DoubleTwist: new sync app May 29, 2009
Posted by jphebert in Music, technology.Tags: 8900, aac, blackberry, curve, doubletwist, ipod, itunes, mp3, psp, sync
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I just gave a whirl to DoubleTwist, a new sync package which can sync up your media to any device (iPod, PSP, etc.). While this is an interesting package, I’ll stick to my trust told iTunes until they release a feature lacking in iTune which to me is a holy grail: dynamically downscale files when sync’ing. All my rips are in MP3 @ 256Kbps, so files are fairly large, and I manually convert to AAC 96Kbps prior to the sync.
I’ll also give it a whirl (DoubleTwist) on my wife’s Blackberry Curve 8900 since its much simpler/ligher than the Roxio one.
Music worth buying: The Decemberists April 7, 2009
Posted by jphebert in Music.Tags: cd, folk, mp3, Music, prog, the crane wife, the decemberists, the hazards of love
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The Decemberists just released last week a new CD named The Hazards of Love
The new album builds on the same sound but somewhat louder (guitars) and is a concept album where the tracks are technically separated but listens like one long track.
This band with this album crosses British folk with prog influences, which makes it a very nice and different piece of music to listen to these days. Highly recommended if you’re tired of the usual crap which is thrown our way by record execs.
Revisting DFX for WinAmp / Windows Media Player August 20, 2008
Posted by jphebert in Music, technology.Tags: logitech, media player, mp3, Music, real, realplayer, winamp, Windows
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Listening to music on a Windows PC? Then you have to try this piece of software: DFX 8, it’s a DSP (digital signal processor) for common media players. I’m no signal processing expert, in fact I have no clue on how this stuff works, but it does. I took a lot at it years ago and accidentally ran across it yesterday.
DFX will “enrich” the sound coming out of your media player application, I use WinAmp 5 mostly with Logitech X-240’s at work. The speakers kinda sound “bland” so music is impacted by this, and sometimes online radio sources are lower-rate so sound is also impacted. You will find this tool will make your gear sound much better, you have to try it. No I’ve got no financial interests in this 
Also, the basic version is free, and the “loaded” one is 40$. I might just flip some coins into this and go for full but the basic is quite sufficient today.
Enjoy!
iTunes Vs WinAmp 5.5 August 8, 2008
Posted by jphebert in Music, technology.Tags: aac, apple, ipod, itunes, mp3, Music, nano, winamp
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I’m sure some iTunes purists will be irked by my next statement: I’m starting to manage my trursty 2GB Nano with WinAmp 5.5.
Wha? Egad! Simple: there is a feature found in WinAmp which is absent in iTunes and I don’t know why, you can transcode on the fly track from one format/bitrate to another when syncing. It takes longer of course, but my rips at home are all in MP3 @ 256Kbps for universal use. Life is simpler that way.
But to save room on the iPod, I transcode to AAC @ 128Kbps to keep a high resolution enough so I won’ hear the difference and save up a ton of room.
So I’ve made the move, until Apple comes up with this I’m sticking to WinAmp. In my defense, I’ve recently moved to 5.5 from 2.95 which is still the best media player hands down ever made. There you go.
Comments welcome of course.
Artist worth listening to: PJ Harvey March 5, 2008
Posted by jphebert in Music.Tags: cd, mp3, Music, pj harvey
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PJ has been playing in my house for well, about 13 years already. I’m feeling old!
She’s outright brilliant, and managed to make amazing albums without attracting the spotlight too much on her which ultimately gives her more room to do whatever she wants. I highly recommend her albums:
- To Bring You My Love
- Dry
- Stories from the city, stories from the sea
- Rid of me
Of course the others are worth your time & moolah, but these are the best “starting points” if you want to dwelve into something refreshing.
Here is the opening track from Stories..:
Worst Album Covers Ever February 27, 2008
Posted by jphebert in Funny, Music.Tags: cd, lp, mp3, Music, worst album covers
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This is one of those things that shows up in your inbox once a year, had to share it, just click here: Worst Album Covers
Enjoy!
