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Digitalizing the vinyls

By DJNo Comments

Ghost In The Vinyl

There’s one loong loong project ahead. Taking each of my vinyls on the turntable set next to my laptop, playing and recording them, normalizing the recording and tagging and archiving the mp3-files. Even if I would just record the most important records, this would take months. I was thinking to make the process a bit shorter, but I ended up having a software question in front of me.

I took the first step today and bought the cartridge which has been told to be the best one available for DJing purposes. No matter to which DJ-needle you compare Grado DJ200, the difference is huge. Check it yourself:

DJ Caro2 tested seven different DJ cartridges and recorded the test. Take a moment and listen the test. The last two loops are recorded with Grado DJ200 – the quality difference is mad. Here are the cartridges used in the test – you can hear each for about 10 sec.

Stanton 500al 1.8g (low weight)
Stanton 500al 3g
Stanton 680Hp 3g
Shure M35X 2g
Shure M44G 1.5g
Ortofon DJ E 3g
Ortofon Elektro 3g
Grado Dj200 3.4g (Technics SL-1200Mk5)
Grado Dj200 3.4g (Stanton STR8-80)

Now as I have the best possible cartridge, I would still need some good software to do as much work for me as possible. Basically the easiest and fastest way to digitalize the vinyls would be to record them to one file without breaks.

So – I need a program which will split this long audio file into separate tracks. Then I need a program which would normalize all these files as a batch.

After this is done, iTunes will take care of the wav-to-mp3 conversion and tagging.

I know there are several DJs and music lovers out there having the same project in their hands. Any software tips, hifi knowledge, experiences or opinions would be very welcome.

edit: Read further notes about the project.

August 6, 2007

Major bug on Ableton Live

By MusicNo Comments

I don’t know if this bug is Apple related, but it sure is a nasty one.

Let’s suppose you’re recording something on Ableton Live via your line-in. You want to check the sound via your headphones and plug the headphone jack into the line-out of your computer.

What does Ableton Live do?

It cuts a short part off from your recording. It stops recording for a short moment when the jack is plugged in. And again when you pull it off. Basically you’ll have gaps on your recording each time you want to double-check its recording quality via headphones. Crazy, isn’t it.

August 6, 2007

Flickr fun #2

By Photos & VideosNo Comments

If browsing Flickr feels too complicated, see the moments of the past year from YouTube.
1.8.2006 – 1.8.2007, 600 moments, 600 photos – 2minutes, 10seconds.

One Year

August 5, 2007

One Minute Rave

By UncategorizedNo Comments

Here’s the announcement and the video of the One Minute Rave, held in Helsinki last Friday.

Did you know that the first Love Parade was organized by a group of friends, and it had a participation of less than a hundred people? And what happened… Now is your change to be a part of history in the making. Unity Posse is organizing the first ever One Minute Rave happening this Friday, that’s tomorrow (barely!). The rave will last from 18.00 to 18.01.

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July 29, 2007

Quote of the day: Tiefschwarz

By MusicNo Comments

“Music has lost so much of its value since the Internet came along and file sharing in particular. I think the Internet is a good thing in that it’s very democratic so that a DJ in Siberia can have the same chart as someone in Berlin. But that also makes it harder to filter quality, it’s a question of finding the right filters and also how good you are, to stand out from all these millions of tracks out there.”

Tiefschwarz interview.

July 27, 2007

Way Out West tribute

By MusicNo Comments

I hate mixes shared via ShareSpace, Megaupload, YouSendIt.com etc, but despite that – this one is really worth mentioning.
Simon Hallworth has made a nice Tribute to Way Out West. If you’re into WOW (not World of Warcraft. Get a life!), try downloading this one.
Tracklist and links after the jump.

