Music

Music is a big part of me: Over the years, I’ve sung in choirs, played the violin (never terribly well) and can plunk tunes out on most other instruments, DJ’d alternative/goth/industrial/ebm/electronica clubs, and collected a whole lot of music.

Famous Faces

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(Just after a customer picks up a job…)

“That guy looked familiar.”

“Yeah, I had the same thought.”

“I think he was in a band.”

“…wasn’t everyone in Seattle in a band at some point?”

“Good point.”

(A few minutes later…)

“Ha! I was right!”

“Really?”

“Yup — he was in the Murder City Devils.”

“Good eye.”

M/A/R/R/S: Pump Up the Volume

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Pump up the volume, pump up the volume, pump up the volume, dance! Dance!

This was the first single I ever bought. I had no idea what a ‘single’ was until that point, and didn’t even realize I was buying one until I got home. I’d just heard the song on the radio and seen the video on Friday Night Videos, saw the cassette while out shopping, and bought it. I was really confused when I got home and the ‘album’ I’d just purchased had four versions of the same song in a row, plus one other song, and the same thing was repeated on side two. I thought it was a mistake of some sort.

Put the needle on the record…put the needle on the record…put the needle on the record, put the needle on the record, put the needle on the record when the jump beats go like this!

Billy Idol’s ‘Cyberpunk’

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The future has imploded into the present. With no nuclear war, the new battlefields are people’s minds and souls. Megacorporations are the new government. The computer generated info-domains are the new frontiers. Though there is better living through science and chemistry, we are all becoming cyborgs.

The computer is the new “cool tool,” and though we say “all information should be free,” it is not. Information is power and currency in the virtual world we inhabit, so mistrust authority.

Cyberpunks are the true rebels. Cyberculture is coming in under the radar of ordinary society. An unholy alliance of the tech world, and the world of organized dissent.

Welcome to the cybercorporation.

Cyberpunks.

1993. Bill Clinton is beginning his presidency. The World Trade Center suffers its first terrorist attack. David Koresh and his followers die in Waco, Texas during a raid by ATF agents. Saddam Hussein orders the assassination of George Herbert Walker Bush. Cruise missiles repeatedly hammer Baghdad during the Iraq disarmament crisis.

Intel ships the first Pentium chips. A bug in a posting program sends a single message to 200 Usenet groups simultaneously, and the term “spam” is coined. The ‘net is still in its infancy, existing primarily through the green and amber glows of text-based computer terminals, accessible only through arcane Unix commands typed into keyboards by a legion of geeks (before the term “geek” gained street cred). Usenet denizens dreading the rush of “newbies” each September as college campuses opened and allowed new students onto the ‘net suddenly face the “September that never ended” when AOL opens Usenet access to its subscribers.

And Billy Idol discovers the power of computers, harnessing the power of Macintosh-based small-studio recording to produce his “Cyberpunk” album.

Cyberpunk

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0 is also a number

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Does anyone know how to access and rip the hidden tracks on the X-Files Songs in the Key of X soundtrack CD on a Mac?

For those who don’t know, the CD (a collection of music featured in the X-Files television show) contains a liner note that says, “Nick Cave and the Dirty Three would like you to know that ‘0’ is also a number.” When you put the CD in a CD player and, rather than hitting ‘Play’, you hit the ‘Rewind’ button (not the ‘Skip Back’ button), you can rewind to the -9:15 mark and find two hidden tracks by Nick Cave and the Dirty Three. The first is “Time Iesum Transeuntem et non Reverendem” (Dread the Passage of Jesus for He Will Not Return), and the second is a cover of the X-Files theme.

Unfortunately, iTunes doesn’t seem to want to scan backwards past the 0:00 mark! I can’t scan backwards, nor can I put a negative value into the ‘Start Time’ option. I looked at the audio file that the Finder displays, but it only reads as 3:25, so it looks like the Finder isn’t reading the extra information either. I even checked it on my “normal” CD player (as it has an optical audio out that I could plug into my G5), but it’s new enough that it isn’t reading the extra bits either.

Has anyone found a way to pull the hidden information off on a Mac? I’d love to know (or, alternately, if anyone happens to have a 128kbps AAC rip of the two tracks, that’d be nice too…)!

