How to: Time Record WCYN’s CoffeeBreak on your PC

Earlier today I dusted off an old post–”Time Record Streaming Audio“–and said that I would attempt to follow the instructions to record CoffeeBreak again. Well, I did it–but I didn’t go about it in the same way that I said I would…

In the article I referenced, call was made for Mplayer and three other programs–two of the three still exist as linked in the source article; the third program isn’t there, but an equivalent can be found. I tried that set-up, and it worked… but, I had a problem that bothered me; for some reason I would only get audio on the right channel. After making numerous attempts–and failures–at telling Mplayer to downmix things to mono, I gave up and tried my hand at using FFmpeg. FFmpeg worked perfectly, and gave me a few other options as well…

First, by using FFmpeg, I was able to successfully downmix the audio into a mono mp3 instead of the sourced AAC with a missing left-channel. Additionally, I was able to skip using those three other programs, as FFmpeg will record for a specified length on it’s own. Finally, I added in the switches to encode id3 tags into the output file, if I want to transfer the file to an iPod, or archive it to a personal library.

So, anyway, here’s what I did, if you wanna take a whack at it yourself:

1. Download and “install” FFmpeg – http://ffmpeg.org/download.html

For me, I followed the link over to grab the 32-bit Windows version–http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/win32/static/ffmpeg-20121125-git-26c531c-win32-static.7z. Unzip using 7zip to whatever location you like; I put it in the root directory (creating C:\ffmpg).

2. Create a folder for your recordings.

I chose to make a WCYN folder in the root (C:\WCYN)

3. Create a .bat or .cmd file; save it in the created folder.

I created a batch file using a couple of different guides and the ffmpeg documentation. Eventually I came up with this:

for /F "tokens=2-4 delims=/ " %%i in ('date /t') do set DATEFORMATTED=%%k-%%i-%%j
start "CoffeeBreak" /min c:\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe -i http://stream.us.gslb.liquidcompass.net/WCYNAMAAC -ac 1 -t 01:05:00 -metadata title="WCYN's CoffeeBreak w/ Doug Miller & Betty Gayle" -metadata genre="Talk" -metadata date="%DATEFORMATTED%" -metadata album="WCYN's CoffeeBreak" -metadata album_artist="Doug Miller & Betty Gayle" -id3v2_version 3 c:\WCYN\CoffeeBreak_%DATEFORMATTED%.mp3

and saved it as recordCoffeeBreak.cmd. I placed this in the WCYN folder.

4. Set up a scheduled task for the batch file.

In Win7, hit start, and start typing “schedule”; the task scheduler will show in the found programs–select it. Over on the right will be an option to create a basic task; select it. In the dialog that opens, give the task a name–I chose “Record CoffeeBreak”; click next. Now we say when the task is triggered; daily, next; change the time – I chose to run it a minute before 8:00am; next. Now we say what we want the task to accomplish–start a program, click next. In the Program/Script field, browse to and select the batch file; next, finish.

5. We’re done!

Everything here should work on any Windows PC; scheduling the task will vary, of course, dependent upon your operating system. The string in the batch file for executing ffmpeg will be similar to what you’ll need to run it on another system–google around, and I bet you’ll find instructions.

…and a quick explanation of my batch file:

The first line grabs the system date and assigns it to a variable that we can recall in the naming of the file and stamping a date in the id3 tag.

The second line opens a minimized command window
(start "CoffeeBreak" /min),
executes ffmpeg using the WCYN stream as the input
(c:\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe -i http://stream.us.gslb.liquidcompass.net/WCYNAMAAC),
instructs ffmpeg to make the audio mono and record for an hour and five minutes–extra in case they run long
(-ac 1 -t 01:05:00),
write in all the id3-tag info
(-metadata title="WCYN's CoffeeBreak w/ Doug Miller & Betty Gayle" -metadata genre="Talk" -metadata date="%DATEFORMATTED%" -metadata album="WCYN's CoffeeBreak" -metadata album_artist="Doug Miller & Betty Gayle" -id3v2_version 3)
and save it
(c:\WCYN\CoffeeBreak_%DATEFORMATTED%.mp3)

…so, if you’re really bored, or really want to keep up with what’s going on in Cynthiana, give this stuff a shot!

NOTE: This how-to tutorial is only being posted for the purposes of a home audience member recording the program for playback in their own home, on their own device at a later date; kind of like the good old days of having a tape deck hooked up to the stereo.

WCYN does make copies of their program available for sale–

Audio copies of CoffeeBreak are available by request $5.00 for cassettes and $10.00 for CD’s. Programs are only archived for a period of 5 business days.

If you want a high-quality, straight from the source recording, contact WCYN and buy a copy of the program!

via Being Jeremiah Palmer https://kg4vma.duckdns.org/2012/11/27/how-to-time-record-wcyns-coffeebreak-on-your-pc/