Using a Dell DJ MP3 player for field playback of bird songs. | Rev A2, November, 2005 |
SOFTWARE
The Dell DJ ships with two software components.
Musicmatch Jukebox
This is the main component that facilitates the conversion of CD tracks to MP3 files and provides extensive features to catalog and “tag” the tracks prior to copying them to the Dell DJ. I talk more about this in the implementation section. The Jukebox can also play CDs and MP3 files on the computer.
Musicmatch Jukebox is a free software package that you can download from the web. I invested $20 to upgrade to Musicmatch Jukebox Plus which offers faster conversion speeds from WAV format files to MP3 files (as well as a few other features that I don’t use).
Note: I refer to this software simply as Musicmatch throughout this document.
Dell DJ Explorer
This software has the look and feel of Windows Explorer and allows files to be copied from the computer hard disk to the Dell DJ using drag and drop or cut and paste. The DJ connects to the computer via a standard USB 2 port.
DJ Explorer can be used to create playlists which I use to create species lists for specific locations as well as client target lists. It’s very easy to select tracks from the displayed master list (library) and to save them to a named playlist that shows up on the DJ when you select playlists from the music library screen.
I also use it to copy photos from my laptop to the DJ as extra backup when on the road.
Audio Editing
Since most source material for bird songs will undoubtedly have an announcement at the beginning of each track, it’s necessary to edit the tracks before copying to an MP3 player if you want to get rid of the announcements. Also, many tracks have songs and calls sequentially on the track so if you want to play them separately in the field, you’ll need to do some audio editing to separate them.
There’s plenty of freeware and commercial software available for audio editing and you certainly don’t need anything fancy. I already owned the Adobe Premiere video editing software (which can also edit audio tracks) and I’ve found it to be perfectly adequate for my needs.
© Copyright Stuart Healy | www.aztrogon.com | Page 5 of 25 |