Stradivarius' secret

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While I’ve never had the opportunity to hear one in person, nearly anyone involved in the world of music is aware of the near-legendary quality of the instruments created by Italian violin maker Antonio Stradivari. It appears that scientists may have narrowed down one intriguing factor in what makes a Stradivarius sound the way it does — it’s all in the wood.

…a tree-ring dating expert at the University of Tennessee and a climatologist at Columbia University offer a new theory — the wood developed special acoustic properties as it was growing because of an extended period of long winters and cool summers.

[…]

Grissino-Mayer at Tennessee and Dr. Lloyd Burckle at Columbia suggest a “Little Ice Age” that gripped Europe from the mid-1400s until the mid-1800s slowed tree growth and yielded uncommonly dense Alpine spruce for Antonio Stradivari and other famous 17th century Italian violinmakers.

[…]

“I think it is very, very interesting, and it seems to me a valid observation,” said Helen Hayes, president of the New York-based Violin Society of America, which hired Grissino-Mayer to examine “The Messiah.”

“But on the other hand, nobody in this field … would ever say that if you put the best wood in the world in the hands of a mediocre maker that you would get a good instrument,” she said. “So it is never a complete explanation. Nor is the varnish nor any of the other things they have talked about. I would dare say there is no one piece of the puzzle.”

(via Marginal Revolution)

For sale: Pioneer CMX-5000 Twin CD Player

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Note: This was originally posted Apr. 29th. It’s still up for grabs, so I’m moving the post to today’s date for more visibility.

Pioneer CMX-5000

Asking price: \$300.00 SOLD.

Lightly used, but in excellent condition, this unit was purchased new for \$1300 three years ago, but has sat nearly untouched in the two years since I’ve moved to Seattle and stopped DJing. I can’t say anything but good things about this piece of equipment — it’s one of the best DJ units I’ve had the pleasure to work with.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, as as I’ve hardly touched it in the two years since I’ve been in Seattle, it’s time to see if someone who can get a little more use out of it is interested. I’d prefer if someone in or around Seattle who can swing by and pick it up from me bought it (I’m in the lower First Hill area, close to Downtown), as I don’t have a car and shipping would be a major pain. I can accept cash, checks, or PayPal.

Keep reading for technical details from Pioneer’s site (I’d link directly, but they’ve gone Flash…):

Features:

[![Pioneer CMX-5000]]Auto Mix Play** Armed with an original search system, the CMX-5000 measures a track’s BPM and beat timing and then automatically changes the speed to the designated BPM, thereby realizing smooth mixing even for tracks on a single disc that have different tempos.

Three Playback Methods are Available:

  • Track Mode: Performs mixed playback alternating between tracks from discs in both decks.
  • Disc Mode: Performs mixed playback of track on a single disc in numerical order.
  • Program Mode: Performs mixed playback of tracks in any designated order.

Track Playback Time is Adjustable:

  • Short Time Change: Switches the track at a shorter time.
  • Instant Change: Switches the track at the DJ’s preferred time.

The Auto mix function is very effective in the following situations:

  • At times when there no DJ is present in stores, malls, etc., such as an weekdays nonstop background music can be played in DJ style using the establishment’s favorite selections to help creative a more active atmosphere.
  • In bars, restaurants or pubs where the staff work as DJs, the Auto Mix function results in considerable labor saving allowing the staff to devote more of their time to customer service.
  • When DJs playing at clubs, etc., need to take a short break to deal with urgent business or emergencies they can use the Auto Mix function to keep the music rolling.

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– In case of no beat music, smooth mixing cannot be performed because the BPM or beat timing of certain songs can’t be measured correctly.

