Reaper-X » Multimedia

Switching to Winamp ASIO Output because of Auto-Tag

Reaper-X — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:22:32 +0000

Previously i’ve wrote about using FFDShow with Winamp to improve your MP3 sound quality (or any other audio format as long as it is supported by FFDShow), but since that method have one drawback (you can’t edit the ID3 Tag of your audio file), i’ve decided to temporarily switch into using ASIO Output Plugin for Winamp by Otachan. (because it still gives you clearer sound although i still prefer the FFDShow output)

The reason for this temporary switch is … well because the current version of Winamp (5.52) when i wrote this, there’s a known bug that if you tag many files at once it’ll crash Winamp (as reported by other Winamp users) and constantly restarting Winamp to disable / re-enable winamp to use FFDShow after tagging some of my mp3 files really bothering me

Back then i’m fine with my mp3 files collection being displayed as Unknown Artist or Unknown Title because i don’t know who’s the artist or what is the song title, but since the recent version of Winamp (Winamp 5.5) have a built-in AutoTagging Feature that is able to fetch various song information from Gracenote (which is useful btw, because you can automatically tag many of your audio files at once), i guess it’s better for me to temporarily switch into using ASIO for a while until all of my mp3 / ogg / mp4 files has been properly tagged

and here’s a screenshot of how the audio files list displayed after it has been automatically tagged :

And just in case you didn’t know, to use the auto tag feature in Winamp 5.5 all you have to do is just press ALT+3 to bring up the File Information window and then press Auto-tag to fetch the song information

or if you want to auto-tag many files at once, you can choose send to Auto-Tag

Related Links:

http://www.winamp.com – Winamp
http://otachan.com – Winamp ASIO Output Plugin (Make sure your soundcard support ASIO before using this plugin)

Update: Because i received hate email message from someone who’s basically upset because he can’t read anything on Otachan website. I’ll just tell you this, I CAN’T READ Japanese text too, but i can find the download link without problem (just use common sense) because he put Winamp 5 text clearly so i can guess the ASIO Plugin can be downloaded from below that text. And it comes in two flavours, the first one is DLL version while the other one is standalone EXE version (i choose to use this)

And lastly, if your soundcard doesn’t support ASIO (well my Audigy 2 card finally dead, and i switched to Realtek HD Audio 882Onboard Soundcard), you can always use ASIO4ALL from http://www.asio4all.com

0x87485B96 | Tags : Multimedia

Enhance Video Quality using FFdshow and AVISynth

Reaper-X — Thu, 24 May 2007 04:57:18 +0000

Although previously i’ve tried this step in the past, but at that time i’m still using barton which is not strong enough even just to handle LimitedSharpening filter and caused big slowdown to the movie (read: lag) that’s why i prefer not to use this method at that time … but since i just upgraded my computer processor ( Athlon64 X2 4200+ ) i can use this avisynth script to pre-process video played on Zoom Player via FFDshow using AVISynth Script called BlindDehalo and Limited Sharpen (~~unfortunately it’s still impossible for me to turn them both on at the same time~~)

Btw here’s what the default video looks like :

And here’s what it looks like with some effects from LimitedSharpen (i prefer to use this one rather than the sharpen filter on FFDshow) :

And here’s another screenshot taken using BlindDehalo 2 (i’d definitely use this because in my opinion i really like how the video displayed, ~~if only my processor can handle it without stuttering / lagging~~) :

While below screenshot using BlindDehalo 2 with LimitedSharpen (~~The truth is, my pc is still not strong enough to handle this combo, and in other words this is just for screenshot purpose only~~):

As for the step on how to do it, or more info about this, you can read it at avsforum ;) … but as a side note, i’m using LimitedSharpenFaster instead of the original LimitedSharpen …

and here’s the link to get the avisynth script used (link updated / added) :

Update :

I just noticed that i have BlindDeHalo3 script when i’m doing some cleaning, without doubt i tested it right away and the results is :

Yep with BlindDeHalo3 script i can use them both at the same time without stuttering, i also added another script called Soothe script which is made by Didée

0x87485B96 | Tags : Guide, How To, Multimedia, Tutorials, Video Tools

Movie plays Upside Down when using Haali Video Renderer

Reaper-X — Wed, 16 May 2007 15:12:20 +0000

Okay … so today i just received a new movie and because i’m really interested on watching this movie again (previously i watched this movie in cinema last year), i played it as soon as possible when the last part was completed :P … and at first when i played it, i did not see any problem with it … everything can be played normally like below image as an illustration

And as you already knew that i’m not a native english speaker, and so watching english movie without subtitle can be confusing especially at some part so i decided to search for it’s english subtitle and found one … but … a new problem arise, as illustrated below :

As you can see the video plays upside down !!! and because previously i can play the movie without problem, i decided to disable displaying subtitle first … and guess what ? the movie plays normally

