The hour is drawing nigh...

Rob Babcock · « **on:** 3 Feb 2004, 06:40 am »

I'm getting closer to completing my heavy metal sampler - anyone who wants one can PM me with address and stuff. I'd probably like a few bucks as this project has run into a few cost overruns (like needing a larger paper for the insert @ $1/sheet!

Also boxes, discs and a bit of shipping). I have a paypal account now so this will be a bit easier. It's still not set in stone yet and may be a single disc or perhaps a double. Man, it's very difficult to whittle down to size as I listen to many subgenres of metal.

Nathan got the ball rolling, and I hope that we'll see some other guys putting together samplers of whatever type.

nathanm · « **Reply #1 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 06:01 pm »

Are you going to have complete songs or partials like I did on some of them? That's the bummer part of these things, the 70 minute or so limit. I s'pose we could do MP3 CDs, but then we would have to be stripped of our audiophile badges and dragged through the streets as traitors. Might as well just go to the iTunes dungeon and mix with the unwashed masses and their stinking iPods. Unclean! Unclean!

Then again, quality is more critical than quantity here and the important thing is not number of songs, but rather that these crepe paper-eared jazz snobs will listen to the satanic hymns and be shaken from their stupor and properly indotrinated into the Metal Brotherhood!

Ya'll better get moving with your own samplers, cause I've already got ideas for pt. II of my own!

This time it will consist entirely of Norah Jones cover tunes performed by Napalm Death.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #2 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 07:24 pm »

I finally have the "master" burned, and it was agony. Firstly, the material covers a twenty year span and the sound quality is therefore quite variable. I fought the urge to normalize the tracks "RMS method"- this often helps the older stuff but sometimes results in clipping. And among AC guys (you in particular, Nathan) I figured that'd go over like a fart in a phonebooth!

So I went with setting to "Max method, 0 dB" and set it to 95%.

Of course the biggest problem is that you're limited to about 79 minutes! I did have to edit one song down a bit to make it fit, but I merely faded it out early. Which didn't sound bad as it was a bit long anyway. But I had to leave off some stuff that I really wanted to include. For instance, my favorite song by Testament didn't make the cut- no matter what I did I just couldn't make room for it, and the fact that it was five and a half minutes long with no obvious place to edit it didn't help. I guess after I get these all burned and printed I may have to make a followup with all my faves that got missed.

Now I have to burn the individual discs and get a booklet done. I lack your graphic arts ability, so I'll basically be using SureThing to do the layout and incorporate some appropriate clipart. Wish I had the ability to do the cool lettering similar to the Bloody Letters of the original AC sampler, but I lack the software & experience. But I will include a little blurb for each song, whatever is relevant (eg why I included it or some little tidbit about it).

This little project has definately proved to be a lot more work that I thought, but it's been fun, too.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #3 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 07:35 pm »

You know, it never even occurred to me to do MP3!

In a sense that wouldn't be a terrible idea; at 320 kbps/VBR the SQ is pretty good. But in my experience, when you get into the very high bit rate stuff you sometimes run into compatibility issues. The last thing I want is for someone to excitedly tear into the mailer, pop in the disc and get some friggin' error message.

Man, it sure woulda been a lot easier on me, though. Generally I limit MP3 discs to about 35 or 40 songs just for practical reasons (eg. who can listen to more than that at once anyway, and it's a bitch to navigate/find anything).

Anyway, I listened to the finished disc last nite and it occurred to me I should put a warning on it for language- the F Bomb is dropped on more than one occasion.

nathanm · « **Reply #4 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 07:53 pm »

I'd rather have a straight CD anyway, as I don't have any MP3-playing hardware aside from my computer, but the soundcard audio out is a wee bit noisier than I'd like, although it does sound pretty darn good.

And yes, who would want to listen to three hours of MP3s in one sitting - not me at least! That would be seriously 'overcooking' the metal feast!

Andrikos · « **Reply #5 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 08:14 pm »

I vote for a DVD-R burned with about 6,000 songs "encoded" at 24kbps MP3.

Andreas

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #6 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 08:20 pm »

Quote from: Andrikos

I vote for a DVD-R burned with about 6,000 songs "encoded" at 24kbps MP3.

Andreas

Hmmm...okay, sounds good. I should have your copy burned by May of 2005!

Seriously though, I think I figured on a napkin once that at the highest bitrate using VBR I could get my whole collection on maybe 20 DVDs. I've got about 800- 850 CDs, DVD-As & SACDs so that's probably close to 20 DVDs, give or take.

randog · « **Reply #7 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 09:03 pm »

Well, at least there are some heavy metal fans around here... I haven't gotten *any* response to my free offer of my compilation of American Roots Train Tracks.

I was beginning to wonder whether anyone around here ever took the plunge away from jass and clazzical.

Randog

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #8 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 09:09 pm »

Hey, Randog, I thought I PM'd you with an offer to swap my metal for your train music. At least I saw it in my head. Consider it offered.

I'm a big fan of "clazzical" and I like a little "jass" here and there, mostly stuff "real" jazz fans would probably look down on (eg Micheal Franks, Diana Krall, Nora Jones, Harry Connick Jr, Cassandra Wilson, Al Hirt).

It'll be interesting to see how many takers I get for the sampler- as you can see, no one's beating down my door. I think I've got like six or eight requests for one, and right now I've got a dozen discs printed & ready to burn (with the templates saved on my PC in case I get more requests).

As NathanM would say, "Operators are standing by!"

bubba966 · « **Reply #9 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 10:02 pm »

Rob,

If you've got the DVD-R stuff down, and feel like 79 minutes is not enough time on a CD-R, why not make DVD-R's? Didn't you mention you were getting about 4 hours of CD playback on a DVD?

I'm sure more people have DVD playback capabilities than have MP3 playback capabilities.

Andrikos · « **Reply #10 on:** 4 Feb 2004, 11:36 pm »

Maybe because DVD-Rs are expensive?

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #11 on:** 5 Feb 2004, 01:39 am »

Well, DVDs do cost a lot more, but the first couple people I PM'ed either 1) didn't have a DVD player that will play a DVD-R/+R or 2) had no idea which format, if either, their deck would play. Coupled with the fact that some guys here only have DVD in their HT system, I just figured it was too much of a hassle. I didn't want to have to go online and research each members DVD player to see which type of disc to use, then burn some of each type. And the expense was a bit greater (about 2 X/3 X as much). Lastly, my burner is only rated to 4X and the discs I use are only 2X- it would take quite a while to make a dozen copies at that speed.

Ultimately, I also figured that several hours of alien metal might be more than some of you guys would be able to take. I'm not really sure if anyone will like it much- most of my stuff is a bit old or too mainstream for Nathan, I think, while maybe being a bit too far out for the guys who like their music a bit more *accessible*. We'll soon see.