From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V2 #282 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Friday, December 12 1997 Volume 02 : Number 282 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: Welcome! ["Stephen M. Tilson" ] Alloy: TMDR's next release ["Stephen M. Tilson" ] Alloy: Copy of: Dibbs Update [Tim Dunn <113203.2623@compuserve.com>] RE: Alloy: Alloy-1 [Louise.Ulfstedt@nmp.nokia.com (Ulfstedt Louise NMP)] Alloy: Your Eager Audience Awaits! [RThurF ] Alloy: Purple Ostriches [John Schofield ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 02:19:04 -0500 From: "Stephen M. Tilson" Subject: Alloy: Welcome! Ah Jean-Dominique, I figured out the France angle and posted it, but that message got lost w= hen = the Alloy server overflowed (probably my fault as I had sent six messages= in = a row). > This List is quite amazing, = Why, thank you. We've got quite a group here, I think. > but I was expecting much more information about current Thomas' = > musical project. My last contact with the "Lost Toy Boy" is "The = > Mind Gate". Anything new since then ? Geez, we wish! Specifically, The Gate to the Mind's Eye was the last = published recording by TMDR, but since then he has been involved in a new= = musical venture, Beatnik. Beatnik is a web browser plug-in for sound and= = music. Visit www.headspace.com to find out more and get the free plug-in= =2E = It is really quite amazing. In brief Beatnik is a method by which large = amounts of musical information can be transmitted over the internet withi= n a = very small memory footprint. It's like Hypertext for music. Again, welcome to Alloy, and greetings from the "Provence of America": So= noma = County, California. Best regards, Stephen ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 04:16:23 -0500 From: "Stephen M. Tilson" Subject: Alloy: TMDR's next release Dashing Dave wrote: > Alas not, but Thomas has mentioned doing an album and selling it = > over the internet. So If we bug him enough, maybe he'll actually = > do it. In the mean time we talk amoungst ourselves. In clarification of Dave's tantalization, I recall Thomas indicating he i= s = considering publishing his next body of work in Beatnik format. I'm sorry, but I have real doubts and misgivings about the practicality, = or = more closely, the viability of this idea. Thomas' production standards a= re = among the highest in the industry. At this time from what I have seen, = Beatnik does not have the depth necessary to fully enable a recording wit= h = these standards, and contain this information within a small enough memor= y = footprint to be easily accessible to the typical web surfer. Of course h= e = and his staff know all about future capabilities of the Beatnik platform,= so = there are unknowns from our perspective. But witness the fact that vocal= s = require full sampling, as do any musical instruments which depend = intrinsically upon mechanical reproduction. I haven't heard true guitar = in = any of the .RMF (Beatnik) files I've listened to. They would have to be = treated like vocal tracks. (Yes, MIDI "guitar" sounds are present (see = Algarve), but that's a little thin to my ear.) All right, let's look at = the = one .RMF file I am aware of that contains vocals and compare this to the = more = typical .RMF file in illustration of my concerns. The typical .RMF file is no larger than 100Kb, and more commonly about ha= lf = that size. The .RMF song with a vocal track performed by Apples and = Oranges, located at the Beatnik website, is an order of magnitude larger = at = 1.04Mb or so. Further, the vocals were sampled into the .RMF file at 22K= Hz = in stereo, a sample rate equal to one-half the resolution of Compact Disc= s. = I doubt Thomas will lower his personal production standards by one half, = and = pray I have misinterpreted his statement. Anyway, and in brief conclusio= n, = using the Beatnik platform (at its present level of development) I estima= te = the size in bytes equivalent to a full length CD recording would only be = reduced by a factor of 3 with a resultant size still in the hundreds of = megabytes. This would be an unwieldy file to download, to put it mildly.= On the bright side I think I can safely say that our dear Thomas has alwa= ys = surprised us pleasantly with his work. I have no reason to expect a = departure from this glorious fact. Further, the fact of his acknowledgem= ent = of a recording in the planning stage is very welcome relief to my = Dolby-denied ears, and I'll wager yours too! And last but not least, let= me = say that Beatnik is a wonderful and sorely needed enhancement to the = bandwidth-strained Internet. I have enjoyed hours of fun exploring the = possibilities and listening to the great offerings enabled by this innova= tive = web-based application. I wish more webpages utilized this new soundfile = standard. Personally, in view of TMDR's dissatisfaction with the recording industry= = status quo, I would like to see him release his long-awaited next record = with = an artist-oriented label like Robert Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile. I= t = hasn't hurt King Crimson's record sales any . . . In any event, good luck Thomas! We're with you all the way! The ever-faithful, /\/\iles ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 12:02:51 +0100 From: Jean-Dominique Dalloz Subject: Re: Alloy: I'm a Dolby fan and I'm okay... RThurF wrote: > >And speaking of Rupert Hine: there was an '80's comedy on television last > night > >called "Better Off Dead"... Rupert Hine was responsible for much of the '80's > pop > >soundtrack music. Very good stuff. > Yes, it's right. But I believe that the best from him are his solo albums "Immunity", "Waving Not Drowning" and "The Wildest Wish To Fly". And, strangely, they're not far from Thomas' 80s records ! > >I'm so happy that Jean-Dominique has joined us. Welcome!! > Warmest thanks again ! - --------------------------------------------- Jean-Dominique Dalloz