Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Friday Music: Better Bit Rates For All

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  • Simon Honiss,

    Have done the match thing as well and generally had reasonable results though I am fascinated by the way it will match only half an album and choose to upload the rest. Apparently it is on a song by song basis and they use song length as one of criteria which can lead to regional differences depending on who pressed the CD.

    I did find some problems with replacing songs below 128kbps in that they where classed as ineligible so I had to upsample them to 128kbps and they then worked fine. Initially I went with Match as I was travelling and wanted access to my entire library but it didn't really work out the way I anticipated hotel broadband being what it is.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Simon Honiss,

    Initially I went with Match as I was travelling and wanted access to my entire library but it didn’t really work out the way I anticipated hotel broadband being what it is.

    Yeah, that's a big problem right there. It's simpler to just pack an iPod Classic.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Honiss, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Ah, yet another device, I really thought my 64gb ipad would solve that but once you pack some on movies and that TV series you’ve been meaning to watch, you’re down to dodgy rates to fit music on.

    And on other devices here one that’s well intentioned but likely to sink without trace.

    (may have been posted earlier in the week I think)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    We're at an interesting moment with the transfer to cloud-based services. Much of the world doesn't yet have the speed or bandwidth to support such things, and the assumption of both is becoming more pervasive.

    How much of your data-cap did refreshing 3000 songs take?

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to George Darroch,

    How much of your data-cap did refreshing 3000 songs take?

    I don't know, actually. Snap gives me 560GB a month so I basically treat it as an unlimited account.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Martin Lindberg,

    ... an admirable website called Techno Dads

    There goes work for the rest of the afternoon. Brought to you by the letter E.

    Stockholm • Since Jul 2009 • 802 posts Report Reply

  • RaggedJoe,

    And on other devices here one that’s well intentioned but likely to sink without trace.

    I am missing something here. Mr Young has a long avowed dislike of CD's Ipod, MP3 etc. Blue Ray was his thing, now this. But he is also on record (not intended)as saying he doesn't listen to music much.....just too much in the '60's?

    City of Sales • Since Sep 2008 • 72 posts Report Reply

  • Edwin Smith,

    iTunes Match can replace the DRM-locked soundtracks to high-quality, DRM-free MP3s, but what about the protected video contents purchased from iTunes store? I stumbled upon an article which offers 4 free iTunes DRM removal programs, and i guess someone may interest in this.

    Since Oct 2012 • 1 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Ah, that works. I pay by the hour here, so I've given to working out how long things will take, and going from there. I get about 360mb/h when traffic is light, less when everyone else is using the same connection.

    We're waiting patiently for competition here. In 2002 they gave over a 15 year monopoly (since cut to 10) to Timor Telecom in exchange for coverage of 98% of the population of this small, poor, mountainous country. We got it, and things aren't slow compared to how they could be, but we certainly pay for our privileges.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    Pretty Lights? What about (The) Pretty Things?

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    And about the music... these posts just keep filling me with new things. I look forward to Fridays now.

    I'm so down with the new XX right now. Lovers' music.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Williams,

    Hat tip to George Darroch for finding this tasty, intriguing Cure remix

    Plus 1, fantastic remix.

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report Reply

  • JonathanM,

    3000 songs, 2-300 seconds a song, 32KB/second is 20-30 GB, so a reasonable dent if you are unfortunate enough to have a low data cap. Fortunately low data caps seem to be slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past with snap, orcon etc. all offering much larger data packs now.

    Disclaimer: Also a (happy) snap customer.

    Since Jul 2012 • 64 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • JacksonP, in reply to Paul Williams,

    Hat tip to George Darroch for finding this tasty, intriguing Cure remix

    Plus 1, fantastic remix.

    That really is a tasty treat.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2011 • 2450 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe,

    2am and can't sleep, and can't listen to this alluring array without waking the house, butr I'm looking forward to do doing so over the next few days. An appeal to the those-who-know-interesting-things from my Joey Ramone-obssessed 14-year-old: where to buy a Ramones t-shirt, good vintage or maybe a reprint, in Christchurch? Or does anyone have one for sale? Where have all the record shops gone to? I know of Penny Lane in Sydenham(and Riccarton and Eastgate); that's all. Any clues would be much appreciated.