**In the case of tracks on the same disc, cross fading cannot be performed.

***The CMX-5000, while revolutionary with Auto Beat Mixing capability, does have its limitations just like any electronic device. There are certain variables, that if present, will cause the Auto Beat Mixing function to not function properly. A few things must be in order for it to Auto Mix:

  • Music must be within a +/-16% ratio. If it is not within this range, not only will it not mix, but the beats will not match as well. The BPM’s will stay the same (even with the BPM sync pressed).
  • There must be a steady consistent beat in the beginning of the song. A song that starts with just vocals or off beats rhythms will not mix.
  • Any +/-16% range BPM should mix if it is has a CONSISTENT beat.
  • You must wait a few seconds for the next song to cue up, before hitting “Instant Change”. The player does have to calculate the beats of the next song. It needs just a few seconds to cue up. You will be know that it ready to go when:
    • If the next song programmed is on the other side, an orange colored “dash” going in a semicircle around the display appears.
    • If the next song programmed is on the SAME player, the autocue button quits blinking.

    The “Instant Change” button must be pressed IN TIME. If you decide to use the “instant change”, it must be done in time for it to automix.

DJ Operating Functions The CMX-5000 incorporates and upgrades the functions of Pioneer’s world-renowned DJ-use CD player — the CDJ 700S/500-II — and also boasts a number of brand new functions.

Clear Jog Dial Although the player is a rack mount component, this design results in a larger jog dial and display which together realize higher operability and easy visual confirmation of the current playback status.

Quick Start This feature permits virtually instantaneous playback with a time lag of less than 0.01 seconds from the pause condition.

Cue Functions (Cue Point/Back Cue/Auto Cue/Cue Paint Sampler) Set your own favorite playback points using the above functions. For example, with Auto Cue, you can set the start point of each track automatically.

Tempo Control The playback speed can be adjusted within three kinds of range. +/- 6/10/16%.

Master Tempo With this feature, you can change the playback speed without altering the music’s pitch.

Loop Functions (Seamless Loop/Realtime Loop/Loop-Out Adjust/Re loop) Uninterrupted sound loops can be easily arranged, and with the Re loop function you can return at any time to a previously set loop.

Playing Address The playing address allows you to check the current track’s playback situation visually in paragraph units.

BPM Counter This counter measures and visually displays the current song’s BPM (Beats Per Minute).

Legato Link Conversion for High Quality Sound Equipped with Pioneer’s original wide-range technology Legato Link Conversion the CMX-5000 is capable of reproducing sound frequencies above 20kHz which are lost during normal CD format playback.

Vibration-Proof Memory and Construction The CMX-5000 boasts excellent vibration-resistant characteristics and prevents sound jumps with the double protection afforded by a maximum 8-second vibration proof memory and a special vibration proof construction.

Slot In Thanks to this system, swapping discs is smooth and rapid, and you can say good-bye to worries about damaging the disc tray.

Mix Out The CMX-5000 incorporates a Mix Out terminal that allows use even in cases where there is only one input system, the setup is restricted to a single amplifier, or there is no mixer input margin.

Multi-Read This function plays back not only CD’s and CD-R’s but also CD-RW discs that are impossible to play on a conventional CD player.

Headphone Monitor This handy monitor function enables versatile sound monitoring.

Digital Output The CMX-5000 is equipped with a digital output terminal.

Fader Start Play/Back Cue Play Using the CMX-5000 together with a Pioneer DJ mixer, you can use the mixer’s fade, to control playback operations such as track start and return to cue point.

[Pioneer CMX-5000]: https://michaelhans.com/eclecticism/2003/04/graphics/cmx5000-2-thumb.jpg {width=”150″ height=”107″}

Dead Milkmen tour diaries

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How very, very cool. Dean Clean, drummer for the Dead Milkmen, is posting his tour diaries from the band’s first days of touring back in 1985.

This site contains tour diary entries written by Dean ‘Clean’ Sabatino of the band The Dead Milkmen. We stopped touring back in 1994, but through the magic of modern day computer technology I can tell these stories again.

[…]

I was 23-24 years old when I wrote these diaries. I certainly wasn’t planning on publishing them when I wrote them; so reading them now either makes me laugh, cry or cringe. I will not make any claims to being a gifted writer or diarist, but the aim here is to give the reader some sense of what it was like to tour across the USA in a van with a punk rock band in the mid to late 1980’s. Some say this was the heyday of independent rock music and the college radio scene. I would bet we worked harder and played many more shows than many of today’s ‘alternative’ rock bands will play in their short-lived careers.

(via MeFi)