Music programs

[Submeg]

Hey all,

As you know I am finally getting into DJing. The reason why I hadn't earlier was because all my music is on CD, so I didn't feel like it was fair that I had to fork out another $40 AUD for a record of a CD I already own!!

I have now found out about a product from Serato called ScratchLIVE! It is excellent as it allows you to use your MP3 on turntables...so all scratching and juggling effects are the same as if you were using vinyl!! So awesome

So, what I need now is a decent music program.

What I need it for is to be able to:
1) Record songs (in wav) that are currently being played on my speakers. i.e. If I am playing a song on my comp, then it will record that
2) Cut and modify the samples

I have WaveStudio, but it was for my Creative soundcard and won't work with my laptop. All it needs is to be a very basic program....it seems that basic programs have the most strength, like paint!! go paint

[Harrison]

I recommend the completely free audio editing application Audacity. It should be able to do everything you need. It is great for a free product.

[Submeg]

YOU LEGEND!!!!!! I shall send you a case of beer for that one! Exactly what I need!!!

I just had an idea...is it possible to lift the lyrics track from a song using that program? So I can use either the lyrics or beat underneath?

Also: looking for a program that can convert .m4a tracks to mp3...I can't be bothered re-ripping my 5000+ songs off my cds again...

[Harrison]

.m4a isn't a common format but doing a quick google "m4a to mp3" revealed this free converter. Also just to check, none of you .m4a files are from iTunes are they? If they are then they will be copy protected and cannot be converted. But you can convert them using iOpener to remove the copy protection and then convert them.

As for extracting lyrics from a track, I'm not sure of any software that can do that.

[Submeg]

Well I did find another program AltoMP3Gold which can convert them. Yes they are from iTunes, but I made sure when I imported them I set them without copy protection.

I did find AltoMP3Gold, but that needs to be bought...it only allows 5 conversions....but it did convert my iTunes made m4a files. I made sure that I didnt put the copy protection on them (pretty sure you can select it when you set up iTunes...also I have bought all my music on CD, not downloaded from iStore or whatever it is called)

[Harrison]

You have been able to purchase unprotected tracks from iTunes for a few months now. There is a new attack against Apple though because it has now come to light that when downloading unprotected tracks from iTunes, Apple embed your name and email address in each file so they can track the origin of any files found on p2p networks. (Just to warn you to look out for that).