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iTunes + SeeDeClip Duo streaming digital declipper
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iTunes and SeeDeClip Duo
is the combination we recommend for surviving the loudness wars,
- iTunes is a friendly multi-platform music streaming system.
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TxtDeClip
is the text based streaming audio part of Duo, and is a sophisticated program to repair audio clipping damage.
This is the only current method we know of to listen to a selection of modern CD tracks without major clipping distortion. Because many tracks are slightly unbalanced (leaving one channel much more clipped than the other) the declipped signal also has a much clearer stereo image.
This is a DAAPD music server, and will work with many alternatives to iTunes, including the music player than comes with Ubuntu Linux.
For considerably less than the price of a speaker cable you can use SeeDeClip Duo
to give you a much much better sound. Hey, the demo version will knock your socks off!  .
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SeeDeClip Duo and iTunes - declipping on demand
In this download of the iTunes server (below) you can however take advantage of your SeeDeClip Pro
purchase simply by copying it into the directory you run the Itunes server ./itunes in, and making sure the daapd.conf file points to it.
You can try it out for free by using the Demo version of SeeDeClip Duo (track time limited).
Once installed, every WAV track you listen to can be levelled and declipped to DeClip Pro standard. Declipped tracks are cached too, so to re-test you may want to re-start the iTunes server, when it will read in daapd.conf again and clear the song cache.
Listening to your CD tracks in the Loudness War
iTunes is a really nice client interface for playing your music, and the airport express boxes allow remote digital input to a remote DAC, for very high quality playback.
If you store your music on a different computer you get the following advantages:
- You can fit a cheap 500GB HDD to your server, and leave your desktop/laptop alone
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You can run iTunes on Windows or Mac without moving your music files
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Because the server sees the tracks before iTunes, we can process the files just before we serve them, meaning we can declip the ripped WAVs from CDs when requested.
- Preserving the original distorted CD waveforms (just declipping when requested) allows an upgraded/different declipping algorithm to be slotted in
This is the type of display you then get to see, the shared songs prefixed with W. under Genre are WAVs, and therefore declipped and now of highest quality.
This free, open source program presents a network jukebox to an iTunes client (running on a Mac or Windows) and whenever you play a song that is stored as a .WAV file, the server quickly calls out to the declipper
to fix it first, and then serves it to you. So with minimal effort you can play your whole precious WAV collection without any CD clipping distortion, combining the benefits of iTunes with the benefit of a CD sounding smooth and listenable.
This is the best way I've found for avoiding the CD loudness war, with its attendant Lo-Fi digital clipping distortion.
If you do not have linux - don't worry - you do not even have to install it to run it now, just pop a 'live CD' into your PC and reboot! Every single CD now at Cutestudio is only heard after it has been thoroughly declipped by DeClip Pro
(now part of SeeDeClip Duo).
Linux
Linux makes if easy for server software, it's stable, free and easier to use than Windows. However as people are more used to Windows than Linux, Linux seems alien sometimes, so it will get a little getting used to. The best way to start investigating Linux is to have a go with one of the Live CDs, you plug the CD into your PC, Re-start it, and in a few minutes you are running Linux.
Using it: Live CDs for Linux
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Getting CDs onto your Linux server
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The most efficient and cheapest way is to use the Linux CD ripper program called GRIP
. Grip - CD Ripping/MP3 Encoding for Linu, allows you to get very accurate scans (much more accurate than a CD player) copies of your CDs, complete with track names etc read from the internet.
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Arranging your files for the iTunes server
You need to follow the structure of Genre -> Artist -> Album -> WAV tracks for this server to present them correctly to the iTunes players.
Example directory layout:
Installation
Download Linux de-clipping iTunes Server
This server is available as source code and Linux static binary.
Linux has free compilers that make it very easy to compile if you need or want to.
To make the iTunes server software, you simply need to decompress the source code and type make:
unzip iTunes_2_2-0_gnu-rel.zip
unzip iTunes_2_2-0_gnu-src.zip
make
NB: You need to have installed g++-3.4 to compile this as the old Daapd C++ code will not compile with g++-4.x
Configuring the free iTunes server
You will need to adjust the config file, /etc/daapd.conf:
Port 3689
ServerName CuteServer_music
DBName daapd music
Password
Root /my_wavs/jukebox
Cache
Timescan 2
RescanInterval
Declipper ./declip_2_4-1_pro-linux -g5 -VL180 -f90
example daapd.conf (178 bytes)
Running the Linux iTunes server
Once you have setup /etc/daapd.conf config file to find your files, organised your files as explained above and got your iTunes client on the same network at the Linux server, you need to run the server, and also broadcast (DNSRespond) to tell iTunes that it exists now.
To declip your streaming music files you will need to download the SeeDeClip Duo
demo or purchase the product from us. Then edit the daapd.conf file (as described above) so the iTunes server calls out to the declipper when required.
Starting your iTunes server
When you have downloaded the iTunes server and unzippped it, edit the daapd.conf configuration file, make sure you have the DeClip Pro declipper where specified in the daapd.conf file, and then run the server:
chmod +x iTunes_2_2-0_gnu-linux
./iTunes_2_2-0_gnu-linux
When it says done.
iTunes server running
distributeUpdates
you are ready!
Advertising your iTunes server
If you do not advertise your server, no iTunes client will see it. So you need to get a program called mDNSResponderPosix running. To do this, go and download one from Here
or download this version:
and type:
gunzip mDNSResponder-107.6.tar.gz
tar xf mDNSResponder-107.6.tar
cd mDNSPosix
make os=linux
to make it, and type:
build/prod/mDNSResponderPosix -v2 -n My_Jukebox -t _daap._tcp. -p 3689
to run it.
Now your iTunes client should see your server and be able to browse and play the (declipped
) songs.
When each song is requested you should see the server output information about it.
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