Few question regarding Music PC

mahiruha

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Few questions regarding Music PC and Gaming PC

Hello guys,
I am hoping by this weekend my music/flight simulator PC will be up and running. Today ordered this Asus xonar esssence STX sound card and Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400W Power Supply hoping to get some clean power.Now I can see that there will be couple of problems.

First one is if I use the audio out from the asus sound card and connect it to Lyrita amplifier then is it possible to connect the normal computer speakers to the onboard sound card for normal stuff like games and pc browsing. I mean to say is it possible to have two active sound cards in one computer.If possible how to do it without manually taking out and plugin the cables.

Second is I am wondering is it possible the browse and play music in my PC from my phone over the wirelss network. I have a spare linksys wirelss router which I am planning to connect to this computet to create another wireless network.I think I need to configure my computer like a squeezecenter media server but in this case rather than the squeezebox the computer itself will play music which will be output in the speakers.Has anybody tried something like this?

I am also having bit of trouble dealing with a flac image file. Problem is the file has only one big flac image file but no cue sheet. Is there any software which can prepare a cue sheet from a image file. I can manually create one but How do I know the timings of the songs. I was wondering is it possible to to convert this file into a wav file and open it in a wav editor to have a rough idea about the song timings and manually plugin those values in the cue sheet so that EAC can split the files accordingly.Anybody tried something like this?
Thanks in advance for ur help.
Mahiruha.
 
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I'll answer the easy bit.... It is possible to use more than one sound card in one PC, yes, including using the on-board sound and an additional card. Should be 100% ok, but, of course, in the world of PCs nothing ever is, so I cannot guarantee that everything will always work. But it should :)

Please tell us more about your PC... motherboard? processor? OS?
 
You can use both SC,Xonar & onbrd at a time with configraton.
I have configed all players say Foobar,vlc,MPCHC as xonar output(audio section) & onbrd SC for default window purpose say gaming.

Other way to use a splitter.
 
Hi guys,
thanks for the reply.
@Thad: Well if two sound cards can coexist that's a big relief. The motherboard is Asus M3N78-EM 8GB DDR2
Processor is AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz
The operating system will be good old windows XP.

@Spiro: If it can be done that way it is a very good news. You do the settings in the respective soundcard controllers or in the music playing softwares itself?
Thanks.
 
Anything that is capable of recognising the different devices --- configure in the software. Anything that isn't will use the Windows default device. Of course, that's changeable as you go along, if you need to, but a little clumsy to do.
 
@Spiro: If it can be done that way it is a very good news. You do the settings in the respective soundcard controllers or in the music playing softwares itself?
Thanks.

For music,mov,I config SW(foobar,vlc properties with aud out option)
For games I use onbrd.This is useful to prevent mixing of two things.
ie playing mov/music & game/browsing net @ same time.
 
I am also having bit of trouble dealing with a flac image file. Problem is the file has only one big flac image file but no cue sheet. Is there any software which can prepare a cue sheet from a image file. I can manually create one but How do I know the timings of the songs. I was wondering is it possible to to convert this file into a wav file and open it in a wav editor to have a rough idea about the song timings and manually plugin those values in the cue sheet so that EAC can split the files accordingly.Anybody tried something like this?

The CUE sheet is generally prepared by the program that rips the CD. It is well nigh impossible to create a cue sheet of a FLAC file for which you do not have the original CD. If you do have the CD, it is just so much easier to recreate the FLAC with the cue sheet.

One possibility is to see if the same CD FLAC is available on the Net and use the CUE sheet attached to that FLAC. Another possibility is to use Nero Wave editor and specify the timing between tracks, if needed. It is usually 2 seconds. You can also try a simple wave editor called 'shntool'. It does support FLAC with an additional software installed.

The third method if, of course, to create the CUE sheet using a simple text editor. Look at the cue sheet created by a program such as EAC, and just replace the tracks and other names for you FLAC file. Most important is to get the track indexes in the format MM:SS:FF. These are absolute position and not timing. You can use a sound editing software such as Audacity to get this data.

A little complicated, I agree, buy not avoidable if you love the songs.

Cheers
 
Mahiruha - congrats on selecting a HTPC as your source.

1) Yes, it is possible to have both soundcards - on board as well as discrete enabled at the same time and also to have them both operational. Although I have tried only one at a time.

