"andrel" <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
news:47A### [at] hotmailcom...

> I recently bought Paris Moon by Blackmore's Night (yes, the guy from
> deep purple). I do like it but am not sure what category that would be.

Another Blackmore's Night fan. I recommend you try their albums Fires at
Midnight (especially the song on it of the same title) and The Village
Lantern (and again, especially the song of the same title)

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andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> >
> > Ever heard a Persian guy sing "Amazing Grace"? That song is
> > boring at the best of times...
> >
> just to be sure, we are talking about this boring piece?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pK4PtJiOPE
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3XdXEJEI4E
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHpye0M34JQ

Orchid's tastes are kinda awkward...

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andrel wrote:
> Orchid XP v7 wrote:
>>
>> Ever heard a Persian guy sing "Amazing Grace"? That song is boring at 
>> the best of times...
>>
> just to be sure, we are talking about this boring piece?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pK4PtJiOPE
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3XdXEJEI4E
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHpye0M34JQ

Yes, that one.

(And trust me, even the most interesting song sounds boring when played 
on a guitar using 3 chords and a flat strumming rhythem. So when you 
start with a boring song in the first place... Not Good.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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"andrel" <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
news:47A### [at] hotmailcom...

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pK4PtJiOPE

Oh wow, she can sing.

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On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:47:22 +0100, Tor Olav Kristensen wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:20:53 +0100, Tor Olav Kristensen wrote:
>> 
>>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> ...
>>>> Actually, I was surprised that the Amazon downloadable Complete LOTR
>>>> soundtracks are in MP3 format.  I don't *think* there's any DRM
>>>> involved (which was really surprising).
>>> But maybe they can tell who bought the mp3 file by looking at it...
>>>
>>> http://www.google.com/search?q=mp3+watermark+amazon
>> 
>> I'm sure they probably can.  That's a bit different than DRM, though,
>> which has the explicit stated goal of preventing people from
>> "inappropriate use".  Watermarking allows them to act reactivley - and
>> I believe is fairly easy to remove anyways...
>> 
>> mplayer -ao pcm:file=temp.wav file.mp3 lame -h temp.wav
>> file-without-watermark.mp3
> 
> Yes, but then you assume that the watermarking is done on the bit-level.
> 
> What if they change the music somewhat in a way that will survive format
> conversion ? (E.g. tiny changes in volume levels within a frequency
> band, small phase shifts, changes in the dynamic range, added noise or a
> combination of some of these.)
> 
> There will only have to be minor changes to the sound, as they will only
> have to encode something like e.g. 30 bits into more than 100s of sound
> in 2 channels.

I'd think that the conversion back and forth would modify an attempt like 
this enough.  Remember that mp3 encoding is lossy, not lossless.

Of course, though, the best option is to not give the files away.

Jim

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On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:08:06 +0000, Orchid XP v7 wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>> You played violin?  That's cool. :-)
>> 
>> Did you just take lessons in school, or private lessons, or self-study?
> 
> All students at my school were required to learn violin and recorder.
> But then the music teacher retired, and the music lessens stopped.
> Eventually they found a replacement, but we only learned how to play
> electronic keyboard [or rather, how to call up the autobacking]. Oh, and
> guitar. Ever heard a Persian guy sing "Amazing Grace"? That song is
> boring at the best of times...

Interesting; I was going to say that I had never heard of a school doing 
that, but we were required to learn recorder, autoharp, and to sing in 
the choir.

> Interesting fact: When *you* play a violin, it sounds nothing like what
> you hear on the TV. It sounds like somebody dragging a strip of horse
> hair over a cheese wire. (Which, actually, is what it is.) I always
> assumed my violin was just naff. But then one day the teacher is, like,
> "no no Andrew, that F is flat. Give me that!" She takes my violin and
> plays what I had just been playing. Except it sounds amazing.
>
> Um, OK. So it's *me* that's naff. :-|

No, it just takes practice - years of practice - to get good sound out of 
an instrument (doesn't matter what).  I can make my violin make horrible 
sounds as well - it has to do with getting the right pressure and speed 
of the bow across the strings - too much pressure and not enough speed, 
and it sounds exactly like you described.

