Why Your Music Collection Probably Sucks
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on March 25, 2010 by admin in Music
Thursday, March 25th, 2010That massive music collection you’ve compiled by buying songs on iTunes? The songs are probably worth just about every one of those 99 cents you paid for them. MP3′s intrinsically suck as an audio file format.
A long time ago we pointed out why your music selections might suck. Well, now we’re going to tell you why your collection sucks. How many songs would you say you have on your hard drive? A few hundred? A few thousand? Did you buy or otherwise download them online as mp3′s? If your answer is “yes”, we can fairly safely say your music collection sucks a little bit. Why? There are two reasons. One is that mp3′s – at any bitrate – simply will never contain the content of the original recording. The methods used for compression in an mp3 file are based on psychoacoustic modeling that by its very nature removes sound that you pay less attention to in the first place. Although you’ll find audio nuts arguing about .mp3 vs .flac vs .wav ’til the end of time on discussion boards, it’s a moot point. If you can’t hear the difference between a high-quality CD and an mp3 rip of it, that just means you can’t hear the difference. It absolutely is there. It may not bother you – which in fact seems to be the case with the iPod generation – but that in fact is just another psychoacoustic phenomena. The other reason your music collection probably sucks is that since the late 80′s, producers and engineers have engaged in what some in the industry call the Loudness War, which is the recording industry’s tendency to abandon dynamic range altogether for the sake of pure volume. If you think this is some sort of obnoxious audiophile whining, see the graph and brief video below, or if you’re interested in an in-depth technical rundown, see A Chronology of the Loudness War (scroll down). The difference is pretty astounding. So how can you resuscitate the quality of your music collection? Well, if you’re listening to it on your iPod or through your computer speakers, don’t worry about it, you won’t be able to hear many of these differences anyway. On the other hand, if you have a lot of disposable income, you could start replacing it all on vinyl and high-quality import CD’s, and play them on your $554,000 stereo system. If you haven’t listened to your music on a full-blown stereo system for a while, see the clip and graphic below to visualize just how bad this problem really is. Read the rest of this entry »
Cam McAzie, Punk Rock Bagpiper – Video Kilt The Radio Star
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on March 19, 2010 by admin in Music
Friday, March 19th, 2010Aussie punk rock buskering bagpiper gives new meaning to “down under” when he dons his kilt and combat boots
 Excuse me mate, I believe your bagpipes are on fire. |
When I was a kid my father used to terrorize me by putting on the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards bagpipe album
Christen Lien’s Vol I: Battle Cry Gives The Viola Its Voice Back
[ 5 Comments ]Posted on March 14, 2010 by admin in Music
Sunday, March 14th, 2010The viola is often the butt of jokes like “What’s the difference between a seamstress and a violist? The seamstress tucks up the frills”, but Christen Lien gives the viola its voice back on her brilliant release Vol I: Battle Cry
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I’ve always felt a little bit of sympathy for the viola. The violin, in spite of its rather thin voice and high screech potential, always gets the limelight, while the richer, sonorous voice of the viola gets relegated to harmonies and pizzicatos. Well, I can feel a little less sympathy after listening to Christen Lien’s new CD Vol. I: Battle Cry. Lien definitely gives the instrument its voice back, and lets it say all the things it has the beauty and the power to say when it’s in the right hands. If you like the loop-based cello work of Zoe Keating, there’s a good chance you’d enjoy Lien’s work. Lien uses a bit of looping to help create the voices, rhythms, and textures on Battle Cry. But the fact that both Keating and Lien create atmospheric and compelling music by using looping on their bowed instruments is where the comparison ends. While I adore Keating’s soaring textural broods, Lien branches out a bit more. The tunes on Battle Cry range from the playful to the reflective, and from the almost searingly rhythmic to pastoral realms that literally brought tears to my eyes on repeated listens. There are brief previews of the songs below, and full length previews on her site . It’s available on Amazon
Neuroscience Audiomedical’s Antiviral Marketing
[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 8, 2010 by admin in Music
Monday, March 8th, 2010The latest video by the band Neuroscience Audiomedical is awesome. Problem is, they’re not a band.
If you were paying attention last fall, you might have caught a glimpse of the Neuroscience Audiomedical clip on the left. If you haven’t seen it, give it a look; it’s fun, and perhaps even a little disturbing. The only thing that disturbs me about it though, is that in spite of being a product-weary anti-consumer, I’m somehow disappointed that it’s NOT pitching a product at me. It has all the elements of a viral campaign or an Internet-Meme-to-be, but somehow is neither. It sort of points at the electronica DJ collective called Scratch Perverts, but none of their sites reference the clip, so you’re just left kind of thinking “Wow, that’s really neat, but WHY?” Well, keep wondering, ’cause I didn’t find much in the way of an answer myself. If you liked the video though, you’ll be pleased to know that Neuroscience Audiomedical has also done a live performance (also below). Or so say they say. It appears they used the same projection technology that was utilized for the Gorillaz and Madonna appearance at the Grammy Awards. The holographic projection method is a product called Musion Eyeliner, which allows 3-dimensional, moving, life-size holograms to appear within a live stage setting using Peppers Ghost techniques. Pretty cool. I just wish I knew what I was virally promoting here. More vids below. Read the rest of this entry »
Did EMI Say OK And Give OK Go A Pass On This Too Shall Pass?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 3, 2010 by admin in Music
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010The band OK Go complained about their label blocking the band’s videos on YouTube recently, and now their latest release – This Too Shall Pass – is shareable. But none of the others are. A victory over the label? Or a Rube Goldbergian marketing scheme?
Were the band Ok Go’s recent complaints about EMI’s YouTube sharing policies just part of a sneaky, low-key marketing campaign? Who cares. The band’s new brilliantly Rube Goldbergian video below is way too much fun to quibble about it. More thoughts after the clip.
While taking a look at the RIAA’s peculiar paranoia about Canadian pirates recently, we mentioned how Damian Kulash Jr. of the band OK Go