Bude’s Garage Band Jam
June 11, 2008 | 1 Comment
A few years ago when I first got my G5 Mac and was playing around a lot with Garage Band. Bude got into it a bit and ripped out with this short little riff. It’s kind of cool and he asked me if I still had it this week, so here it is for all to enjoy.
Listen Now! (1:26 playtime, 1.7MB MP3)
Tags: bude, garage band, mp3, music, pansy, shawn budro
Connect360 - iLife Meets XBox 360
January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I knew you could connect a Windows Media Center PC to your XBox 360 to extend the available content, but my primary machine at home is a Mac running OS X. This means all the fun media (movies, music, and pictures) is all on there. So after a bit of searching I turned up the absolutely amazing Connect360 by Nullriver Software.
So how exactly does it work and what does it do?
The iTunes integration allows you to browse and play your iTunes music by song, artist, album, genre or playlist. As expected, this allows support for listening to your iTunes songs while playing a game. It even updates your iTunes play count and play date for songs played on your Xbox 360.
In addition, Connect360 supports streaming of live Internet radio broadcasts by simply addind any station to a playlist
As for iPhoto, you can view your photo library, browse by photo album or watch a slideshow.
Any movies in your movie folder become available for viewing in full screen.
Connect360 supports the following formats:
MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF and Apple Lossless for Music. For Photos, Connect360 supports: JPEG, RAW, GIF, PNG, BMP and TIFF. For video streaming, currently only WMV+WMA, AVI (DIVX/XVID), H.264 and MPEG4 files are supported (in MP4 and MOV containers).
On top of all this sweetness, it also does “automagic transcoding”. With this feature, it can do on-the-fly automatic transcoding of many formats so that you can enjoy even more content on you Xbox 360.
As for setup, you drop a new control panel on your Mac and this Connect360 software will automatically detect your Xbox 360 and in turn your 360 will automatically detect your Mac and the media made available to it.
The demo is free, and the full version is merely $20, so if you have this setup, try it out, you won’t be sorry.
Tags: aac, avi, connect360, divx, h.264, iLife, mac, media center, media center pc, media pc, microsoft, mp3, music, osx, pictures, video, xbox, xvid
How Far We’ve Come - Matchbox Twenty
October 24, 2007 | 6 Comments
When Matchbox Twenty released Yourself or Someone Like You, I promptly fell in love with them and played that CD possibly more than any other, ever. Somehow I slowly stopped paying attention to them. Until now.
Their new song, “How Far We’ve Come”, is awesome, so is the video. Fully embracing You Tube, the band has released most of their videos there for your viewing pleasure.
This new video shows the band playing in front of classic video footage of modern history. The footage progresses through: JFK, the moon walk, Muhammad Ali, peace movement, women’s rights movement, Pele, fall of the Berlin Wall, Tiananmen Square protests, the personal computer, Live Aid, Princess Di, new millennium, Oslo Accords with Bill Clinton and Yassar Arafat, Live Earth with Al Gore, Campaign 2008 featuring Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Tags: al gore, Barack Obama, berlin wall, bill clinton, hillary clinton, how far we've come, JFK, matchbox 20, matchbox twenty, moon walk, Muhammad Ali, music, music video, oslo accords, peace, pele, princess di, protest, protests, rob thomas, soccer, song, tiananmen square, women's suffrage, yassar arafat, yourself or someone like you
DotA Music Video by Basshunter
June 28, 2007 | 1 Comment
I’m not sure what’s more shocking about this video to me. Is it the idea that in Sweden a techno song about could be written about DotA? That the song could go to number 6 on the Swedish music charts? Or that after a night of DotA one would go out clubbing with a large group of super-model hot women all over them? Madness.
Check out some of these lyrics:
We’re sitting here in Ventrilo
playing some DotA.
We push on and we’re owning,
with the opposition we’re toying.
Running around creeping
the opponents we’re sleeping.
This Basshunter guy kinda scares me.
Tags: basshunter, creeping, creeps, defense of the ancients, dota, music, music video, song, ventrilo, video
DRM is Cracking
April 3, 2007 | 1 Comment
Digital Rights Management or DRM is a concept I have always opposed. In general I feel it is expensive and complicated for vendors to sustain, while relatively simple others to break, all the while punishing consumers and paying customers. I had never really summarized my thoughts on this other than the occasional verbal tirade.
