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For the last few months, I’ve been working with an audio engineer friend to create a six-disc collection of The Beatles’ home demos and other informal recordings. Each track has been carefully restored, correcting azimuth errors, pitch and speed variations, and unbalanced levels, without resorting to any noise reduction, EQ, limiting, or other processes that might damage the sonics in any way.

I know there are few Beatles fans here, so I thought I’d create a thread for the project and share it with all you good folks. Issue #1 is now available and I’ll be posting a tracklist in the next post. PM me if you would like a copy.

Blueberries, pomegranate seeds, and banana pieces mixed into maple & brown sugar oatmeal.  Keeps me regular.

Monolithium said:

The Hyperion series could be amazing.  As long as Dan Simmons could write the screenplays of course.

YES! I think an 6 season series on HBO would be the perfect format for doing the Hyperion Cantos.

I'd also like to see a miniseries that accurately adapts The Count of Monte Cristo. It's one of my favorite books, and the Jim Caveziel movie is a bad parody of a synopsis of the original novel.

Well, to be fair, she was using it for business. She's a yoga instructor. But you only pay for it if you're like a serious networker or professional recruiter who needs access to people outside your network, or wants to work directly with LinkedIn customer support. It's for power-users. Not Amanda. She's been paying for it for almost a year....

I have a pretty dumb friend Amanda (she gets called "Aman-duhhh" a lot behind her back, that's how dumb she is), who yesterday said,"I don't think I want to pay for LinkedIn anymore. It's not worth it." I said, "What are you talking about?"

Amanda: Huh?

Me: Linkedin is free.

Amanda: (lengthy pause with really vacant expression) Huh?

Me: I mean, you can pay for LinkedIn, but only for poweruser features you don't need. Otherwise it's free.

Amanda: Nooooo...?

Me: Yeeeahhhh...?

Amanda: I don't believe you.

Me: (gets out phone and pulls up linkedin) See on the join page where it says at the top in big letters, "To join LinkedIn, sign up below ... it's free"?

Amanda: (another lengthy pause while she processes this information, well "process" may be a strong word, let's go with "absorbs") Well, how much does Facebook cost?

Me: HA! Facebook is free.

Amanda: Nooooo it isn't.

Me: AmanDUH! Yes it is! All of these social networking sites are free.

Amanda: Why?

Me: What do you mean "why?" Why are they free?

Amanda: Yeah. Why don't they charge you? How do they make money?

Me: Ads. Selling your personal information to third-parties.

Amanda: (chewing on a lettuce wrap for too long) Really?

Me: Yeah, really.

Amanda: Maybe I should sign up for Facebook.

Me: (quietly to myself) I question why we're friends daily.

I'd love to see a movie adaptation of Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination.

It was sort of an adventure-comedy. Tony Randall played 7 different characters, including a 7,000 year old Chinese mystic, Medusa, and Merlin the Magician, among others. I think some of the funniest/awkwardest moments now come from Randall's unintentionally(?) racist portrayal of Dr. Lao. It was a different era, when you could more easily get away with broad caricatures of racial stereotypes.

Colin Stetson - The Stars In His Head (Dark Lights Remix)

If we can choose our own, I'd like to be played by Scooter.

ChainsawAsh said:

The mono remasters are absolutely fantastic. 

Plus, the greatest box set packaging of all time!

Jimi Hendrix - "Red House"

As a Beatles nut, I'm extremely grateful they went easy on the limiting for the Beatles remasters. I would've rather they used none, but considering how it could have been, they did a great job, especially since they're the only remasters were likely to ever get.

Speaking of:

The Beatles - "Besame Mucho"

I dated the internet once. I got a pretty bad virus, but my p.e.n.i.s is b*i*g*g*e*r so it evened out.

TML said:

If anyone remembers what short-lived TV show these guys where featured on, you win something!

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien! Whaddo I win?

doubleofive said:

Lazy xhonzi, was Lazy.

Lair!

I refuse to inhale this meme!

Leonardo said:

I would LOVE to see the faces of today's kiddies coming out of the theater just after seeing "2001: A Space Odyssey"

LOL

Did you enjoy the movie, Timmy?

...

Timmy...?

It's not a result of the recording method. The album was actually recorded really well. Instead, it's the result of mastering, which is a process done after the album has been recording and mixed by the engineers and producer.

The loudness war is the result of a mistaken belief amongst idiot mastering engineers and record executives that the louder an album is, the better it sounds. From a technical standpoint, it's the use of digital tools like dynamic range compression and hard limiting to boost the quietest parts and squash the loudest parts of an audio recording to maximize its overall perceived loudness. 20 years ago, CDs were a lot quieter, but they sounded a lot better because there was no artificial boosting and compression going on after the recording and mixing was finished. You could turn up the volume of a well-mastered CD and it would sound fuller and fuller. Popular music today  does not do this. Turn up a CD that's been loudness mastered, and it gets shrill and overblown and can even damage your speakers or headphones.

The problem with an artificially loud recording is what's known as ear fatigue. Modern recordings literally tire out the brain.

Here's a simple explanation of the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

Now compare the title track from Blacklisted on top with "People Got A Lot of Nerve" from Middle Cyclone on bottom.

See how only one peak reaches 0 dB on the top track? On the bottom, practically every peak hits the ceiling. That's the loudness war. The mastering engineer has limited the peaks so he can maximize the album's volume. Means when I crank my stereo, Middle Cyclone craps out a lot sooner than her earlier albums.

RedFive said:

Everything she puts out is great, you should check out Furnace Room Lullaby, Canadian Amp, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and Middle Cyclone if you haven't all ready.  And they're all pretty different too, which is nice.

And except for Middle Cyclone, they're all mastered pretty well too. Great dynamics, plenty of headroom. Unfortunately, Cylcone suffers a bit from the loudness war.

Neko Case "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood"

That is not "making out". That is a lengthy closed-mouth kiss. I've never understood what the big deal is. It's not like she grabbed Luke's junk and counted his fillings with her tongue. Now that's making out!

That's why it's space fantasy and not science fiction.

TV's Frink said:

Dave's not here man!

What the hell? No man, I'm Dave! C'mon open the door, man!

BloodnoseThePirate said:

New pajamas, here I come!