SPL APE tags to MMD..

English General
1

Hi all again,

Having now purchased and testing, I have about 6,000 SPL tagged files I want to use, and I’ve digested the forums, downloaded CAD’s Excel templates etc (thanks for that), but I’ll probably whip up a quick Delphi app to parse each file, read the APE tags and then generate the MMD file.

Having looked at the MMD file, I see that it’s good old fashonied XML, and that using CAD’s excel sheet, it’s a different XML. Now, my v3 read it fine, so can I assume if I create mAirList v2 MMD’s that v3 will be fine, or should I really create v3 from the get-go? (Would anyone else be interested in it?)

Thanks, Richard

2

Dear Richard,

You are correct: my Excel sheets were written when v2.2.3 was current and I haven’t bothered updating them for v3. I guess I should do that some time … ?

If you are starting from scratch, then write your own MMDs in V3 format. You are correct in saying that v3 will read v2 MMD files quite happily, but it seems daft to write v2 MMD files when you’ve only ever used v3 of mAirList! That’s taking ‘bacward compatibility’ a tad too far IMHO. :smiley:

I would suggest that to get the ‘complete’ v3 MMD format, you use the File Tagger to ‘tag’ just one APE file manually, making sure that you write a value (any old value will do) for each type of cue point before you save the MMD. If you plan to use any other file properties (like ‘this is a special item’ or ‘play at a fixed or soft-fixed time’), I siuggest that you switch those ON as well (before saving the MMD, obviously).

You may even find that some of your APE info. is ‘imported’ by the tagger (sorry, but I don’t use APE format files, so I don’t know what if any ‘extra’ info over and above the obvious Title and Artist will be imported).

I can however confirm that if you find the tagger manages to import some/all of what you want to do, then you may like to know that importing an ‘unknown’ (i.e. no database entry and no MMD) file into Playlist uses the exact same routines as File Tagger to extract data from the ‘new’ file.

So: if File Tagger does some/all of what you need to do, you can ‘bulk process’ your files by sticking a bunch of them into the Playlist and running a small mAirList script which iterates its way down the Playlist, writing out an MMD file for each item as it goes. I’m pretty sure that Charlie Davy wrote a script some time ago to do exactly that.

[FX: rummages about in Forum …]

Yes! It’s here: http://forum.mairlist.com/index.php/topic,2750.0.html and it’s Charlie’s Set Item Attributes script. It may need a little tweaking for v3, but if you’re a Delphi man, you shouldn’t find that too difficult! ;D You may need to look in mairlistscript.chm to find the v3 names of anything in the script which doesn’t work.

Feel free to add more comments/ask more questions if we can be of any further help.

PS: I meant to ask: is SPL = StationPlaylistCreator/Studio?

BFN
CAD

3

Thanks CAD.

SPL is indeed StationPlaylist which I use for little internet station. Works extremely well, I have it all installed on a remote server and I just RDC in when I need to. I also use it for Live Assist but I just needed more flexibility and hence my usage of mAirList. :slight_smile: Being a lazy procrastinating engineer (ok management now!) I really don’t want to manually redo my audio files.

SPL uses the APE tag tacked onto the MP3 files to store Cue, Intro and Segue (Fade Start) times. (Cue and Segue times are generally scanned and added by SPL’s track tool, I’ve added Intro’s on many.). I have an APE class for Delphi and already have an app that scans directories and sucks MP3 and APE tags to create a CSV file for importing into scheduling apps. I’ll just tweak that to vomit an MMD file with what I need. Shouldn’t take too long! (Famous last words!)

Cheers, Richard

4

Richard,

All read and understood. :slight_smile:

OK then, what I recommend is that you do the following:

  1. Start mAirListFileTag.
  2. Choose any audio file and open it.
  3. Set EVERYTHING. By EVERYTHING, I mean go to each tab in the dialog and tick all the checkboxes,
    set a Colour, set an Icon, add a Comment, set a value (can be anything) for EVERY Cue Point type,
    and set at least one Alternative Cue Point (to do this, set a Cue Point value, then click the little ADD
    button, then set a DIFFERENT value for the ‘main’ Cue Point. Also make sure you set a fade time and
    an Ending Type.
  4. In the Attributes, add Year, Track (track number on the CD) and Album as new Attributes (just type
    the Attribute names into a blank space in the list, then add a ‘dummy’ Value).
  5. Click Save Metadata.

