Audioscrobbler

[Kenneth R.]

im joining that group.

also, i think musicmatch is terrifyingly atrocious. i used to use it, and it killed my cpu usage, mis-organized my music, and popped up annoying useless ad pages posed as "song info". winamp loads all 6642 of my songs into playlist without a second lag, and the library is exactly how i would have designed it. its also incredibly stable. it never crashed on me...

 

[Pellaz]

Yep, I know it's not 'cool' to use Winamp these days, but it works fine for me. The AMIP plug-in works great for things like outputting song titles to Mirc, so it works perfectly for my unattended broadcasting on SeismicRadio. The Tara plugin turns it into a decent RealAudio player, too, which freed me from RealPlayer's annoyances on my new machine.

I don't think it's ever crashed on me, and it has no advertising whatsoever. \m/

(I should try out AudioScrobbler sometime; I'd have a pretty eclectic list. On the other hand, I was never sanguine about having my audio 'scrobbled.' I wasn't sure it was legal in the State of Georgia. )

 

[jhallum]

Yep, I know it's not 'cool' to use Winamp these days, but it works fine for me. The AMIP plug-in works great for things like outputting song titles to Mirc, so it works perfectly for my unattended broadcasting on SeismicRadio. The Tara plugin turns it into a decent RealAudio player, too, which freed me from RealPlayer's annoyances on my new machine.

(I should try out AudioScrobbler sometime; I'd have a pretty eclectic list. On the other hand, I was never sanguine about having my audio 'scrobbled.' I wasn't sure it was legal in the State of Georgia. )

I'm a big iTunes guy myself, since I own 2 iPods(a 4G 20gb and a 1gb iShuffle). I've never had a problem with iTunes, and haven't had a problem with it since i moved from Windows Media Player 8 last September. I only wish there were a few more plugins for it, though the ones I've found have been superb.

-jeremy

 

[Kenneth R.]

i despise iTunes, and Apple in general for their "form before function" mentality. i'd recommend checking out Winamp 5.08... .09 is a step down, and WMP9 and WMP10 are fairly good, but lacking the strong library and stability of winamp.

 

[jhallum]

i despise iTunes, and Apple in general for their "form before function" mentality. i'd recommend checking out Winamp 5.08... .09 is a step down, and WMP9 and WMP10 are fairly good, but lacking the strong library and stability of winamp.

They may emphasize form, but that doesn't mean they ignore function. It just means that they aren't trying to have their application do everything from playing music to toasting your bagels in the morning. They do several specific things and they do them very very well.

Then again, you are talking to someone who is about 3 heartbeats from buying a G5 to replace his windows 2000 desktop, and spends 50% of his time at work doing Apple system administration. If you would have told me 4 years ago that I would be an Apple booster in 2005, I would have laughed at you, but here I am, and I'm telling you, Apple's done a lot to make their computers and applications powerful as well as pretty. I'm a big fan.

-jeremy

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

I'm looking to buy an Ipod.....and am unhappy with some of the things I've been reading. I was going to buy the Iphoto, since it has 30 gigabytes, which I need, last month. But then I was reading on the forum about an issue with noticeable distortion especially on low-ohm headphones. So that kept me from buying it.......it's upsetting that you would pay $350 for something that's intended to play music and have that primary function not work correctly. And now they've moved to just 20 and 40 editions........so I'm not sure what will happen now.

 

[jhallum]

I'm looking to buy an Ipod.....and am unhappy with some of the things I've been reading. I was going to buy the Iphoto, since it has 30 gigabytes, which I need, last month. But then I was reading on the forum about an issue with noticeable distortion especially on low-ohm headphones. So that kept me from buying it.......it's upsetting that you would pay $350 for something that's intended to play music and have that primary function not work correctly. And now they've moved to just 20 and 40 editions........so I'm not sure what will happen now.

From what I understand, it's not just Apple that scrimps on the headphones, but pretty much all of the mp3 vendors. I read an article on slashdot a couple of months back that pretty much verified that they all suck, and then a second review on what good high end in-ear phones exist out there. I think both reviews were from ars technica, but I don't remember where it was or what they recommended. I'm pretty satisfied with the iPod earphones...I use them very rarely, I usually plug the iPod into my powerbook+external speakers for tunage.

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

It wasn't the headphones, it was the Ipod. They said that the issue could be made less audible by buying high quality headphones......and by high quality headphones they were talking like $150 headphones.

 

[jhallum]

It wasn't the headphones, it was the Ipod. They said that the issue could be made less audible by buying high quality headphones......and by high quality headphones they were talking like $150 headphones.

