Well--the fake Birdjam project is on hold for now while I try to get to the bustling metropolis of State College to buy an audio CD (as opposed to a data CD) to record the AAC tracks onto. WTF, you're asking? Here's the blow-by-blow:
1. I downloaded the Birdjam maker software, courtesy of my pal Jay Davis at Birdjam. I installed everything according to the instructions, and it went off without a hitch.
2. I reloaded my Stokes Eastern Birds CDs into iTunes. I have a PC at work, but at home I have an old iMac (who knows which model--it was someone's FREE! hand-me-down).
3. I then ran the conversion of the song files through the Birdjam maker program. It was really easy--you just click a button and voila, the program goes through and does the work of separating double tracks (i.e. American Bittern/Least Bittern) and taking Lang Elliot's voice at the beginning of each track ("Warbling Vireo") out. It converts the files to AAC format in order to accomplish this editing.
4. Because my phone does not play AAC files (when I loaded the tracks onto the phone, the phone didn't recognize the edits that were made because it's not an iPhone. So I need to convert the AACs back into mp3 files. I googled "convert AAC to mp3" and got a nice little geeky site that explained the easiest way to make this conversion is to copy the AAC files onto an audio (not a data) CD.
5. Once I do that (I haven't gone into town because school is over, so I have no reason to waste the gas to go there yet. I need to add more errands to the trip so I can justify it -- we're on a very tight gas budget at the Marsh House, and for good reason!) -- once I get the audio CD, I'll copy the AAC tracks (which are edited and which contain all the Birdjam information like a transcription of the bird song, the Latin name for the bird, etc.) onto it. Then I'll convert those files on the CD back to mp3s with iTunes. (for a good explanation of this, see that geeky site linked above).
So that's where I am. But for the high price of gas, I would have my fake Birdjam! Curse you, oil companies! Curse you, gasoline-powered (albeit economical) car! Curse you, oh culture (and self) so dependent on oil!
1. I downloaded the Birdjam maker software, courtesy of my pal Jay Davis at Birdjam. I installed everything according to the instructions, and it went off without a hitch.
2. I reloaded my Stokes Eastern Birds CDs into iTunes. I have a PC at work, but at home I have an old iMac (who knows which model--it was someone's FREE! hand-me-down).
3. I then ran the conversion of the song files through the Birdjam maker program. It was really easy--you just click a button and voila, the program goes through and does the work of separating double tracks (i.e. American Bittern/Least Bittern) and taking Lang Elliot's voice at the beginning of each track ("Warbling Vireo") out. It converts the files to AAC format in order to accomplish this editing.
4. Because my phone does not play AAC files (when I loaded the tracks onto the phone, the phone didn't recognize the edits that were made because it's not an iPhone. So I need to convert the AACs back into mp3 files. I googled "convert AAC to mp3" and got a nice little geeky site that explained the easiest way to make this conversion is to copy the AAC files onto an audio (not a data) CD.
5. Once I do that (I haven't gone into town because school is over, so I have no reason to waste the gas to go there yet. I need to add more errands to the trip so I can justify it -- we're on a very tight gas budget at the Marsh House, and for good reason!) -- once I get the audio CD, I'll copy the AAC tracks (which are edited and which contain all the Birdjam information like a transcription of the bird song, the Latin name for the bird, etc.) onto it. Then I'll convert those files on the CD back to mp3s with iTunes. (for a good explanation of this, see that geeky site linked above).
So that's where I am. But for the high price of gas, I would have my fake Birdjam! Curse you, oil companies! Curse you, gasoline-powered (albeit economical) car! Curse you, oh culture (and self) so dependent on oil!
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