Thursday, October 21, 2010

wtju

WTJU currently retains links on their website for the most recent two weeks of radio show broadcasts.
You can to go the vault and play them,
and also save them at the same time on your computer using the following programs.

Using VLC media player is one method, but I find Winamp and streamripper combination takes less steps.
I'm using winamp 5.53 and windows xp.  There is a more recent free version (5.58 as of this writing)
which should also work.

Go here to download Winamp

During installation you can choose to not have Winamp be the default player for file associations
such as mp3, pls, etc.  Or adjust file associations in Winamp preferences later, if you prefer to
use another program to open a particular file type.  I choose to associate .mp3 .ogg .shn .m3u .pls
and some others to Winamp.
For automatically opening WTJU steams with Winamp, make sure the .pls file type is associated to it.
Alternatively you can save the stream to your desktop, then drag it into Winamp manually.

After installing Winamp, get streamripper here
click on downloads











(click to enlarge image)





During installation, you want the Winamp Plugin box checked


Open Winamp, go to preferences > plugins > general purpose > Streamripper
check enable streamripper


Proceed to WTJU's website streaming vault
You can click the play button under either Vorbis or MP3.
If you have associated Winamp with .pls file type, Winamp will open automatically.



I use Vorbis, but it does create larger files.

Here is a vorbis (.ogg extension) and .mp3 file size comparison for the same
two hour vault stream

Saving the Vorbis streams also automatically saves playlist file information to
the saved .ogg file.
Unfortunately, you can't jump ahead in the stream, so the entire show has to play
out just as if were live over the airwaves.
You can however, let it play and have Winamp and streamripper record the entire
show while you are doing somthing else, then come back to the saved show and
jump ahead the portion you want to hear based on the playlists found here

Since WTJU saves streams automatically and starts a little earlier than the program
and ends a little later to account for any day-to-day programming variables, you will
end up with a saved stream that has part of an earlier or later program.

You can easily edit this out with free program Audacity.  Or if you just want a specific
portion of a saved stream, use Audacity to save it.
Get audacity here:
newest for windows version as of this writing is 1.3.12 (Beta)

You will also need the lame encoder if you want to save the streams to smaller mp3 files
You may already have lame.dll somewhere on your computer, although it doesn't hurt to have more, and this download installs it in your audacity folder.

Whether you are editing the larger Vorbis files or smaller .mp3 files, when you drag them to the Audacity window, or import them with the Open command, Audacity will convert them to wav files for editing purposes.  After editing, you then have to export the file back to the file type you want, whether it is .ogg or .mp3 or another type.



It's a little tricky to get the bar where you want to place it to select sections.
Use the zoom button to place it exactly where you want to edit.
Play around with it.  Use the play, stop and pause buttons.
The rewind button takes the music cursor to the beginning.











Select and cut out the section of the broadcast you do not want.


Stereo to mono is good for non-music selections to save space.
After the merge you will only see one track.

















After you have edited the selection, then you need to export it




For music files you may want to export as Vorbis Ogg or Flac or
high quality MP3, up to 320 kbs constant or 220-260 kbs variable.


















In this case, since the broadcast was just speech, I am selecting MP3
and reducing the file size by going to Options and selecting a
variable 45-85 kbps quality.  It is a high compression for small file size setting.