How to catalogue

[neckertb]

So... our first book is ready
The disclaimer is "this recording was produced for legamus.eu by..."
If that is ok, then I guess it's ready to catalogue.
Now how exactly do I do that? Anything beside moving it to completed projects?

[Hokuspokus]

Ah, congratulation!

This is what I would do:
1. get all files on my computer
2. check them with mp3 gain and make them all 89 dB
3. put them into mp3tag http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html , check the tags and correct them if necessary. It can mass set tags, too, so it's easy to add pd info for the text and license of the recording.
4. when everything is fine, put all in one zip and upload it to one of our two possible hosts.

Most of the software only works for Windows unfortunately. You are on Mac, right? If there is a step you can't do because there is no Mac software, just shout and I do it. Or probably Ruth has already done it.

5. We don't have a catalog yet. Viktor wants to build all the comfortable tools we have on LV (Hurray!!!) But until then I think we need something quick and easy, like a blog. Is some one in blogs? For the only thing I know is wordpress.
I have done some scribbling how it could possibly look. http://ge.tt/#9irE315

The blog thing is just for the first month until we have a database and everything.

[neckertb]

See, we're going to have a problem...
mp3gain is NOT available for Mac, and believe me I've looked for it. I can check the volume, but my only option to make the volumes to 89 dB would be to import into Audacity, export as .mp3 and go with trial and error. Not optimal.
In this case, the volume is 91 and 92 dB, so I'd say they're fine, but I'm going to have issues with other projects for sure
As for the mp3tag thingy, not available for Mac either (at least not for free). I thought I'd be able to do it with iTunes but it of course does not have anything about copyright. I could put it in comments, I guess.

[RuthieG]

Mine isn't ready yet. It hasn't got the final disclaimer on it and everything that should be in the tags. That was just a temporary one for PL. I will fix those things and the volume before uploading the final versions.

Ruth

[neckertb]

I've seen your post, Ruth, and I would not catalogue without getting your final OK anyway

Just mentioning what I see as problems for future/other projects (group projects come to mind).

[RuthieG]

Thanks! (Am I getting paranoid? )

[neckertb]

No, it's just me too busy to post everywhere, sorry

[kattekliek]

5. We don't have a catalog yet. Viktor wants to build all the comfortable tools we have on LV (Hurray!!!) But until then I think we need something quick and easy, like a blog. Is some one in blogs? For the only thing I know is wordpress.
I have done some scribbling how it could possibly look. http://ge.tt/#9irE315

The blog thing is just for the first month until we have a database and everything.

A temporary blog is a very good way of keeping track of the recordings and presenting them to the public until our catalogue will be up and running. And you say you only have experience with Wordpress ... What's wrong with that? (I use Wordpress too and like most of its features).

Just a pitty that we cannot directly (deep)link MP3's for playing in the same browser window. But that has nothing to do with Wordpress, but with the free hosting service we use for the MP3's. On my blog I published some PL'ed, but not yet catalogued audiofiles of LV - I didn't want to link them from the LV-upload server (officially that's not allowed, although traffic from my blog would probably not crash the server ). I linked to the fileshare that I used for them, and on that page (with adds etc.) people can then listen to it. See e.g. over here, the link in bold. I think this kind of layout would be effective and acceptable for the time being for Legamus too. What do you (= HP et al.) think?

[neckertb]

Now that I've had some time to look at kattekliek's and HP's suggestions with regard to the catalogue, I have to admit that I like HP's a lot! A blog would work too, but HP gave it a lot of thought already, you can tell! prooflistened by Elli, really?

[Viktor]

mp3gain and mp3tag: There must be equivalents for GNU/Linux and Mac. Let me search a bit.

Direct listening of files in web browsers: I hope that we'll find at some point a freehoster (or a friendly server) which supports this. ge.tt is already lightyears above Rapidshare

[Viktor]

Are we talking about this mp3gain? Then there exists an (old) Mac version MacMP3Gain.

More generally, what mp3gain does is called "Replay Gain", and Wikipedia lists several programs for that, though I don't see anything particularly suited to Macs. It doesn't help that Apple created a similar, proprietary equivalent to "Replay Gain" called "Sound Check" for use on iPods and on iTunes...

mp3tag is just about setting ID3 tags for MP3 files? There should be plenty of programs for that. If you use Fink packages (those are ports of Free software to Mac OS X), you'll find easytag here. There is also Kid3 that seems active and ready for Mac OS X. Then there is a recent blog post about using the Windows program mp3tag on the Mac through the Wine emulator.