Responsable du developpement jddalloz@waw.com tel +33 (0)4 91 81 21 45 fax +33 (0)4 91 53 06 17 - --------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 06:55:00 -0500 From: Tim Dunn <113203.2623@compuserve.com> Subject: Alloy: Dibbs Update Dibbs so far the_copse Beth Meyer Mark Hyre Paul B Lissu Miles Ms Sakamoto JAMac Keep'em coming, and thanks to people who've sent in addresses too. The li= st is growing... the_copse ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 06:58:01 -0500 From: Tim Dunn <113203.2623@compuserve.com> Subject: Alloy: Copy of: Dibbs Update Dibbs so far the_copse Beth Meyer Mark Hyre Paul B Lissu Miles Ms Sakamoto JAMac Keith Stansell (oops, sorry about that last post, I forgot to put you on it Keith!) Keep'em coming, and thanks to people who've sent in addresses too. The li= st is growing... the_copse ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 17:19:00 +0200 From: Louise.Ulfstedt@nmp.nokia.com (Ulfstedt Louise NMP) Subject: RE: Alloy: Alloy-1 Where did you get the inspiration for the below, JAMac? Have you been on the pendolino? That's the finnish high speed train we have here,..very hi tec,...especially in contrast to the far from hi-tec landscape outside,...this is a country of lakes, forest, more forest, and very very occassionally,.....a village here and there.......and maybe 3, or even 5 towns/cities. Anyway,..this could be an interesting challenge,...let me know more! juna-terveisia Lissu ---------- From: alloy To: alloy Subject: Alloy: Alloy-1 Date: 06. December 1997 09:33 I just got a theme for the lyrics to the song I put on the web page. Could somebody write something for it related to riding a train to/from Finland? ;-) It kind of has that high-speed train sound to it. I kept getting "Metro" in my head after I retired from writing it, by (Oh, great, I can't remember the bands name now! I do that a lot.) JAMac - (Dennis S. Alexander) www.symmetry.3000.com/dennisalexander www.geocities.com/hotsprings/2717 dalexander@juno.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 18:38:57 EST From: RThurF Subject: Alloy: Your Eager Audience Awaits! In a message dated 12/10/97 7:58:59 AM, Jean-Dominique wrote: >I was expecting much more information about > >current Thomas' musical project. We'd all LOVE to hear more about that... but for the past few years I think Thomas has been directing his creative energy toward helping to develop Headspace's products. He seems to be revving up to do some music making in the near future though (WE HOPE!!) as he's been hinting in recent interviews. Wouldn't it be nice (and maybe if we all wish it at the same time, it will come true. Concentrate everyone!!) if Thomas recorded a new version of one of his songs - or even a new song altogether - and sent it in for the Alloy tape as a surprise for all of us? Robin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 11:06:23 +-1100 From: John Schofield Subject: Alloy: Purple Ostriches >OSTRICHES! Are the males as aggressive as I've always heard (one of them once >totaled someone's jeep for taking its egg away from the nest, as the story >goes) ?? Probably more aggresive than you have heard. People have certainly been killed by the big buggers. Getting eggs from their nests is - needless to say - perilous at the best of times. >You do realize that now I will ask you loads of ostrich questions >whenever I have them... No problems. Ask away (maybe offline though - I can't imagine a huge following of Alloy Ostrich fanatics out there). > Can you send Paul a photo of you with some ostriches >for the Alloy page, please? As a matter of fact I've been trying to find a reasonable photo for a while and I guess I keep putting off sending one - but since it was me who first suggested the scrapbook concept I suppose I should come clean with the goods. >(Dave's aunt wants to raise llamas or alpacas on >her land in New Hampshire, & now I'm fascinated by any sort of large animal >caretaking) It sure is challenging. >Okay - I'll tell, because I don't think it will spoil the surprise for Alloy >members (you'll all still want to SEE it when it's done, after all - ie own a >copy) I'm designing an embroidery piece on linen for the hardcover-binding of >the Alloy art book. I must have the design finished by the end of this month >so that the embroidery will be complete by August/September, in time for the >you-know-what. The color and animal suggestions are to help me design a little >border of motifs, and the main design... well, I can't spill THAT many beans, >can I! ;) hah, so I wasn't to far out with my coat-of-arms !! >If I were to assign Thomas an animal... I've been thinking lately about the >Pacific vampire squid (don't judge solely by the name, if you've never seen >one!) They're hypnotizingly beautiful, with sharp spikes where other squid >would have suckers, and they're deep red with one large, vivid cobalt-blue >eye. It would look entrancing as an embroidered motif. Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you. >There's also the great >picture of Thomas with a large snake, so that might be another possibility. Is this a Freudian thing? >And of course.. the aye-aye (a type of lemur in Madagascar) Now you've got me humming that damn song. >As for color, I haven't decided. He looks great in every color, though I've >noticed he seems to prefer a lot of contrast. It may have to be two colors for >him. >Now that I've explained some of what I have in mind, John, I hope you'll plan >to contribute your own work to the Art/photography/poetry/short story Book >(Companion to the Alloy Birthday tape this year) :) I need more contributors; >I hope to have a good representation of the various Alloy members. hmmmm. I'll have to think about that. I was considering a Birthday tape dibb along the lines of Leipzig (now that its free again). But you never know. Regards to all, John (Egg stealer and fast runner from hell!!) ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V2 #282 ***************************