Computer Audiophile - Blogs - curmudgeon

Women Kept Guitars Strumming During WWII

curmudgeon — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:40:36 GMT

In a recent piece from the Voice of America ...

Edith and Miles

curmudgeon — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:12:23 GMT

I'm no philatelist, but this -- featuring two of my favorite artists -- caught my attention at a trip to the post office last week. Probably won't be using these for bill payments. Guess I might have to explore the Postal Service's Music Icon series to see what else they have.

Audio Engineering 2013

curmudgeon — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 05:52:33 GMT

Landfill Harmonic

curmudgeon — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 23:15:07 GMT

As 2012 Winds Down

curmudgeon — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 22:53:21 GMT

In keeping with family (who else would care?) tradition, I am working up a list of my favorite artists/albums of 2012. Of course, I haven't heard it all and could never claim any of this to be the "best". Here is the list so far, in order of when they came to mind (for whatever that implies):

Me'Shell N'Degeocello: Pour Une Ame Souveraine - A Dedication to Nina Simone
Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas
Chrysta Bell: This Train (see note*)
Cecelia Bartoli: Mission
Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel
From The Mouth of The Sun: Woven Tide
Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones: Live at the Checkerboard Lounge (1981)
Emilia Amper: Trollfageln (The Magic Bird)
Anne Akiko Meyers: Air - The Bach Album
Kimiko Ishizaka: Bach - Goldberg Variations (Open Goldberg Project)
Cold Specks: I Predict a Graceful Expulsion
Esperanza Spalding: Radio Music Society
Calexico: Algiers
Neneh Cherry: The Cherry Thing
Brooklyn Rider: Seven Steps

More close contenders ...

Mumford and Sons: Babel
Neil Young: Psychedelic Pill
Regina Spektor: What We Saw From The Cheap Seats
Rachael Yamagata: Heavyweight (EP)
Cat Power: Sun
Beirut: Rip Tide
Bob Dylan: Tempest
Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now
Laura Gibson: La Grande
Jack White: Blunderbuss
Melody Gardot: The Absence
The Shins: Port of Morrow
David Byrne & St. Vincent: Love This Giant
Daniel Barenboim/West-Eastern Divan Orchestra: Beethoven for All - Symphonies 1-9

* I am told that this album actually released in 2011, but I couldn't get it until 2012, so it gets counted in.

SQ varied among my picks, particularly with respect to the plague of compressed dynamic range, but the music/performance of any victims/miscreants above kept me listening in spite of that disappointment.

Oh, yes. There were a number of other albums that came highly recommended by friends and acquaintances and are worth a listen, but they just didn't stick for some reason or another, such as:

Frank Ocean: channel ORANGE
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Alelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
Gary Clark, Jr: Blak and Blu
Grizzly Bear: Shields
Beach House: Bloom
Swans: The Seer
and more ...

My biggest list is the one of stuff still to be heard. Not to mention what will happen as I continue to listen to my 2012 list into 2013 and beyond.

Ravi Shankar, R.I.P.

curmudgeon — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:00:17 GMT

Like many of us, my introduction to Indian music in the 1960s was via Ravi Shankar, and I have loved this stuff ever since. He died yesterday, but left us two wonderful daughters whose work are also staples in my collection: Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones.

Just one sample story here.

Farewell, Dave Brubeck

curmudgeon — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:12:06 GMT

Jazz legend Dave Brubeck has died at age 91. More details abound, like here.

I started accumulating a jazz collection when I was in high school, and one of the first albums I rushed out to buy when it was first released in 1959 was Brubeck's Time Out, featuring the immortal Take Five. Already this fine tribute vid has appeared today on YouTube:

Carry On, Teisha

curmudgeon — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 22:05:40 GMT

When singer-songwriter Teisha Helgerson died of leukemia last year, her friends discovered unfinished work in her journals and cell phone recordings. Thus began a collaborative effort to finish and record the songs. Some are performed in part by Teisha, others by her artist friends.

Teisha was the frontwoman for the Portland-based indie folk-pop-whatever ("latin-tinged country jazz") group, Amelia, and other bands that became increasingly popular in the Pacific Northwest and regional music scenes.

A CD is to be released on August 23, but you can stream the tracks now at Teisha and Friends and even download in your choice of MP3, FLAC, ALAC and other formats on a pay-what-you-like basis ($10 suggested for the whole album, $2 for a track), with the proceeds benefitting patients undergoing bone marrow transplant treatment.

