PandoraRaw v0.1 (Raw-to-MP3 capture with automatic cutting/naming of files)

[Cynagen]

First thing's first, to those who downloaded this just to see how it works,

it's just automated line capture to MP3, nothing special. To those who wish

to flame me for an "inferior" process, you can take your comments and shove

them. I helped with the Pandora's Jar a while back, getting it to stay in

place when it was moving out of control area, but I don't like the

complicated mess that it's become, we need something simpler with less

failure points, so here I am.

USAGE:

First thing's first, let's get our DEVICE list.

Go to wherever you extract the EXE and run: "pandoraraw GetDevices"

This will produce and open a "devices.txt" with a list of devices to capture

from on your computer, we'll need this so we can direct the capture to the

correct source.

Now, to view an about (why the hell would you want to?): "pandoraraw about"

SETUP:

Get the device list! If you haven't done this already, go back up damnit!

After you get your device list, pick out the one you will be doing your

raw output capture from, and open pandoraraw.ini and put it in at device=

The wrapper i use this with is OpenPandora (customizable titlebar)

For the application title you want to put whatever code word you put in the

titlebar, for example [OpenPandora] which I put after the artist - songname

in the titlebar configuration.

My OpenPandora titlebar configuration is: %a - %s [OpenPandora]

PandoraRaw relies on the titlebar updates to get the song name and

automatically strips out the keyword you put in to search for as well,

resulting in a near perfect capture of the title. I've had a few hiccups

where [OpenPa or something similar made it through or part of the song name

was missing, I'll be working on that in upcoming patches.

KNOWN ISSUES:

Naming some times does not go as planned, the name doesn't get cleaned up,

or is missing some of the song name as mentioned. I'd like some reports of

this so that I can document and patch correctly.

Sometimes PandoraRaw doesn't pick up on the titlebar change until a number

of seconds after the fact, I'd like some reports on this as well,

specifically what was going on at the time it occurred, and how much CPU

time was being used on the computer.

As of right now, the background processes wavin2cmd and lame will not be

killed when you kill PandoraRaw either from the tray icon or by taskmanager.

PLEASE BE AWARE TO KILL WAVIN2CMD, LAME WILL DIE WITH IT.

THINGS PLANNED TO ADD:

If I can find an app or somebody who can write an app with a current dB

level of the raw output from wavin2cmd, that'd be much appreciated as it

would help aid in the precision cutting of files, no more going by the

titlebar updates for track cuts (which are almost never perfectly sync'd

but damn close enough for a working beta of this project.)

Tagging is another thing, optional of course, but it will require some

extra legwork on the part of PandoraRaw, so we'll see where this ends up.

DOWNLOAD: http://tracker.cynagen.com:85/~cynagen/PandoraRaw0.1.zip

[Cynagen]

Oh I'd also like to hear people's experiences with PandoraRaw, also if there's a suggestion for a better name, please feel free to mention it.

I'd also like to hint at 2 other programs I use to help keep windows out of my rips:

IndieVolume (enables you to force sound to another soundcard)

and

Virtual Audio Cable (enables you to create a fake soundcard on which to send the OpenPandora output)

[Birra]

The pandoraraw.exe doesn't seem to do anything.

[Pichet]

Hi,

I think this initiative based on the AutoIt v3 Win32 Scriptor is most refreshing!

Unfortunately for me, there's no equivalent under SlackWare Linux so i would not

be able to create a Slax module for the Slax/NimbleX/BackTrack Linux Live CDs...

At least i can express my moral support:  go for it!  You may have better luck than

i had and perhaps if you could make it a "Portable"/U3 application that would help

your project even better.  As for Linux, it's a no man's land in this forum, i'm afraid;

there's WinE but that's just not for me.  I think there are Live Windows CDs now,

maybe that would be another nice avenue to explore?  In any case, good luck!!!

:-D

[Cynagen]

The pandoraraw.exe doesn't seem to do anything.

