Re: [Gwc-general] Re: From Vinyl to Digital -- Linux Journal article

[Jeff W. <we...@ya...>]

I think you two have said most of the relevant stuff, but I'll add a few 
  comments:

1) The lame dependency appeared in 0.19-3, which I at least declared to 
be experimental.  Charles Morgan was/is working on creating mp3's or 
ogg's directly from GWC, and that's what this is all about.  Charles had 
the basic pipe working, but I wanted to see if we could get a progress 
meter for user feedback, and he was working on that, and trying to find 
a job too.  I hope no news means he's busy with a new job!

2) Documentation.  It doesn't completely suck, but it's close.  There is 
a help file -- gwc_help.html that comes along in the main source 
directory.  I do believe it's up to date as of 0.19-2.  It pretty much 
covers the basics.  I think what Tim started here could turn into a 
tutorial, which is sorely needed.  The gwc_help.html could also use a 
nicer face on it.  I offer no excuses here, only that this is my hobby...

3) Libsndfile and fftw libs have been changing while I have done 
basically nothing with GWC.  And so fftw 3.x doesn't work at all with 
GWC (they completely changed the API, for the better, but I haven't 
caught up with them).  I think GWC is compatible with the newest 
releases of libsndfile.

4) If you want to start playing an arbitrary portion of the wavfile, 
just highlight it, hit "play"...

5) Song Markers.  This are really, really cool.  With these, you can 
identify those sections of the audio you want to identify as individual 
tracks for cdrdao.  You can then do a File->"Create cdrdao toc as". 
This means you can work the entire side of one LP, or cassette tape at 
once, then instead of literally splitting out the individual tracks 
manually as separate wavfiles, you just identify where those tracks are 
for cdrdao.   Get at those from the "Markers" menu.

6) Selection Markers.  These have changed since the documentation.  I 
attached the new gwc_help.htlm file.

I think that's all.  For now.  Maybe this winter is the winter to do 
some more serious work on the documentation.   Not much GWC action 
during the summers :-)

