Seeding etree.org

For etree.org to be able to spread quality music, we must first have a source for quality music. This is where the etree.org seeds come in. We depend on members of our community to upload music. Uploading to etree.org is quite easy. If you have a show on DAT or CD-R and you know that it is a digital clone of the master, then it qualifies to be distributed via etree.org.

2.1 - DAT > Hard Drive Transfers

If you want to transfer a DAT tape to the etree.org/CD-R world, you first must digitally transfer the data to your PC. The easiest way to do this is through a S/PDIF digital transfer.  Most 'digital' audio cards (in our case, digital meaning digital I/O) are able to transfer a the data stream from the DAT machine to the Hard Drive without resampling. By using this method, a clone of the original DAT can be copied to the Hard Drive.

The Creative Labs' "Sound Blaster Live!" and Turtle Beach's "Montego II+" do not produce digital clones of the original DAT, due to hardware resampling. These soundcards should not be used in etree.org digital transfers.

The specifics of performing a DAT > Hard Drive transfer varies, depending on the manufacturer of your DAT player and your digital soundcard. We suggest following the instructions that came with your equipment for more specific details.

When doing a DAT > Hard Drive transfer, the resulting .wav file will be quite large. To track that .wav file (chop it up into audio tracks), please see the Tracking on Sector Boundaries section.

2.2 - CD > Hard Drive Transfers

This method of seeding etree.org is relatively simpler than attempting a DAT > Hard Drive transfer. To transfer an audio CD to your Hard Drive (also called ripping or DAE), we highly recommend the Exact Audio Copy (EAC) program.

Dick's CD-R page has an excellent section on EAC!!!

 Download: Exact Audio Copy v0.85b

2.3 - Tracking on Sector Boundaries

Each .wav file should be an exact multiple of the CD audio sector size, which is 2352 bytes (588 samples). There should be no gaps between tracks and tracks should not be padded with zeros, otherwise an audible click will probably result. A track should start with the very next sample after where the previous track stopped.

To make this process very easy, we highly recommend CD-WAV. CD-WAV is a great program to use because it automatically cuts the audio file at the closest sector boundary. It's quick, painless, and guarantees no annoying track-break pops.

Download: CD-WAV

2.4 - Compressing .wav files with Shorten

After you have correctly split each .wav file into tracks, it is now time to compress them into Shorten files (.shn) for Internet transfer.

Following the File Naming and Directory Structure, you will convert your .wav files to .shn files. First, make sure that a copy of shortn32.exe is in your c:\windows\command directory. If it is not, please download the file and copy it there now.

Then, open up an MS-DOS window, go to the drive/directory of the show you wish to compress.

When you are in that drive/directory, type:

shortn32 [filename].wav [filename].shn

NOTE: You must insert the names of the .shn files [without the brackets].

Example: shortn32 d1t01.wav e:\ph84-12-01d1t01.shn

The first file (.wav) is your input file, and the last file (.shn) is your output file.

Please follow the etree.org naming scheme when creating your Shorten files and directories!

Phish
Nectars - Burlington, VT
4/20/01

Source: Soundboard > Some DAT deck> S/PDIF > Sound Forge > ...


Disc 1:

01 Down with Disease       (11:23)
02 Bouncing                (07:22)
...

Disc 2:
01 It's Ice                (04:33)
...