This page contains all entries posted to Manufactured Environments in September 2007.

This is not Dubai mix

After numerous requests for new material, I conceded and put together a new mix CD for the benefit of my friends. I sent out an armful of packages, but if you’d like to receive one of these fine new mixes, contact me through the contact page. This mix is dedicated to Abigail, but it’s for all. I hope you enjoy.

This is not Dubai: A Mix by Daniel R Stout. 25 September 2007.

1. Yerba Buena · La Vida La Life
2. Les Rita Mitsouko · Someone To Love
3. The Magnetic Fields · If There’s Such A Thing As Love
4. Lily Allen · Not Big
5. The Arcade Fire · Wake Up
6. Trashcan Sinatras · Obscurity Knocks
7. Freemasons · Love On My Mind
8. Björk · Declare Independence
9. Interpol · No I In Threesome
10. New Young Pony Club · Ice Cream (Van She Remix)
11. Bloc Party · This Modern Love
12. The Killers · Somebody Told Me
13. R.E.M. · So. Central Rain
14. Escort · All That She Is
15. Sizzla (featuring Curtains) · Take Myself Away
16. Depeche Mode · Here Is The House
17. Sander Kleinenberg · This Is New York
18. The Durutti Column · Otis

Playing Time: 78 minutes, 18 seconds.

Tags: cd-r · mix · mixes · music · this is not dubai

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Music mixes: Taking stock, moving forward

I’m on the cusp of releasing a new mix CD and realized that I don’t have an easy way of finding all the mixes I’ve done the past few years that I listed on Manufactured Environments. So here’s a compendium of music mixes posts from the blog. The new mix is nearly complete – I have one song to swap out and then it should be ready. The mailing list has fallen on disuse, and I see that I’ll need to send out some emails to get current addresses.

• 31 Oct 2007: Halloween 2007
• 25 Sep 2007: This is not Dubai
• 31 Oct 2005: Real Good Friend
• 10 Sep 2005: Mailing List Mix
• 15 Feb 2004: Limited Edition Mix
• 25 Dec 2003: Christmas 2003
• 30 Jul 2003: Los Angeles 2003
• 11 Jun 2003: Heartbeats + Happiness
• 8 Mar 2003: Red Bats With Teeth
• 25 Jan 2003: DanielStout.com Mix #2: Amazing Mix
• 25 Jul 2002: DanielStout.com Mix #1: Original Internet Soundtrack
• 16 May 2002: Avant Garde
• 10 May 2002: Electronica
• 21 Sep 2001: Soft as Fire: Songs of Love
• 15 Sep 2001: Seekers Who Are Lovers
• 13 Sep 2001: Love Builder

Tags: cd · cd-r · mixes · music

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MusicBridge - A Shameless Plug

MusicBridge is a free application that syncs the meta-data (artist, album, album art, rating, etc…) of music files between iTunes and Windows Media Player on the same machine in either or both directions. It does not does not add, move, or remove files from either application. It simply updates media libraries and meta tags in files. Paul Thurrott recently chose MusicBridge as his software pick of the week on his Windows Weekly podcast (episode 35) on the TWiT network. He talks about MusicBridge about 48 minutes into the show. In fact, he calls it is magical, absolutely beautiful, wonderful, and the greatest thing ever. So if you use both iTunes and Windows Media Player on the same computer and want to keep your data synced, try MusicBridge.

Full Disclosure

I enjoy an occasional swift half with the developer, James Willis. I don’t use either iTunes or Windows Media Player and thus have never used nor have any use for MusicBridge.

Tags: iTune · meta-data · MusicBridge · WMP

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Monday Night Vinyl Notes: Arcade Fire, Dust Bunnies, 120 Minutes

I was pleased to see that the Arcade Fire did some things very right with the vinyl release of Neon Bible. I talked earlier about how the practice of putting an album on four sides of vinyl is tiresome when it could easily fit on three. The difference is between flipping the record every two to three songs or flipping it every four to five songs. The Arcade Fire launched into bold territory and released Neon Bible onto three sides of vinyl, with a etching on the fourth side. This is what everyone should be doing! The one exception is if you are Of Montreal and you decide to put four bonus tracks on the vinyl version of Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? Well, hell, alright then, you go ahead and use four sides. Otherwise three is plenty.