Cheers,
Jeff Welty


Tim Wunder wrote:
> Hi Tom.
> I'm currently using 0.19-0, and it compiled fine on my copy of RHL 8.0.
> I have libsndfile-1.0.1-1 and lame-3.93.1-0.fdr.2.rh80.
> 
> To extract tracks is easy. Just mark the beginning and ending tracks, 
> highlight in between (it'll kinda jump to the markers making selection easy 
> -- so you don't have to be real precise with the mouse, just get close to the 
> marker), then Save Selection As whatever .wav filename you want. Here's how I 
> do it:
> 
> Open the WAV .
> Zoom to a section of WAV that's between tracks.
> Listen to the section to determine where the song should begin, then highlight 
> that section so the beginning of the highlight is at the beginning of the 
> song. Then click Markers-Toggle beginning marker (or press B) to mark a 
> beginning of a song.
> Do the same to the end of the song.
> Zoom out so that the full song is in view
> Highlight between the markers to select the song.
> Click File-Save Selection As
> 
> I just use the Beginning and Ending markers, as I haven't quite figured out 
> how to use the Song Markers yet, myself.
> 
> To play just a section of the WAV, soom in or hightight the part you want to 
> play. GWC will play the highlighted section, if nothing is highlighted, then 
> it will play what's on the view pane.
> 
> And, as with all small Open Source projects, documentation is problematic. But 
> there's a mailing list now, and Jeff Welty, the developer, is a pretty good 
> guy when it comes to responding to questions and suggestions. In fact, I'm 
> taking the liberty of CC'ing gwc...@li..., in case one 
> of the other GWC users has a better answer for you...
> 
> Regards, 
> Tim
> 
> On Sunday 17 August 2003 9:08 am, someone claiming to be Tom B. Younker wrote:
> 
>>Tim:
>>
>>Sorry for the delay.  Just yesterday, I got down and installed GWC.
>> Putting it on the same system that I currently use for dubbing was a
>>bit of work, but the application looks very promising once installed.
>> The box runs GNOME on Debian Woody, and GWC didn't like the stable or
>>testing versions of libsndfile --- I resorted to compiling from source.
>> It also didn't mention LAME as a dependency.  Apparently Debian has
>>problems with the licensing, but I easily found it on apt-get.org.
>>
>>The package said it came with doc files, but I couldn't find them
>>anywhere.  Actually 0.19.3 wouldn't compile cleanly, so I used 0.19.2.
>> Anyway, by reading the brief instructions on the web site I was able to
>>find my way around.  It's obvious that a lot of work has gone into GWC.
>> What I didn't find in the instructions was your technique for splitting
>>the tracks.  I also was unable to start playback anywhere except the
>>beginning, wanting to chop the end off the last song.  Are there more
>>complete docs available somewhere?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Tom
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>----
>>
>>Tim Wunder wrote:
>>
>>>Hi Tom,
>>>Well, two years ago is when I tried gramofile, after getting tired of
>>>dual booting Windows to run CoolEdit (don't even have Windows
>>>installed at home anymore -- this message is coming from a WIn2K box
>>>at work). I was never satisfied with the output. It seemed to denoise
>>>OK, but declicking was problematic. And I never felt I had any
>>>control, especially over sections of a WAV file. It seemed that you
>>>ran gramofile over the entire WAV file, or nothing at all. With GWC, I
>>>can declick and denoise different sections of a WAV differently.
>>>
>>>I found GWC by luck, doing google searches, probly about a year and a
>>>half ago. I found Jeff Welty, the author, to be very amenable to
>>>feedback. He worked long and hard with me when I first started using
>>>it, adding some features I asked for, and debugging playback under KDE
>>>(it is a gnome app, and I usually run KDE).
>>>
>>>The current iteration of GWC provides an easy way to mark tracks
>>>graphically, and save them as separate WAV files. I use the
>>>gnome-sound-recorder to record the WAVs (it has a timer), and then use
>>>GWC to split the file into tracks. Then I open each track and
>>>clean/de-click it. So a GUI WAV capture device is something I really
>>>have no interest in. Of course that doesn't mean that one doesn't
>>>exist...
>>>
>>>FWIW, GWC has become quite fast, much faster than when I first started
>>>using it. I hope you find the time to try it out.
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>>Tim
>>>
>>>On 8/12/2003 9:44 AM, someone claiming to be Tom B. Younker wrote:
>>>
>>>>Tim:
>>>>
>>>>Thanks for the feedback.  The article is a mixed blessing for me.  I
>>>>wrote it in January after LJ seemed to be in a hurry to have it.
>>>>After submission I got no feedback, or even acknowledgement of
>>>>receipt. Meanwhile, I corresponded with Cliff Johnson, who wrote
>>>>xmcd2make.  He was pleased to hear of a possible article, and wrote a
>>>>newer version of xmcd2make which included some of my suggestions.  Of
>>>>course LJ didn't know this.  Mid-July they asked me to sign papers in
>>>>case they should decide to publish, and I included a note stating
>>>>that the article needed an update as they'd held onto it so long.
>>>>Looks like by the time they received my note, it was too late to make
>>>>changes.  Also, the editing job they did was kind of clumsy, loosing
>>>>the meaning in places...
>>>>
>>>>Anyway, I was not aware of GWC and just found in on SourceForge.
>>>>When I was looking nearly 2 years ago to begin dubbing LPs, I did not
>>>>run across it, and gramofile was the only viable software that I
>>>>found. Apparently it didn't even exist at the time.  My dubbing
>>>>machine is capable of running X, but I do all the processing from the
>>>>command line. However, my Win-oriented friends would not likely have
>>>>the patience to learn the command line procedures, and I've wished
>>>>for a GUI version of the whole process.  GWC fits in the middle, and
>>>>lots of CD burners fit at the end.  If you know of a GUI wav capture
>>>>device that could split the tracks, I'd like to hear about it.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks,
>>>>Tom
>>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>-------
>>>>
>>>>Tim Wunder wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>I just got my Sept issue of Linux Journal and was surprised, and
>>>>>pleased, to see an article on restoring vinyl LP's to digital
>>>>>format. My
>>>>>first thought was (before actually turning to the article), "cool,
>>>>>Jeff's finally getting some press for GWC!"
>>>>>"Jeff" being Jeff Welty, the author of The Gnome Wave Cleaner,
>>>>>http://gwc.sf.net. Unfortunately, once I turned to your article I saw
>>>>>that it wasn't about GWC at all, but rather gramofile. Now gramofile is
>>>>>a nice app, and I used an incarnation of it a long time ago, before I
>>>>>found out, and started to use, GWC.
>>>>>Which leads me to this e-mail. FWIW, I highly recommend that you check
>>>>>out GWC. It is, in my estimation, a fantastic program. Not to take away
>>>>>from gramofile, but GWC is, for me, so much easier to use, and
>>>>>better at
>>>>>cleaning up pops, clicks and background noise, than gramofile.
>>>>>I hope you get a chance to check it out.
>>>>>
>>>>>Regards,
>>>>>Tim Wunder
>>>>>Baltimore, MD
> 
> 
> 
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