Editing RM Audio files - anyone know any good software?

[Carol Haynes]

I have a few RM files that I would like to cut sections from. Does anyone know any freeware (or cheap shareware) that will do this effectively?

I don't particularly want to convert the files to another format to do it as I am going to burn them to CD in RealPlayer and so don't want to add another conversion step and the degrading of sound quality associated with that.

[Hirudin]

If you're looking to burn them once, you could convert them to .WAVs, cut them, then burn the .WAVs. I don't think this'll degrade the quality.

If you're paranoid, and have the time, and the CD to waste: you could burn the full files, rip them to .WAVs (which should maintain 100% quality), cut, then burn again.

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks - solution found though ...

For anyone else that is interested RealMedia Producer comes in a Basic free version. It is designed to allow other formats to be converted to RM formats but hidden in the app folder is the Media Editor. It is a command line editor but there is a GUI application.

In the Pro version this is displayed in the Start Menu - but in the Basic version it isn't mentioned.

You can download it from: http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/comparison.html

Note you have to register but you are immediately taken to the download site so unless you want RM emails for life you can give a temporary (or false) email address!

There is also an app called "Easy RealMedia Producer" at http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73228

I haven't tried it (the download webpage is in Chinese and the download is currently running at 4.5K/sec over 4 streams!) but it may be worth a look.

[Plasma Man]

Carol - If you want to avoid RM Weld and a few thousand registry entries then Hirudin is right - covert to *.wav. Besides, it's much easier to edit de-compressed material.

dBpoweramp Music Converter is the one to get. [ free ]
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

The codecs here:
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central.htm

Features a right click context menu - makes it all so easy-peasy.

Andre

[f0dder]

If you're paranoid, and have the time, and the CD to waste: you could burn the full files, rip them to .WAVs (which should maintain 100% quality), cut, then burn again.

Doing ripping from audio CDs are actually a lossy process, where you're at the mercy of the error-correction hardware and firmware in your drive. For normal CDs you'll get bit-perfect copies, but with scratched (or copy-protected!) CDs, well...

[Plasma Man]

fOdder - have you used EAC?
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

There is hope for those scratched CDs. 

[f0dder]

Plasma Man: yes, I know and use EAC (wonderful that the new pre-beta supports AccurateRip even when you extract to image mode!), I believe that dBpoweramp has the superior ripping technology though.

But even with both of those, for scratched or protected CDs, you're at the mercy of your drive hard- and firmware.

[Carol Haynes]

I have dBpoweramp (though not installed at the moment).

Actually the RealMedia editor does a neat quick job - which is what I wanted. The advantage is that I can easily build a playlist in RealMedia Player and it automatically converts them to burn for CD - which is much quicker and means that I don't have to be dealing with 650Mb audio files!

What I am trying to do is to quickly archive odd radio programmes I download. Being web programmes they are not great quality so I don't want to force them to deteriorate further. I do find dbPowerAmp is a good app but it is really quite slow - I can download the RM file, clip it and burn it in less time than dbPA takes just to convert the file to WAV.

[Carol Haynes]

There is also an app called "Easy RealMedia Producer" at http://forum.doom9.org/sh...php?s=&threadid=73228

I haven't tried it (the download webpage is in Chinese and the download is currently running at 4.5K/sec over 4 streams!) but it may be worth a look.

Followup - I tried installing this under Altiris Virtualisation (hey it worked - wow, my first attempt at that) ...

Personally I won't be installing it for real. It's fine if you want a GUI to set parameters numerically for command line tools, but not if you want to see what you are doing.

I may be wrong - but since the app is in English but all the documentation is in Chinese ...

If anyone is interested in batch processing the production of Real Media files you can use the link I posted earlier and it is also available at http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Encoders-Converter-DIVX-Related/Easy-RealMedia-Producer.shtml

I should say it is free for non-commercial use.

[Plasma Man]

Carol - interesting what you discovered with RM. I love it so much (not) that I'd willingly convert the lot to wav.

But sand boxed / virtualized this looks good for fast dice 'n slice of net radio interviews (just bumped into a couple hiding in a corner of drive).

f0dder - I'll try out the dB ripper. I've used EAC for audio archiving and compiling ref discs and never had a problem using the highest settings (which can be slow going on some material). Scratched / new / "clever-clever encoded " - all fine. Are you saying that choice of CD drive could be a problem?

[f0dder]

Plasma: if you rip scratched or copy-protected CDs then, yes, your choice of CD drive can be a problem, since this is where the error-correction hard- and firmware starts to really matter.

You need to check out the "reference" version of dBpoweramp btw., the one that supports C2 error pointers, which is what (imho) makes it superior to EAC. I tend to still use EAC myself btw, because it can rip to .wav+.cue combo, and dBp only does single-track rips

[Plasma Man]

OK - now I'm with you re: error correction etc. Plextor drives in combo with PlexTools is generally considered one of the better solutions. I agree - this whole hw and firmware game changes every few months so you have to be alert to what you actually purchasing - esp from a "trusted brand" like Plextor. Yet more search/forum/review fun ...

If the dB ripper only rips per track then it's not much use for me. But I'll test it out, all the same.

(Carol - apologies for this slightly OT discussion.)

[f0dder]

Plextor drives in combo with PlexTools is generally considered one of the better solutions.

Too bad it doesn't work out that way in practice >_< - even with unscratched & non-protected CDs, I didn't get consistent results when ripping the same album multiple times with plextools. Both EAC and dBp does, and dBp even comes close to plextool's speed.

Plextor drives, however, do seem to be in the better league wrt. error correction and C2 support and all that. They better damn be, anyway, price considered

Yeah, too bad dBp only does per-track, I hope they'll add image support sometime. I really do like the program though, and use it to verify some of the more problematic CDs in my collection. EAC's method isn't as refined and puts more wear & tear on your discs, and they way it's programmed slows down my entire system (well, message handling) while it's ripping, which sucks if ripping one of those multi-hour-to-rip protected CDs >_<. But it does image file extraction, and with the pre-beta that supports AccurateRip even with image extraction, well...