The other thing the Arcade Fire and Merge Records, their label, got right is they offered a free download of the album if you purchased the vinyl. So if you bought the Arcade Fire on vinyl, inside there was a coupon with a serial number that allowed you to download the album off of Merge’s website. Not as cool as including the full CD with the album, as Interpol did with Our Love To Admire, but still it’s pretty nice to have the download, which was in 192 Kbps MP3 format. Oh, don’t forget to keep the shrink-wrap the record came in until you download because you’ll need the barcode number to download and the barcode is only on a sticker on the shrink-wrap – it’s not actually printed on the album. I threw the shrink-wrap away, but Merge kindly obliged by emailing the barcode number to me.

In other news, dust bunnies are disconcerting. Especially the ones that gather up beneath the needle on the record. I usually keep my records fairly clean of dust and debris. But every great once in a while, I’ll play a record that is a bit dusty. And it can be sometimes that the visual inspection, if not done closely, will not show great evidence of a dusty record.

Anyway, there was a dust bunny on the needle tonight. I had played Goldfrapp, and then I had put Interpol on the table. At that point, someone called. As I talked on the phone, I noticed a bit of distortion as the first song played. It sort of registered, but I didn’t anything of it. Then “No I in Threesome” played, and my ears hurt. The tinny distortion was too much to take. I lifted the needle off the record and quickly saw the dust bunny. It happens so rarely that it’s not the first thing I think of. It’s mostly “Who has been scratching my records?!” But it’s a problem easily solved. Basically, it’s just an argument for keeping records clean.

Finally, the last thing I wanted to share tonight is this fantastic video linkage blog over on a site called Tumblr. I’m not as adept in all the permutations of social networking to know what distinction Tumblr offers over other sites, but there’s a fantastic blog(?) that someone is keeping called 120 Minutes. It’s basically embedded links to tons and tons and tons of YouTube videos of classic ’80s alternative that may or may not have been shown on the MTV series 120 Minutes. Unfortunately there’s only five videos per page, but there’s page after page of ’80s video goodness. I’ve been spending entirely too much time checking it out – tons of great stuff to be had, ranging from Primus to the Smiths to Siouxsie & The Banshees and many, many more.

Tags: 120 minutes · arcade fire · dust bunnies · neon bible · turntables · vinyl

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Analogy: Linux is to Turntables as Windows is to CD Players

Walt Mossberg’s column in the Wall Street Journal today (available here) was especially interesting today because he tackled a subject he rarely touches on: Linux. Dell has recently started selling some computers with the option of having Ubuntu Linux preloaded instead of Windows Vista. Walt put an Ubuntu laptop through its paces, and his conclusion is that while Linux is easier to use than it used to be, it’s still not ready for general users. That is, you still need to have some technical ability and interest in Walt’s opinion.

As a Linux user, I think Walt is basically correct. Even with the dumbing down going on in Ubuntu, Linux is still geared towards technically competent users. Non-technical users can use Linux, but they won’t get the most out of it in my opinion. And solving problems on Linux can be a lot more challenging or impossible for general users. I use openSUSE Linux, which I find runs better than Ubuntu and doesn’t have the dumbed down features that Ubuntu has. If you’re going to run Linux you might as well jump right in instead of using watered down versions of things. I like the complexity of Linux, and Ubuntu users who try to claim its easier to use are just fooling themselves.

As I was thinking about Walt’s column, an analogy appeared in my head: Linux is to vinyl as Windows is to CDs. Windows is easy. You just boot it up and play your videos or do whatever. CD players are like that too. You just turn them on, open the drawer, and pop in a CD. There’s no configuration. It just works out of the box for the most part.

But if you want the best sound and are willing to go to a little extra trouble, playing vinyl records on a turntable will get you there. You’ll have to setup the turntable first, and it may not be an intuitive process. You may also have to do some trial and error to get the best sound. Linux is like that too because it’s a more technical process. If you want to play your videos, you may have to find software and codecs scattered in various places. You have to have an interest and a willingness to experiment and learn.