You now have a ‘template’ V3 MMD file which will contains every possible item and value you can specify as an Item Property. You can then use this file to work out how to, uh, ‘vomit out’ any values in your existing APE tags.

That’s how I (speaking as a fellow engineer*) would approach it; in fact, that is how I originally developed my Excel templates (no pun intended!).

BFN
Cad Delworth *CEng MBCS CITP :wink:

5

I did a simplified MMD tag, so I got what I initially needed to compare to. That said, it would be a good idea to “vomit” all the possible attributes out so I have a reference. Hopefully I’ll get some good coding time this weekend. :slight_smile:

6

Well, I did get chance to create an SPL APE tag reader and it now does spew out the MMD v3 files. Took a bit of memory management issues with Delphi and TXMLDocument but I got there. It’s simple, reads MP3 and WAV files for SPL APE tags and will create a simple MMD file that stores the Cue, Ramp1,Fadeout & Duration numbers. It has a simple option to ignore if an MMD file already exists and will skip if the file has no APE tags.

It took about 5-10 mins if I remember right for about 6,000 files on my machine.

Would that be of interest to anyone here?

7

Richard

I would be interested in a copy if you don’t mind.

Don’t suppose it is easy to make it work the other way round (MMD > APE) so that the tags on same audio files could be sync’d and used in either program??

Ron.

8

OK, give me a bit and I’ll post.

I don’t think it would be that difficult to read the MMD and then add to the APE. What may slow me down in the checking. If no APE, easy, just add it but if APE present, then how to compare and, well blah blah blah.

Also, it won’t happen just yet. Not with a manic real job and a 3 month old :slight_smile: That said, it is a good idea.

9

http://www.2ngradio.com/SPL2MMD.zip

Please see link (too big for attachment). Very simple, can scan directories (and sub) or file(s). Hopefully self explanatory!!

Comments welcome

10

Great works !!! thanks !!!
I’ve been waiting for this for many years because I use SPL for automation and mairlist for live assist because there’s a better integration of voice tracking in SPL than marlist.
IVP give too many works for the same result automaticly made by SPL on this point.

11

Well, perhaps, one day, there won’t…

12

Thanks Guillou.

It will read the SPL APE tag on .WAV as well as MP3 files. I haven’t enabled it for WMA files but if there are users who have used that, just let me know.

Cheers, Richard

13

True, but have you tried the MarkEndings script before running the main IVP script?

Oh, I should add that there will soon be an addition to IVP which I suspect will be especially interesting to those of you using mAirList for live streaming; or any other voicetracking use where you don’t have an external mixer … :-X :wink:

BFN
CAD

14

thanks for your message, i’ll try !

15

Guillou: remember to read the IVP manual first. (It’s very short!)

The manual will help you set up the MarkEnding script to suit your needs. You will have to make a couple of changes to the MarkEnding script for it to work correctly with your set-up. It’s impossible for me to guess in advance how to identify voicetracks on any given system, but I have done my best to make it easy for you to make the necessary changes to enable the script to do so.

Please let me know if I can be of any further help.

BFN
CAD

16
It's impossible for me to guess in advance how to identify voicetracks on any given system

I have just implemented an “item type” feature (extra field in the Properties dialog) in the development branch of mAirList - do you think I should backport it into v3.0?

17

If you did that, it would certainly help the IVP-MarkEndings script to ‘identify’ voicetracks and songs.

However, the user (or the script) would still need to mark up the Ending types on each item. Don’t forget that there are several kinds of ‘overlay’ for example (up to Ramp1, Ramp2, Ramp3, first Ramp, last Ramp, …).

BFN
CAD

18
I have just implemented an "item type" feature (extra field in the Properties dialog) in the development branch of mAirList - do you think I should backport it into v3.0?
Yes please!

I am just about to get back into mAirList with the aim of implementing it for live assist and automation. Like Guillou I was thinking of an mAirList/SPL mix for voicetracking but it looks like mAirList is getting close now …

Ron.

19

One question about this: is the ‘item type’ field a TextBox or a Dropdown?

In other words: is there a fixed list to choose from (song/bed/jingle/voictrack/etc., or can you type in whatever you want?

BFN
CAD

20

Well, what would you prefer?

It’s a drop-down at the moment. Which is much easier to handle for the voice tracking algorithms. I would prefer to have fixed list of items, and I’ll be happy to add as many types a you think we need.

The problem of a textbox is that the items cannot be translated then, because the voice tracking algorithm has to look for the English terms. Or the text has to be translated back and forth all the time, which isn’t so easy either.