After Steve Jobs shared his thoughts against DRM last year I felt it was no longer necessary for me to chime in since he hit the nail on the head. Finally someone with the ability to influence direction of DRM today and in the future was making bold statements about why it is ridiculously broken. However, were these merely words? Was Jobs making these statements to pander to the European Union who is blocking the international expansion of the highly successful iTunes music store?
Apparently not.
Casey pointed to the huge joint announcement this week from Apple and EMI about their planned release of the entire EMI digital collection in DRM free, higher quality (256kbps) AAC files for $1.29 per song. This is a 30 cent increase that is well worth it to gain higher quality and vendor neutrality in the future. To sweeten the deal, when purchasing full albums, there will be absolutely no cost increase for DRM free music! What about those of you who have already filled your music collections with EMI music that has the Apple DRM? For a mere 30 cents, you can upgrade to the DRM-free version! This new service will launch in May.
EMI’s diverse list of artists includes: A Perfect Circle, The Beatles, David Bowie, The Chemical Brothers, Coldplay, Dandy Warhols, Gorillaz, Ben Harper, Norah Jones, KoЯn, Lenny Kravitz, Pink Floyd, Queen, Radiohead, Relient K, The Thrills, KT Tunstall, Robbie Williams, Yellowcard, The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Keith Urban, etc. There are many old school artists, as well as new artists I’ve fallen in love with from Virgin Radio or idobi Radio. In short, no matter what type of music you’re into, EMI has something for you.
Hopefully EMI will see great success from this initiative. In turn, this could cause all of DRM in digital music to crumble. As the music industry succumbs to delivering more consumer friendly, flexible music, video should follow. This is good for everyone.
Since the beginning of the digital music revolution, I have reduced my music buying habits. In fact, I have bought less than 10 CDs in the last 7 years. Prior to that, I had built a CD collection in excess of 300 CDs. These have all been ripped to my iPod. Additionally, I listen to a lot of podcasts. For new music, all of this comes from internet radio. I’m looking forward to finally being comfortable purchasing music again.
Tags: A Perfect Circle, aac, apple, Ben Harper, Coldplay, Dandy Warhols, David Bowie, DRM, emi, Gorillaz, idobi radio, internet radio, Keith Urban, KoЯn, KT Tunstall, Lenny Kravitz, mpaa, music, music industry, Norah Jones, Pink Floyd, podcast, podcasts, Queen, radio, Radiohead, Relient K, riaa, Robbie Williams, steve jobs, The Beatles, The Chemical Brothers, The Rolling Stones, The Thrills, virgin radio, Yellowcard
2006 in Review: What I’ve Been Listening To
December 30, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Podcasts were a new media for me to consume this year and in turn make up a majority of what I have been listening to. I received an iPod for Christmas in 2005 allowing me to get into podcasts. Looking back at the mix of podcasts and music I have been listening to, I think it helps me with perspective about what is in my head this year.
Podcasts:
- Ricky Gervais Show - The crown jewel of comedy podcasts. Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant harass and berate Karl Pilkington, hilarity ensues. I enjoyed The Office, this led me to the podcast and now I consume all comedy that Ricky Gervais delivers (Flanimals, Extras, etc.) I am sad that this series has ended. Hopefully the trio will miss it and return soon.
- NPR Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me - I had been listening to this fairly regularly on NPR. Since it became available in podcast, I haven’t missed an episode. This is a great weekly dose of news with a funny spin. Think of it as a radio version of the Daily Show, presented as a quiz show.
- TWiT - Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, and John C Dvorak are only a handful of the regulars who look at “This Week in Tech”. This weekly discussion about all things tech is fun for any tech savvy individual with an interest in current tech topics.
- Marvel Podcast - consistently good content, though the sound quality, editing, and ability to keep the RSS working properly all count as negatives here. These lack polish in the technology department.
- Comic Geek Speak - As a Marvel only comic fan, I only listen when Marvel is the core of the discussion, but whenever something Marvel hits the show notes, I tune in. I’ve especially loved the Civil War episodes. If you are a comic fan, these guys can satisfy your need to hear and enjoy in depth conversation about events happening in comics right now. Most of us aren’t fortunate enough to have many real life comic fan counterparts to do this with…
- Never Not Funny - I would give this a 3 out of 5 on the funny scale. Not something I would ever pay to listen to, but plenty entertaining to fill a long car ride or as background while doing chores. Jimmy Pardo and Mike Schmidt could use more guests on their show to play off of. Instead, they mostly play off of their producer…
Music Podcasts:
Pub Songs Podcast
Irish and Celtic Music Podcast
Both of these are from Marc Gunn and are pretty solid. I think there is great potential in the near future for music podcasts to take off. Their ability to introduce subscribers/listeners to new and interesting music within a defined genre is greatly powerful.
