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gwaithcoed

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Got am MP3 player off the daughters for Christmas. I ask you a 68 year old with an MP3 player!! :roll: :roll: Then they find me a download site on the net. Then they show me how to download "my kind of music".Bill Hayley,Little Richard, Billy Fury.The Vipers,------, Ah the memories,Waiting for the 7-o-clock bus to the institute, stop off at the Feathers first for a quick 3 or 4 pints (just to get you on the dance floor).Last bus 11-30 or a 6 mile walk home, Was that last kiss that made you miss the bus really worth it, after 3 miles NO, but the memories, no one can take those away, I'm like a kid again, chuffed to mint balls, :D :D :D :D :D

Hope I haven't bored you but I'd got to tell someone

Alan.
 
Yup, I agree with you totally, Alan. My wife and I each had one from our son at Christmas, and we're both thoroughly enjoying them. She can listen to her Cliff Richard and Gilbert & Sullivan (barf!!!!) and I can listen to The Shadows, Sky, and the gorgeous Hayley Westenra. I've also found I can use mine to transfer data between computers with ease, and am in the process of downloading lots of Goon Show episodes. When I was eight or nine I used to go to sleep listening to the Goon Show on my crystal set, and now I'm sixty I can do exactly the same!

John
 
MP3 players really are the bees knees. So is digital radio. I combine the two by recording vintage programmes from BBC 7 (Just A Minute, The Navy Lark, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue...) and listening to them as I take the boring stroll down town to our local shops.

Gill
 
Do you record from a stand-alone digital radio, Gill, or on your PC? If you do it on the PC, can you explain how to do it in easily understood terms please?

John
 
Hi John

I use a cable* which merges the output sockets of my stand-alone digital radio to a single plug; I then connect that plug to the line-in socket on my computer. I use a program called Blaze Media Pro running in the background set to record whatever is on the line-in channel. It's quite straight forward and I'm sure you could use other programs to the same effect, such as Audacity. Then I simply copy the audio file to my MP3 player.

Before I had the radio I used to record direct from the Sky radio broadcast as a television programme on my computer TV card, then convert it to audio only. Recording directly from the radio is much easier and less memory-intensive.

*These cables are inexpensive and readily available from all good Hi-fi shops.

Gill
 
Thanks for that, Gill. That isn't an option for me at the moment as we can't receive any BBC digital signals in our area of North Devon, and the BBC can't tell me when this is likely to happen. If THEY don't know, who does? Do they plan, or is it all haphazard? I'm becoming convinced it's the latter. For this reason we haven't bought a digital radio yet.

So I need to find out how to download from BBC 7 on the net. It's probably very simple, but help from anyone more technically-minded than me would be appreciated.

John
 
Thanks Jake.

So apart from the few downloads in the trial, it doesn't seem to be possible at the moment. I have to say that the few on the trial aren't of any interest to me. "Chris Evans - The Best Bits" can't be more than a few seconds long!

It'll be quicker to download comedy from various websites. I've no doubt that the BBC will charge when the service becomes available.

John, the cynic
 
Have you tried the listen again service on the BBC radio websites? It gets updated daily with shows from the week and some old ones (not all the daily shows are available). It means you can listen to Wogan all over again (why?).

I would try and tell you how to record them but it's 2am and I couldn't tell you how to make a cup of tea!

Nice to see the older generation are embracing new technology :whistle:
(I'm 26 going on 40).

Cheers
Rich
 
Oi! I'll have you know that at 60 I'm just entering middle age. My son wouldn't agree tho', he thought I was an old fossil when I was 35.

Rich, I'm sure I'm not the only geriatric on this forum who would appreciate a simple guide to recording from the BBC website, if that's allowed.

John
 
Ok, I'll have a go but I can't guarantee success (I haven't got a Masters in Computer Science and don't work with computers :whistle: )

First you need to download Audacity:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows

And click on the Audacity Installer.
Follow the on-screen instructions and accept the default locations.
Once it complete it will load up Audacity. You should close it down.

Now you need to download the MP3 encoder, LAME:

http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/lame.html

Click on any of the lame-3.96.1 links and it should download.
Once it is downloaded you need to unzip it. Double click on the file you downloaded and one of 2 things will happen:-
a) A normal windows view of all the files appears with an option to "extract files" in the upper left corner. Click to extract the files.
b) Winzip opens. I haven't got this installed so just try and find the option to extract the files.

When it asks where to extract them to, enter the following:
C:\Program Files\Audacity\Plug-Ins\LAME

This assumes you installed Audacity into the default folder. You should be able to navigate through folders as far as "Plug-Ins" but you need to create the "LAME" folder.

Right, that's everything installed, all it needs now is some tweaking.

Open the BBC radio site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

and click on the "Launch BBC Radio Player" button on the right hand side. This now lets you choose what you want to listen to. Pick anything and start it playing.

Now open Audacity (should be a link on your desktop). There should be a box in the upper right hand side with a list of audio options in it (microphone, mono mix, etc). Select "Stereo Mix".
Now click the record button at the top and you should see something happening! If it does, click stop, you now have enough to do the test.
Go back to the BBC radio player and click pause (to stop the audio).
Go back to Audacity and click play. You should near the BBC program you were listening to.
Now you need to create the MP3. Click "File" - "Export As MP3". You get an option of what to call the file and where to put it, choose "test" and save it to the desktop. You should then get a message box asking for the location of the LAME dll. Click ok and then, when prompted, navigate to the following folder:
C:\Program Files\Audacity\Plug-Ins\LAME
Double click on the file called "lame_enc.dll"

It should now create the MP3 on your desktop. If it has, click the file on the desktop and you should hear the BBC again!
Now all you need to do to record the programs is:
- Open Audacity and select "Stereo Mix".
- Click "Record".
- Start the BBC program playing.
- Once it is finished, click "stop" in Audacity.
- "Select "File" - "Export As MP3" and choose a location and filename.

I hope this helps :? If it doesn't work, try getting someone else to go through it (they usually spot something you've missed). Failing that, I've only done this once (20 mins ago) so have no idea why it might not be working.

Cheers

Rich
 
Cor!! And I asked for a simple guide, not a minefield! I think I'd better try all that on the laptop where a disaster won't matter so much, and at the weekend when I can devote some time to it. Thanks Rich, you've really set me a challenge.

If anyone else tries this, please will they post news of their success, to spur me on?

John
 
It's a lot simpler than it looks!!!!!!!!

I like to be verbose when describing how to do something, it saves me going "Oh, yeah, forgot to mention not to press the erase button".
Good luck,

Rich
 
Hi Rich

Thanks for those instructions, I already use Audacity but hadn't investigated it so this was really interesting and you're right, it is a whole lot easier that it sounds. I guess the problem is that what takes a couple of mouse clicks to do can take a couple of lines to write about!

One extra bit of advice to add though... using this method, any other noises that your computer makes (when email arrives or sounds associated with other programs) will, as far as I can tell, also be recorded!
So, if it's something you want to keep, it might be best to make sure other programs are turned off.
I've just recorded a play about Crystal Palace Park (a childhood haunt) which I know my parents will enjoy... but I've got to listen to it again now in case of extra sound effects.

But thanks, I'm sure I'll be using this more and would suggest that others don't get put off!
 
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