Not just enjoying the music, but also "enjoining" it :P

Hello poor mortals!!!!! Yes, the blog has been "a little" forgotten by me, the humble priest of Hefestus; it even seemed that I tasted my own medicine since I was also declarated as "poor mortal", but [geek-gag] Ignis Lacrima is not strongly tipificated at all XD [/geek-gag] so I've returned but only for a while :P

I apologize for this huge lag of news, but I've been (and I'm still) plenty of job because of:

• the research project in voice generation I'm involved in,
  
• my master thesis about generic deformation and cutting of 3D models,
• and over everything, because I found a precious jewel in the middle of the typical lonely time: a beauty gem composes now a great part of my whole existence and now, I waste my free time in expecting and enjoying this gem ;) ---Oh, sorry if you hadn't understood anything; those who have to understand they surely already did it :P---

Well, after this "little" introduction, let's go with the new post of Ignis Lacrima, this time about informatics, and more focused, about mp3 music. I maybe the only one who is worried about this affair, but as a fan of film scores, new age soundscapes and symphonic metal music, it's typical for some consequent album tracks to be musically connected, and it maybe be annoying. What can we do to solve this?

The first solution (and the more logical) is: if anyone wants to have a physical (or logical, better said XD) unique mp3 file with these connected music, the mp3 compression of the cd must be customized in terms of:

1. selecting multiple tracks (those that are musically connected),
2. and compressing them in one file (it's possible with the awesome software CDEx Beta for Windows, http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/).

But, what about this new culture of music adquisition based on mp3 music directly?? (i.e., buying it from iTunes Store, or cheaper, using P2P programs for non-capitalist-reason adquisition :P); yes, there is great software, like MP3 Workshop for Windows (http://www.iolfree.ie/~mp3workshop/, but it's shareware :S), that allows to recompress mp3 files joining multiple mp3 files in a unique file. But here is the negative part of this method: the recompression.

Broadly (and non exactly but easy for a first contact; if you want to know everything, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3), the mp3 compression is based on remove inaudible (or hardly audible) frequency components of the music:

1. filtering them in a Fourier analysis,
2. with a subsequent coherent formant removal,
3. and later, a Fourier recomposition of the capped signal;
   

So, if you recompress a mp3 file, although the recompression is in the same bps quality, the sound quality loses a lot of degrees. Then, how to join multiple mp3 files without losing quality?

The solution is the simple file packaging. The MP3 format is strong and robust, so please notice that, if you are downloading mp3 music, you can listen the song although it has not been completely downloaded. Following this nature, you can listen mp3 songs contained in a package file subsequently like it was a simple mp3 file (so, you only have to include the mp3 files in the package coherently). And there's an incredible advantage with this method, apart of the no-recompression: file packaging permits to unpack the files onto separate mp3 files if you want, so a backup of the separated files is not necessary.

Some of you, poor mortals, maybe will find this utility quite useless... but for me, who am always playing music with the "shuffle" option of my iPod Nano, is very useful :D

And that's for all, poor mortals!!! You can find below the instructions for doing this in Windows and UNIX systems; it's surely very easy to do, let's try it :) Please stay tuned to the Lair of Penumbrae (yes, it was the Lair of Shadows and Darkness, but the complaints must be redirected to the previously cited gem :P), see you soon!!! :)


Windows Method

1. Install the WinRAR software;
2. Then, select in the order you want to be joined the mp3 files you want to join;
3. Right click on the selection, and select the WinRAR option ''add to file...'';
4. In the new appeared window, edit the destiny filename and change the "rar" extension to "mp3" extension, and select "storage" in the "compression method menu".
5. Just click OK, et voilà! You have a mp3 file really playable by any MP3 player (iTunes, Winamp, Amarok). And if you open this "mpe fake file" with WinRAR, you will see the original songs, and you will be able to extract it normally :)
   

Unix Method (Linux, MacOsX, Solaris...)

1. By using the OS terminal console, go to the path of these mp3 files you want to pack;
2. Using the TAR utility, type "tar -cvf packed_file.mp3 song1.mp3 song2.mp3 ... songN.mp3"
3. Et voilà! The connected mp3 file is finally created. And for unpacking the file, simply type "tar -xvf packed_file.mp3"