Free Music
I've had several folks ask me about capturing free music streams, so I thought I would post the steps here. It reminds me a lot of recording the music from radio stations when I was in high school...
There are three basic steps.
First, you'll need to get the music player, Winamp. Download the player of choice (free or "pro" version) from:
http://www.winamp.com/
Next, you'll need to get a plug-in. While Winamp allows you to listen to music streams from the internet, it lacks that key "record" button. The Streamripper plugin can be found here.
I believe (this is from memory now) that you want to download the srwa5-1.61.27.exe file to your PC and execute it (so it installs). I recall some challenges there, but everything worked out nicely after I stopped stressing about what I THOUGHT the instructions wanted me to do and just applied common sense. As such, I think it's pretty straightforward.
This plugin (when you install it right) will automatically open when Winamp starts. It will present a "record" button, and give you various options for recording the stream of music. I use the option to break the stream up into separate songs, each song into its own MP3 file. You can customize it pretty well.
Finally, you need a source of music. I like to use Shoutcast.
They have a pretty good selection of tunes (e.g., SKYFM) at a decent bit rate (120, 160).
After I've loaded up a bunch of songs onto my PC, I transfer them to my MP3 player, which is an iRiver T-10 (2GB).
A nice thing about this approach is that I can apply equalization at two places: in Winamp during the recording (well, certainly during playback - have not checked to see if it actually applies it to the recording process now that I think about it...) and inside the MP3 player. This allows me to really get the equalization dialed in the way I like it.
Finally, what to listen on??? For light listening, I like the Sennheiser PX-100. It's a fairly low-priced open air style headphone that delivers amazingly good results. For noisier environments, I use the Sennheiser HD280 Pro. The sound quality delivered by these headphones is nothing short of amazing. With a 32db noise reduction from the closed design, all you hear is the music. Just as it should be.
There are three basic steps.
First, you'll need to get the music player, Winamp. Download the player of choice (free or "pro" version) from:
http://www.winamp.com/
Next, you'll need to get a plug-in. While Winamp allows you to listen to music streams from the internet, it lacks that key "record" button. The Streamripper plugin can be found here.
I believe (this is from memory now) that you want to download the srwa5-1.61.27.exe file to your PC and execute it (so it installs). I recall some challenges there, but everything worked out nicely after I stopped stressing about what I THOUGHT the instructions wanted me to do and just applied common sense. As such, I think it's pretty straightforward.
This plugin (when you install it right) will automatically open when Winamp starts. It will present a "record" button, and give you various options for recording the stream of music. I use the option to break the stream up into separate songs, each song into its own MP3 file. You can customize it pretty well.
Finally, you need a source of music. I like to use Shoutcast.
They have a pretty good selection of tunes (e.g., SKYFM) at a decent bit rate (120, 160).
After I've loaded up a bunch of songs onto my PC, I transfer them to my MP3 player, which is an iRiver T-10 (2GB).
A nice thing about this approach is that I can apply equalization at two places: in Winamp during the recording (well, certainly during playback - have not checked to see if it actually applies it to the recording process now that I think about it...) and inside the MP3 player. This allows me to really get the equalization dialed in the way I like it.
Finally, what to listen on??? For light listening, I like the Sennheiser PX-100. It's a fairly low-priced open air style headphone that delivers amazingly good results. For noisier environments, I use the Sennheiser HD280 Pro. The sound quality delivered by these headphones is nothing short of amazing. With a 32db noise reduction from the closed design, all you hear is the music. Just as it should be.
posted by Aras at 5:49 PM
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