Music

[ddrueding]

Not where to buy, what encoding to use, or what to listen to it on, but music itself. Bands, recordings, combinations/mixtapes/playlists.

Now that anyone with an internet connection can hear at least a snippet of many songs through Amazon's preview section or Pandora, or something else, this kind of discussion becomes more fun.

Pandora decided to put some Reverend Horton Heat in my Giacomo Puccini station, and it fit remarkably well. That was fun.

Also enjoying the Yoshida Brothers and Scott Davis covers.

 

[Mercutio]

My music of choice is invariably some kind of "serious" or art music. Most of it is classical. I like smatterings of jazz and I listen to some composers whose work is primarily in the form of soundtrack composition or scoring. I'm a big fan of the Holy Minimalists, romantics, impressionists and populist neo-romantics. My tastes also run to pre-Baroque chant and plainsong and to a variety of latter day composers as well. My interest in jazz is largely limited to vocal standards and solo piano or piano trio work. I'm a big fan of Bill Evans.

A lot of populist classical composers work with movie soundtracks, but composers have been doing that for nearly a century at this point. I'm a big fan of Clint Mansell, Howard Shore and Bear McCreary.

I guess I could go back and add links to stuff but I am sleepy.

 

[timwhit]

Merc, have you heard The Lord of the Rings Complete Recordings?

 

[Mercutio]

I most certainly have.

My copies of the included DVD-Audio discs have been ripped to multichannel .FLAC even.

 

[CougTek]

I listen to a great variety of music styles : heavy metal, thrash metal, power metal, industrial metal, black metal, gothic metal, death metal, I could go on... There's some vague link between those styles, but I think I'm fairly open-minded regarding music.

 

[LunarMist]

Are you serious or is that just your character?

 

[ddrueding]

I've noticed that Coug's character seems to be trying harder than anything to prove that he isn't gay. Not that I think he is gay, but anytime there is a question involved, his answer is also the most "manly" answer conceivable.

 

[Mercutio]

It is my observation that heavy metal fans mostly tend to be quiet and unassuming folks in person. The obnoxious meathead frat brother that I'd more readily accuse of closet queerdom is pretty much not a heavy metal fan.

Also, I have seen a picture of Coug. I'm not going to speculate as to his gender preference because it's not anybody's business but he definitely cultivates the biker look.

Also also, (whether or not anybody else here believes it) there is a compelling case to be made for extremely manly dudes who like other manly dudes in a way that is extremely manly. One of the manliest dudes I have ever met was born female. Which is not something I would care to accuse Coug of being.

 

[fb]

Sunn O))) makes some pretty relaxing music.

 

[MaxBurn]

It is my observation that heavy metal fans mostly tend to be quiet and unassuming folks in person.

I'll back that up.

 

[LunarMist]

I've noticed that Coug's character seems to be trying harder than anything to prove that he isn't gay. Not that I think he is gay, but anytime there is a question involved, his answer is also the most "manly" answer conceivable.

I'm not convinced that acting macho is indicative of that. By the same token, some rather effeminate men are completely straight.

 

[CougTek]

Since it's apparently a topic of interest here (and I fail to see why), I'm not a fudge packer. I don't think I'm an unassuming person either. I do however, almost only listen to heavy metal music. I recently discovered this website, which should help me to widen my listening pool (meaning : listen to more varied heavy metal bands).

 

[Bozo]

What?? No Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie? No Big Band/Swing?

All these bands had a lot of "Heavy Metal" :-D

 

[timwhit]

I recently discovered this website, which should help me to widen my listening pool (meaning : listen to more varied heavy metal bands).

Nice tip. I grabbed a couple Devin Townsend albums, very technical and intense.

I've listened to metal since high school, mostly progressive metal. My favorite band is Dream Theater. I've seen them in concert about 5 times.

 

[Stereodude]

I've been impressed with much of BT's repertoire. I haven't hear the two latest albums though.

Interestingly I noticed this in the Amazon listings of both new albums.

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

I wonder if the source really is lossless or if they're just burning decoded MP3s to a CD? :scratch:

Edit: I found an Amazon.com page that says this

All products are manufactured from original source materials (e.g., for audio products, uncompressed CD-quality audio).

 

[Mercutio]

What?? No Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie? No Big Band/Swing?

It's not my thing, but I can respect it. Those guys legitimately know how to play their instruments and the ability to improvise is way, WAY harder than it sounds.
For jazz I just prefer small ensembles. I think the most recent Jazz recording I've purchased was something by Christian McBride.

 

[fb]

I just want to mention that Linn Records is giving away a free Studio Master recording everyday between now and Christmas.

http://christmas.linn.co.uk/

 

[fb]

Deutsche Grammophon gives away a free Valentine's Day track per day between feb 8 and 14.

www.deutschegrammophon.com

 

[Mercutio]

Oooh. That is a good link. Thanks!

 

[ddrueding]

[h=5]Looking for a battle remix of Blurred Lines and The Fox. Surely this exists on the internet... (yes, I linked to the clean version. But I can highly recommend the unrated version)

http://youtu.be/yyDUC1LUXSU
http://youtu.be/jofNR_WkoCE[/h]

 

[Mercutio]

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir:

1. Lux Aurumque - 185 voices

[video=youtube;D7o7BrlbaDs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs[/video]

2. Sleep - 1752 voices

[video=youtube;6WhWDCw3Mng]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WhWDCw3Mng[/video]

3. Water Night - 2945 voices

[video=youtube;V3rRaL-Czxw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3rRaL-Czxw[/video]

4. Bliss (Fly to Paradise) - 5905 voices (Note that the piece is SUPPOSED to have the synth/dubstep backing in its original conception)

[video=youtube;Y8oDnUga0JU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8oDnUga0JU[/video]

... but some kind people took the source tracks and removed or downmixed those bits.