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    Pretty Lights

    And so cheap! I think I may be calling on My Mother the Babysitter again...

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Ethan Tucker, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Snap gives me 560GB a month so I basically treat it as an unlimited account.

    Five hundred and sixty? By the hammer of Thor!

    Wellington • Since Apr 2008 • 119 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to JacksonP,

    That really is a tasty treat.

    I haven't had time to listen to the whole mixtape, but I really hope his awesome remix of The Faints' 'The Geeks Were Right' is on it.

    Virgin Magnetic Material is henceforth a Soundcloud follow.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Moz,

    I'm sorry, lossless or nothing. I've been through too many cycles of upgrading lossy files and I'm over it. Yes, when sending stuff to my phone/phablet I repack it to mp3, but for archival storage the difference between 550GB of FLAC and 200GB of lossy stuff is about $20 these days. I'm not so poor that saving $20 is worth the hassle of faffing around like you're doing. And computers are so fast that when filling a 16GB card with mp3s the bottleneck is the USB part, not the decompression-recompression part.

    I would be tempted by a similar service for lossless files, because I do still have a big pile of mp3s floating around. Partly due to my giving away my vinyl when I left NZ and then trashing my CD collection once I'd ripped and scanned it. FWIW I offered the relevant scans to flying nun since they seem to be missing artwork for the digital downloads they sell.

    Sydney, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 1233 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Moz,

    I would be tempted by a similar service for lossless files, because I do still have a big pile of mp3s floating around.

    I strongly suspect that's a matter of "when", not "if".

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Moz, in reply to Russell Brown,

    I strongly suspect that's a matter of "when", not "if".

    I fear that they will have the same problem that I do when it comes to actually getting the files, though.

    Because I am somewhat anal about tagging and naming files, it's actually very easy for me to eliminate crap-p3's that I have lossless equivalents of so I did that a long time ago. Leaving me a whole pile of stuff that I struggle to find. Every now and then I score something. For example, Te Kupu was amazingly helpful and sent me a pre-release copy of "Dedicated", the Upper Hutt Posse best of CD to replace the album+EP that I had. But some people just vanish and you eventually get one song on a compilation if you're lucky ("...but I can write songs ok" is a favourite). Munky Kramp, Lea Maalfrid... good luck find them anywhere else (I have other Demarnia Lloyd songs, but not from that band).

    Sydney, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 1233 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Brislen,

    To echo Russell's comment: back it up.

    I bought iTunes Match, it matched my music and then when I got a new iDevice told me it had loaded it up with music.

    So far so good, except it hadn't. It gave me access to the music "in the cloud" (that is, it's there when you have an internet connection) but did not install it on my device at all. I found this out the hard way when boarding a plane and finding my music collection had vanished.

    In the end I had to switch off the product I'd bought, connect the device to my computer, download the music off the computer the old fashioned way (y'know, with a cable) and then ... I'd lost the will to give Apple any money at all.

    Eventually someone explained to me the wee icons Apple used and why I had exactly the service I'd paid for, just not the service I was expecting.

    The moral of the story is: back everything up and store it elsewhere before starting on this path, lest the rage fall upon you from a high height.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 200 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Munky Kramp, Lea Maalfrid… good luck find them anywhere else (I have other Demarnia Lloyd songs, but not from that band).

    I posted about Munky Kramp on here four years ago and Peter Gorman emailed me with a link to his web site which had five Munky Kramp mp3s. The page is no longer available on his site (http://variantmedia.co.nz/) but I have the mp3 files still if anyone wants them: schoolboy song, making hay, eyes that cry, chrome rover and baby baby.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Moz,

    I offered the relevant scans to flying nun since they seem to be missing artwork for the digital downloads they sell.

    I hope they accepted, if they want to re-present the back catalogue, every little bit helps....

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

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