From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V7 #8 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, January 8 2001 Volume 07 : Number 008 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: A new spam scam [DanStark ] Re: A new spam scam [Joseph Zitt ] Re: A new spam scam [kitty kat ] Re: A new spam scam [Mike Connell ] CDR pops [dave ] 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) ["Adam K." ] Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) [Paul Blair ] Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) [meredith ] Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) ["Jeffrey C. Burka" ] CD burning/top list [Per A J Andersson ] Re: Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac [Joseph Zitt ] Kerry's quandry ["Mitchell A. Pravatiner" ] RE: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) ["Foghorn J Fornorn" ] Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) [Marla Tiara ] Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) [James Mitchell Subject: Re: A new spam scam 919 appears to be North Carolina. Your best bet is probably to ignore it. In the unlikely event something gets charged to your credit card, dispute it, but it sounds like pure spam to me. At 01:25 AM 1/7/2001 , kerry white wrote: > Hi, I just got an e-mail stating, "Thank you for your order". >Mentioning a big sex toy for $80 on my credit card and a number with a >919 area code for customer assistance >if< I have any questions! I >don't know but I bet 919 is off shore or worse and a call would get me >liable for way too much money on the phone bill. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 01:18:50 -0500 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: A new spam scam The classic area code for the scam is 809. 919 appears to be in North Carolina, but they could have something sneaky figured out. Best to check your credit card info. On Sun, Jan 07, 2001 at 12:25:46AM -0600, kerry white wrote: > Hi, I just got an e-mail stating, "Thank you for your order". > Mentioning a big sex toy for $80 on my credit card and a number with a > 919 area code for customer assistance >if< I have any questions! I > don't know but I bet 919 is off shore or worse and a call would get me > liable for way too much money on the phone bill. > Anyone else hear about this? bye, - -- |> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Jerusaklyn http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 23:46:04 -0800 (PST) From: kitty kat Subject: Re: A new spam scam According to http://decoder.americom.com/cgi-bin/decoder.cgi , 919 is a North Carolina number (Chapel Hill, Durham, Goldsboro, Raleigh, Sanford, Smithfield). I've got a ton of free minutes on my cellphone if you want to mail me privately and have me follow up for you... - -Kat On Sun, 7 Jan 2001, kerry white wrote: > Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 00:25:46 -0600 (CST) > From: kerry white > To: "That warm and fuzzy [place]" > Subject: A new spam scam > > Hi, I just got an e-mail stating, "Thank you for your order". > Mentioning a big sex toy for $80 on my credit card and a number with a > 919 area code for customer assistance >if< I have any questions! I > don't know but I bet 919 is off shore or worse and a call would get me > liable for way too much money on the phone bill. > Anyone else hear about this? bye, > > KrW > I'm Peter Pan! > I'm perpetually young!! > OW!! What's wrong with my back? > - -- - ------------- "The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." - Niels Bohr - ------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 03:56:40 -0500 From: Mike Connell Subject: Re: A new spam scam Does anyone know of an area code for North Carolina? Mike ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 10:33:40 -0500 From: dave Subject: CDR pops tenthvictim says: > I was > >using Adaptec Easy CD. The pops aren't on the end of the wave files which > >comprise the CD. I even had one track fading out, so as far as the software > >is concerned, it should have seen silence at the end of that track. It > >seemed that the burning program just laid the pops in all on its lonesome. I use Adaptec Easy CD Creator and haven't had this problem.. and since you say the pops aren't in the WAVs it doesn't sound like an editing program is going to be of any help. What I do is first make a Disc Image and then burn the CD from that using Disc at Once, this should put a bit less strain on the system during the recording process, I think. Also I've heard that you can have problems with audio CDs that are burned at high speed, if you're burning at higher than 2X, dropping the speed down might help. Ah... less than 3 weeks to GEG/November Project at the Media Theatre.. anyone else going? dave ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 16:21:55 -0000 From: "Adam K." Subject: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) Whew! Having been away over the Christmas break, enjoying the bucolic joys of the country (which, in my case, means sneezing, wheezing and wading through cow shit) I've managed to catch up on all my ecto digests, having to refrain from jumping in right away and going"Hey, wait a minute!" at things posted AGES ago. Since my last posting, I've done my best to cheer myself up about the music scene, and it's definitely worked: I'm feeling a lot more positive about it, thanks to some last minute purchases. Unfortunately, a side-effect of EWS is also DIM (Drowning In Music) which leaves me struggling to catch up with stuff I've BOUGHT -- I picked up Emmylou Harris' latest a couple of days ago, and have yet to give it a spin. Still, there have been some absolute high points in the latecomers, so I'd like to revise my top five nominations (in no particular order): 1)Tom McRae -- his debut album is STILL the only real one to make me sit up and take notice on first hearing, and want to hear it again. I can't recommend this enough. 