You need to extract everything to the same folder and follow the instructions. Once you've configured pandoraraw.ini, run pandoraraw.exe, you'll see a little purple button down on the system tray. That's PandoraRaw running, leave that be as it automates all the processes, capturing the name from the title, then killing the last capture, and starting a new one. It may look like it's doing nothing, but if you leave it and check the pandoraraw.log file every once in a while, you'll see that it is in fact doing it's job (you'll also see the MP3s in the same folder.)

[Cynagen]

Nobody else having problems? Anyone else think I should continue work on this, or is it pointless?

[Pichet]

Pointless?  If it stimulates the forum to the point that i may be able to carry Pandora

in my pocket again, after months of silence, then hell no it's not pointless!  Lets not

forget that there are quite a few readers who only lurk around, on top of that, who

won't even bother to let you know what they think of your efforts, actually!...

:!:

This kind of creative work is a solitary act, there may be no spotlights but that does

not mean no one appreciates what is done.  I wish i could do as much, there i said

it...  Maybe i'll be the only to tell but i'd bet a few more guys think just the same.

[Cynagen]

Pointless?  If it stimulates the forum to the point that i may be able to carry Pandora

in my pocket again, after months of silence, then hell no it's not pointless!  Lets not

forget that there are quite a few readers who only lurk around, on top of that, who

won't even bother to let you know what they think of your efforts, actually!...

:!:

This kind of creative work is a solitary act, there may be no spotlights but that does

not mean no one appreciates what is done.  I wish i could do as much, there i said

it...  Maybe i'll be the only to tell but i'd bet a few more guys think just the same.

Well i'm just worried that my work is being passed up and nobody is really using it. I don't have a counter or anything on the download, so I can't tell how many people actually have picked up a copy. However, I do mean to at least put out a v0.2b, so i'll be working on that this weekend, firstly a fix for the leftover wavin2cmd->lame pipe (kill it on exit, found out how to do that,) and also add a function that checks my site to see if there's a new version available, and if so, automatically download it, so those who actually use it can get the updates without having to check back here.

However that does not sate my desire for more feedback on this application, which I desire, so I take this program in the direction that people would like to see it go. I understand it's a solitary thing, no spotlight, I just want to know that my work isn't for naught, and what direction to take it.

Oh and Pichet, if you could tell me the locations for copying wav output directly from the soundcard, and how we can pull the artist and track from a browser into a console, I'm sure I can whip up a PHP version of this for linux.

[Pichet]

Hi,

I understand the desire for feed-back, that's why i put a link to my profile instead of a direct link

to the Slax module i created so that people who would be ready to try it must ask for a download

address.  I won't say it was a success but you might be luckier than i was with this approach...

The last time i checked, the audio files were still available for manual copy;  hence my suggestion

of a "raw" capture where the file would just be put aside on the Flash drive, ready to be carried

away for a wireless music session.  There's no interaction with the sound card required at all on

a Slax/NimbleX Linux Live CD:  you can get exactly what you hear without any conversion loss

but i'm no Linux expert and Pandora's Jar must be fixed or pure manual copy is all that will work.

:roll:

[Cynagen]

The last time i checked, the audio files were still available for manual copy;  hence my suggestion

of a "raw" capture where the file would just be put aside on the Flash drive, ready to be carried

away for a wireless music session.  There's no interaction with the sound card required at all on

a Slax/NimbleX Linux Live CD:  you can get exactly what you hear without any conversion loss

but i'm no Linux expert and Pandora's Jar must be fixed or pure manual copy is all that will work.

The files are only available for manual copy under special circumstances. I've seen plenty of times when i've used pandora straight off the website, there have been no plugtmp files whatsoever, the folder is there, the files aren't. I don't know what the difference is entirely between the situations, but that's been the case every time. Unfortunately that's also the case with Pandora's Box, and OpenPandora, from what I've observed, and frankly, Pandora's Jar breaks too easily with small changes to applications and the website. Sure it's fixed, but until it is, you're screwed. Sure it gets perfect copies by doing automatic copy, but it falls apart whenever there are changes to it's working structure, tiny changes.

