SMAC February 2015

[djnagle]

The other thing I noticed is that with my 2 TB full of music, the music seems minimized somehow. Like there is just to much of it to be of value. I know that sounds strange but it feels that way.

 

[jmathers]

The other thing I noticed is that with my 2 TB full of music, the music seems minimized somehow. Like there is just to much of it to be of value. I know that sounds strange but it feels that way.

I think this is a fascinating topic - deserving of its own thread, perhaps?

I was talking to Millon after the last SMAC meet about how exactly does listening to digital audio differ from say listening to albums or to cds. Take into account a streaming service with virtually unlimited titles and the way you use music changes.

I listen primarily to LPs and I nearly always listen to a complete side or a whole album when I sit down to enjoy. With something like Tidal streaming I'm interested in a cut here, a cut there. And suddenly playlists become more important.

And then as you say there's the question of quantity. If the world of music is at your fingertips, does it actually make you value individual bands and artists less? Digital audio changes how we consume and view our music collections.

Will anyone in 2050 even have a collection of music or will it be a subscription?

 

[DC]

OK, I live in a Mac world (in case that was not already painfully obvious). Do AIFF (Mac .wav files) behave the same as traditional .wav files? Like full 16/44.1 data when ripped from a CD? And I assume the metadata is separate (with potential problems) as in .wav files? In order to go with imbedded metadata, do I have to use ALAC, but set at "0" compression?

Sorry for the questions. I need much scaffolding ...

 

[DC]

Being an Apple guy I didn't really listen to all that techo mumble jumble that was presented about .wav's & .flac's & where is the metadata and whatnot.

Insert a disc, iTunes rips it to a AIFF at 16/44, finds the metadata and usually puts it in the correct folder. Then I just point JRiver to my iTunes music folder and it immediately finds and adds any new files to its library.

J River for listening at home, iTunes for loading my iPods.

More time to listen, less time thinking.

I guess might be the Lazy Mans way but it works for me.

What you call lazy, I interpret as efficient. I like your description of a process: iTunes rips, finds info, organizes, and stores. JRiver looks at the iTunes database and plays (imports?) it from there, communicating in hi-res language with your DAC? Eh?

How/Where does DSD enter?

 

[Andyman]

Will anyone in 2050 even have a collection of music or will it be a subscription?

It could be sooner than that, seeing as the demise of new physical media seems imminent.

But it is a fascinating topic. Somedays I'm just lazy about it and run Spotify radio stations or shuffle my digital files via JRiver like right now.

But with pretty much anything only a few keystrokes away, it's going to be real interesting on how listening practices evolve.

 

[olson_jr]

The other thing I noticed is that with my 2 TB full of music, the music seems minimized somehow. Like there is just to much of it to be of value. I know that sounds strange but it feels that way.

I don't feel like that. To me it is like having access to a giant library and I can program it any way that strikes my fancy. I am just learning how to do playlists and tags in JRiver and it has triggered a resurgence of my interest and enjoyment of recorded music.

Playlist examples: only ECM music that I have tagged is 4 star or better, only instrumental Zappa, only jazz trios etc etc.

I also have been dinking around with JRiver's Play Doctor and use the playlists it picks as a radio that I have skip ahead ability.

 

[olson_jr]

OK, I live in a Mac world (in case that was not already painfully obvious). Do AIFF (Mac .wav files) behave the same as traditional .wav files? Like full 16/44.1 data when ripped from a CD? And I assume the metadata is separate (with potential problems) as in .wav files? In order to go with imbedded metadata, do I have to use ALAC, but set at "0" compression?

Sorry for the questions. I need much scaffolding ...

Don,

The metadata is located within the individual the files in an AIFF.

I just double checked that statement and found these guys have a easy to understand description of the main file types.

http://www.audioquest.com/audio_file_formats/


BTW, right click on any of your songs in iTunes, click on get info and then summery and you will see the file type and what it was imported as.

 

[olson_jr]

I was talking to Millon after the last SMAC meet about how exactly does listening to digital audio differ from say listening to albums or to cds.

Funny, every time I talk with Millon about computer audio he brings up his bad rip of that Coward of the County CD. I wish I had a copy of that rip so I could see exactly what happened. I am guessing his import settings were set to 128KBPS ~ MP3.

 

[Andyman]

Dave's link addresses the .WAV and metadata issue too, somewhat more ominously that I did...

"WAV files have one notable limitation- they do not support attached metadata tagging. Things like album art, song titles and other convenience features that enhance music library management and playback will be lost in subsequent generations (backups)."

AIFF avoids this.

I'd follow Olson's lead on this. He's the most knowledgeable guy for this Mac stuff I know. I just putz around with FLAC and Jriver, which apparently has stopped responding again....

 

[Andyman]

Olson, where do you keep all your files? I know you use the laptop, but you don't have them all in it, do you?

This network thing is burping here today...

BTW, I just checked and my FLAC music folder has 1254 files in 30.8 Gb on a 1 Tb drive. That means I can add about another 38,000 songs

 

[olson_jr]

Olson, where do you keep all your files? I know you use the laptop, but you don't have them all in it, do you?

This network thing is burping here today...

BTW, I just checked and my FLAC music folder has 1254 files in 30.8 Gb on a 1 Tb drive. That means I can add about another 38,000 songs

Nope I have a couple of 3T portable drives from....Costo!

I have been considering a NAS, maybe something like the Synology DS713

 

[Andyman]

Nope I have a couple of 3T portable drives from....Costo!

I have been considering a NAS, maybe something like the Synology DS713

Sweet!!

It's going to take me a while to get those 38,000 songs ripped, so I'll be watching with interest what develops here.

Actually, my desktop is a workstation so it's got plenty of room for drives. I think there's 5 slots and a eSATA port too, so I can load this guy up good.
We aren't totally into streaming pics,videos or movies, but as we wean ourselves off cable TV, that could change, and NAS could become part of our lives.

But right now, I'm the only one streaming and just streaming music.

 

[DC]

Dave, are your two 3T drives redundant? One master and one back-up?

 

[olson_jr]

Dave, are your two 3T drives redundant? One master and one back-up?

In theory yes, in reality I do occasionally find that I have not captured everything on the back up.

 

[djnagle]

the majority of my music on the hard drive is FLAC. Can I play a FLAC file as a WAV file? Jeff was saying something about that at the meet but the room was too loud to make out what he was saying.

 

[jmathers]

the majority of my music on the hard drive is FLAC. Can I play a FLAC file as a WAV file? Jeff was saying something about that at the meet but the room was too loud to make out what he was saying.

You can convert your FLAC to wav using something like dbpoweramp. I'm assuming that you're interested in comparing how the FLAC file sounds to the converted wav file. I think dbpoweramp is free for 21 days to use.

 

[djnagle]

Yep, that is what I am thinking Jeff. Thanks.