Learn more about Teisha here: Friends help Teisha Helgerson's voice 'Carry On' | OregonLive.com

Here is a track listing with DR values:

foobar2000 1.1.10 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2012-08-19 13:06:26

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: James Low / Carry On (1)
Michael Jodell and Matt Brown / Carry On (2)
Mike Coykendall / Carry On (3)
Miss Tulie and Aaron Walker / Carry On (4)
Ritchie Young / Carry On (5)
Scott Weddle / Carry On (6)
Stephanie Schneiderman / Carry On (7)
Susannah Weaver / Carry On (8)
Teisha Helgerson (with Say Uncle) / Carry On (9)
Teisha Helgerson and Jim Brunberg / Carry On (10)
Teisha Helgerson / Carry On (11-13)
Wendy Pate / Carry On (14)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR11 -0.39 dB -17.99 dB 2:25 05-Carry On
DR9 -3.19 dB -13.80 dB 2:49 03-100 Happy Goodbyes
DR12 0.00 dB -15.78 dB 2:46 08-Snowflakes
DR15 0.00 dB -16.13 dB 2:47 06-The Greatest Valentine
DR14 -0.18 dB -19.09 dB 2:43 13-Morgan May
DR14 -1.14 dB -18.70 dB 3:45 09-Nothing Fancy This Time
DR10 -1.20 dB -14.55 dB 3:21 14-Come Around My Love
DR12 0.00 dB -14.34 dB 3:06 02-The State That You're In
DR11 -3.44 dB -18.31 dB 2:47 15-Ma Seule
DR11 -1.28 dB -15.50 dB 1:23 11-It is What It is
DR10 -1.19 dB -14.25 dB 0:55 01-It's All Gonna Be Great
DR16 -0.14 dB -26.63 dB 0:51 07-Snowflakes
DR17 -3.87 dB -23.68 dB 1:05 10-It Is What It Is
DR10 -0.96 dB -14.70 dB 3:04 04-Toast to the Twilight
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 14
Official DR value: DR12

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 762 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================== ==============================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Statistics for: 12-Arithmetic
Number of samples: 14219898
Duration: 4:56
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Left Right

Peak Value: -1.48 dB --- -0.22 dB
Avg RMS: -16.14 dB --- -15.84 dB
DR channel: 11.23 dB --- 12.15 dB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official DR Value: DR12

Samplerate: 48000 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 1416 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================== ==============================

Also check out this Amelia piece from a few years back:
Oregon Art Beat — Amelia � Oregon Public Broadcasting

Cembalo, Anyone?

curmudgeon — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:41:17 GMT

From time to time, I binge on harpsichord music (particularly Couperin, Scarlatti, Bach). Today, through the Good Graces of Google, I chanced upon a remarkable online resource. At La Sala del Cembalo del caro Sassone I found a massive repository, featuring free listening (appears to use Flash streaming) as a Creative Commons non-profit effort. (For some reason I suspect that this amazing resource is well known to almost all baroque music lovers except me.)

The site was started in 2006 by harpsichordist/composer/teacher Fernando De Luca and his engineer friend, who have recorded over 126 hours of baroque harpsichord (played mostly by De Luca, I believe). So far. Don't know the technical details, but you can choose to listen in "high quality" or "low quality". In some instances, sheet music images and other imagery are available. From Albinoni to Zipoli. I have barely scratched the surface, and expect to be streaming this stuff into my office for some time ...

Also find De Luca's personal site here: Fernando De Luca - clavicembalista, clavicembalo, harpsichord, cembalo, clavecin

Dylan's Tempest

curmudgeon — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:57:27 GMT

Bob Dylan fans -- I can't be the only one around here -- will be interested to learn that a new album is due for release in September. For more details, go to Tempest Press Release | The Official Bob Dylan Site and Bob Dylan Tempest Tracklist, Release Date.

PopSpots

curmudgeon — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:47:53 GMT

Appreciating music often entails, especially with vinyl, appreciating album cover art. Many covers adorn my listening room walls. As a photographer myself and former art gallery manager (as well as having an old girlfriend who made most of her living creating album covers), I perhaps have a special fondness for such art. Surely there are many of you who love this stuff, too. I just stumbled upon a site that shows us the backstory and location information on some well-known covers -- go to http://www.popspotnyc.com to learn more.

That Girl

curmudgeon — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:59:34 GMT

I'm guessing I'm not the only person here whose music collection includes "Getz/Gilberto":

The Elusive Girl From Ipanema - WSJ.com

Time-Lapse Earth Flyover With The xx

curmudgeon — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:24:47 GMT

When listening to music, I usually prefer to let my mind conjure up its own images, but sometimes a pre-determined mix of imagery and sonics work nicely. Here 18-year-old Croatian video editor Tomislav Safundzic has paired NASA images with music from The xx, one of my favorite UK ndie groups of their particular genre. Watch in either Flash (smoother) or HTML5 (more Apple-friendly).

The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Twelve Minutes

curmudgeon — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 05:57:42 GMT

Not everyone's gonna agree that these would be the top 100 riffs, but it's a great show.

In Case You Missed ...

curmudgeon — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:54:47 GMT

Mick Jagger on SNL ...

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.p...the-last-time/

Video: Mick Jagger, Arcade Fire, and Foo Fighters on Saturday Night Live � Consequence of Sound