2) Please use XP. It is more malleable and you have a greater choice of ASIO drivers on it. With Vista you get into WASAPI.

3) Before connecting to the internet, you should note that 'the art of building computer transports' advises against an antivirus. In that case are you sure you want to go ahead and connect the PC to the internet. In my mind, this is one of the most important modifications to be made to the Music PC to fall in line with its major function. Every bit of memory matters when you are using a huge playlist on cPlay.

4) Regarding a Cue sheet, you can use even Foobar to convert the FLAC to a WAV. Or you can hold on to it as you have it and try this program (link below) to have it create a Cue. Better yet, it will go on and create Cue sheets for whatever songs you have in WAV/Flac form. As a matter of fact it will also create Cue sheets for MP3 files but then you cant play those in cPlay anyway:).

Recursive Cue Creator

All the best.
 
Assuming you do not get a cue sheet,

Convert the FLAC to WAV, can be done from most media players. You will now have a lossless file which is the exact same as the original.

Open the wave file in a wave editor - Audacity is free and will do everything you need.

You will be clearly able to see the silence between tracks (where the amplitude drops to 0).

Simply select the portion between two silences, cut and paste into a new track (Ctrl + C/V in the editor, mostly) and save it with the title - which you can get from the song list, available on amazon.

Rinse and repeat - should be done in 15 minutes for a single album.

If desired, you can convert to FLAC and tag it appropriately, but why would you want to do that?

To access remote media both the source (phone) and the PC will have to be connected to each other - the phone will need to have the server software installed, and the PC will be the client - this is the exact reverse of how a Squeezebox operates. This will depend on whether your phone supports this method of operation.
Hi Cranky,
thanks for the info about this audacity software. Hopefully it will do the job I want. I will give it a go tonight. About the second part you mentioned it kind of makes sense. My phone is nokia N95 it can be connected to the home network retrieving information from the computer. Now the question if it can used for mentioned method of operation I am not too sure.Do you have some idea?
Thanks.
 
One way to get the phone and the computer hooked up together is through bluetooth. But that is not such a friendly medium for transferring large chunks of data.

Plus there are not many good, free drivers out there for the PC. I have got my Sony Ericsson hooked up with my laptop but the laptop has built in bluetooth drivers.
 
1) Yes, it is possible to have both soundcards - on board as well as discrete enabled at the same time and also to have them both operational. Although I have tried only one at a time.

But asus says for serious music listening,one must disable other SC & drivers.
I dont have problem using both though.
 
Well if the phone can't be used beacuse of its obvious limitations can a laptop be used for this purpose. Say I just sit with my laptop which is connected wirelessly to the computer thorugh the wireless network and I just select the music in the laptop which will played in the computer. Atleast it is better than going near the music pc time and again.
 
Using Winamp and Shoutcast, it's definitely possible. You will need Shoutcast on both the devices, and Winamp running on the laptop.

Actually, if memory serves me right, you could use the IR port on the phone to 'remote control' the PC. I remember doing this with a Nokia 6600 and a IR dongle about 4 years ago, but the software was not very stable and the 6600 was not mine (thankfully).

There are also number of ways to control the PC from your seat. I use a Wireless keyboard and mouse, helps me also to watch movies and operate all the functions of my PC. There are lots of HTPC remotes also available on the market. It is a matter of choice.

Well life is all about opportunities and how to maximize existing resources. This winamp and southcast seems to be good idea. Looks like an interesting project for me for the weekend. Will post the outcomes.
Thanks.
 
But asus says for serious music listening,one must disable other SC & drivers.
I dont have problem using both though.

True. That is the best way to optimize music performance out of a PC. To use just one card and disable the other through device manager.

Well if the phone can't be used beacuse of its obvious limitations can a laptop be used for this purpose. Say I just sit with my laptop which is connected wirelessly to the computer thorugh the wireless network and I just select the music in the laptop which will played in the computer. Atleast it is better than going near the music pc time and again.

I am with Cranky on this one. A wireless Keyboard/mouse would be the way to go. You are apt to get frustrated with the other options such as shoutcast.

In the long run though getting something like a PS3 would be very nice as you can stream content from your PC anywhere. However that may not work well in your case as you would not be getting the benefit of your new ASUS Essence sound card.
 
Mahiruha - congrats on selecting a HTPC as your source.

1) Yes, it is possible to have both soundcards - on board as well as discrete enabled at the same time and also to have them both operational. Although I have tried only one at a time.

