Traders Little Helper

I have been trading Dave Matthews Band concerts via the internet for many years. Traders of these shows prefer to distribute the concerts in a lossless format as opposed to an MP3 that has a loss of quality. This creates a bit of a problem when you go to add the files to something like an iPod or MP3 only player. For years I was using the mkw Audio Compression tool, but now that I am on Windows 7 64bit it no longer is working for me. I found a new solution – Trader’s Little Helper.   It will take your flac, mkw, or shn files amongst others – and convert them to wav, flac, or mp3. The only thing I did to convert it to MP3 was select Format>Convert encoding format then selected the Target Format to be mp3. Added my .shn files, and BOOM – 3mins later on a quadcore I was in business. Check out the software here: Trader’s Little Helper at easytree.org

-DPollitt

My Current Workout Playlist

I’m not saying its good, but it works for me.  Maybe you’ll get some ideas, who knows.  In no particular order:

-Guns N Roses – Welcome to the Jungle

-AC/DC – Thunderstruck

-AC/DC – Hells Bells

-Jay-Z and Linkin Park – Numb/Encore

-Robert Tepper – No Easy Way Out

-Bob Dylan – Hurricane

-Bill Conti – Gonna Fly Now

-Bill Conti – Going the Distance

-Bill Conti – The Final Bell

-Survivor – Eye of the Tiger

-Survivor – Burning Heart

-Metallica – For Whom the Bell Tolls

-Metallica – Enter Sandman

-Metallica – Master of Puppets

Review: Soundcloud

As an aspiring producer, one is always looking for an effective medium to market their music.  It is imperative that one’s music ends up in the right persons hands.  CDs are obsolete.  Yes, there is MySpace, but does one really want to subject potential label representatives to our seizure inducing profile and questionable friends?

Enter Soundcloud.

Soundcloud is what Facebook is to Myspace.  With a refreshingly  clean aesthetic, SoundCloud  provides users a the ability to upload and disperse their music, quickly and easily.  There are currently two types of accounts: producers and labels, which both include a free basic account and several Pro accounts that range from $126 to $767.  Of course with a Pro account one is provided with additional uploads, support, and in the Pro Standard and Pro Max accounts; branded drop-boxes.  This makes sense for labels, as prospective producers can simply drag and drop completed tracks into a desired label’s drop-box.

With a free account:

• You can send up to 5 tracks per month. Deleting tracks after you uploaded them will not affect this limit.
• Only the 10 latest uploaded tracks are shown. Older tracks are saved, but hidden as long as you don’t upgrade to a PRO account.
• You can create 3 sets. If you downgrade from a PRO account, older sets will be saved but hidden.
• Your contact lists can contain max 20 users in total. You can still have an unlimited amount of followers, and you can follow up to 2000 people (this limit also exists for PRO accounts).
• Your DropBox only shows the latest 5 tracks. Older tracks are saved but hidden as long as you don’t upgrade to a PRO account.
• Basic stats works just like in the PRO Light account.

I have been using SoundCloud for about a month now, and have enjoyed many innovative functions.  The embeddable audio widget is both customizable to suit the color scheme of the site hosting, and supports embedding in email, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Twitter, Delicious, and StumbleUpon.  But perhaps the greatest feature that SoundCloud introduces is a time coded comment system.  To further explain, while listening to a track, one is able to leave a comment at a specific point during the song.  Sadly, comments can only be made by users.  One is also able to track the progress of both labels and artists that they like, introducing a social networking feel.  A user is also provided with schematics of total listens and comment amounts over time.

Like most start ups, bugs do exist.  The site, and at times the upload widget, are cumbersome at times.  There have been several instances where the site has been down for maintenance.  Furthermore, SoundCloud is somewhat obtuse in the explanation of what constitutes an upload.  Is it the act of placing a song into a drop-box, or is it simply uploading a personal track to your profile?

Ultimately, if you are a producer, SoundCloud is a fantastic medium for sharing your work.  The paradigm shift away from CDs has already begun, it is now just a question of where the pendulum will end up.  SoundCloud will only become more relevant with time.

Check out my SoundCloud profile here.

-A. Greeman

Goo Goo Dolls Concert

We had pretty good seats for the concert, so I snapped a few shots.
-DPollitt

Last.fm – Internet Radio and Music Community – Review by DPollitt

So I’ve been giving Last.fm a shot for the past week or so.  It’s kind of like a Pandora meets Facebook with Netflix like recommendations built in.  It’s a good suppliment to your new music hunger, and I have sucessfully found some good new stuff on it already.  The system allows you to sync up your iPod, iTunes, or even Songbird(Open source iTunes replacement) to share your listening habits.

The biggest gain I can see with this platform, is the recommendation engine.  Last.fm will scan your library, and recommend similar artists or songs.  You can also listen to radio stations built entirely off of recommendations.  They have desktop clients that allow you to play the radio stations natively, or you can just use embeded flash players on the site.  Recently they also came out with an iPhone and iTouch application that let you do the same.

After I found a few friends that were also using the site, I was able to listen to radio stations that were built off of their favorites, and incorporate or add those songs to my library as I deemed fit.  I know what you are thinking, another social-networking site that no one wants.  But really, I found this to be a more targeted network.  Rather then sharing photos of my weekend, or my work experience, I just shared what songs I’ve been listening to and are currently listening to.  It’s pretty handy once you get it down.

So, I’d recommend Last.fm.  Even if you only try it out for a few days, it’s a great way to find new music and artists.

-DPollitt