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Muzak Encoding at Home?
zonker asks: "I work for a company that requires Muzak to be played over the speaker system all day long. However, I work into the night, well passed closing time, and often just crank up my own tunes on a computer with a nice set of speakers. I've been curious if anyone has developed any software that allows you to encode and burn to whatever format Muzak is using to make their discs. I've scraped around the net and haven't seen anything like it other than other people in similar environments that would like to make their own Muzak discs for their own after hours enjoyment. That thread has some interesting informational tidbits for starters. Does anyone on Slashdot know anything more about this?"
But that would violate the DMCA.
:(
Sorry
"I work for a company that requires Muzak to be played over the speaker system all day long"
There's your problem right there.
"Piter, too, is dead."
years ago i had the same problem. here's how i solved the problem: the muzak system plugged into the overhead speakers w/ a standard headphone size connection. i created a male-to-male 1/8" headphone jack and plugged my portable cd player into it.
Another discussion on this very topic- includes the potential dip switch settings to get MUZAK equipment to play Red Book CDs.
The previous link led me to suspect Green Book as the format for Muzak. CD-Interactive Spec
CD-I Bridge: A program that reads Green Book Formats
So it looks to me like you have two options- fiddle with the dip switches to find a setting that will allow you to play Red Book CDs, or find a program that allows you to write CD-Interactive Green Book Format discs.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
You could just buy an iPod and crank up the tunes. Then you can listen to what you want even during hours.
Tell us if you've tried the software mentioned in the link, such as IsoBuster, to try to read & duplicate the Muzak CD.
If you want people to try to work on this, try posting an image.
If you're not investigating this, have you considered just switching the Muzak player to play regular CDs?
here's some...
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music. For while in all other works of art it is possible to distinguish the matter from the form, and the understanding can always make this distinction, yet it is the constant effort of art to obliterate it.
--Walter Pater
The Condition of Muzak - Jeremiah Cornelius
Thus, in a scene in Condition of Muzak (the end of the section called 'Outcast of the Islands'), there is a short discussion about the Japanese invasion of Australia and Jerry makes a reference to big egos and Hitler. Shakey Mo then asks if he was a character in a children's comic and then immediately asks if Hitler wasn't a police chief they'd met in Berlin. The first reference is to Big Ego (a cartoon ostrich in The Dandy or The Beano); the second reference is to an earlier story of mine (a 'key' story, in my view) called The Pleasure Garden of Felippe Sagittarius (where Hitler was a rather pathetic police chief in an imaginary Berlin), leading to a reference to the fact that the historical Adolf Hitler doesn't exist in this world.
--Michael Moorcock
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
The word you want is "past." Just because words sound the same doesn't mean you can switch them.
While we're at it, I'll dig the old 8-track out of the garage and hook it up to my pc...
Task Mangler
I think I speak for all of /. when I say this: I will never give up my God-given right to burn copies of all the albums I download off bittorrent, as clearly defined in the "fair use" clause of the Constitution, page 2 line 8. Furthermore I will not be co-erced by invasive advertising into giving up my hard-earned money to anybody but the package store and nakkidnerds.com.
Presumably this "player" plugs into an existing speaker system. Why not just plug your iPod/MP3 player of choice into this system and bypass the player all together?
Forgive my ignorance, but I thought the point of Muzak was that it came over a satellite or other connection. If all it is is CDs that you put into a player, how is that an advantage over mix CDs in a normal player?
"Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
I used to work for a national drugstore chain (*cough CVS cough*) and we had Muzak - only it was all piped in via satellite - meaning that evenings sucked more when the store actually closed and we were stocking the shelves to.... well, crap.
Totally closed system, although many attempts were made to get around it, we ended up having to turn it down (at least we could control that much) and setting up someones boom box turned up to 11.
Computer geek for hire. Reasonable rates. Email me.
for all intensive purposes I'm sorry, I can't stop myself, you're making me giggle.
There are four boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
and the EUCD as well...
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
and the reason you won't find many tools to help you author them, is basically this:
every CD-BGM disc also needs to include a CD-i application to allow for playback on a CD-i player.
If you read the CD-i spec, you'll see that it's basically just a generic "autoplay" type of disc. In fact, it may not even be that generic. Apparently, the CD-i machine either runs the OS-9 realtime operating system (made by these guys) or it's loaded from the disc itself.
So, to make your own discs, you need to add a software program (or maybe even an entire OS) along with the content.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
he is called Mantovani.
That was the sound of the parent post humor rushing right over your heads.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I did work for Muzak's satellite division once. Depending on where you work, which really doesn't matter, this is a relatively simple fix. The speakers hook to some type of amplifier, which, in turn, has an 'input'. This 'input' is RCA, SO......Hook up your favorite CD player to the audio amp, (you may need a 1/8" jack to RCA adapter Y cable, Radio Shack, 5 bucks) and viola, the speakers now play your best of Cat Stephens record.
In our office the Muzak is coming in over dish network, so not sure that would work so well, unless your building is pulling it in a difrent way.
...called muzak-1.
EOM
Muzak sometimes uses digital and analog audio repears by
Nel-Tech Labs. Which are really pathetic devices
that play adpcm,pcm and ulaw. They have a mp3 product
as well but it doesnt work.
The audio is uploaded via POTS,tape and the internet
via X-modem(example of why the mp3 product sucks).
"How do I rip muzak discs to mp3?"