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Timecode embedded MP3 ?


tvaudioman

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I have a 633. When recording MP3 files, are the files "embedded with Timecode?"

Client requested the following:
We must have embedded time code MP3 audio files for our transcriptions.  We do not want audible Timecode. I want a Timecode embedded MP3. 

I've always recorded poly-wave up until this point. Is the MP3 embedded with the Timecode?

thanks. 

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It's not very standard, but mp3 files can have an embedded starting timecode. The playback device then uses the start time and sample rate to compute running timecode at playback. This is almost identical to the way broadcast- or poly- wave timecode works. 

See http://www.sounddevices.com/tech-notes/recording-mp3-transcription-files-on-the-552

 

 

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In my market basically nobody can read MP3 TC from ID3.  We make MP3 clones of the wav files (so start times are identical), which is essentially what you'd be doing if you recorded your 2nd card in a 6xx machine as MP3, then give the transcriber a Wave Agent report off the wav files so they can enter the file TC start time as the transcription zero/start time.  This has worked well for us with transcribers who are working on their own, with varying experience levels and minimal IT support.  If your client's transcriber has hard experience with ID3 TC off MP3s then that's great, but a test might be a good idea if the turnaround looks to be tight.  There are some transcribers who insist on wav files (w/ metadata TC) because of this, which kind of sucks when there is a lot of audio to upload.  But, as always, best to ask ahead of time.

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I hired video tool shed to make an updated version of his mp3 transcriber utility. 

It's great now, you input batches of BWAV files, select which tracks for transfer and it creates mp3 files with id3 TC.

It's very fast too, works on Mac.

Great if you're using Zaxcom of you're unwilling to give up full WAV card-redundancy on your 6-series.

Get in touch with him, not sure if it's listed on his site or not.

His name is Bouke, very helpful and smart guy.

http://www.videotoolshed.com/

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18 hours ago, Jack Norflus said:

Not sure what is up with the transcribers but you don't need any special equipment to read the ID3. It's attached to the audio file and no need to cross refrence a sound report.

This apparently beyond their abilities or willingness, so what we do has worked quite well, without trying to convince or train people who are under serious deadline pressure.  This also has worked for folks working overseas in languages other than English.  Many low budg transcribers still do not understand TC very well, if at all.

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4 hours ago, Derek H said:

I hired video tool shed to make an updated version of his mp3 transcriber utility. 

It's great now, you input batches of BWAV files, select which tracks for transfer and it creates mp3 files with id3 TC.

It's very fast too, works on Mac.

Great if you're using Zaxcom of you're unwilling to give up full WAV card-redundancy on your 6-series.

Get in touch with him, not sure if it's listed on his site or not.

His name is Bouke, very helpful and smart guy.

http://www.videotoolshed.com/

I'll look on his website. What is the name of the software?

 

I haven't had a chance to play with recorder yet, since this came up...
I noticed in the manual it says the MP3 doesn't create a sound report. But I'm thinking, if the 2nd card is recording BWF files, would the sound report have all the info. I realize the tracks names, etc wouldn't apply to the mp3, but the files names and TC info would. Correct?

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7 hours ago, Derek H said:

I hired video tool shed to make an updated version of his mp3 transcriber utility. 

It's great now, you input batches of BWAV files, select which tracks for transfer and it creates mp3 files with id3 TC.

It's very fast too, works on Mac.

Great if you're using Zaxcom of you're unwilling to give up full WAV card-redundancy on your 6-series.

Get in touch with him, not sure if it's listed on his site or not.

His name is Bouke, very helpful and smart guy.

http://www.videotoolshed.com/

Hi, I looked on the VideoToolShed website and could not find it, so I emailed VideoToolShed asking specifically about

a Mac software utility that - can input of batches of BWAV files, and enables you to select which tracks, to create mp3 files with id3 timecode from the BWAV files for transcription.

and Bouke suggested MakeTranscriberFiles but that doesn't make TC MP3's from a choice of tracks of a BWAV file.

Could you supply some more information about the software please as puzzingly Bouke at VideoToolShed doesn't know what it is, or where it is........?

 

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Maybe he doesn't want to sell it for some reason. He made it custom for me. Yes, make transcriber files is the right one. You could ask him specifically for the version he customized for Derek Hanson.

Philip, the app just creates TC "stamped" mp3s so shouldn't need his specific player. 

 

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45 minutes ago, Derek H said:

Maybe he doesn't want to sell it for some reason. He made it custom for me. Yes, make transcriber files is the right one. You could ask him specifically for the version he customized for Derek Hanson.

Philip, the app just creates TC "stamped" mp3s so shouldn't need his specific player. 

 

Maybe licensing for MP3 file creation is tricky, think I've heard of something along those lines before?

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45 minutes ago, pindrop said:

Maybe licensing for MP3 file creation is tricky, think I've heard of something along those lines before?

That may have been true once. But all the MP3 patents have expired in most of the world outside the USA, and MP3 will be completely patent-free in the U.S. sometime next year. But I think for all practical purposes, almost all of the MP3 patents have expired world-wide. Ask your lawyer if you need a genuine opinion. Wikipedia has a decent summary of the current patent status.

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7 hours ago, Jack Norflus said:

I believe this can batch convert to TC stamped MP3

http://www.bwfwidget.com/html/bwf-widget-pro.html

It most definitely can and I have it and use it, but it's for Windows only, so I run it in Parallels, which is somewhat cumbersome.

I've been looking for years for an OSX TC BWAV to MP3 batch utility as described by Derek H that VideoToolShed might have made, but for some reason Bouke seems very coy about it........

The plot thickens....!

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Another theory could be that since it was just a one-off he's nervous about the reliability of the program but it works great.

I believe it creates a mono mp3 out of whichever tracks you select. Very handy if you didn't record a mix or need to sum two mix tracks.

Makes very small mp3s since they are just mono.

 

PS, I told him at the time there would be more interest for an OSX app like this in our community.

Maybe if the mp3 patent is expiring in a year or so we can petition sound devices to add mp3 creation to wave agent.

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19 hours ago, tvaudioman said:

I haven't had a chance to play with recorder yet, since this came up...
I noticed in the manual it says the MP3 doesn't create a sound report. But I'm thinking, if the 2nd card is recording BWF files, would the sound report have all the info. I realize the tracks names, etc wouldn't apply to the mp3, but the files names and TC info would. Correct?

Yes, correct. The file start at the same time, the ID3 tag in the MP3 will have the same timecode and file names (save the file type suffix) as the WAV files and the WAV files will create a report just fine. 

Best regards,

Jim

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"Makes very small mp3s since they are just mono."

- Sort of off-topic but...the fact that an MP3 is mono has little to do with it. Unlike WAVE files, (of same sample/bits) where a mono file is half the size of a stereo,  MP3 file size is mostly determined by it's kilobytes per second (kBps) encode setting, but there's a twist..  A mono MP3 could have half the kbps encode rate and would be about the same resolution as a stereo. For example a 64kBps mono file would have the equivalent quality of a 120kBps stereo file, (though it naturally would not contain any spacial info, which is generally not needed for spoken word, especially transcriptions)

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There is a "swiss army knife" of audio conversion called XLD that is free and takes BWAV files and will id3 tag them with the timecode timestamp while converting to.mp3. I've worked with the developer and he is very open to integrating usefulness to his program.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xld/

for when you haven't rolled .mp3 live, this works great for conversion.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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