sounds like a plan, I think I got the domain through GoDaddy so I'll just pop in whatever URL you want me to forward to on their side.

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I've got big plans. ◊ Talking Blanket ◊ Yay, Butts! LOL!

Guys here's the thing about the 50 copies... I can't get everyone who contributed a copy of them. The 50 copies are going to the DC and Philly shows with me, and given away for FS donations.

If someone else wants to head up some sort of project to get physical copies out to everyone who participated/everyone who wants them (and won't be at Philly/DC), feel free to do that.

But with school and work, I don't really have the time to work out sending things nationally/internationally. Sorry.

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Quote
John
it was actually 2 7"s btw and the mastering date was 5/1, I cancelled it this a.m.

This is why you should be nice to everyone.

I don't want to be a downer but maybe we should wait until we all hear the thing before folks start investing a bunch of time & money into making nice physical objects?

truckface Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't want to be a downer but maybe we should
> wait until we all hear the thing before folks
> start investing a bunch of time & money into
> making nice physical objects?

THIS.

And I also think people shouold be able to submit any standard type of audio file they like. After all, it's not like you have to worry about somone messing with the quality of your song.

I always use 192kbps mp3 and the only thing that makes the songs audio quality below par is the actaul recording. It still sounds pretty good, though.

---

I make videos for the interwebs. Click to taste the insanity.
My band has a Facebook. This is the link.

Yeah, I think people are starting to worry about how to save the files too much. I know that I'm recording with a lightsnake and using the USB microphone that came with Rock Band 2. I doubt 320k is going to sound different from 192k.

Yeah, you read that right, I'm using my Rock Band stuff to actually make music... If only I had a set of Rock Band 1 drums, cause you can plug them into your computer and map the drums to a vst plugin and *boom* instant kit.

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I've got big plans. ◊ Talking Blanket ◊ Yay, Butts! LOL!

truckface Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't want to be a downer but maybe we should
> wait until we all hear the thing before folks
> start investing a bunch of time & money into
> making nice physical objects?

What am I going to do with all these boxes of "Hi, We're Not The Mountain Goats" t-shirts???

ok, here are some things:

(really not directed at anyone's comments, just realised I've maybe not explained myself very well)

I have enough stuff left over from past jobs that I wont be spending any money on materials, just shipping the 50 copies, which, as they are going to given away in return for donations, I consider to be my donation to FS (in a round about sort of way).

I'm in the very lucky possition that as well as being what I do for food, printing is one of my favourite ways to spend time (and it should only take an afternoon)

If other people dont have a problem with it in principle, it wont really take any more time or effort to do 34 more (or on a "put your name down if you want one" bacis) for the people that contributed.
However these I really cant afford to send out to people.

But, as years of on/off temping means I have almost enough envelopes to build a bridge across the Atlantic and deliver them myself, I'd be happy to send them to people (sans CDs) if they paypal me the shipping costs (not sure how much that'll be, will edit it in when I've found out)
and if those people would also like to donate some money to FS, that would obviously be great!

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www.ConsumerRevolt.co.uk

daley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But, as years of on/off temping means I have
> almost enough envelopes to build a bridge across
> the Atlantic and deliver them myself, I'd be happy
> to send them to people (sans CDs) if they paypal
> me the shipping costs (not sure how much that'll
> be, will edit it in when I've found out)
> and if those people would also like to donate some
> money to FS, that would obviously be great!

and for the record, the copies I am making are just going to be on CD-Rs, so if this ends up happening, all you guys need to do to get "official" copies is to burn a cd for yerself.

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Quote
John
it was actually 2 7"s btw and the mastering date was 5/1, I cancelled it this a.m.

This is why you should be nice to everyone.

Regarding recording...I'll be recording my song through my iphone's voice recorder app. Did this recently for some recordings and I think the sound will be appropriate for what I'm planning on doing. All I'm saying is...my track isn't going to have the most spiffy production. I won't compress it any further, but I think people should be allowed to submit whatever recording they like best. While according to John K Samson, we shouldn't miss tape hiss (or the modern man), some of us do miss it.

weshallallbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Regarding recording...I'll be recording my song
> through my iphone's voice recorder app. Did this
> recently for some recordings and I think the sound
> will be appropriate for what I'm planning on
> doing. All I'm saying is...my track isn't going to
> have the most spiffy production. I won't compress
> it any further, but I think people should be
> allowed to submit whatever recording they like
> best. While according to John K Samson, we
> shouldn't miss tape hiss (or the modern man), some
> of us do miss it.


Haha, as TKurata eruditely pointed out, mp3 compression =/= tape grind!!!

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do I have to hit you over the head with it?
nigelewan.com · last.fm

Okay, everyone, here's something I need input on:

I'm putting together the HWNtMG mini-site, and thinking if all it has is two paragraphs for each song (one from the picker and one from the recorder), I might as well hard-code the info into the page, have fine-grained control over the text, and not bother with a cms at all. Is that ok with everyone? Are there other bits of info people want included on the site?

Let me know, please!

