Sterio PC hookup and music

[JerkasaurusRex]

My dad has a ****load of LPs and CDs and he cant organize them anymore. He has like 200 LPs and like 300-600 CDs. He says he wants me to build him a computer were he can store all his songs from the LPs and CDs on it and use it to play all his songs on the stereo. Their is no budget for this project.

I figured i could build him a micr-atx comp with like a 1.4 ghz duron in it and like 2 80gb drives for all his stuff. I dont know what sound card i would need though to hook up this comp to his stereo. Also what OS should i put on it? He also wants it to be able to like play all the songs and kinda like do it like a DJ and take out the sorta "silent space" between songs. What program can i use for that? We already know how to rip the CDs and LPs to the hard drive.

Any ideas? Need any other information?

 

[Vulcan]

Sounds fine hardware wise, but you could probably get a faster procesor for just a few bucks more on newegg... Don't skimp on the soundcard! I would reccomend runing an OS dedicated to being a media pc, there is windows xp media center (which can be "obtained" in various ways), there are also a few that based on linux.

 

[KaHNZa]

Ummmmm, with that many CDs you may want to consider more storage if you want them at a decent/high quality.

 

[Th0r]

Maybe a RAID with 4x160 gig Hard drives????

 

[Como]

why raid? unless you speak of raid 1...you really dont need speed for a storage box, but redundancy is nice when one of those harddrives decide to go...

 

[JerkasaurusRex]

What i really need to know is what programs can i use to play all this music and organize it and remove the silent partsa inbetween songs when playing. Also how would i hook it up to the stereo so that instead of the comps sound card processing the audo, the stereo does it.

 

[JimmyG]

Take a look at this link for a sound card

http://creative.com/products/product.asp?prodid=4925


try this link for CD/MP3 manager

http://www.voyetra.com/site/products/ump3/producthome.asp

 

[JerkasaurusRex]

That program seems pretty cool. With that sound card i could connect it to the AUX port on the sterio so the sound comes out the Sterios speakers, correct? Also would i still need their audiotron to play music fro mthe hard drive on the stereo?

 

[CPFitz14]

If you are looking to put the LP's on your hard disk, or burn them to CD, you'll need a phono pre-amp. You should be able to get a cheap one for under $20 off of ebay, thats what I did. Undertook an LP to CD project, and never fully completed it. Its tough. PM me if you've got any questions with the LP end of things. I worked on this for quite a while. I might have the pre-amp around too, just pm me.

 

[kickassclone]

digital only

if you are going to put that many cds and lps on a comp you better seriously think of getting some big drives. What you have is not going to cut it.

I don't know how much of an audiophile your pop is but analog is cheap soundwise. Digital audio is the only way to go. If you can't hook up a digital connect in my opinion it's not worth it.

If you are going to compress your files to mp3 or another format be advised that you will need to have a program to decode them before sending the sound to the amp.

compressing files is a big chore. Uncompressed cd in wav format sounds the best but you are going to need some serious space to store that many cd's uncompressed.

Maximum PC's November 2003 edition had a whole story on building a home entertainment pc that was pretty good.

See if you can find a copy and check it out.

If I had a scanner I would pdf the article for you

 

[JerkasaurusRex]

Well cant we digitaly connect the sound card to the stereo? Also we are just storing them o nthe Hard Drives.

Maybe i will get him like 2 250mb drives than. I think that should cut it for like 200 LPs and 300-600 CDs. No budget so i can spend as much as needed.

 

[Vulcan]

I personaly dont like creative sound cards, look at a Hurcules fortisimo III, very nice card and a great price (about 45.00)

 

[tom10167]

What do you mean remove the silent space between songs? I know it's a bit advanced but Sonic Foundry(now Sony) Acid 4 would do a fine job, but there are other programs.

ultra-high quality Mp3s are about 2megs/minute, figure each cd is an hour 240megs.....~1gig....... a 160hdd will hold about 130 albums, including Windows etc. etc.

 

[Como]

personally to convert to MP3 i use EAC (exact audio copy) to get it from a CD to a WAV and i use Razor Lame (a user freindly thing for LAME) to compile. LAME is by far the best free MP3 encoder i've ever seen/used (and i'm anal about my sound quality, i build a computer for mp3's, in a cardbaord box...using my sony system for an amp and some nice speakers.)

anyways i cant tell you here where to get EAC or LAME or razor lame, but i do have all of them and i could upload them if you wanted...

 

[JerkasaurusRex]

By "silent space" i mean like the space inbetween songs. Like when one song ends their is a little silence before next one starts. Is their a program that automaticly starts the next song as the previous song is fading out.

Como, i already have programs and know how to convert CDs and LPs to mp3 format on a hard drive.

 

[DaWiper]

I use musicmatch for ripping of cds AND for recording of analogue signals. If you can go with digital out, then just about any card that has spdif out will do. If you need good analogue output you have to pay for quality. Audigy1/2 is good. Good cables are important too. You could also try look what the musicians are buying. A friend of mine got a Echo Darla card. And the sound was great!.. But it costs as much as a high-end audigy-card. I hope you have a lot of sparetime. Ripping 200 LP's will be timeconsuming deluxe!

 

[tom10167]

You can use Winamp. It'll fade out the last song and fade the next song in - radio style. Next best bet is to take each file into an audio editing program, I'm sure there are free demos, I use Acid4, and just shave off the blank at the end of each song, I guess if you're REALLY adament about no silence, that'd be what you'd have to do.

 

[james.miller]

since your looking at amd, then the obvious choice is an nforce2 board with onboard soundstorm with digital out. that's what i use, and its damn good.

as for storage and organisation, i dont think you need to spend $40 on a piece of sfotware lol

using win xp, you get a "my music folder". You simply encode the music into its own appropreatly named folder, then drop that folder into the my "music folder". Using the playback program of your choice (which SHOULD BE foobar2000, there is nothing better right now) it's simply a case of right clicking the folder and selecting "play in foobar".

Simple.

An example of how easy it is

 

[JerkasaurusRex]

Sadly i do not have windows XP and have no wishes of ever using it again. I think the winamp suggestion is best but which version of winamp has the best sound editing thing?

If iget an audigy 2 with digital sound, how would i connect it to a stereo system? Would the stereo have a digital in.out jack somewere or should i just stick it in the auxiliary plug. My dad is planning on buying a new stereo too so it should be digital media playable. Our current stereo is old and thats why he wants to do 1 big upgrade now.

 

[james.miller]

your loss. i can tell you from person experiance that its easier this way than by using winamp, but its your choice.