2)Sigur Ros -- this was recommended to me by a music fan who I once worked with, and when I finally picked it up, I was enchanted. If you love music, buy this dream of an album. 3)PJ Harvey -- the latest is, on first and second hearing, my fave of her albums, narrowly beating out "To Bring You My Love" 4)Grandaddy -- "The Software Slump" is a massive improvement on "Under the Western Freeway" (which almost made me want to avoid them at all cost) -- I really like it, although I'd probably be more impressed if it didn't remind me so much of Flaming Lips' "The Soft Bulletin" 5)Dar Williams -- Okay, so "Green World" didn't grab me as immediately as "The End of the Summer", but it's a real grower, and has converted my partner, who usually dismisses what she calls my "Whingeing women". This is a breakthrough, not to be taken lightly. and, as an appendix: 6)Radiohead -- "Kid A" -- my mental jury has been out so long on this one, I might have to call it a draw. Some beautiful moments, but the unmistakeable sound of a band disappearing up its own arse. And what's with the artwork and liner "notes"? "Amnesia", supposedly a poppier release, comes out this year. Interesting to see what that does. In terms of films, I think it was a fantastic year -- Topsy Turvy, Three Kings, Being John Malkovich, Boys Don't Cry (ignored in most UK critics' roundups of the year --- shame on them!), Ring (japanese ghost story -- creepy and disturbing) ) Brother Where Art Thou?, Memento, Pitch Black -- all really good, even great films. The only disappointments, for me, were The Insider (worthy, overlong), Lake Placid (not funny, not scary, badly written, indifferently acted ), a French films called Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, in which everyone shouts and emotes loudly, but nobody actually SAYS anything, and Meet the Parents (dismally unfunny and predictable, and if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the movie) Books have been less successful. Tops, however, was The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover, Needle in the Groove by Jeff Noone, Hangover Square by Patrck Hamilton (an oldie, but he's brilliant!), Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49 (never made it through Gravity's Rainbow, but I might just give it another go on the basis of this) The Ten O'Clock Horses by Laurie Graham (never heard of her before, but she's funny/sad and astutely observed). On the whole though, I was mostly disappointed with a lot of stuff. Never finished Cider House Rules, thought that House of Leaves was a smart-arse hybrid of Blair Witch and Amityville Horror as told by Nabokov --overwritten, and pointlessly clever-clever. The worst book I've read for a while was this year -- The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. I've been meaning to read it for a while, had it hanging around, and after the brilliance of Jeff Noon's Manchester-based cyber-punk (Gibson meets Irving Walsh) thought I was ready for it. Exposition-laden, jargon heavy, meandering plot (or what served for one) -- all that's shite about sci-fi. Anorak stuff. Predictions for this year: We WILL find that black obelisk. Okay, so it may not be on Jupiter, but maybe a bit closer -- in someone's back garden, or hiding behind a post-box. I urge everyone to keep an eye out for it. You might just pass it on your way to the shops, or find it when you're clearing out your sock drawer. Okay, I'll shut up, now. NP -- Red Dirt Girl (a little too country for me, but pretty col-sarned good) NR - Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 12:27:04 -0500 From: Paul Blair Subject: Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) At 4:21 PM +0000 1/7/01, Adam K wrote: >Predictions for this year: We WILL find that black obelisk. Okay, so it may >not be on Jupiter, but maybe a bit closer -- in someone's back garden, or >hiding behind a post-box. I urge everyone to keep an eye out for it. You >might just pass it on your way to the shops, or find it when you're clearing >out your sock drawer. What, you didn't hear? See . ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 14:16:27 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) Hi! Adam opined: >6)Radiohead -- "Kid A" -- my mental jury has been out so long on this one, I >might have to call it a draw. Some beautiful moments, but the unmistakeable >sound of a band disappearing up its own arse. That's hilarious. It pretty succinctly sums up most of the reviews I've read of the album (though I must confess don't like Radiohead in general so I haven't heard it myself). >The worst book I've read for a while was this year -- The >Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. I've been meaning to read it for a while, had >it hanging around, and after the brilliance of Jeff Noon's Manchester-based >cyber-punk (Gibson meets Irving Walsh) thought I was ready for it. >Exposition-laden, jargon heavy, meandering plot (or what served for one) -- >all that's shite about sci-fi. Anorak stuff. Well, that just depends on what kind of style you're into. "Exposition-laden, jargon heavy, meandering plot" is just what Stephenson *does*, and you're either going to go for it or you're not. Personally I love his smartass style, and I find that it's been getting better and better as he's gone on. _Cryptonomicon_, which took me the entire summer to wade through ended up being the most satisfying read of the past several years. It got me interested in cryptography and the fascinating history of it, as well as several facets of obscure WWII history I'd never given a passing thought to before. And somewhere in the middle it contains a several-page tangent on the correct way to eat Cap'n Crunch cereal, which some may consider a waste of paper and ink, but in my view is a brilliant (not to mention fall-down funny) bit of character exposition. _The Diamond Age_ is a stepping stone on the way to that - I'll agree that it took me a while to get into (it was the first Stephenson I read), and while he's gotten a lot better at it, he still doesn't know how to *end* a story, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. It's just a matter of taste. Just had to chime in - can't sit by and let someone diss one of my favorite writers. :) +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 15:07:58 -0500 From: "Jeffrey C. Burka" Subject: Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) > The worst book I've read for a while was this year -- The > Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. I've been meaning to read it for a while, had > it hanging around, and after the brilliance of Jeff Noon's Manchester-based > cyber-punk (Gibson meets Irving Walsh) thought I was ready for it. a) I love Noon though I've only read _Vurt_ and _Pollen_. b) I love Stephenson. c) I didn't actually understand _The Diamond Age_ until the second time I read it, at which point it made complete sense. The first time I read it I was disappointed because it just didn't work for me the way _Snowcrash_ did. _Cryptonomicon_ was a great book with a way-too-rapid ending (it should have been another 100 pages longer if you ask me...) but it lacked the imagination and forward-thinking of the previous two Stephenson novels. jeff n.p. _The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway_, Genesis ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 16:27:12 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: A new spam scam Hi! Kerry posted: > Hi, I just got an e-mail stating, "Thank you for your order". >Mentioning a big sex toy for $80 on my credit card and a number with a >919 area code for customer assistance >if< I have any questions! I >don't know but I bet 919 is off shore or worse and a call would get me >liable for way too much money on the phone bill. > Anyone else hear about this? bye, Whenever I get a piece of spam, I report it to SpamCop (http://spamcop.net). The form there crunches the headers and sends an auto-generated e-mail to the appropriate "abuse" and "postmaster" addresses at the actual originating server, as well as any other servers that may have been involved. It's excellent -- I've lost count at how many spammers' accounts have been shut down thanks to this service. (Of course, most of them just move from ISP to ISP, but most of them go away eventually.) You might want to report this spam to SpamCop and have them take care of it for you. +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 19:40:42 +0100 From: Per A J Andersson Subject: CD burning/top list > > Here is a question for the cd burning ectophiles out there. I burned a > > rough mix of homemade christmas songs and got a pop after each song. I was > > using Adaptec Easy CD. The pops aren't on the end of the wave files which > > comprise the CD. I even had one track fading out, so as far as the software > > is concerned, it should have seen silence at the end of that track. It > > seemed that the burning program just laid the pops in all on its lonesome. > > Any suggestions? Also, how do you normalize all your tracks so they are the > > same volume? Is it just a hit or miss proposition dependent on your ears? > > > > Bye, > > Lyle Perhaps this thing has been solved already. But my two cents is you might like to burn this CD using the "Disc-At-Once" format. And in case you've got it included in your version of Adaptec Easy CD Creator (my Adaptec Toast Deluxe 4 - I use Mac - - has got it), just check this in your preferences of the program. And then, hopefully, you can burn CDs with zero intervals in between tracks and still avoid the dreaded pops. Maybe I ought to present myself. I'm a newcomer to the list, but I've listened to Happy's music some year or two. I discovered her when being on the Love-Hounds list back in 98, and that list also opened my eyes for the likes of Milla Jovovich and Stina Nordenstam. Needless to say, I enjoy the music of Kate Bush. Quite much, I'm afraid ;-). I'm a 37 year old male (soon to be 38 - on the 16th of this month, to be exact), residing in Gvteborg, the second largest city of Sweden. I was raised on a farm some miles south from here, and I still wonder what on earth I'll become when I grow up. In the meantime I'm having lots of fun. And listening to music (and talking about it!) is fun... Then I'd like to present my top 10 list of records that I first got my ears near in the year of 2000: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. Sam Brown: "43 minutes..." (released 1993) British singeresse/composer of "Stop!" fame. But this thematic CD from 1993 was a quite different thing. Not the hit list album A&M wanted, so she had to release it herself. It was well worth it... Favourite on it: "Fear of Life". 