. And xACT starts to decode). But then, right after xACT is "finished" with decoding shn files, I get this error message, listing each file it could not decode, because there is "no silence to trim from either end". So I still don't know how to handle this shn decoding error. Over the last two weeks this has never happened with flac files, although lots of them also have tracks, that follow each other with no "silence" in between. Maybe my xACT program (free download) is a bad one. But maybe someone here has had the same problem and knows the way to make my xACT stop bucking around. andré

I downloaded shorten from etree. This program decoded most of the shn files ... some did not work, because of "No Magic Number". And I guess I don't know enough, either about magic, nor numbers, to understand it, but I will let etree know that GD 1974-07-21 has none of them. Enjoy the weekend ! andré

Hi André, For converting Shn to audio I use mkw audio compression tool: http://www.etree.org/mkw.html It's a simple drag drop process. For flac I use Flac frontend: http://flac.sourceforge.net/ Again, a simple drag drop process. To play on PC, I use the Foobar2000 amp: http://www.foobar2000.org/ Simply open the files you want to play: flac, shn, wav, mp3 and others. You might like to google for 'Traders Little Helper' - it does lots, and lots, and lots, but I haven't been there yet. All the best, Greg PS Belated happy birthday - you are 6 days my elder :-)

Thanks Greg Younggun ! As I wrote above, Shorten does more of the job, than xACT. And as there is so much stuff do download, I decided not to care about the No Magic Number thing. Also because my iMac's disc drive does not work anymore. And that's a big one. But well, peace & music, andré

Is there a software that can play shn files on an iMac ? Internet search said PureMusic Audio Player is the tool. But none of all the sites,who offered Free Download, had it. Felt like the MacPolice has taken action ... So the question is, whether there is a software to do this job or not. And all answers are appreciated. Thanks, andré

OK well for a fellow mac user, I went onto Version Tracker and found a program called iSoundFile 0.5 It says it will do Flac files but I cant tell about Shn(s). The reviews are mixed. Let me know if you have any luck. Eric

Eric, For trying to help a fellow mac user, you are awarded the Search better than andré Engine Drivers Award. No matter iSoundFile does not handle shn files. thanks, andré

Shn player software for Mac ! And I will send a DVD to the person, who will introduce me to a software that really does play shn files on a Mac. So please fire away. When I will be able to listen to shn files, I will send a PM to the first, who told me about it, and talk/write about the promised DVDs content. andré

Sorry Andre that the program I came across doesn't make magic. I have a son home sick from daycare today so I'm hanging around the house. When things calm down here I will look for other programs . I'm curious too. Eric

I want to be able to play them in my car. Thanks so much...rather new to this vine and burning stuff. go easy with me. peace, Patrick ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "And if you go no one may follow, That path is for your steps alone..."

Depends on what era you like. With the help of some others, I started 2 great vines (IMO), the cream filling # 1 (11/14/73-11/21/73) and the Fall '77 part 1 (9/29, 10/9, 10/11, 10/14, 10/29, 11/1) vines. You can't go wrong with the May '77 East Coast vine. There are also a couple of great Europe '72 vines. I believe at least 8 shows from that great tour are available in the vineyard. FYI, all you have to do to join the vineyard is have the capability to rip and burn cds, as well as a little cash to pay for postage, handling and cds. The way we do it is you copy the last list on the vine, paste it into a new post and sign up on the list. Then you PM the person ahead of you and give them your address, wait patiently, receive the discs, rip and burn them, and send the ORIGINAL discs to the next person. It is important to send the originals because there is some loss when you burn cds. This way, the last person on the vine gets the same sound quality as the first person. Also, you should try to use I-Tunes or some other burning software that allows you to avoid having gaps btwn songs. Windows Media Player leaves a gap btwn songs, so that Scarlet > Fire doesn't flow from one track to the next, but instead has a few second soundless gap. good luck.