[Hokuspokus]

Now that I've had some time to look at kattekliek's and HP's suggestions with regard to the catalogue, I have to admit that I like HP's a lot! A blog would work too, but HP gave it a lot of thought already, you can tell! prooflistened by Elli, really?

Ah, Walpurgisnacht was PLed by Elli, really. I wanted some real data, didn't want to write blablabla all over the page.

The LV catalog actually is a blog with one page per project. If we do the temporary catalog this way we need some writing about Legamus for the front page. Plus link to this forum.
Than a simple list with all completed recordings in alphabetic order by author that links to the individual project page. Additionally we can use tags and have a tag cloud.

The layout is quite similar to the LV catalog.
For solos we don't need a list of chapters, as we don't link to individual chapters. If the solo is a compilation, we will do it.
For group projects the list of chapters gives credit to the readers.

The idea is that we have a HTML template with all formation, where the MC files in all information. This is going to be some work. We could simply have a list and no individual pages, but with individual pages we can experiment with the layout and the experience will make it easier to create the final catalog.

Katalog 1 is what I had in mind for the temporary catalog, Katalog 2 with the author list on the left side is inspired by Viktor's layout for his catalog of German recordings Vorleser Amateure. http://blogs.fsfe.org/viktor/archives/8
I absolutely like the author list, that gives a list if the author's works when you click on the name.
The layout of the main part is more or less identical and we can fine tune it for the final catalog.

[neckertb]

Thanks for diggin, Vitkor. The mp3gain program for Mac that you list actually only gives you the volume, but does not allow you to change it (I had tried this one a while ago).
I will have a look at the others later today

[Viktor]

Thanks for diggin, Vitkor. The mp3gain program for Mac that you list actually only gives you the volume, but does not allow you to change it (I had tried this one a while ago).

Strange, because it homepage describes how to change the volume. That does not work?
Anyway, looks like one has to be careful with one's Mac:

Additionally, the new "iTunes Plus" files may be corrupted by the current version of aacgain (the underlying program included in MacMP3Gain). Please make backup copies of your music library before running MacMP3Gain.

Are you comfortable with the command-line? Alternatively, one might be able to get a command-line version of mp3gain and use that. The original mp3gain is a multi-platform command-line program, the rest is just GUIs for that.

[Hokuspokus]

The blog is up http://legamus.wordpress.com/
This can all be deleted and made undone.
Wordpress is not as flexible as I would like. There are some minor un-nice things, I will try to get rid off. For example the "Just another WordPress.com site" line. Haven't found all buttons yet. Still need to find out where and how to add the copyright warning.
The things one can change depend very much on the theme, you use. We can surely make it look better in the final catalog.

Comments and ideas welcome.

What we need is content for the front page and the about page. I could write something in German, but I think it's easier to do English first and translate it later. Even if we decide to delete the complete thing and start new, this text can always be re-used.

There is a picture of how the catalog pages would look like: http://ge.tt/#9irE315
Wouldn't make sense to publish this on the blog for the world to see.

[kattekliek]

The blog is up http://legamus.wordpress.com/
This can all be deleted and made undone.
Wordpress is not as flexible as I would like. There are some minor un-nice things, I will try to get rid off. For example the "Just another WordPress.com site" line. Haven't found all buttons yet. Still need to find out where and how to add the copyright warning.
The things one can change depend very much on the theme, you use. We can surely make it look better in the final catalog.

Comments and ideas welcome.

Yeah, it's quite hard to find your way around at first. Try this link: http://legamus.wordpress.com/wp-admin/o ... eneral.php - the "Just another ..." thingy should be on the second line and you can change it to whatever you like.

(I have a wordpress blog; looked this up on my own blog and fixed the URL to legamus in stead of kattekliek)

[Hokuspokus]

Great! Thanks!
Found it. Changed it

[neckertb]

Do we have a common login/password for this? Or should I create my own account?

[kattekliek]

Do we have a common login/password for this? Or should I create my own account?

I think you need to register with Wordpress (if not already done previously) and then HP can assign you as co-author of the blog. HP, I'ld like to be in too (my Wordpress name is also 'kattekliek')

I have no experience with this yet, but some friends of mine have and I could ask them if we can't find out how it works.

[neckertb]

My only experience with WP is via LV, where we have a common login.
I'll register.
And test the software.
Just no time today (PL marathon)