2. Roger Hodgson: "Open the Door" (2000) A surprisingly powerful come-back album from this ex-Supertramp musician. Wit lots of long, winding and powerful tunes making me dream away, back to the mid-seventies - where music was music and noone had even heard the word 'rap'. ;-). Might be available only as an import in your territory (released by Sony France). Favourite: "Death and a Zoo". 3. Tommy Shaw: "Ambition" (1987) Another solo effort from a member of a "pomp rock" outfit, this time Chicago-based Styx. Not available on CD yet, which is a shame. A more hard-hitting music than most of his ordinary Styx contributions. Favourite: "The Weight of the World". 4. Steve Walsh: "Glossolalia" (2000) Yet another solo effort. From yet another 70s band member. And more of the hard-hitting type. But with lots of ups and downs s well. Steve "Kansas" Walsh makes his second solo album, 21 years after the first. This is at its best an uncompromising but highly inventive heavy metal type of thing, very dynamic in range. Favourite: "Haunted Man". 5. les Rita Mitsouko: "Cool frinisie" (2000) The French duo, still productive and very popular in its homeland, with the international career eluding them after some successes during the 80s ("Marcia Baola", "Andy", "Singing in the Shower"). Great new album, after "seven years" in the studio. Favourite: "C'itait un homme". 6. Antonella Ruggiero: "Sospesa" (1999) Ex-singer of Italian veteran band Matia Bazar put out a strong effort. Air-light music with lots of Indian (Indian subcontinent, that is) influences. And I found it strange to see this freshness from a singer that started out in the mid-70s. For those that might have heard of her capacity as a singer: yes, she still proves herself with her grand voicing. Favourite: "Nonsenso". 9. Regina Lund: "Year Zero" (2000) She's a young "passepartout" in her homeland Sweden, having been seen in soap operas, thriller movies and one-woman theatrical shows. Not bein content with that, she 1997 also moved into music. Together with fellow producer/musician Johan Norberg she presented a soft vocal music bearing a haunting resemblance to Suzanne Vega! Favourite: "We Don't Need Another Hero" (the Tina Turner classic, Regina-style). 7. k.d. lang: "Invincible Summer" (2000) Happy music from Canada, full of sunshine. k.d. lang at her best. Favourite: "The Consequences of Falling". 8. Wax: "Commonknowledge.com" (1998) The first of the 80s US/British duo Wax that never was heard - shame on you, record tycoons! - together with some potent new songs. And wow, this is good! Mssrs Gold and Gouldman (of 10cc fame) , a high salute to you! Favourite: "Victoria". 10. Suzanne Vega: "Nine Objects of Desire" (1996) The American equivalent to Regina Lund does it again (yes, I know it's been out a while ;-) ). Favourite: "Headshots". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Best of wishes /Per <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Per A J Andersson paja@telia.com (Gvteborg, Sweden) <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> "Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." - Henry David Thoreau <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Np. "L'amour toujours" by the Belgian trio of Telex. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 14:10:01 -0500 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac On Sat, Jan 06, 2001 at 03:13:54PM -0500, Foghorn J Fornorn wrote: > I find that my audience tapes often have a loud audience compared to the > music. I tried a lot of things to "normalize" this, until I discovered a > numbingly simple solution. In CoolEdit 2000, you choose Transform -> > Amplitude -> Dynamics Processing. You get a graph that starts out as a > straight diagonal. Putting a small notch in the upper right, clipping high > amplitudes, went a long way towards normalizing. Of course, I only applied > this on a selection including applause so as to minimize any effect on the > music - but if the music is quiet enough relative to applause, it won't > affect the music even if applied to the whole programme. I'm trying this, and it's working marve;ously. Thank you! - -- |> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Jerusaklyn http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 19:06:30 -0600 (CST) From: "Mitchell A. Pravatiner" Subject: Kerry's quandry The 919 area code is actually in North Carolina. I have seen magazine ads for a mail-order sex toy place out there called Adam and Eve, is that the place that sent that stuff unsolicited? I would certainly advise calling to ask what is going on. And as far as I know, there is no legal requirement that one pay for unsolcited goods, which gives Kerry some leverage in the event that they stall in taking the stuff off his hands. Mitch ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 20:16:27 -0500 From: "Foghorn J Fornorn" Subject: RE: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) I've only read Cryptonomicon, I enjoyed it and will eventually check out his earlier works. Now, I wish I could remember where I read this, but I recall a review or interview or something that alluded to C being part of a series, possibly a trilogy. If true, that could explain the unsatisfying ending of that story. I hope so. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 21:10:27 -0500 From: Jeff Wasilko Subject: Re: Sarah Harmer on NPR On Thu, Jan 04, 2001 at 11:33:35PM -0500, Valerie Nozick wrote: > Sarah Harmer will be featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday this week -- Weekend Edition Sunday airs on NPR stations around the US, and on NPR Worldwide abroad (usually can be heard on Armed Forces stations near US military bases) > > NPR uploads all of their audio from WESUN, so the piece should be available for listening online on Sunday afternoon. The archive's at: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/wesun/20010107.wesun.rmm The interview starts at about 1:19:40 into the show. - -jeff ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 18:58:54 -0800 (PST) From: Marla Tiara Subject: Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) > a) I love Noon though I've only read _Vurt_ and > _Pollen_. I think the only other published book is Alice Underground (or something like that) which wasn't all that thrilling. Vurt though. What a book. I'm thrilled others have even HEARD of it. My boyfriend originally had a promo copy that came with a little yellow feather... marla tiara (recent CD spree: Tullycraft - the Singles, Emaliana Torrini - Love in the Time of Science, Godspeed You Black Emperor - Skinny Fists La De Dah, Little Molly Has a Treat for You http://www.marchrecords.com/mollytreat - not Ecto, probably, but fabulous indie music all the same and only $6.) ===== ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Famous people wearing my tiara: http://www.marlatiara.com (*updated 9/21/00 - All pictures active!) "I will always love you like a milkshake." - Wesley Willis Yahoo! Photos - Share your holiday photos online! http://photos.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 19:35:56 -0800 (PST) From: kitty kat Subject: Re: Kerry's quandry Kerry gave me the info and I tried to call - it said they were investigating the line for trouble and I should try calling back later. I'm not sure if that's a coincidence or not... On Sun, 7 Jan 2001, Mitchell A. Pravatiner wrote: > Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 19:06:30 -0600 (CST) > From: Mitchell A. Pravatiner > To: ecto@smoe.org > Subject: Kerry's quandry > > The 919 area code is actually in North Carolina. I have seen magazine ads > for a mail-order sex toy place out there called Adam and Eve, is that the > place that sent that stuff unsolicited? I would certainly advise calling > to ask what is going on. And as far as I know, there is no legal > requirement that one pay for unsolcited goods, which gives Kerry some > leverage in the event that they stall in taking the stuff off his hands. > > Mitch > - -- - ------------- "The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." - Niels Bohr - ------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 22:17:33 -0600 From: James Mitchell Subject: Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) Marla Tiara wrote: > > > a) I love Noon though I've only read _Vurt_ and > > _Pollen_. > > I think the only other published book is Alice > Underground (or something like that) which wasn't all > that thrilling. Vurt though. What a book. I'm thrilled > others have even HEARD of it. My boyfriend originally > had a promo copy that came with a little yellow > feather... Try _Automated_Alice_, which is an all-too unsuprising take on the Alice story. It was disapointing to the degree that I hadn't bothered reading _Vurt_, nor _Pollen_, despite my brother's endorsement (now I may). I've also seen _Nymphomation_, and Amazon lists _Pixel_Juice_ as another Noon title. Go Figure. James Mitchell jmitchel@jmitchel.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 23:20:11 -0500 From: Stuart Myerburg Subject: Re: 2000 -- my tuppence worth (again) > > a) I love Noon though I've only read _Vurt_ and > > _Pollen_. > > I think the only other published book is Alice > Underground (or something like that) which wasn't all > that thrilling. Vurt though. What a book. I'm thrilled > others have even HEARD of it. My boyfriend originally > had a promo copy that came with a little yellow > feather... Actually, Noon has a number of published books. Besides _Vurt_, _Pollen_, and _Automated Alice_, there's _Nymphomation_, _Pixel Juice_, _Needle in the Groove_, and the just-published _Cobralingus_, which I can't wait to start on. Stuart - -- ______________________________________________ Stuart Myerburg http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~stuart ______________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 22:25:20 -0600 From: rjk1@cs.wustl.edu (Bob Kollmeyer) Subject: Clips, Claps, and Pops (was