If they are not masters or real ow gen SBD stuff that does not Circulate do not bother.. As others have said here there are so many places to get the music weather it is Archive.org, WWW.shnflac.net or www.Jeromesplace.net.. It all circulates and unless your One of teh early traders with reall low gen stuff it si all there like 5 gens earlier than what you have... there are new transferring projects like GMB , GEMS, CM ect that are re transferring and editing all the great early gen and master recordings.. Do yourself a favor and explore the LMA (archive.org or one of the torrent sites I described .. You will not look back! IMINCHARGE!

Hey GG - This is a little off the technical side however my preference in the car lately has been the late mid-late 80s. I could get technical and mention all the editing he has done on each individual show but you can found that info on the shows information before its downloaded. Many good sources out there. Ive found the Miller "Gems" as the last person mentioned to be the sweetest. Of course there are many other great years and sources but Mr Miller down south of me has the crispest sounding stuff. Good luck!! Eric

I downloaded Java just like Nugs recommendedand then I hit "download the show"... grey window and nothing! What gives? Thanks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "And if you go no one may follow, That path is for your steps alone..."

just a thought Is Snail Mail and infringement of Snail's rights, having to carry heavy packs of discs around the world - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://spanishsunshinedaydream.blogspot.com/ http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=633338979 Spanish Jam

..they have migrated from Eurotraders. And is it also an infringement of the burros' rights to get turned into sausages after trekking across Europe with packs of discs?

the local bar here has snails as tapas, can you imagine the poor little snail struggling to my letter box with the latest Ratdog show, then straight into a pot with some garlic for tapas. Where is the justice? Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://spanishsunshinedaydream.blogspot.com/ http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=633338979 Spanish Jam

Good eats with good tunes... Im game... :)

cog.app is the tool to play shorten and flac files on a macintosh computer. Go http://cogx.org/ for free download. andré

Picked up Cog per PM from Andre (Thanks!) works like a champ! Skin looks similar to iTunes but you dont have to convert into Wav files to listen to your shn or flac show... Eric

Hey everyone ,, Do`es anyone know the IP address for the flyplayer ?? like the actual numbers ,, ..my fire wall shows me numbers not names, so i was wondering if the fire wall was or is blocking the flyplayer...I can watch video`s like youtube and stuff ,, i have the latest adobe flashplayer and quicktime player, but i still can`t hear the tapers sections.. am very confused,.. also i have the IE7,.. ant ideas from anyone ,,..?? Thank you ..........

I have the following equipment that I'd consider trading for the "right" split window bus: 1 Sound Devices 744T Portable, Four-Track Audio Recorder - less than 1 yr old 1 matched pair of schoeps CCM4 cardiod microphones (purchased in 2000) 1 Schoeps M100C Miniature Stereo Mounting Bar for XY and ORTF recording 1 pair Schoeps A20 Elastic suspension mounts 1 AETA PSP3 Portable stereo pre-amp 1 Bogen Mic Stand 1 Pelican hardshell carrying case tons of cables, adapters, etc... and possibly a tascam mkII dat unit I'm not too picky about the 'type' of bus except that it must be a split window ('67 or earlier). I'd take a camper if the interior is (mostly) there, a double cab "truck" (not a huge fan of the single cabs), 11,13, 15, 21, 23 windows bus, panel bus/van, ... As for what the "right" bus is.... I'm not looking for something that has been restored. My "ideal" bus would be one that has minor rust issues, original paint, original seats/interior, original motor/trans (but they don't need to be running), never been "wrecked" (minor dents are ok), solid frame, etc. This could be a great opportunity for someone to get a 6k-9k rig for "free" if they convince their parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles to give up that old bus that has been sitting in their garage/barn for the last 30+ years... your idea of a piece of shit may be my dream bus.... send me the details/photos and we'll talk. I'm not in any rush - in the meantime I'll see ya FOB!

I'm having a bitch of a time trying to copy music from a dvd to my media library. I need someone to give me a dummy sheet. Your help is needed!

Yo Chris: are the files on dvd in either shn or flac mode?

