What is a Music Server?

[CharlyD]

I've always been a bit uncomfortable with the usage of the term "music server". In normal computing terms, a server is a computer that provides services to clients. These clients may or may not be PCs or Macs but definitely have some computing power to communicate with the server. How does this map to the usage of "music server" to describe a PC/Mac with music files on its hard drive, a player, an operating system and a sound card?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi CharlyD - This has come up before around the site. Here is a link to the exchange between myself and someone who thought the term music server was inappropriate.

 

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/mCubed-hFX-Silent-Fanless-Music-Server-Review#comment-17809

 

[CharlyD]

How about this definition:

 

Music Server - Any device that can store audio content in digital format and deliver that content in a digital format, possibly processed (e.g. decoded, sample rate converted, etc.), to a client device which has the ability to render the content in analog format. The communication channel between the server and client can be any digital communication protocol (e.g. PCI, USB, TCP/IP, S/PDIF, etc.).

 

In the example in my original posting, the hard drive, player and operating system would be elements of the Music Server and the sound card would be the client. Of course, the sound card client could be internal or external and would be comprised of any devices between the Music Server I/O and the analog output. In the case where a PCI -> S/PDIF card is included in the Music Server (e.g. the Lynx AES16), that card is a part of the Music Server.

 

[PeterSt]

Uhm, no such thing as a "music server" exists. There is no technical ground and there is no functional ground.

I have wondered a 1000 times how in the world this site came up with it, and notice that this site is the only one "provocating" it.

 

There is no need to refer to a WikiPedia item because you or me could have written it, and there's certainly no sense in referring to a "server" in general (like what happened in the other thread).

 

There is just nothing "serving music" here (at all), and the only phenomenon which may count is a File Server *if* you'd play music from a PC in a network, and the music data is stored on a server in that network. One could do that, and the next thing you could call that a NAS (also wrong), but there's just no function / functionality in it.

 

Compare Database Server (but first know exactly what this is about, before it's called a File Server again, which really is something different).

 

To the letter - in our homes - you won't even be having a File Server, because that would need Windows2008 and such. Instead, most of us will just have

- A PC holding the data, that PC directly playing the music (which a File Server would technically be able to)

or

- Another PC (or several) holding the data, that data being shared to another PC (or several) using that data and (coincidentally) play music from it.

 

Anything other than a File Server would be about Sever/Client relationships, which involves objects to the most technical sense. As far as I know this currently does not exist, although it might and probably will in the future.

 

Very, very far away an RDC session with the setting "bring music to this PC" would be that. But I don't think anyone uses this, nor do I think it will work without glitches. *And* I made up this one.

:-)

 

Peter

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Wow Peter! What do you really think :~)

 

I think one could justify using the term music server just as easy as one could argue for not using the term. It's all a matter of definitions of many different words coming together i.e. server, service, resource, client, etc... Each one of these words can have several different applications and work for many different scenarios.

 

Oh well, it's an interesting topic but I'm not going to lose sleep over it :~)

 

[PeterSt]

Wow Peter! What do you really think :~)

 

Haha, you got that one !

 

Yea, I was a bit fired up I guess. But this is merely because I really saw the term pass by so many times, and never could get an "IT sense" from it. And as you may know, everything about homonyms, synonyms used wrongly, is a kind of killing for communication. This goes wrong when such a thing really starts to exist.

 

But never mind if it exists already by the definitions most like to give to it. It was just that the subject passed by.

 

All ok here !

Peter

 

PS: For fun, and especially if you actually don't know (which sure is not a crime), any idea what WebServices are ?

No, no answer needed. But this too encourages for some creativity, while it really is a technical term for a technical thing I sure don't have running in my home. You could though. ^-)

 

 

 

[bordin]

Server = Server

Music files = Flac, MP3, WMA, etc

 

Music server = Networked PC/Server + Music files (loaded).

 

My 2 cents.

 

[BobH]

To save muddling up all these technical terms, why don't we go for something a little more touchy-feely?

 

I suggest Gerald, for male set-ups and Geraldine for female set-ups - the gender to be determined by the user. So I would run a Gerald and Eloise would run a Geraldine.

