In Rainbows is up for Download!

Well sorta anyway...

I'm currently watching the little firefox spinning thingy just twirl away as the page wont load. I can only assume that every tech savvy music fan on the web is hitting this poor little server all at once.

In the time it's taken me to type this out I've made NO progress on loading the page. None.

As soon as I can get my hands on it I'll write about (for 7 of you who care what I think), but I'll tell ya, the anticipation is killing me. Early reviews are praising this album.

Such an awesome experiment, even if you aren't a Radiohead fan, I still recommend you go and check the album out.


DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM HERE

Powered by ScribeFire.

Trent Reznor splits from Universal Music, goes completely independent

Hot on the heels of the EMI story I JUST posted on, comes this gem just BURNING up Digg (about 4500 so far):

No doubt as a reaction to all the bad press he's been giving record labels, Universal/Interscope has relieved Trent Reznor of his contractual duties. As of today, Nine Inch Nails is working without a useless money-grubbing middleman and going straight to the fans. The revolution continues...

read more | digg story

Maybe a revolution IS finally brewing.

I for one welcome our new label-less music over-lords...

One of the fastest picking guitarists...

I'm not a huge fan of Metal, but this is just amazing to watch.

I present Yngwie Malmsteen, literally just putzing along:




Too frakkin cool...

Long Live Wilhelm

I dig the Wilhelm Scream.
It's pretty much awesome.

It is surprising how often it creeps up, but it seems to be a staple of movie making (or at least ADR), especially for how long this little sound effect has been around.
From Wiki:

The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect first used in 1951 for the movie Distant Drums. Actor-singer Sheb Wooley is considered to be the most likely voice actor for the scream, having appeared on a memo as a voice extra for the movie.
The Wilhelm scream has been featured in many movies and television programs since. Alongside a certain recording of the cry of the Red-tailed Hawk, the "Universal telephone ring"[1], the Goofy holler and "Castle thunder," it is probably one of the best-known cinematic sound clichés.

Finding this Youtube clip was a joy. Funny just how many modern films/TV shows are still employing it today (though it gets kinda grating when you hear it back to back to back).

SO, check the clip out, and you'll never be able to see a film again without picking up on a scream that's been used for over 50 years!

HAHA!
***EDIT***

Just caught this on Digg from user 'bettereth'

Yeah I was totally about to say "no effing way", but imdb has a list of the movies it's in: http://www.imdb.com/keyword/wilhelm-scream/

'Hands tells EMI staff to "WAKE UP"'

Sent to me from Mrs. Audio Guy (thanks Hon)!

Story out of Variety, apparently Guy Hands (chairman of Terra Firma, the new owners of EMI) is telling his staff to wake up and get with!

Following the developments of iTunes, P2P, and most recently Radiohead's decision to forgo traditional studio support in releasing it's latest album (and asking fans to only pay what they think it's worth), Hands appears ready to turn the entire music industry on it's ear.

Hands wrote: "Rather than embracing digitalization and the
opportunities it brings for promotion of product and distribution
through multiple channels, the industry has stuck its head in the sand."
The Terra Firma boss believes that other EMI acts and their managers will
be following the Radiohead initiative closely to see whether such a
business model can earn musicians more money than following the
traditional record company route.
"Why should (established acts) subsidize their label's new talent roster — or for that matter their record company's excessive expenditures and advances?" Hands said in his memo.

This is very encouraging. It's one thing to have peripheral acts like The Bare Naked Ladies and The Grateful Dead supporting radical distribution of music, but to have the head of a major label practically daring the rest of the music industry (and challenging their mistakes) is down right awesome. Between this and their stance on DRM, EMI is shaping up to be the most forward thinking label in music.

The formal distribution of music can not become a free service or a loss leader. If there's no incentive to craft an album, if artists can not benefit from the distribution of their content, then we'll be headed for a musical dark ages.

READ THE REST HERE @ VARIETY

Heh-heh, turn the industry on it's "ear" ...

A Really Fun Audio Illusion...

Play this video.
As soon as the video is done playing, immediately play it again.



AMAZING Audio Illusion - More free videos are here


Pretty neat, huh?



A little TOO neat...



hmmmm...

SomeAudioGuy Reads you a Poem, a ROMANTIC Poem!

Maybe some day I'll record something that isn't Poe...

Who knows?

It COULD happen...

Anywho, here's 'To Helen (ii)' by E.A. Poe. Enjoy!



And keep an eye (ear?) out for some original work soon from the mysterious "PoetryGirl". It's pretty exciting stuff!!!

Blu-Ray Playback Problems Linked to Copy Protection?

You all know how I feel about DRM and copy protection.
I'm pretty much against any ACTIVE protection. I'm a big fan of watermarking and passive protection. Basically any protection that prevents people from playing the content equals, and anything that will link the content back to who originally owned it equals good.
I think content needs to be payed for, and if you buy something and are dumb enough to put it up on the web, well that's your problem...

My problem with active protection is that it doesn't work. It only prevents the paying customers from watching it the way they want to. Anyone who wants to get around it will.

Case in point, Sony's latest batch of Blu-Ray's "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and "Day After Tomorrow", both chock full of Sony's latest copy protection, dont play well with older Blu-Ray players by Samsung and LG. There have been other problems reported with BD+ Copy Protection, but usually with special features content not the movies themselves.

Highdefdigest.com has the scoop:

The most severe problems have been reported on Samsung's BDP-1200
and LG's BH100, which are both said to be incapable of playing back the
discs at all. Less catastophic issues (error messages and playback
stutter) have been reported for Samsung's BDP-1000. The discs appear to
play back fine on all other Blu-ray players (including the PlayStation
3), although users have reported lengthy load times of up to two
minutes.
It has been widely speculated that these issues stem from the use of
BD+ copy protection on the two discs. We contacted Fox for comment, but
so far there's no official word from the studio.
Calls placed to both Samsung and LG customer support revealed that
both manufacturers are aware of the issue, and that both are working on
firmware updates to correct it. Samsung promised a firmware update
within "a couple" weeks, while LG said an update is expected in 3-4
days.

Read the rest here.

RIAA Rips Defendant in Nation's First Downloading Jury Trial

The Recording Industry Association of America thinks Jammie Thomas of Minnesota is Tereastarr, and liable for perhaps millions of dollars in damages in the nation's first RIAA copyright case to go to trial Tuesday.

read more | digg story

Unhelpful Robot for Skype and VOIP

Hey all!
Thanks for the positive feedback on UR.
I went back in to record a few more alerts for myself for Skype, VOIP, and Instant Messengers.
You can download them here:
VOIP TONES FOR UnHelpFul RoBot

Take a listen:


And you can download the original batch of U.R. HERE.