When I download audience tapes from archive.org they are mp3s. I then import these to itunes and burn discs. Should I be importing them as mp3 since that is the format they already are in or should I convert to WAV? All vines and soundboards I usually get I always convert to WAV but they are not MP3. Any thoughts on this? I want the best quality possible. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake

Regarding the MP3's and importing - I learned to avoid the MP3 and WMA formats when downloading, as I kept getting a "tin-can" sound to them. They are lossy compression formats. If you have the higher-quality files in lossless WAV, SHN, Flac, etc., it doesn't seem as bad to convert to MP3, especially MP3Pro (from Nero). I now either download only in the lssless format, or capture the files in WAV format via streaming audio. It's not as convenient, but makes a huge difference. You can download Taper's Little Helper for free and it will convert (decode) most of the lossless formats for you. Just search Google for it.

I have also downloaded from the archive`s seem my computer will only do this in mp3 mode , so 1 whole show comes in as diferent files for each song. i have tryed the nero and the audacity program and that just locked-up my computer ? very confusing. whap ever happened to good old cassett tapes ? sometimes thecnology can really suck.. the i-tunes kinda scares me because it wants to up-date on-line, well then would`nt apple know what you are doing ? no to sure if i want that ,,..i`ll figure it out eventually ,, i hope ..

for any GD AUD in Archive scroll down the page and you will see a big chart called 'Individual FIles'. There you can DL the show file by file in 4 formats including lossless FLAC. You will see that you can also DL a text file with the show details and if you wish a range of files to help check that your DL was flaw free. It seems a pain to DL all the tracks one by one but if you use a Download Manager (such as Down'em'all for Firefox) you can set it to automatically DL all the tracks you want. Then you can process the Flacs as you like! All part of the service!

for any GD AUD in Archive scroll down the page and you will see a big chart called 'Individual FIles'. There you can DL the show file by file in 4 formats including lossless FLAC. You will see that you can also DL a text file with the show details and if you wish a range of files to help check that your DL was flaw free. It seems a pain to DL all the tracks one by one but if you use a Download Manager (such as Down'em'all for Firefox) you can set it to automatically DL all the tracks you want. Then you can process the Flacs as you like! All part of the service!

Thanks guys, this helps a lot in my quest to have everything turn out just exactly perfect. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake

How does one start a new vine? I understand everything except how to post the thing.When I click on "submit content" over on the left side there, I am only offered a chance to post fan photos, which I will do at some point, when I find the right shoebox... -Tommo

To get a new vine started post what you have under the New Vines topic in the Vineyard. Marye will then see it and start a new topic with the vine you have and people will sign up there for it. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake

After reading through the New Vines topic I now understand the whole structure a lot better. I was wondering why Marye showed up so often in so many places. Many thanks to her and you and everyone who worked so hard on this. I'll put something nice together and seed it soon. -Tommo

Hi, I'm getting only a mono single when streamng the tapers section. Are these no longer in stereo? The GD Radio is coming through in nice sounding stereo. Is there something I need to change on my setup to make the tapers section streams stereo? Thanks!

Hi everyone, I just came back to this site and tried to download the songs to put on cd. And I can't. Could you please help. Thanks

Downloading audio cuts from the Taper's Section was eliminated some time back. They are only available for streaming now. Maybe they should re-name it the "Listener's Section"...-Tommo

All I want to do is download a show directly to CD-R. If I need to convert any files or anything, please tell me what I need to download and how to convert them. Thanks.

Depending on which website you download from and what format you want to end up with, you'll need to have a computer hard drive with lotsa memory, good organizational skills to store, identify and locate the downloaded files, and a program to create the sound you want to hear. Traders download shn and flac files, converting them (thru expansion) into .cda or .wav files normally associated with conventional cd's. mp3 players utilize compressed files (.mp3). Tunes we trade in the Vineyard should never come from an mp3 file, due to the higher potential for corrupt or defective sound bytes. Do you already have software such as EZ CD Creator or Nero? I'm sure there are plenty of software choices out there. In order to expand the shn or flac files, visit www.phillesh.net, which has a good reference page on it's Download page, for downloading, converting and recording cd's. Also check www.eTree.org So many roads to ease my soul...Ease my soul!!