[Pichet]

Hi,

Then perhaps it's about time to examine the Linux Live CDs more closely because i always

have access to the audio files...  The fact that Slax Linux doesn't rely on their extension to

iconize them simplifies the identification but it's still manual.  There are plenty of Virtual

Machines today:  VirtualBox, VMWare Player, Bochs, QEmu, Virtual PC and a few more i

may have overlooked, euh...  A Live CD would run directly on a PC with as little processing

juice as a Pentium-II MMX 200 Mhz with 128 MegaBytes memory, it would also run nicely

on a modern computer running one of the Virtual Machines mentioned above.  The Slax/

NimbleX Linux Live CDs can be edited easily to update a module and it's even easier when

it resides on a Flash Drive so the best solution - which is also the least explored so far - may

be to have one module to fit both the Windows and the Linux worlds.  I produced two

modules so far in hope a Linux guru would fix Pandora's Jar, the fact that manual copying

alone is always possible should have retained some attention but, there again, no luck...

:roll:

Realizing that the word alone, "Linux", may sound like a deterrent to some people i've

suggested to go "Portable"...  Still no joy, it's like our readers prefer fixed installations

while they don't realize that those are the ones which are bound to break down easily.

:-(

[finndigg]

  Forgive me if I'm a bit dense but I'm not able to get this to work.  Here's where I'm at: 

  I'm using windows XP.  I've downloaded and unzipped the program here: 

C:PandoraRaw. 

  The Files include: a "Do Not Rename Anything" file, lame. exe, pandoraraw. exe, pandora raw. ini, README. txt, wavin2cmd. exe and a "source" folder with a pandoraraw. au3 file (not sure what that is).

  I went into the folder and opened the README. txt. 

  It tells me to: Go to wherever you extract the EXE and run: "pandoraraw GetDevices"

  And that's where I'm lost and here's why (again forgive me for being dense) but I'm concluding (perhaps mistakenly) that when you say "Go to wherever you extract the EXE" you are referring to what (in my case) would be C:PandoraRaw folder/.

  If so then once I'm there (or should I be somewhere else?) How do I  run: "pandoraraw GetDevices" ???

  That is, while there is a pandoraraw. exe file, it does nothing, or when I open the pandoraraw. ini file it says "see README".  Which takes me back where I started.  I am trying, but needless to say, I'm lost.

[Cynagen]

  Forgive me if I'm a bit dense but I'm not able to get this to work.  Here's where I'm at: 

  I'm using windows XP.  I've downloaded and unzipped the program here: 

C:PandoraRaw. 

  The Files include: a "Do Not Rename Anything" file, lame. exe, pandoraraw. exe, pandora raw. ini, README. txt, wavin2cmd. exe and a "source" folder with a pandoraraw. au3 file (not sure what that is).

  I went into the folder and opened the README. txt. 

  It tells me to: Go to wherever you extract the EXE and run: "pandoraraw GetDevices"

  And that's where I'm lost and here's why (again forgive me for being dense) but I'm concluding (perhaps mistakenly) that when you say "Go to wherever you extract the EXE" you are referring to what (in my case) would be C:PandoraRaw folder/.

  If so then once I'm there (or should I be somewhere else?) How do I  run: "pandoraraw GetDevices" ???

  That is, while there is a pandoraraw. exe file, it does nothing, or when I open the pandoraraw. ini file it says "see README".  Which takes me back where I started.  I am trying, but needless to say, I'm lost.

That's my fault, I should have been more specific.

Start->Run...->"cmd"

In the command prompt, run these commands:

cd c:pandoraraw

pandoraraw GetDevices

If you just run PandoraRaw by doubleclicking on it, you start up it's default function, which is if OpenPandora or Pandora's Box is running, to check the title, and then start recording whatever device you set from the GetDevices list.