Radio:
Almost exclusively I listened to idobi Radio. The constant stream of advertisement free punk kept me entertained almost all day of nearly every work day. I’d like to expand this list and find other great radio stations. If anyone knows good alternative rock, punk, celtic, or classical radio stations that are streamed at at least 128 kbs, I would love to hear about them.
Sweet Bands/Albums:
- Green Day: Bullet In A Bible - I can not even count how many times through I’ve listened to this entire CD. I don’t usually like live CDs, but the energy captured here is intoxicating. If you like Green Day, or punk in general, you must own this.
- The Bloody Irish Boys - I discovered these guys on the before mentioned Pub Songs Podcast. I just can’t get enough of their punk Irish mix of music.
- Ceann - Another Pub Songs Podcast find, this Pittsburgh based band mixes music I love with
- Ik Ben - Scott Hylbert’s band is wonderful. I cherish every track they have released.
Music Singles:
These aren’t necessarily new, but they are six selected tracks (five was too hard) I couldn’t get enough of this year. I have excluded any of the artists/albums I mentioned.
- Welcome to the Black Parade: My Chemical Romance - idobi radio introduced this to me just before it started getting insane amount of radio play. I say play away, this song is so sweet.
- Masters of the Universe: Army of Freshmen - As a lifetime He-Man fan, this song is an absolute blast.
- Blackbird: The Beatles - out of the blue I heard this Beatles song which I previously had not heard much. I’ve always liked The Beatles and it was fun to find a “new” song I love.
- Surrender: Cheap Trick - this was used in the sadly cancelled Sons and Daughters partial improv TV show. I get a bit sad when I hear this since I loved the show, but it is still awesome.
- The Suffering: Coheed and Cambria - Al introduced me to this tune. I love it so much.
- 24: Jem - this was in the Ultraviolet trailer and totally sold me on the film… until I saw the movie and hated it. Oh well, the song is still awesome.
That’s it, everything that has colored my audio landscape this calendar year. The iPod made is a banner year for audio in my house. I hope I find half as much great stuff in 2007.
Tags: 2006, audio, bullet in a bible, ceann, celtic, green day, ik ben, internet radio, irish, karl pilkington, marc gunn, music, npr, podcasts, pub songs, radio, ricky gervais, Scott Hylbert, twit
Free Ring Tones on Verizon Wireless
September 2, 2006 | 6 Comments
Anyone who has a cell phone generally reaches a point where the default ring tones are just too common. If you are anything like me, you aren’t all that excited about paying a bunch for a poor MIDI rendition of some song you like just to get it as your semi-unique ring tone. Luckily, if you have Verizon Wireless cell service you can get just about anything as a ring tone for the mere price of a text message. (Which on many plans is free or negligible).
First, find what you want as MIDI file. These are easy enough to find (usually they have a .mid extension). Simply search Google or somewhere and you’ll be doing fine. I personally use the Ramones rendition of the 1960’s Spider-Man cartoon, available at SpiderFan.org
Now, take that MIDI file and attach it to an email addressed to [your number]@vzwpix.com, ex. 5555551234@vzwpix.com. The email will show up in your Inbox and you can assign the attached MIDI as your ring tone! Note: this vzwpix.com email address is primarily intended for transferring pictures to your phone, which is another great use case.
Update: After some testing with friends, this is confirmed as working with 2 different models of Motorola phone, but not with LG. On the LG you can get the sound onto the phone, but there is no way to assign it as a ring tone. If you are testing this with your phone, try the MIDI I listed above as this is a standard MIDI format that is known to work. If you succeed or fail, leave a comment with phone and model so others will know what results to expect!
Keep in mind, you must have the rights to the music you are using. By downloading any old song as MIDI you may be breaking the law. I do not encourage or endorse this.
Tags: binary message, cell, cell phone, cellphone, mid, midi, music, phone, picture phone, ramones, ring, ring tone, ringtone, sms, song, spider-man, text message, verizon, verizon wireless, vzwpix.com