---

do I have to hit you over the head with it?
nigelewan.com · last.fm

nigel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Okay, everyone, here's something I need input on:
>
> I'm putting together the HWNtMG mini-site, and
> thinking if all it has is two paragraphs for each
> song (one from the picker and one from the
> recorder), I might as well hard-code the info into
> the page, have fine-grained control over the text,
> and not bother with a cms at all. Is that ok with
> everyone? Are there other bits of info people want
> included on the site?
>
> Let me know, please!


That sounds good to me, but I am just me, so you know...

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"There's good self-consciousness, and then there's toxic, paralyzing, raped-by-psychic-Bedouins self-consciousness." - David Foster Wallace

Is it too late to sign up?

HospitalBomb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is it too late to sign up?


pretty much... sorry man.

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Quote
John
it was actually 2 7"s btw and the mastering date was 5/1, I cancelled it this a.m.

This is why you should be nice to everyone.

Don't fret! Be sure to check the forums next tour and look for a Philly date. This is Acow's way of trying to make sure John doesn't miss the Philly stop anymore.

---

I've got big plans. ◊ Talking Blanket ◊ Yay, Butts! LOL!

Nigel, thank you for backing me up re: lossless files. For a minute I thought I was the only one!

Edited to quote SlowWestVulture: "I also think people shouold be able to submit any standard type of audio file they like. After all, it's not like you have to worry about somone messing with the quality of your song."

The thing is though, it's not about being worried that someone will mess with the quality of your song - it's wanting to listen to everyone else's songs in full quality too!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2009 04:48PM by lincolnic.

Sometimes the lack of fidelity adds to the quality. Just sayin'.

TKurata Wrote:
> What am I going to do with all these boxes of "Hi,
> We're Not The Mountain Goats" t-shirts???

Ha. Something like this?

weshallallbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sometimes the lack of fidelity adds to the
> quality. Just sayin'.


As TKurata said, mp3 compression does not equal tape grind. Nor does it equal low-fi. There's a difference between a low-fi recording and a recording (low-fi or not) compressed into an mp3. There is never anything good about compression artifacts.

lincolnic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> weshallallbe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Sometimes the lack of fidelity adds to the
> > quality. Just sayin'.
>
>
> As TKurata said, mp3 compression does not equal
> tape grind. Nor does it equal low-fi. There's a
> difference between a low-fi recording and a
> recording (low-fi or not) compressed into an mp3.
> There is never anything good about compression
> artifacts.


Not only that, but a truly lo-fi recording sounds much better without the mp3 compression. I couldn't believe what I was missing until I got a lossless copy of AHWT, for example.

---

do I have to hit you over the head with it?
nigelewan.com · last.fm

Point taken. I wasn't planning on compressing mine to mp3, anyway. I guess I was playing devil's advocate but misunderstanding the discussion. Sorry, guys.

Down with compression!

nigel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not only that, but a truly lo-fi recording sounds
> much better without the mp3 compression. I
> couldn't believe what I was missing until I got a
> lossless copy of AHWT, for example.


It's true! I mastered an EP for a Japanese garage-punk band called The Back C.C.'s a few weeks ago and it was the rawest, most low-fi thing. Sounded amazing.

Anyway, sorry if I'm coming off like a dick here, everybody. I just get really passionate about this stuff.

Well, I'm just going to do whatever I can to figure out how to get this down. If someone wants to then convert it or clean it up feel free, but I don't really get how to alter them and usually don't hear differences between them that much anyhow (unless all the mp3s I get are the same caliber). So that's just a little beyond where some of us are probably at to get up in arms about what level it is.

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We are the ones who don't slow down at all...

StatusFrustratio Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My dad took music tech, he'd be so
> disappointed...but can you tell me what this means
> practically?
> When I copy a tape into GarageBand I just hit
> record or whatever it is...are there any settings
> I need to alter first? & what do I need to save it
> as?

Just look for the bitrate setting under mp3. ANYTHING is better than 128, at least go to 192 bare minimum. Of course it takes more hard drive space... I don't know if you are saving files while creating in GB, or if you mix down the whole project? If you save to .wav or .aiff, that is lossless. I think lossless wavs run @ about 700kbps per channel fyi.

Your lowest bitrate in your session is the weakest link. If you use a bunch of mp3s during creation, and save to wav, you aren't accomplishing much.

If you are confused or scared about this, don't be. Just tell your detractors that you submitted a 7.1 channel 96 kHz 24 bit mixdown and acowkickedme must have messed it up. Just do your thing--but know that it will sound better at higher resolutions! If you are exporting in iTunes, you can easily change those settings to wav or 320k mp3. Google gives easy answers to these questions, "how do I change the bitrate in itunes," etc...

The better your speakers/headphones/amp, the easier it is to hear the compression. It's easily discernible in flat response headphones or studio monitors.

Don't confuse this with the compression effect--like tube compression or sidechain compression. That is something else.

Back to what Truckface said though...let's just make music for now and worry about the other stuff later!

---

my music

Thanks TKaruta, I'll see how this goes. I particularly like the buck-passing tip...