If you need anymore help, please don't hesitate to post again.

[finndigg]

  No luck so far. I did the command prompt bit as you instructed and got a txt list. Dumb question: does it need to be kept (the list) in the folder or can it be deleted afterwards? 

Anyhow I  copied and pasted the line referring to my sound card in the ini file after devices= and clicked the pandoraraw.exe file but still nothing happened. 

  So I experimented and wrote in OpenPandora.exe after application= and I wrote in OpenPandora after apptitle= trying to guess what you meant by:

"The wrapper i use this with is OpenPandora (customizable titlebar). For the application title you want to put whatever code word you put in the

titlebar, for example [OpenPandora] which I put after the artist - songname in the titlebar configuration. My OpenPandora titlebar configuration is: %a - %s [OpenPandora]

"

What it all looks like right now is this:

[settings]

application=OpenPandora.EXE

apptitle= %a - %s [OpenPandora]

device=SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [DD80]

I'm guessing that's not right because when I clicked on the pandoraraw.exe file nothing happened - it wont appear in the system tray or anything.  I've experimented with other possible lines too, but with no luck so far.  I'm not a programmer or anything - just an average guy.

[Cynagen]

[settings]

application=OpenPandora.EXE

apptitle= %a - %s [OpenPandora]

device=SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [DD80]

I'm guessing that's not right because when I clicked on the pandoraraw.exe file nothing happened - it wont appear in the system tray or anything.  I've experimented with other possible lines too, but with no luck so far.  I'm not a programmer or anything - just an average guy.

It's very close, change the OpenPandora titlebar configuration to "%a - %s [OpenPandora]", and change the apptitle= to apptitle=[OpenPandora], and make sure OpenPandora is running before you try pandoraraw, also if you do try it after you open OpenPandora, then paste the recent logging from the logfile here please.

[finndigg]

Ok. Here's what my ini file looks like now:

[settings]

application=OpenPandora.exe

apptitle=[OpenPandora]

device=SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [DD80]

Then I went into Open Pandora and under the settings on the display tab I clicked the little button that says %a - %s.

Then I went back to the C:PandoraRaw and clicked the pandoraraw.exe file and... Nothing.  Hmm.

[Cynagen]

Then I went into Open Pandora and under the settings on the display tab I clicked the little button that says %a - %s.

Then I went back to the C:PandoraRaw and clicked the pandoraraw.exe file and... Nothing.  Hmm.

Use CUSTOM, and TYPE IN "%a - %s [OpenPandora]"

The apptitle is the keyword in the title of the application that pandora raw is looking for to extract song name and artist from, that's why you need to use CUSTOM and put the key in there, so it knows where it's looking for.

[finndigg]

aarrrgg! I went under settings and copied and pasted what you wrote:  "%a - %s [OpenPandora]"  under custom even trying it with and without the quotation marks etc.

here's the three things I tried - exactly:

%a - %s

%a - %s [OpenPandora]

"%a - %s [OpenPandora]"

OpenPandora running, in each case then clicking pandoraraw.exe and nothing happens but a small "flash" below but no purple button down on the system tray

as a refresher here's a copy and paste of my ini file:

[settings]

application=OpenPandora.exe

apptitle=[OpenPandora]

device=SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [DD80]

[Cynagen]

aarrrgg! I went under settings and copied and pasted what you wrote:  "%a - %s [OpenPandora]"  under custom even trying it with and without the quotation marks etc.

here's the three things I tried - exactly:

%a - %s

%a - %s [OpenPandora]

"%a - %s [OpenPandora]"

OpenPandora running, in each case then clicking pandoraraw.exe and nothing happens but a small "flash" below but no purple button down on the system tray

as a refresher here's a copy and paste of my ini file:

[settings]

application=OpenPandora.exe

apptitle=[OpenPandora]

device=SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [DD80]

Is there a PandoraRaw.log file in there? If there is can you paste me the last set of lines.

Also, could you get me a picture of the contents of that folder?