Because it’s seems strange to me, i decided to play around with various settings in Zoom Player (that’s the media player i used) such as playing around with aspect ratio (i’m always using Disabled / Fit to Window aspect ratio), VMR (Video Mixing Renderer) 9 settings, try to flip it, etc … but the same problem still occur. Fortunately i remember that i’m not using VMR9 as my video renderer but i’m using Haali Video Renderer instead, and so i decided to switch the video renderer back to VMR9 Renderless and the problem seems to disappear

But because i prefer to use Haali Video Renderer rather than VMR9 Renderless i decided to mess around with various settings again … and after a while i found what the actual problem is (after getting various error message from various filters) … which is came from DirectVobSub / VSFilter … and to make thing shorter here’s what you should do just in case you experience the same problem like me :

As you can see from the above image, you just need to change the Vertical Padding in DirectVOBSub configuration into Original Height (the default setting is Extend to 16:9, although if it is for me i already changed it before to Extend 4:3)

And here’s the final result :

Haali Video Renderer

That’s it ;) … btw if you ask me why i choose Haali Video Renderer rather than VMR9 as the video renderer, see below (compare it to above image) :

Video Mixing Renderer 9 Renderless

See the differences by yourself :) … as a side note, you might be interested on reading my previous post about important video tools

0x87485B96 | Tags : Guide, Multimedia, Software, Video Tools, Windows

Downloading and Configuring Windows to Play Flash Video (FLV) File – The Hard Way

Reaper-X — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:59:24 +0000

If you’re using Firefox as your primary browser, and installed various video downloader extension to your Firefox of course you can download any movie that you want as long as the video came from a supported site such as Youtube and Google Video. But what if you’re trying to download flash movie from an unsupported site ? you’ll have to get it using other method, but this method is always works best for me beside i do not have to redownload the movie again (as long as you have not cleared your browser cache)

First of all this guide i assume you’re using Firefox as your browser, but if you’re using other browser (Internet Explorer) then the only thing different here is you must search the Cache location of your browser

If you’re using Firefox you can simply go to Firefox cache directory that can be found in C:\Documents and Settings\YourWindowsUsername\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\SomeDirectory\Cache

And if you’re using Opera the cache directory would be like this C:\Documents and Settings\YourWindowsUsername\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile\cache4

And here’s the step :

1. Go to any movie downloading website and just let it play until finished

2. Go to Firefox or Opera Cache Directory and Arrange the File by Modified (Right Click -> Arrange Icons by -> Modified) and press END on your keyboard to go directly to the last modified file (if you’re browsing another website while the movie is played then search the biggest file on that directory from the end, that’s because flash movie file always bigger than other file type)

3. Open that file with a notepad or other text editing program (in this example i was using Hexadecimal Editor) and see the first line of that file (if it were a flash Video file, it’ll show you FLV at the first line) .. see below image as an example

4. As you can see on the above image, the file header says it is a FLV file. So the next step would be copy that file into another directory and rename it into Filename.flv

Note: If you already have the FLV splitter and FLV Decoder installed on your system (or other FLV Player), then you can play that file directly without doing below step, but if you do not know or never heard about FLV decoder and want to learn playing FLV files using the hard way you can go follow the next step

5. Download Gabest FLV Splitter from here (no setup, dll only) or if you want the easiest way you can also get the installer for it from here. Although i recommend you to use the dll only, beside learning is fun :)

Note: If you choose to use the installer, then you can skip Step #6

6. If you’re using Windows XP extract the Release Unicode inside the archive into some places on your harddrive, for example : C:\Splitter\FLVSplitter.ax and type this on the windows run command Regsvr32 C:\Splitter\FLVSplitter.ax

7. Now as for the next step, you’ll have to download FFDshow Tryout from here. As a note, you can choose which package suit you best from that download area :) .. personally, i’m using CLSID build 979 Nightly Generic Build

8. Install FFDshow into your windows system, and open the FFDshow Video Decoder Configuration and at the codecs tab, enabled the FLV1 decoder using Libavcodec like below example :

9. Now run / open the flv file … and you’re finished configuring your windows to play FLV file from Windows Media Player or other DirectShow / DirectX based multimedia player and lastly, I hope you find this guide useful :)

0x87485B96 | Tags : Guide, Multimedia, Tutorials, Windows

Why DirectX 10 only available on Vista

Reaper-X — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 05:27:49 +0000

Just when i thought DirectX 10 will be available in Windows XP (actually i’m not following DirectX trend because i’m still using the old DirectX 8.1 Graphic Card) .. i read an interesting information on Why DX10 wasnt created on XP and why it isn’t in XP from Phil Taylor Weblog

And here’s what he said about this :

DX10 itself wasnt fully baked when the initial branch was taken. DX9.L to support Aero and desktop composition took a bit of time. And the design if DX10 itself went thru a process with the IHV community where feature asks went back and forth, and features made the cut and missed the cut. Features miss the cut for a variety of reasons but that all takes time. Negotiations with the IHVs didnt conclude until late in 2003. This resulted in simplifications to the original MS Input Assembler design request. I worked at ATI in this timeframe as Director of Strategic Relationships and owned the ATI-MS relationship so I have 1st hand knowledge. I was in the meetings.