 

If you like, we could also differentiate Mac (Mc) and PC.

 

So, Eloise would then declare her McGeraldine but I would continue to declare a simple Gerald. Chris, of course, would have to declare both a McGerald and a plain Gerald, on account of him having both sorts, the greedy boy.

 

How cute is that?

 

[Audio_ELF]

Maybe we should have our genders reversed - male owners can be kept happy (musically) by Geraldines and females have Geralds. Though for me be difficult to decide which.

 

We've got McGeralds for Apple. What would we have for Linux - Geraldson perhaps?

 

On a more serious note: all computers have elements of "server" just they are usually combined into a single box. The WorkStation / Server devise in IT is regularly eroded. iTunes (via AirTunes) IS a server (in the strictest IT sense IMO) as it can serve music to a client device (i.e. AirPort Express or Apple TV).

 

Eloise

 

[BobH]

I'd go with that, quite happy to have a Geraldine!

 

Quote - "What would we have for Linux....." May I suggest a double whiskey and a good lie down?

 

On the serious side, I agree. It isn't a server if all it's doing is chucking tunes out of some port or another straight into a dac. But, there again, we've got to call it something!

 

[PeterSt]

Not to make any point or anything, but I call my PC playing the music "the music PC". It has attached 8 disks to it via SATAII, and when I coincidentally play a file over the network (hence stored somewhere else), this changes exactly nothing to my "music PC". Or ?

 

Maybe compare "HTPC". Oh, if you want to go WikiPedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTPC

"It usually has a 10-foot user interface" ... bwahahahaha, that must be a mistake. Overhere that's always 10 meters !

Just kidding, but I think you'll get the grasp.

Anyway, I don't recall anyone calling that some kind of server. It just is not because it does everything itself. As does a music PC.

Also, when we'd be streaming over wireless, again nothing changes, and the PC playing the music again is the music PC. Where the data comes from ... well, is transparant ? Like the earlier example, what if the music comes from an USB stick instead of wireless ? of course we could try to call that an "USB Music Server Sticky Apparatus" (UMSSA), but you know it is wrong.

 

I must admit things will get vague when I would open up my music library to all of you, and you could stream my music. Technically there's hardly a difference between that and a shared disk in your own home, but I guess we would be calling this a music server ... :-)

 

Peter

 

[Codifus]

I have 3 computers on my home network and 2 Airport Expresses. My PowerMac G4 is the dedicated iTunes music server. If I wanted to, that lone PowerMac could feed music to the Airport Expresses, and then, simultaneously via iTunes sharing, share its entire library of music files with the 2 other computers running Itunes.

 

So there. Music Server:)

 

CD

 

[CharlyD]

The term "server" makes sense only in the context of multiple devices connected over a network. A PC or Mac with an external sound card is a computer with an external sound device.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Here's a definition from PC Magazine. Not that these guys are the Mariam Webster of technology, but it provides addition input to this conversation.

 

"Digital Media Server: Hardware that stores and serves digital multimedia content to a stereo system or home theater. If it handles only CDs and audio, it is more likely called a "digital audio server." Residing in the same cabinet as the A/V equipment, the server plugs into the A/V inputs of the receiver and connects to the home network via wired or wireless Ethernet. It includes a hard disk to hold music and images, and possibly videos. Media servers can often control external CD and DVD jukebox/changers, providing central management of all content whether on hard disk, CD or DVD."

 

Link

 

[bordin]

Intel was founded as a memory maker while IBM started as a "giant" selling mainframes only. Apple came from a gargage.

 

Intel's 4004 was for a "dump" calculator while its X86-based servers host our Internet. IBM followed Apple, selling XT PCs.

 

You may remember upgrading the XMS memory in your XT/AT, adding 512K RAM, for opening your 800K Lotus 1-2-3's spreadsheet file. You may not know your colleaques share 10TB music collection across the company network using their peer-to-peer-enabled PCs.

 

A brief history noted. ;-)

 

BTW, Google uses cheap PCs for running "free" services for you. AMD also hides 2 cores out of 4 in your Phenom II CPU and sell it for building your PC. The server-grade CPU in disguised ?