Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Friday Music: About Apple Music

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  • Joe Wylie, in reply to David Bishop,

    Re: James Last - when New Order toured NZ in the late 80s, they said Last had expressed interest in covering Blue Monday with his orchestra. Sadly, I don't think this ever came to pass...

    Pity, that. A couple of years ago I attended a gold coin donation afternoon accordion show at the church hall up the road. While I preferred the veteran soloist support act, the headlining all-accordion big band was certainly interesting. The conductor made no secret of being a hardened fan of James Last's composing skills, assuring us that we were "in for a treat" with the grand finale, At Last.

    I guess I'm a philistine, but it struck me as a polite version of the kind of crime jazz that Don Ellis once did for movies like The French Connection. An all-accordion version of Blue Monday would definitely have been more memorable.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    I'm spinning a few discs there

    macho styles, right

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Vivid,

    NPR has an intersting test of your perception of audio quality. Various songs in 128 & 320kbps mp3 and uncompressed wave files.
    I'd be interested to see what the results are for those that say they prefer high quality audio. It's not as obvious as the audiophiles would have you believe.

    (I got 3/6)

    Wairarapa • Since May 2015 • 43 posts Report Reply

  • TracyMac, in reply to Vivid,

    Same, but that's more than chance rate, given the fact each sample is out of three. I only identified one at 128 kbps.

    And I have also learned that Suzanne Vega annoys me just as much as she did back in the day. Vinyl or WAV, it's all the same to me! :-)

    Canberra, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 701 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to TracyMac,

    Suzanne Vega annoys me just as much as she did back in the day. Vinyl or WAV, it's all the same to me! :-)

    +1

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    I got 5/6 on my Mac speakers - didn't get the classical recording (although given its age it would be interesting to know the original bitrate). I don't consider I have particularly good ears, although I do know what to listen for, e.g. the sibilants (?) on the Suzanne Vega are a lot more distinct on the WAV.

    As I've said before, one reason to go with lossless if you can is transcoding, you might not be able to hear the difference between MP3 and lossless, but you are more likely to be able to notice a file that's been transcoded from MP3 into Ogg Vorbis or whatever.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    As I’ve said before, one reason to go with lossless if you can is transcoding, you might not be able to hear the difference between MP3 and lossless, but you are more likely to be able to notice a file that’s been transcoded from MP3 into Ogg Vorbis or whatever.

    I have done this, and yes.

    Another point: It’s possibly all going to sound a bit the same squeezed through the DAC in your computer. I generally only really notice a difference when I have the subwoofer going and I’m playing direct to HDMI with Apple TV, or through my cheap, boxy external DAC.

    (I *really* notice the difference between headphone output from my Macbook and USB > DAC. DJing without the DAC is very sucky.)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

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