Given XP shipped in 2001 and it was late 2003 when the DX10 design solidified – it should be obvious that “what the OS was” was well beyond XP before serious DX10 work commenced. Heck, the Longhorn reset was in 2004 and DX10 wasnt done until later. The build that was demo’ed at WinHEC 2004 with the texture memory management was a very fresh build and wasnt feature complete - and that was April or May 2004. The 1st DX SDK supporting DX10 didnt appear until Dec 2005 here, Further validating these points.

Well .. if that’s the case .. then maybe i should wait before upgrading my current pc into a DirectX 10 Compatible PC (hey .. that should be Vista Compatible PC)

0x87485B96 | Tags : Multimedia, Software, Windows

DirectX Redistributable 9.0c February 2007

Reaper-X — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:33:04 +0000

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based PCs an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full- color graphics, 3D animation, video and rich audio.

DirectX 9.0 includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX 9.0 APIs.

Unfortunately i can’t find any changelog for this new DirectX Update (but it’s worth upgrading your DirectX) .. as for the download location, you can grab it from here (44.2MB Redistributable version and useful to those who’s not using broadband connection)

If you want to install the Web Setup version (for those who’s using fast internet access), here’s the address .. and as a note, you must pass the windows genuine validation test first if you’re going to install the DirectX Web Setup version ;)

0x87485B96 | Tags : Freeware, Multimedia, Software, Windows

FLV Extractor – Extract Video & Audio from FLV file

Reaper-X — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 03:36:38 +0000

Previously i have posted about free flv encoder, but for some people (and that’s including me) .. i prefer to extract the audio files within those flash video file so i can do some other thing as well while listening to various song extracted from various video download site such as Google Video and / or Youtube using my favorite audio player (winamp)

So without further adieu .. here’s the download page of Moitah FLV extractor .. (in order to use it you’ll need .Net Framework 2), and you can grab it from here

As for the other thing, Moitah already explained it all in his page, also you can find many other audio video related tools in his site :)

0x87485B96 | Tags : Audio Tools, Freeware, Multimedia, Software, Video Tools, Windows

Kanashimi wa Yuki no You ni

Reaper-X — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:05:53 +0000

Finally i get this wonderful song by Shogo Amada (i know this song after playing Guitar Freaks V2 and Drummania V2) after searching through the net (although the results is not what i’m expecting) because i found it via YouTube (i avoid that first) because i don’t really like the song quality from youtube videos :P

Anyhow thanks a lot for that Shogo Amada video because with that video i was able to extract it’s sound and convert it into mp3 :D .. and here’s the video of Kanashimi wa Yuki no You Ni

Note: If you dont know how to extract audio from it or just want the easy way, you can email me and i’ll send you the converted version (mp3) format

0x87485B96 | Tags : Journal, Multimedia, Music, Personal

AnvilStudio Midi Editor

Reaper-X — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 05:34:40 +0000

Do you have a lot of midi files available in your computer ? and you want to add some personal touch into it ? Well .. if that’s the case then you should try to use AnvilStudio by Willow Software and of course i choose this because .. well .. um .. it’s free :P .. and best of all, it’s really easy to use this software unlike many other professional sound editing program or any other midi program available on the web

Actually before i found this program, i have tried using various midi editor too (even i’ve tried various professional sound editing tools too). Unfortunately all of them can’t be used easily for a beginner in music editing like myself (um .. what makes it worse i can’t read a musical note) :D , and at that time i only tried to edit the instrument used on some of my anime midi collection into using other instrument because the current musical instrument used on some of my midi files is just .. well .. is not that good :P

And what makes this program even better than many other pay / free midi editor available on the net, because this program can do various other thing as well other than doing editing the musical instrument used.