[video=youtube;oQu11CD2w7E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oQu11CD2w7E[/video]

 

[ddrueding]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing that.

 

[Stereodude]

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir:

Not to rain on anyone's parade, I'm just a bit skeptical (okay a lot skeptical) that the audio to the videos is actually from the people shown. The fidelity is way too high for the average person singing into their webcam's microphone or whatever passes for a PC microphone these days getting clobbered with ADPCM compression. I mean I don't see people singing into condenser microphones in the video clips. Further it just doesn't sound like number of voices claimed. I've done sound for vocal groups before and they just don't sound right for hundreds let alone thousands of people.

 

[Mercutio]

Some (not a lot, but some) of them are using condensers, actually, though you can't see them in the cropped videos very often. Since they're essentially having every trick of pro audio production applied to the source videos, no, it wouldn't surprise me if there's some auto-tuning involved. It also wouldn't surprise me if the mixing process for 500+ individual very similar tracks is enough to render audio imperfections irrelevant.

If you're really curious about what they're doing, they actually have a forum and a dedicated staff. It's mostly focused on the individual recording aspect, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Also, you can do a search on Youtube to find many of the individual submissions if you really want to; some people have made much smaller mixes using audio sourced from the project.

 

[Stereodude]

There's also the lack of accents. The complete absence of any slight timing variations in all the performances which should be inevitable since they didn't perform together. If the pieces are really legit, the makers have post processed the audio to the point they sound like a choir of 20-30 people which ruined the potential of such a massive choir.

 

[Mercutio]

Accent isn't really a factor in choral singing ever. Proper vocal technique and decent direction general fix issues with diction and pronunciation. Classical ensembles sing in languages they don't speak all the damned time. It's not much of an issue.

 

[ddrueding]

Interesting that my mid-30s is the closest I've come to genuinely liking songs that might be considered pop.

Lorde - Royals / Tennis Court
AWOLNATION - Sail (unofficial video)
Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
Avicii - Wake Me Up / Hey Brother

Not sure which has moved more (my tastes or pop).

 

[Mercutio]

Imagine Dragons - Radioactive

One of my friends dances to this version as part of her set. She likes it better and some other girl who works at the same time does the one you linked.

No, I can't believe I know that either.

 

[ddrueding]

I do like Lindsey Stirling, but for covers of this song I prefer William Joseph.

 

[paugie]

Maybe because my mother used to play the piano, I like listening to Piano Music.
I dream of coming over (to your side of the ocean) and listening to George Winston play, live.

 

[time]

Lorde - Royals / Tennis Court
AWOLNATION - Sail (unofficial video)
Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
Avicii - Wake Me Up / Hey Brother

Not sure which has moved more (my tastes or pop).

Neither, I think. Apart from Imagine Dragons (which is seriously good pop), the others would be classed more as "alternative" - which may just be a euphemism for "has meaningful lyrics".

If you want real pop, Katie Perry, Mylie Cyrus et al are more than happy to give it to you.

 

[time]

I dream of coming over (to your side of the ocean) and listening to George Winston play, live.

Thanks for that, Paugie. Just sampled some of Hummingbird, and I do like what he manages to extract from a piano.

 

[ddrueding]

I don't normally listen to rap, but the combination of great production and amazing lyrics has led me to the album "The Heist" by "Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis". Not the usual "bitches and hoes", one of their songs is called "Ten Thousand Hours", referring to Malcolm Gladwell's argument that spending such an amount of time on a skill will make you an expert (even calling him out by name).

Not fake rap, this is hard stuff, but honest and intelligent.

 

[ddrueding]

After way too much wine with the boss after a sharks game, I'm back in my office listening to Dubstep remixes of songs I like at absurd volume levels. Best comment on a song:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Last thing that dropped this hard
Ended WWII

 

[ddrueding]

I don't normally listen to rap, but the combination of great production and amazing lyrics has led me to the album "The Heist" by "Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis". Not the usual "bitches and hoes", one of their songs is called "Ten Thousand Hours", referring to Malcolm Gladwell's argument that spending such an amount of time on a skill will make you an expert (even calling him out by name).

Not fake rap, this is hard stuff, but honest and intelligent.

Turns out these guys had a mainstream hit that isn't half bad. "Can't Hold Us"

 

[Mercutio]

I've been on a Debussy kick lately. Over the weekend I sat down at a piano in one of my customers' restaurants and noodled around for a while, something I haven't done in six or seven years. I really stopped playing because my eyesight got bad enough to make learning new music frustrating, but I still remember the things I practiced for hundreds of hours 20 years ago, like Debussy's Woodcuts.

 

[Stereodude]

After way too much wine with the boss after a sharks game, I'm back in my office listening to Dubstep remixes of songs I like at absurd volume levels. Best comment on a song:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Last thing that dropped this hard
Ended WWII

You hang out drinking wine in the office with your boss?

 

[ddrueding]

You hang out drinking wine in the office with your boss?

Sometimes, but this time we went up to his place to grab a bite to eat and watch the game. He has excellent season tickets and the game was happening 50 miles away, but I had to go back to work after.

 

[ddrueding]

Been discovering Avicii over the last few weeks. Favorite so far is probably "Shame on Me"

 

[ddrueding]

Now that I have a bad-ass audio system, I find that songs that sound clean are getting much more play. Recordings by "The Xx", particularly "Stars" is getting a lot of attention at the moment. Other suggestions?