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July 27, 2007

Orion’s Top Choices 25.07.2007

By DJ, MainNo Comments

Top Ten 25.07.2007

01. David West – Stuck In Friendsville
02. Danceteria – Passion (HeikkiL & Mr.A remix)
03. Cirez D – Horizons
04. Winkee – 3rd Plane To Ibiza
05. Prime 33 – Burn (16 Bit Lolita’s Dub)
06. Joonas Hahmo – Together
07. P Liassi & One – Fool’s Paradise (Tyrrell Dub)
08. Slyde – High Rise
09. Jay Lumen pres. Monologue – Midnight Express (Andro dub)
10. Gregor Tresher – A Thousand Nights
>> http://orion.reaktio.net/bio.php

July 26, 2007

Pros and cons of mp3 shops

By MusicNo Comments

Listing the pros and cons of mp3 shops

Beatport:
Pros:
+ Very good RSS-feed. Direct links to mp3s, possibility for listening via feed reader, no need to visit the site. However – the feeds are impossible to find.
+ Keyboard shortcuts. However – rewinding and fast forwarding only work if the sample has fully loaded.
+ Very good podcast with one-click-purchase option (works on iTunes).
Cons:
– No possibility to queue the tracks for listening. Needs constant attention. Wastes your time.

Audiojelly:
Cons:
– Charts. Are there any?
– Default currency is pound.
– Who browses music alphabetically by labels, artists or albums? No one? Why to have these features on every page?
– Podcast – good idea. But Gareth Emery’s podcast – why?
Pros:
+ You got rid of your awful music player with annoying swwwwooooosh flash animations.

DJDownload:
Cons:
– Player on external page. Nasty, evil feature. Get rid of it!
– Where’s your podcast?
Pros:
+ Possibility to queue all the tracks for listening on certain pages.
+ Lowered their prices. Waiting for the call of the other shops…

Did I forget to mention something?

July 24, 2007

DRM on web streams

By MusicNo Comments

Create Digital Music writes: Record Industry wants DRM (Digital Rights Management) on all internet radio to prevent and/or stop stream ripping of songs. Way to go.

I bet Teosto didn’t think about this when Yle Areena opened. Hey, Teosto, hot tip! It isn’t enough that Yle Areena doesn’t work abroad – there might be thousands of people in Finland ripping the on-demand material from your streams. Areena needs DRM. Today!

July 24, 2007

Fuji Finepix F31fd review

By EntertainmentNo Comments

As I mentioned earlier, I said byebye to my Fuji E550 and bought Fuji F31fd.

Now, after some weeks of use, I can tell it’s a really good camera, no matter if you’re a novice or an expert. Anyway, there are some things which I’d like to change:

– Adjusting BOTH Shutter Speed and Aperture at the same time. F31fd gives a possibility to adjust only one at a time.
– Maximum exposure time is 15sec. However, you can choose only 3sec exposure on S(hutter speed)-mode. To go to full 15sec, you have to choose “Night Shot”-mode. Why?
– Face Detection does not detect faces behind sun glasses or normal glasses. I don’t mind, I wouldn’t use the feature anyway.

However,

– ISO3200 has surprisingly small amount of noise. The amount of noise can be compared to E550’s ISO800. Automatic ISO also works pretty well.
– Fast deleting of images, cropping, rotating etc are nice features. Not necessary, but useful anyway.
– The response is very fast.
– Returning back from picture viewer to shooting mode happens by pressing the shutter button down. Quick and efficient.

All in all – getting used to the way the camera works took a bit longer than with E550, but after shooting some photos in different circumstances, adjusting seems to be much faster than in E550.
There are plenty of features which I find useless, but for people who search for a camera with lots of automatic functions, they make sense. The image quality, colours and LCD display are very good and a price of 190e is therefore the best price-quality ratio on compact cameras I could find.

Some example shots after the jump:

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July 23, 2007

Orion – live @ Mango, Kempten, Germany, 070707

By DJ, MainNo Comments

Mango, Kempten, Germany

Back in Finland, fully relaxed – couldn’t be better!
Below are three links to Orion’s 3,5 hour set in Mango, Kempten, Germany, recorded on 07.07.07 (thanks Alfredo!). Expect large variety of house, less progressive than usual, lots of Finnish tracks, easy and sommerlich. The set will be online for limited time only, be fast.

DOWNLOAD
… not available anymore, sorry.

… and sure, you can get these via the podcast, too.

July 17, 2007