Listening to music on vinyl is rewarding for the person who expends the effort to learn about the format. So to with Linux. Windows is for the general person who doesn’t care about the format. They just want to listen to a CD and aren’t necessarily concerned about the sound quality. They just want it to work.

So yes, I agree with Walt. Running Linux is a choice and not one for the faint of heart. Listening to vinyl also is a choice, and not necessarily one I recommend to someone who doesn’t already have a vinyl collection. Linux and vinyl are rewarding, but they take extra initiative.

Tags: cd · linux · turntables · vinyl · walt mossberg · windows

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Get me some of those 10-minute songs. Pronto!

There’s a special class of music reserved for the truly adventurous. It’s the 10-minute song. Most bands never attempt long songs, and of those that do, only a select few can really pull it off. But for those that do, the 10-minute song is a delight to listen to and enjoy. In my head, I had a list of great 10-minute songs, and so I wanted to share with you some fantastic selections from my music library that are in the 10-minute range. For a brief time, you’ll note that there are MP3 download links next to each song. Get them while you can!

1. Psychick Warriors ov Gaia: Exit 23 (Return) (9:31)
2. Bauhaus: Bela Lugosi’s Dead (9:34)
3. Pink Floyd: Interstellar Overdrive (9:41)
4. Lil’ Louis: French Kiss (9:53)
5. The Stone Roses: Fools Gold (9:55)
6. Art of Noise: Moments in Love (10:16)
7. Underworld: Moaner (10:23)
8. Of Montreal: The Past is a Grotesque Animal (11:53)
   
   and a little bit longer but just for good measure…
9. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: Babe, I’m On Fire (14:45)
10. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Voodoo Chile (15:00)
11. The Orb: A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (18:47)

Tags: 10 minutes · mp3 · music · songs

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Analogy: Ubuntu is to WordPress as openSUSE is to Movable Type

I was having a conversation the other day about Linux and blogging software when I was struck by certain parallels in some of the software I use. It helps explain why I chose the Linux distribution I did and the blogging software I use on this blog.

The analogy is: Ubuntu is to WordPress as openSUSE is to Movable Type.

Currently, the Ubuntu Linux distribution and the WordPress blogging software are more popular than openSUSE Linux and Movable Type. But the real difference between these two sets of software is that Ubuntu/WordPress are community developed and openSUSE/Movable Type have corporations behind them. openSUSE has Novell as its sponsor, and Movable Type has Six Apart.

The Ubuntu/WordPress crowd are big into community. Both are much rougher though than the high degree of polish applied to openSUSE/Movable Type. I’ve used all four, and I find openSUSE and Movable Type to be much more professional, stable software. If you’re a power-user you’ll want the features these offer. Ubuntu and WordPress are much less polished, but they’re a bit more lovable. Their respective communities are a strong point if you need support, although openSUSE and Movable Type have communities as well.

I’ve investigated fully Ubuntu and WordPress, and for the time being I use neither. Movable Type recently came out with the new much-enhanced version 4.0, and openSUSE has 10.3 due in a month. I do check out other software from time to time, but in the end I find what I have works and works well. openSUSE I have used since December 2005, and Movable Type I’ve used since February 2003. They’re both state of the art and are fine choices for Linux and blogging.

Tags: blogging · community · linux · movable type · opensuse · ubuntu · wordpress

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Manufactured Environments goes ad-free

If you’ve visited Manufactured Environments in the past 24 hours, you might have noticed a change that we’ve made across the entire site: we’re now completely ad-free. There is no advertising on the site, and that policy will stay in place for the foreseeable future. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and I hope you like the less distracting design. I’m focused on providing the best blog experience for you, and hopefully eliminating ads on the site will go a step towards improving that experience.

When I thought about it, there were a lot of reasons for getting rid of advertising on the site. I’m fed up with the increasing commercialization of the web, especially all the people trying to cash in on Web 2.0. By removing ads from this site, we can take a small step in the right direction. Also, there are privacy concerns associated with online advertising because of tracking cookies. The Google AdSense ads that you see on so many sites use cookies to track visitors across multiple websites. When you visit Manufactured Environments now, the only time we ever will set a cookie will be if you ask us to remember your details when leaving a comment. Also, it seemed to me that recently the quality of ads that Google was presenting had significantly declined. There were ads for things that I was embarrassed to see appearing on our site.