Re: Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac) Neal Copperman writes: > At 11:56 PM -0600 1/5/01, tenthvictim@mindspring.com wrote: > >Here is a question for the cd burning ectophiles out there. I burned a > >rough mix of homemade christmas songs and got a pop after each song. I was > >using Adaptec Easy CD. The pops aren't on the end of the wave files which > >comprise the CD. I even had one track fading out, so as far as the software > >is concerned, it should have seen silence at the end of that track. It > >seemed that the burning program just laid the pops in all on its lonesome. > >Any suggestions? While I don't use Adatpec Easy CD so I can't speak from experience, this sounds exactly like what most first generation CD burning programs had problems with - I can't believe any program made after '98 or so would have this problem, but the symptoms are dead on - and it can happen disc- at-once or track-at-once. The mail Joe Zitt forwarded touched on it. Essentially, though you can edit a 44.1KHz soundfile down to the thousandths of a second, the minimum unit of measure on a CD is one frame which is 1/75th of a second (which is 2352 bytes - 16 bits(2 bytes)/sample, 2 channels = 4 bytes per sample. 44,100 samples/second = 176,400 bytes/second. 176,400 bytes/75 frames per second = 2352 bytes per frame). Anyway, much of the early software didn't address what information got put into the remainder of a frame if there wasn't sufficient data to fill the last frame. Yes. Pretty pathetic. So even if you faded out nicely, if you went one sample over a frame, it could fill the remaining 75th of a second with 2348 bytes of noise, audible as a pop. Needless to say, this was resolved in subsequent versions of software and there's no excuse for a program to still have trouble with it. Check to see if there are any patches to the program you're using. Failing that, just make sure your files are a multiple of a 25th of a second (.04, .08, .12, etc). > > Also, how do you normalize all your tracks so they are the > > same volume? Is it just a hit or miss proposition dependent on your ears? Most audio programs will have a statistic/info/details page that gives info about the sound file, including both a peak and an average or RMS value. In general, 2 recordings that have the same RMS value will have the same apparent sound. As far as getting them there, that might be a bit more tricky. If both already peak near 0db and one is still considerably louder, it would involve compressing the quieter one - keeping it's peaks where they are but making the quieter parts louder. "Compressing" here refers to the dynamic range of the piece and has no no no no no relation to compressing in the mp3 or minidisc sense. > What I'd like to do is actually normalize to the wave of the music, > which I guess would be more like smoothing. See, I taped this show, > and it sounds fantastic, except for this one guy who is a screaming > lunatic. Near the end of each song, he would let out this whoop that > is easily 10 times louder than anything around it. It's unreal. He > kept this up for 2 hours too. When you look at the soundwaves, you > can see the gradual arc of the music, and then this giant blob where > this guy let's out his yell. The process Foghorn mentioned would help in this case - essentially compressing the dynamic range. Any sound over -5.8db gets quieted down while any sound below that threshold is left unaffected. End result is a file with a peak of -5.8db that would then presumably be normalized to peak near -0.1db. However, depending on the scenario in which the file came to reside on your computer, this may or may not be the best solution. If this show was originally recorded digitally (and from what I understand it was, to DAT) and transfered to the computer via analog in (again, from what I understand it was), then, barring a digital transfer to the computer, you may be better off re-recording it while setting your levels on the computer such that his screams get clipped and the actual music peaks are nearing max. Reason being that your computer sound card probably has a resolution of around 70db while your DAT is around 96db - since you won't be throwing away 10db (or whatever it turned out to be) on the yokel's screaming, the actual music will be better represented. Yes, his screaming will probably be even more annoying with the clipping, but given the choice, I'd take the clipped yelling and more dynamic music over crystal clear yelling and squished music. Obviously, the ideal would be to have had the levels set on the original live recording such that the music peaked higher while the screams clipped (always much easier to do in hindsight... ;) ), and a digital transfer to the computer would eliminate all sorts of problems (setting levels again, the D/A/D cycle, limitations of the sound card, etc) as well. > While I haven't tried this yet, in > ProTools you can do raw editing with a pencil. So I can attempt to > trace the line of the music and cut out his screaming. But that is > going to take a long time, and probably be kind of clumsy. A loud clap or two is relatively easy to take out completely; a scream, sneeze or cough is next to impossible to eliminate. bob np. The Januaries - s/t ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V7 #8 ************************