2) Please use XP. It is more malleable and you have a greater choice of ASIO drivers on it. With Vista you get into WASAPI.

3) Before connecting to the internet, you should note that 'the art of building computer transports' advises against an antivirus. In that case are you sure you want to go ahead and connect the PC to the internet. In my mind, this is one of the most important modifications to be made to the Music PC to fall in line with its major function. Every bit of memory matters when you are using a huge playlist on cPlay.

4) Regarding a Cue sheet, you can use even Foobar to convert the FLAC to a WAV. Or you can hold on to it as you have it and try this program (link below) to have it create a Cue. Better yet, it will go on and create Cue sheets for whatever songs you have in WAV/Flac form. As a matter of fact it will also create Cue sheets for MP3 files but then you cant play those in cPlay anyway:).

Recursive Cue Creator

All the best.

Hi Vortex,
I had a look at the software suggested by you. It is a nice s/w but for it to generate the cue sheet it needs the information for each file which unfortunately my file doesn't have.It is a one big image file of about 600mb.Hence just opening in a wav editor retrieving the information and manually preparing the cue sheet in a text file seems to be the only solution as suggested by Venkat. Actually last few days I have downlaoded 10 GB of music and every new image file presents a new challenge and I am loving it.I am really impressed with EAC how well it handles different files and produces the desired output.
Thanks.
 
maybe your question is already answered. I am in a hurry so can't go over all responses.
To use your phone as a remote you can optionally use itunes to play music.

Or else, you can setup squeezeslave or other squeeze clients on this comp.
then on your squeezecenter web page on mobile (I have tried this on laptop browser and not on phone) you shall see two clients, and you can control either your real squeezebox, or the virtual one running on PC.
 
Hi Vortex,
I had a look at the software suggested by you. It is a nice s/w but for it to generate the cue sheet it needs the information for each file which unfortunately my file doesn't have.It is a one big image file of about 600mb.Hence just opening in a wav editor retrieving the information and manually preparing the cue sheet in a text file seems to be the only solution as suggested by Venkat. Actually last few days I have downlaoded 10 GB of music and every new image file presents a new challenge and I am loving it.I am really impressed with EAC how well it handles different files and produces the desired output.
Thanks.

Mahiruha - can you not extract the image file onto the disk using software such as MagicISO, PowerISO etc? Then you could use the Recursive Cue Creator to generate the cue sheets.
 
Mahiruha - can you not extract the image file onto the disk using software such as MagicISO, PowerISO etc? Then you could use the Recursive Cue Creator to generate the cue sheets.

Hi Vortex,
I have tried with Poweriso it doesn't work. I have downlaoded audacity it looks preety cool and I can identify the three songs in the wav file. The file is actually Edouard_Lalo_Cello_Concerto_in_D_Minor. Rings any bell???:)

Btw I have my pc fianlly up and running with a new mobo Asus M2N68-AMPLUS Motherboard ( The guy couldn't get Asus M3N78-EM 8GB DDR2 told me not available in Calcutta) and AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz processor 3 gb of ram. I thought if I go for a dedicated sound card and a graphics card this mother board should do the job. Otherwise my pc would have been delayed by another week.Another problem is ITDEPOT doesn't have any stock of Asus xonar essence STX sound card. Have to look for a new vendor to get them. Can you please suggest me a decent video card which can bring microsoft flight simulator delux edition to full glory.Today I played some music from my pc onboard sound card using foobar the music sounded ok not too bad but nothing special either. I hope asus will improve things considerably.
Thanks.
 
maybe your question is already answered. I am in a hurry so can't go over all responses.
To use your phone as a remote you can optionally use itunes to play music.

Or else, you can setup squeezeslave or other squeeze clients on this comp.
then on your squeezecenter web page on mobile (I have tried this on laptop browser and not on phone) you shall see two clients, and you can control either your real squeezebox, or the virtual one running on PC.

Hi anant,
you are absolutely right. The method you have mentioned above is the easiest way to control music of pc from a mobile through wireless network. I used to use something called softsqueeze Softsqueeze 3.8
Today I again re started it and you are right that whenever I open my mobile phone browser I get the option to select either squeezebox or softsqueeze. If I select softsqueeze then music is played in the computer. Very elegent solution indeed. Thanks for reminding me that.
Thanks.
 
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