SURELY something this simple exists... But apparently not! CD to MP3

[KuriousJorj]

This is regarding DJ work for parties, etc. We have old-school CD players and deck, and we're wanting to transfer everything to mp3 and play via laptop instead of physical CDs.


1. Converting to mp3
-- Do you still need internet connection when ripping from CD to retrieve the artist/track info? Can no software read it from the CD?

2. Crossfade a playlist (this is ridiculous that I can't find such a thing)
-- If I have a playlist of songs, can't I somehow crossfade (and control each specific crossfade) on that list? HOW can this not be a STANDARD FEATURE with audio software?
-- Got ahold of VirtualDJ, but it apparently doesn't have this feature. WTH?
-- I know media player 10 has a generic slider that will crossfade whatever songs you're playing, but there's no specific control over each crossfade (various songs begin and/or end at different times afterall)
-- I know one could try and take something like ACID and lay the songs on the timeline and overlap (crossfade) them and play them that way, but that seems impractical.

THANKS for you help!!!


BJ

[IKnowNothing]

1. Personally (and I have hundreds of CDs stored as mp3) I have never been able to find an app that reads the content of a CD from the CD. Maybe it's because it's not always there or simply it's not reliable - so I always rely on an internet connection.

2. I have virtual turntables from carrot innovations which has an AutoDJ function which will run through the playlist fading from track to track BUT the fade is set by a single parameter for ALL tracks . One thing with ripping is to strip the silence at start/end of each track which makes DJing easier.

I've been googleing while typing and unfortunately CarrotInnovations site is either down or has been removed which doesn't help you (sorry) - This page http://www.sonicspot.com/virtualturntables/virtualturntables.html has a link to the download page which doesn't work but has a direct link to the install VTT80.exe and that seems to work.

Another option is to write your own software (VB6 has lots of examples and is quite easy) and use quartz.dll (or a mediaplayer plugin) to play the mp3s At least that way you get the exact functionality you want

Hope some of this helps

M

[hech54]

Do you still need internet connection when ripping from CD to retrieve the artist/track info? Can no software read it from the CD?

What you are talking about is CDText. Fantastic feature that should be included in each and every
audio CD bought, sold and even home-burned....but it's not. It has been a hit or miss feature since
it's inception. I personally make all of my audio CD with CDText....just in case....especially for
compilation CDs...shame the people who have the most say in matters like these did not see
the value of CDText....whoever they may be.

[jman98]

Almost no manufacturer uses CDText. The only commercial CDs I have that I can remember using it are some Dave Brubeck Quartet CDs on Sony and various Telarc CDs or SACDs. Telarc is a classical music label and they've been using CDText for a long time. I think I probably have 2 or 3 CDs not on that list that use it, but almost none of the manufacturers use it. Most Sony CDs do not use it. I don't know why the Brubeck CDs do.

[KuriousJorj]

Thanks to everyone for the quick responses...!

2. I have virtual turntables from carrot innovations which has an AutoDJ function which will run through the playlist fading from track to track BUT the fade is set by a single parameter for ALL tracks . One thing with ripping is to strip the silence at start/end of each track which makes DJing easier.

How do you strip them of silence as you rip then? Does your ripping software have a setting for this?

The only way I could think of doing this would be to use Acid or SoundForge to trim then re-render, which would be SO time consuming!