So for many reasons, the ads are now gone. I hope you like this new change.

Tags: ad-free · adsense · advertising · google · online ads

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Bootleg your records

Die Zeit newspaper in Germany has an interesting photo gallery on their site about how to create a bootleg copy of a vinyl record. No, not by recording the LP to cassette or to a computer, but by actually making a mold of the record, which results in your own plastic copy groove for groove. The photo gallery is here. With each photo are annotations that describe what materials are needed, cost, and instructions for preparing your copy disc. Basically, you construct a wooden box and lay the record to be copied inside. The next step is to pour silicone over the record and let it dry for six hours. The silicone copy just peels away. After you have the silicone master, you pour plastic onto it and let it set. Then you have created a copy of the record. How good of a copy it is remains to be seen, and the total cost for materials is around 60€. That said, it’s an interesting concept, and definitely should pique any vinyl enthusiast’s interest.

Tags: bootleg · die zeit · silicone · vinyl · wissen magazin

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Interpol is enlightened: Vinyl and more

Some bands don’t care much about the production and distribution of their albums. They want to make money, and that’s about it. Interpol is not one of those bands. I keep getting more and more impressed with Interpol every time they release an album. Their third album Our Love To Admire was recently released, and there is much to be happy with it – not just as an album but also as an artifact.

Interpol has always struck me as a savvy band. First off, they’ve released their albums on vinyl. I have their first album on vinyl. They’ve also supported digital downloads of their music. They’re one of the few bands on a major labor that allows downloads of their music on eMusic.com. eMusic is a great music service – known for a comprehensive collection of music on independent labels. eMusic is also known because it offers downloads in MP3 format without any DRM crippling what you can do with the music. So music you buy on eMusic can be played on a variety of players. Interpol is also on the iTunes Music Store.

So Interpol has proven that they want their fans to have the music in the way that they want it. Whether you want to buy the LP or buy a CD or download off the internet, Interpol has you covered. It is with their new album that they have a masterstroke. The album again is issued in a variety of formats including a CD and a deluxe CD version and download. But they did something special with the vinyl version. The LP comes in a lush gatefold sleeve on two LPs. That in itself is very nice. But they also included a CD of the album with the vinyl edition. So when you buy the vinyl version of Our Love To Admire you get both the vinyl and the CD. That’s such an unbelievably great idea.

So with the vinyl version, you get the quality vinyl edition, plus you can rip the CD to your iPod to listen as you go. That’s what everyone should be doing with new vinyl releases – give the vinyl purchaser both versions. Interpol is a great band, and they are also very savvy and fan-oriented. I appreciate the extra steps that Interpol has gone to, to give their fans what they want.

The other remaining evidence of Interpol’s shrewdness is that they own the copyrights to their songs. That is very rare in the recording industry. Few bands own their own songs – usually the rights go to the record label. Interpol is an exceptionally rare band indeed.

Tags: interpol · our love to admire · turntable · vinyl

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Turntable setup: A video introduction

I was going to tell you about all the great websites that detail how to setup a turntable, but I couldn’t find any. I looked and looked, and Google issued up a lot of text-heavy, poorly organized sites that did little to really explain the basics of setting up turntables. I did find a lot of references though to a DVD released last year called 21st Century Vinyl: Michael Fremer’s Practical Guide to Turntable Set-Up [@ Amazon.com & MusicDirect]. It was put together by Michael Fremer who you may know as a vinylist from the pages of Stereophile magazine. The three-hour video includes a whole host of information – including a lot of specifics about setting up turntables. He walks through the setup of three different turntables (Pro-Ject RM-5, Rega P5, VPI Scoutmaster) that one can generalize on and use in your own setup. Reviews of the video are here, here, here, and here. Based on what people have said, it sounds like a pretty thorough treatment of the topic of turntable setup. I think a DVD too would do more for showing you the setup process than the spartan text-only websites I came across. Personally, I would like to see a nice treatment online — complete with photos and/or illustrations, etc. There’s a need. Anyone game?

Tags: dvd · michael fremer · turntable · vinyl

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