Music | Technology Blog

ID3 Tag Remover

December 22nd, 2008

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There is usually no need to remove the so called ID3 tags of audio files. Actually there are only two scenarios that do make sense. The first is if you encounter lots of audio files with wrong ID3 tags and the second if you want to remove either ID3v1 or ID3v2 tags from the audio files to ensure that all use the same tagging method. ID3 tags make it possible to store meta data in audio files. Meta data includes the song title, the album and artist among other information.

ID3 Kill is a free Windows software that can recursively scan through directories and perform file operations on audio files.

Usage is pretty straightforward. You point it at a directory and check a few boxes to configure the options. It is possible to include subdirectories in the scan. The main options are to remove ID3v1 and / or ID3v2 tags from all encountered audio files.

StreamDrag Music Search Engine

December 17th, 2008

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There are so many possibilities on the Internet to search for and find the music that you are looking for that it is almost impossible not to find it unless you prefer to listen to local bands or rare stuff. Even then the chance is quite good to find what you are looking for online. StreamDrag is - yet another - music search engine that is utilizing the vast Youtube archive to fuel the search engine.

Everything - that means the search, results and playback - happens on the same page which is excellent for finding some music very quickly. One could argue that it is also possible to go directly to Youtube but there are some differences. One is that StreamDrag provides access to a very intuitive playlist that can be used to play multiple songs in a row without leaving the page.

Results are displayed almost instantly and of great quality. Songs can be played right there or added to the playlist to play multiple songs in a row. It is furthermore possible to loop songs or the playlist. The only other control on the page is the volume bar which can be used to change the volume of the songs.

Download Music From Imeem, Deezer or Jiwa

November 16th, 2008

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Freezer is a small portable application that runs on Windows XP or Windows Vista computers. The tiny 73 Kilobyte software program listens on port 8800 and turns any streaming music request of the websites Imeem, Deezer or Jiwa into a download.

The proxy setting has to be configured in the web browser so that all http traffic is routed through the localhost proxy at port 8800. Firefox users would click on Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Settings to open the proxy configuration.

They would then select the manual proxy configuration and enter localhost and port 8800 under HTTP Proxy. They should make sure to revert the settings to No Proxy again when they stop using Freezer.

Track Album Releases Automatically

November 12th, 2008

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The Internet can provide music fans with lots of information about their favorite artists including tour dates or upcoming albums. The website Muspy can help you with the latter by tracking the album releases of selected artists and sending out information whenever a new album release is announced.

The service requires registration which is a quick and painless process. After signing up and in artists can be added that the user wants to track. The database of artists and releases is directly taken from MusicBrainz which ensures that most artists will be found and can be tracked.

The releases of all entered artists can be tracked afterwards. Notifications can be received by email or RSS news feed if that is preferred. Additionally only certain release types (albums, singles, compilations, live etc) can be monitored.

Video Crawler - A Multimedia Search Engine

November 11th, 2008

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Video Crawler is AT&T’s multimedia search engine. The service is currently in Beta and provides access to videos and other multimedia files of more than 1600 different websites including the popular ones like Youtube, MySpace or Dailymotion.

The search engine is indexing the contents of those websites and providing a search engine so that users can search all sites for multimedia content at once. The search results are therefor a combination of all multimedia portals. Results can be filtered by media type (video, audio, radio, games..) and sorted by factors like popularity, relevancy or rating.

Content that has been selected will be played in the main interface which uses independent blocks that can be moved around. It is for instance possible to search for additional videos while one is already playing. The multimedia content is simply embedded in the site which means that the basic controls of the site’s players is available.

Installing Winamp Plugins In AIMP

October 13th, 2008

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If you look around and ask your friends which media player they prefer you will most likely come up with many different answers. Winamp, Windows Media Player and iTunes will surely be on the top of the list with lesser known players mentioned by some of the friends. Most are perfectly happy that they can play music on their computer without having to think about configuring the service first or tweaking it for maximum effectiveness.

AIMP is a music player that might not be mentioned that often. The main reason why that is the case is surely the Russian website that is keeping lots of users at bay. Some might spot the player on download portals like Softpedia and those are usually the ones who stick with it after installing and testing the player.

AIMP comes with an impressive design and functionality that leaves most music players behind. It is low on resource usage, provides an impressive sound, great design, an audio converter, CD ripper and Internet radio ripper among other things.

The official website contains a few plugins and skins that can be added to the player but one feature that the player excels in is the compatibility to many Winamp plugins.