And here’s the complete features list of this free midi editor program :

Editors: Staff, Lyrics, Piano Roll, Drum, Loops, Audio, Events.
File formats: standard .MID and .WAV files.
Includes extensive integrated help.
Piano Roll / Rhythm editor with:
- multi-level loops
- loops can refer to notes, other loops, samples, or Riffs.
- Import, record and edit audio samples and play them like drums.
- any note duration down to 1/128th notes.
- dynamic editing while the song is playing, making it easier to experiment with rhythms.
- duplet, quintuplet, and septuplet notes.
Enter notes from external MIDI device, on-screen guitar fret board, on-screen piano keyboard, or by dragging notes to the staff.
Per-track On/Mute/Solo, device, instrument, channel, fader, pan, and effects controls.
For screens larger than 800 x 600, it shows:
- up to 25 tracks of information displayed at the same time.
- zoomed-out view of notes and wave data for all tracks at the same time.
- option to play notes as mouse moves over them, making it easier to quickly locate a spot in the song.
Dynamically change track volumes, mutes, instruments, and effects properties while a song continues to play.
Fast loading and scrolling of large MIDI files.
Time and Duration fields display time in Minute:Second:Frame(SMPTE), or Measure:Beat:Ticks, or sample format.
Metronome includes tempo, lead-in, and accent beat attributes.
Add Cue points for quickly positioning to a desired spot in the song.
Play list for playing hours of different song files.
File/Truncate menu to shorten the duration of .MID files.
File/Merge Song menu for copying tracks between .MID files.
Add standard music notation including: slur, crescendo, decrescendo, fermata, trill, repeat, D.C., D.S., segno, coda, prima volta, seconda volta, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff
User-defined keyboard shortcuts.
Control Record/Play/Stop functions remotely using any MIDI controllers such as a Foot Switch, Modulation wheel.
Free version has built-in patch-library support for SoundFont^®-compatible sound cards.
Supports the Tascam US-428 External Mixing console.
Runs on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP
ASIO, VST, VST-Instrument, and Automation support with optional Pro-Mix accessory.

Audio

Free version allows you to record and edit a single, stereo or mono, one minute audio track.
Optional $19 Multi-Audio 1/8 accessory allows you to record and mix up to 8 stereo/mono audio tracks, where recording time is limited by available free disk space.
Uses Windows Audio Format Converters to import/export WMA and other audio formats.
Mix audio files with different formats (bits per sample, samples per second).
Controls for sound-card configuration.
Mix all tracks down to a single .WAV file.
Set record and play start and end times to control which range get recorded for Punch-in to re-record over mistakes.
Record audio tracks from any sound card’s Mono, Left, Right or Stereo channels, from any soundcard source including Microphone, Line-In, CD-Audio, etc.
Audio effects: native reverb, native EQ, third-party DirectX effects.
Audio filters: zero-range, pitch change, volume change, pan, filtering, reverse, normalize (to maximize a track’s head-room), low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, and band-stop.
VU meters
Zoom in to the sample level
Per-sample Volume, Pan and Reverb controls
Record an Audio device’s Left or Right channel to a track by itself.
Mix stereo and mono Audio tracks in the same song to a stereo or mono mix.
Split a stereo audio track into two mono tracks.
Change audio tracks between Mono and Stereo without erasing the track.
Paste Stereo to Mono and Mono to Stereo.
Import .WAV files to audio tracks or sampled rhythms.
Optional Multi-Audio 8/16 accessory allows you to:
- simultaneously record up to 8 stereo audio tracks if you have a Sound Card with 8 mono audio inputs or 4 stereo inputs.
- mix a song with 16 audio tracks down to a single .WAV file.
- increase the number of audio Samples you can use in the Rhythm and Piano Roll editor to 64.
- record and play audio tracks with 24 bits per sample and 192 kHz samples per second, if your soundcard supports it.
- use soundcards with ASIO drivers.
- load third-party VST effects.

MIDI

Sequencing as MIDI Master or Slave
Unlimited number of MIDI Tracks.
When moving the mouse over notes on the staff, the equivalent keys on the piano keyboard are highlighted.
Record notes from an external MIDI keyboard.
Enter notes from Computer keyboard while real-time recording or manually composing.
Select, Copy, Edit, Paste notes.
Right-mouse popup menu control of individual note properties including:
- pitch, duration, volume, stem direction, staccato, tie-to-next-note, and delete note.
Button that lets you sing the note to be inserted on the staff.
Staff style control to display 1 or 2 treble or bass clefs.
Quantize.

0x87485B96 | Tags : Audio Tools, Freeware, Multimedia, Software, Windows

Video dot Stumbleupon dot com

Reaper-X — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:12:45 +0000

Hey .. it seems most technology related sites on the web are talking about the new feature called StumbleVideo from the popular social bookmarking service StumbleUpon (dunno if i should call it social bookmarking site because Stumbleupon can also be used as traffic exchange site) .. :P

As a note, i really like the dark look on the new stumblevideo interface, it’s really clean and well designed especially for a social bookmarking site :D .. although i don’t think i’ll use it to stumble upon good video in the future (beside i disable all streaming media from my firewall so those video are not going to be displayed) lol .. but for those who’s looking for a great video to watch while you’re boring .. maybe you can try the new StumbleVideo

0x87485B96 | Tags : Internet, Journal, Multimedia, Web Links, Website