From: Neon John <jgd_at_johngsbbq.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 22:56:42 -0500

On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:45:17 -0800, "Grant Hardy"
<granthardy_at_gmail.com> wrote:

>Well, that's a good point. I actually can't find any 2.5-inch hard
>drives at my local electronics store.

We discussed hard drives and where to get 'em just last week. Pay
attention!!! Cnet price shopper is your friend!

>I wonder what I should search
>for....by the way, where do I get this mp3_gain thing and how long
>does it take to run?

C'mon now, don't be lazy. Google is your friend.

Oh, OK. http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

How long it takes depends on a lot of things. How many songs, what
sample rate, how fast your computer is, etc.

I've downsampled all the music on my JBR to 128kbps (good compromise
between sound and battery life). On the 80 gig drive with about 5 gig
free space and a 2ghz laptop, mp3_gain did the job overnight. IFF you
get a more powerful wall wart (I use a Rat Shack #273-1772 9 volt, 1
amp switchmode wartlet and the H tip), the JBR can get enough power to
run more or less continuously without draining the batteries. At
least with the Toshiba low power 80gig drive I'm using.

MP3_gain is reversible. The bits can be stripped out of the MP3 file
if desired. The MP3 playing program Fubar_2000 (use Google!!!) does
it the easiest, as it has a batch mode. The actual adjustment is
called RePlay_Gain, just to confuse things. MP3_gain is an
implementation.

For settings, I use "Track Gain" with a setting of 94db and turn it
loose on my player's MP3 root directory. MP3_gain reports a little
clipping on occasion at that setting but I can't hear it enough to
matter, especially with headphones. 94db produces a reasonably loud
volume in the PortaPro 'phones with the volume set in the 80-85%
range. Since the gain change is not permanent, one can go back and
change it at any time. If you find that one song clips too much, just
rework it with a lower setting.

Important note: After you set the directory structure to be processed,
you have to give MP3_gain time to gather up all the files before
starting the processing. If you don't, they all won't be processed.
Watch the file counter in the lower righthand side of the window and
wait for it to quit counting up. For a whole drive, this takes a bit
of time. Go grab coffee or something :-)

John

>
>On 2/23/06, Neon John <jgd_at_johngsbbq.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 16:40:08 -0800, "Grant Hardy"
>> <granthardy_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Ah heck, I don't care so much about backups. I've got all my music on
>> >the computer. I just don't want to pay for another HD!
>>
>> Look at it this way. A HD costs about as much as a couple of tanks of
>> gas and look how much more pleasure you get from it. Besides, just
>> think how much time it'll take to reload everything.
>>
>> I have all my music on my file serve too, but losing my Archos HD
>> would be a minor disaster. I've cut out songs that I don't like and
>> I've run MP3_Gain across the whole drive so that everything plays at
>> the same volume. I don't modify the original music files on the
>> server so I'd have to do all that over. Then there are all the
>> playlists. Every time I patch together a playlist that I really like
>> I save it off. Dozens to hundreds of them. No way to replace those.
>>
>> I got the same warning you got from my 100gb Archos a couple of weeks
>> ago after I dropped it. I took the warning seriously and had a new
>> drive expressed in. I made a copy of my Archos onto the new drive and
>> put the new drive in the fireproof safe. When this one quits, all I
>> have to do is pop the cover and stick the new one in. No big deal.
>> Spinrite found and fixed some weak areas so maybe it'll last a long
>> time. Meanwhile I have a spare drive that I can periodically update
>> as a live backup.
>>
>> John
>>
>> >
>> >On 2/23/06, Ronald Teune <rtwolf_at_gmx.net> wrote:
>> >> On Friday 24 February 2006 00:30, Grant Hardy <"Grant Hardy"
>> >> <granthardy_at_gmail.com>> wrote:
>> >> > So guys, the hard drive is working PERFECTLY for the past few days and
>> >> > all the weird noises have stopped. Can I thus expect some more life
>> >> > out of it? It's only a couple of years old.
>> >>
>> >> When I had just bought my unit, I've heard some squeaky sounds too (due
>> to
>> >> battery low or so), and since then had some more evil sounds out of it.
>> >> That's about a year ago or so. Don't think it matters that much. But it's
>> >> always good to have backups. Reminds me of something...
>> >>
>> >> Ronald
>> >>
>> >
>> ---
>> John De Armond
>> See my website for my current email address
>> http://www.johngsbbq.com
>> Cleveland, Occupied TN
>> A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
>>
>

---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.johngsbbq.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Received on 2006-02-24