There also is a factor of the instrument itself as well; each instrument 
has different tonal factors.  In my case, I had some work done on it a 
few years back, and the people doing the work dripped varnish inside the 
instrument and have very solidly attached the sound post to the top face 
of the instrument.  Going to cost about $400 to get it fixed, and it's 
unplayable in the condition it's in (the E string makes a horrible, 
horrible screeching sound whenever played).  And of course the guys who 
did the work have since gone out of business.

Jim

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On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:14:20 +0000, Orchid XP v7 wrote:

>>> I do enjoy certain forms of orchestral music. However, from what I can
>>> tell, most classical music isn't really to my taste.
>> 
>> Entirely possible, though I think it helps to know the story behind the
>> music - a lot of it tells a story.
> 
> Yeah, probably.

I played in a youth orchestra when I was in high school, and the 
conductor was having trouble getting us to learn the Symphonie 
Fantastique, so he told us the background story.  That really did 
motivate us.

>>> Every time I listen, I end up wanting to turn off the light, take a
>>> deep breath, and light candles. Actually, last time I *did* light
>>> candles... hmm. LOL!
>> 
>> Which album or albums do you have?
> 
> MCMXC AD, The Cross of Changes, Le Roi est mort, vive lr Roi, The Screen
> Behind the Mirror, LSD, Voyageur, A Posterioiri. I also have the DVD
> Remember the Future.

Cross of Changes is the one I have; I was looking at a few others at he 
used CD store the other day, but wasn't sure if they were similar in 
style or not - I've been bitten a few times by having one really cool 
disc from someone and buying another (or having one gifted, more often) 
and finding out that the one I have is the exceptional one.  Satriani was 
like that for me.

How are the other discs?

Jim

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On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:06:36 -0500, nemesis wrote:

> Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> > Entirely possible, though I think it helps to know the story behind
>> > the music - a lot of it tells a story.
>>
>> Yeah, probably.
> 
> no, no, no.  Try to love the music for the music itself.  Programme
> music is so démodé...

I have to disagree - you can love music for any number of reasons.

> Music is the art of transformation.  It's math that pleases the ears and
> the soul.  The story it presents is entirely subjective from individual
> to individual.

This is certainly true, though - you can hear stories even if there isn't 
one.  For example, there is one part of Mozart's Requiem that invokes for 
me a chase through the woods.  It was used in Amadeus, and oddly enough, 
the images they used were pretty close to what it invoked for me visually 
prior to seeing the film.

That was really cool.

Jim

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On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:23:41 +0000, Orchid XP v7 wrote:

> if you haven't heard Tangerine Dream, give it a whirl. If you enjoy
> crazy synthesizer music, that is...

Ah, yes, I've got some TD on my shelf as well.  The first track of one of 
the albums I've got is the promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition - 
another really great piece of music.  I think I've got 4 different 
recordings (two piano versions - which is what it was originally written 
for, and two different orchestrations).  There was a really cool thing 
they did at the Proms a few years ago, where they played the entire 
thing, but each movement was taken from a different orchestration.

Now I need to find that one....

Jim

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On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:49:37 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> 11CDs SHOSTAKOVICH Complete Symphonies 1-15 Barshai 

I got the 10th as I was looking for a recording of the Festival Overture 
and it was on that disc.  Third movement brings a vivid image to me of a 
horse-drawn sleigh being pulled quickly across a snowy field for some 
reason.

How are the others?

> CD DVORAK Complete Slavonic Dances Op 46, Op 72 RoyalPO 
> 2CDs DVORAK Slavonic Dances & Other Music for PianoDuet

Now there's something I haven't heard in ages - I think I've only got 
those on cassette (and sheet music for violin solo at that).  I'd 
forgotten about those almost entirely.

Jim

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