Interesting. I've never noticed.

 

[YanLeviathan]

It wasn't the headphones, it was the Ipod. They said that the issue could be made less audible by buying high quality headphones......and by high quality headphones they were talking like $150 headphones.

I've had a 60 gig iphoto for about 6 months and I'm very happy with it. However, the earphones that came with it aren't worth more than 2 cents. I got these; http://etymotic.com/ephp/er4.aspxhttp://etymotic.com/ephp/er4.aspx and they sound amazing. They are expensive as hell but if you're looking for superior sound, they will not disappoint.

Yan

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

The major issue that they noted the made noticeable distortion was solo piano music, by the way. I'm sure it works fine for some people.......but I'm just not willing to take the risk for that amount of money, I'll wait until a new one comes out.

I've had a 60 gig iphoto for about 6 months and I'm very happy with it. However, the earphones that came with it aren't worth more than 2 cents. I got these; http://etymotic.com/ephp/er4.aspx and they sound amazing. They are expensive as hell but if you're looking for superior sound, they will not disappoint.

Yan

Oh, and how is the 60gb in terms of weight? Since now it seems they've eliminated the 30gb, I guess I might have to look at the larger options (since 20 is too small). Is it portable enough to like carry around in your pocket?

Another thing.......the things you posted, do they stay in your ears well? One thing I've had trouble with concerning earbud headphones is that they constantly pop out, so I haven't been using them.

 

[YanLeviathan]

The major issue that they noted the made noticeable distortion was solo piano music, by the way. I'm sure it works fine for some people.......but I'm just not willing to take the risk for that amount of money, I'll wait until a new one comes out.



Oh, and how is the 60gb in terms of weight? Since now it seems they've eliminated the 30gb, I guess I might have to look at the larger options (since 20 is too small). Is it portable enough to like carry around in your pocket?

Another thing.......the things you posted, do they stay in your ears well? One thing I've had trouble with concerning earbud headphones is that they constantly pop out, so I haven't been using them.

It is a little bit bulkier than the others but that's the sacrifice you have to make if you have a ton of music. If you take it as (without a protective case) it shouldn't be that uncomfortable in your pocket; I carry it in a thick case that clips to my pants.

The earphones go into your lower ear canal; it is VERY uncomfortable at first but once you get used to it you won't even notice it. They come with those rubber ear things that act like a suction cup so it blocks nearly all of the outside noise. It doesn't seem right spending that much money on earphones, but if you want to truly enjoy your music while on the go; this the way to do it (they ought to pay me for this ;-)

Yan


p.s. A friend of mine bought a brand new 60 gig the other day on ebay for $380. You can probably find the earphones there for about $220.

 

[Kenneth R.]

for my use i'd have to buy the 60GB model, and with reports of its flimsiness, difficulty of use, and the fact that it uses iTunes, which i despise... i'll stick to my higher quality CDs and winamp.

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

My understanding is that you don't have to use Itunes to play your music, you only have to use it to transfer the songs if that's all you want to use it for. I have all my albums on the computer and that's how I listen to them here, but I need an mp3 player for travel so I don't have to carry around all my 300 albums or pick and choose which ones to take.

 

[MEFlyingV]

Hey Mark,

Love RETURN OF THE SNOW GIANT, great stuff! When can we see Overlorde live?????

Cheers,

Neal

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mystic!

We have some shows in the works but none by you. I will have some news of interest soon, though...

And if you want us to play a future Progpower, be sure to let Glenn know!

BTW, if anyone reads BWBK magazine...the current issue, # 89 with Candlemass on the cover, features a review of RETURN OF THE SNOW GIANT.

 

[jhallum]

Started up a group:

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/group/Prog+Power+USA+Forum

If you have an audioscrobbler account, just click the join button, and your stats will be added!

The first week's charts have shown up for the ProgPowerUSA group. Check them out!

 

[MysticX9]

Very cool, I'm glad we got that 10th member! Seems Stratovarius is
leading, makes sense; it will be interesting to see the stats as we get
closer to the festival, I know I'll be playing more PPVI bands in the coming
weeks...

Neal

 

[jhallum]

Very cool, I'm glad we got that 10th member! Seems Stratovarius is
leading, makes sense; it will be interesting to see the stats as we get
closer to the festival, I know I'll be playing more PPVI bands in the coming
weeks...

Neal

Agreed. 6 of the first 9 are PP bands, but there are a couple of bands conspicuous by their complete absence, like Symphorce and Therion (and to a lesser extent Stride). I figured more than two people would have listened to them.