We've Been Writing This Damn Column For Three Whole Years!
[ No. 36 - October 1999 ]
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Particulates and gas coalesce in a mad plunge following the Big
Bang of Internet audio. Startling amounts of money and resources
are hurled in frantic attempts to be the Last Word on the digital
music delivery standard. Very little of this cosmology of cash
makes it to actual musicians. Great strides are made in processing
speed but computer audio interfaces remain buggy, non-intuitive and
downright odd. Pick up a guitar and it's pretty obvious how to
play. Now turn on a computer. It still takes too long to learn
how to use the damn thing. We're not asking for developers to
dumb-down. We're asking for developers to talk to real-world users
of products; the musicians, the people who actually put down
instruments and pick up a mouse. Imagine an online music community
vibrant with intuitive tools and equitable financial distribution.
Ok, we'll stop smoking crack! The truth is: the focus has shifted
from great services and tools to great hype for a great IPO.
You've allowed your FezGuys to begin our fourth year of writing
about Internet audio enlightenment. Thank you. On this
anniversary we'll talk about the state of Internet audio
applications for the desktop, an environment where
non-compatibility is accepted and irritating problems are common.
The industry is fraught with rapid technological advances but
that's no excuse for user un-friendliness! We celebrate companies
improving and upgrading their products but pledge to you, faithful
FezReader, that we'll watch closely to see who settles for merely
"acceptable" and who goes the extra mile to common sense,
useablility.
After many months of public freaking and backroom speaking the RIAA
<www.riaa.com> finally realized
people aren't going to stop listening to music. The mouthpiece of
the Big 5 record labels dropped a suit (after several judges
hammered them flat) to prevent Diamond Multimedia
<www.diamondmm.com>
from manufacturing and distributing the wildly popular Rio portable
digital music player. A "mutually satisfactory" resolution
depending heavily on the SDMI has been reached. The SDMI is the
Big 5 consortium (along with several major technology companies)
attempting to dictate a standard for secure digital music downloads
using the Internet. Hey, if you can't sue 'em, join 'em. Expect
bandwagon jumpers to add a half dozen new portable digital music
devices to the market by the '99 Christmas shopping convulsion. The
up side for consumers and musicians is that tools for digital music
manipulation will be streamlined by the cartels looking to control
the new market place.
The popular and very useful Xing Audiocatalyst www.xingtech.com<
encoder Version 2.1 (for PC only) was released in August. V2.1
features a simplified way to add your CD's information into the
CDDB <www.cddb.com>
database. There's expanded Help documentation and the upgrade is
free to 2.0 users. New users will pay $29.95 and your FezGuys say
it's still worth it. Xing also has released a version of the MP3
encoder for Linux.
Real big, RealNetworks has released the Beta 2 version of
RealJukebox and a new RealJukebox Plus. The Beta 2 has multiple
GUI "skins" (user interface design options) and features support
for portable digital music players (including the above-mentioned
Rio) and Liquid Audio products. The Plus is $10.99 to owners of
the RealPlayer Plus and $29.99 if you are a first time buyer. You
need the RealJukebox Plus if you intend to encode at bitrates above
96kbps. Real calls anything above 192kbps "CD quality." The Beta
2 only encodes to 96kbps. The Plus also features a 10 band EQ.
The new features are nice but the install of RealNetworks products
is problematic in the extreme. The companies' apps make file
destination decisions without asking. Once installed, RealJukebox
software attempts to make itself the default audio application for
every audio format, from CD audio to .mp3, .mp3 playlists, liquid
audio, .wav, .aiff and even .au files. It seems impossible to
divine what audio types it's configured to play. Once RealNetworks
tentacles are latched onto your hard drive they're stuck! Sound
familiar? Isn't this what RealNetworks testified to the Supreme
Court that Microsoft does with their stuff?
And another thing(s)! On startup RealNetworks apps play an
irritating four note jingle. Music listeners don't want to be
interrupted! And don't bother using the Beta 2 with a filesystem
shared on a network, it still can't find music there. Last but not
least, the RealJukebox remains a Windows only environment. C'mon
people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, etc....
The consensus now: RealNetworks products display user interface
problems. Real is not the only audio environment for computers,
friends. There are other applications out there.
SoundJam <www.soundjam.com>
the first integrated MP3 encoder/player and CD player strictly for
the Mac. It's written by Casady and Greene (who bring you Conflict
Catcher) and they know the Mac environment very well. The front
end offers a choice of thirteen silly/strange skins and an option
to import skins from other players, like Winamp. Interestingly the
default skin on SoundJam looks suspiciously like the Quicktime
default interface. Some aspects of the interfaces are not very
intuitive. Example: To turn on the ten-band EQ users must click a
button that says: "OFF." To turn it off users must click the button
that says: "ON."
Also: to rename tracks you must use the Mac Command-I on each
individual audio file. This is also how ID3 information is
accessed for each track. Music "Genres" (a necessary evil) should
be alphabetically sorted, too. This would be a very small fix! By
way of comparison this Mac-only encoder/player is somewhat slower
than the Xing AudioCatalyst encoder. SoundJam has also added a
bitchin' bong-hit light show in the form of wacky screen-savers
that react to music.
According to documentation Soundjam allows MP3 streaming but on
first try (and though the app said it was streaming) we heard
nothing. Trying the same set of streams the next day (after a
reboot) proved successful. The product is $40US as a download and
$50US as shrinkwrap. A limited demo version can be found at the
site.
Macamp, the plucky and popular little shareware MP3 player is now
available for free preview. The registered version can be
purchased for $25US at <www.macamp.net>. Version
1.0, (assumed to be their first official "commercial" product
release) boasts a new GUI, sports "sexy" (to quote the site text)
visual plugins, has a 10 band EQ and supports streaming audio.
There is a shortcuts toolbar, an enhanced ID3 tag editor and even a
sleep timer (to quit or shutdown computer). Macamp is a quality
product and is recommended.
The FezGuys direct your attention to Mixman <www.mixman.com>, a
distribution system for creating and posting remixes of songs from
provided audio templates. Choose from various sample banks, sounds
and grooves. You can post your own and review others' work. It's
a real/virtual community and amusing for DJs, nascent remix
producers or folks who don't only play musical instruments.
The shrinkwrap product and demo are Windows-only, the Mac version
(available by the end of September) is download-only. The basic
version is $50US and the Pro version is $90US at stores and $80US
online. Additional sample banks are available. Missy
"Misdemeanor" Elliott and Art Of Noise offer sample banks of a song
for remixing. Try one yourself and/or see what others have done.
The popularity of MP3 stems, in part, because the source code is
freely available. Anyone can purchase the specifications and build
their own encoder/player. This fosters speedy technological and
interface improvement without the bureacratic obligation of
commerce. Now Apple has made the source code for it's Quicktime
streaming server (codename: Darwin) available for free. This
encourages the expansion of QT server products beyond on the Mac
OS. If you care to download the source code go to:
<www.publicsource.apple.com/projects/streaming>. By creating your
own QT server you won't have to pay for software or streams.
People who host their own content can stream QT content without
having to run NT (Windows Media) or pay a per-stream fee to
RealNetworks. It's available on a number of platforms.
Related item: Check out a resource site about streaming servers
(including Darwin) at <www.streamingserver.org>. Also, September
will see the final release of the Sorenson Broadcaster product (a
streaming Quicktime 4 encoder). Go to the Sorenson Vision, Inc.
site: <www.s-vision.com/products/SorensonBroadcaster/>.
Old world mentality in a new world order department: get Internet
radio airplay by using the USPS to mail your CDs to Green Witch, an
MP3 Internet radio station. It's free and they seem nice. Check
'em out at:
<www.greenwitch.com>
Howdy FezGuys - I want to burn my own CDs from various sources and
record tunes for my own enjoyment. Can I get acceptable quality
using the Mac's built-in input? I'm somewhat aware of the
AudioMedia III card. What are some good choices to look into
assuming I need (or would be best served by) a card? Thanks. - Ron
Dear Ron - With a Mac you don't need an extra card if you're only
ripping audio to your hard drive for your personal enjoyment. If
you're working in a professional environment the AudioMedia card
may be appropriate. Consider bypassing CD media entirely: rip your
audio to MP3 files. If you need to be mobile there's an increasing
number of portable MP3 players easily plugged into a car or home
stereo. - The FezGuys
The FezGuys act like we know which side of the bread our toast is
buttered on!
