Dolmot

One spec page I found says "Built into the Xone:DB2 is a fantastic-sounding 24-bit/48kHz USB 2.0 audio interface, which lets you send and receive up to four stereo channels to and from your computer" which would imply that it's 24-bit fixed point you're receiving. If you use that as the recording format, in theory it's an exact match to the data transmitted via USB. 32-bit float should be just fine too. If your data is at -12 dB peak, to my best knowledge it means that approximately the highest two bits are empty but you still have 22 bits of information. In other words, if you ultimately distribute in a 16-bit format, you still shave about six bits (36 dB) of information in the final output stage. The content of those is debatable if the input was a mixture of 16-bit CDs. Of course, if one CD was playing at another -12 dB compared to the overall level, its lowest bits would produce genuine information to the lower bits of the 24-bit recording. Effects complicate the matter further. On the other hand, it's eventually lost in the output, and there's very little proof of anyone being able to hear dynamics beyond 16 bits anyway. If it all goes as intended, you have plenty of extra for processing, and the digital chain giving you potentially 22 bits is probably far better than most home mix recordings ever produced. It exceeds the source, the target, and human hearing. No reason to worry about the two-bit headroom. I'd say that at that point the real error is introduced by sample rate conversions (pitch changes, 44.1 -> 48, possibly back again) which cannot be done 100% perfectly by any means. Peak normalisation in Audacity can be done with "Amplify" too. See http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Amplify_and_Normalize for some documentation.

All Uni is cool. They had some very fresh ideas, diverging nicely from the streamlined full-on craze of the early 00s without getting stuck in the past either. If only my latest purchase would finally arrive...

What do you use to connect the CDs to the mixer and the mixer to the computer?

In reality we're just using it as a cover story. 80s already have a certain retro-cool aspect so it's OK to confess liking it. Meanwhile, we're really ashamed of that massive Britney Spears collection and definitely won't admit that one.

Speaking of 80s and classic synths... Yes, I have the 12". And I totally can't dance.

That's very nice...but quite late. I seriously tried to find proper samples to make an informed decision. Eventually I ended up downloading a warez copy just to hear what I'm buying. Then I "pre-ordered" both the CD and the vinyl. So a friendly message to Twisted (and anyone else releasing music while worrying about piracy): if you want to reduce the grey download count, how about giving good options to legit buyers? I may be a fan but not a "shell out 30e without hearing first" fan. Seriously, the only thing I need for buying is long, easily playable samples. Not 30 second clips. Not a tiny, ugly, crashing flash player hidden somewhere. Not two pages of marketing blurb about how totally awesome the release is. Just the samples, first and foremost. Thank you. The album is great, BTW.

Yes. (Gotta go now. May comment later.)

Dubmood - Lost Floppies 1 & 2.

Posting the very definition of toneless mess doesn't count as debunking, sorry, no matter how many time you do it. (Moving forward in tight circles. I don't know why. I actually have plenty of other things to do right now but...)

Where's the "I live in it" option?

Playing your 33 RPMs at 45 is always funny... OK, those BPMs don't leave that much space for very personal or characteristic manoeuvres so the genres will inevitably overlap and resemble each other. Basically... - If it's like an endless sugar overdose, it's happy hardcore or J-pop. - If the bass is phat and there are remnants of epic trance leads, it's trancecore or freeform (like in 2005). - If it's a toneless mess and called "Death Satan Holocaust 666", its darkpsy. - If there's a forest in the cover, it's forest. - If you pump up the BPM alone at all costs, it's psycore (or eventually speedcore). - If you add a bit more high-pitched sci-fi FX, it becomes high-tech? I haven't figured out the details yet. Damn, that freeform stage was possibly the best incarnation of this all. I may excavate my archives from that era again...

Once I visited a national archiving centre, where their job is to store all sorts of information "forever". Interestingly, for all print-like material the solution was microfilming. Even digital newspapers were micro-printed into physical pages. Stored in a stable climate (like underground vaults), they may have a lifespan of 1000+ years. Furthermore, it's a fully analogue micro-sized reproduction so there's no doubt whatsoever how to read it. Just zoom in and you've got it. You could also use some kind of simple encoding to store audio data in print. However, I think they just used large HD arrays as a temporary solution for audio. It requires maintenance but it also means that the storage is always "alive" so people are actively monitoring that it can be read somehow. The format is wav as it's the most straightforward to interpret. Another point I learnt is that when they have piles of audio in different formats to digitise, cassettes have the highest priority because they'll degrade over time, no matter what. CDs may be the next due to rotting. Vinyl is almost "forever" as no micro-scale process is going to eat the groove if stored properly. The only major risk is from careless handling or large scale accidents. They're not hurrying with those. It's also damn difficult to get professional quality cassette decks these days. I think they were using a discontinued model with a large yet limited stash of spare parts...

The clear plastic layer on the underside is relatively thick. It's extremely unlikely that you could scrape through it by any means of cleaning. That would quite literally require sanding the whole disk into nothing. Meanwhile, the print side has the data fairly close to it but you shouldn't be doing anything to it anyway. The most likely direction for oxidisation is from the edges. I think I've managed to salvage one used CD with toothpaste. It had scratches on the clear side. However, problems with new CDs have always turned out to be errors in master production or pressing so there's probably nothing helpful you can do by scraping the clear side (or the print side, for that matter). I believe all my attempts on those have only resulted in the same or even more errors. For valuable used CDs with visible scratches you should probably try a professional resurfacing service. They're not that expensive and you should get much better results than by DIY. Of course, that won't help either if the data layer is bad for one reason or another.

Strangely enough, the easiest way to improve most darkpsy vastly would be stripping the random noise.

Yes it is.

+2 Especially as most "darkpsy" is really just Mickey Mouse FX sprinkled with a cat-on-a-keyboard algorithm over a zero effort bassline. Usually it turns from laughable to unfunny in 15 minutes. Why are all the night slots reserved for it, then? Well, the first reason is a simple connect-the-dots exercise. It has "dark" in its name so it must be played in the dark, right? The second is that in broad daylight everyone would realise the ridiculousness. I'd prefer good music at night time too. It's the only time when there may be more people dancing than videotaping and updating their online status...

Tengri is very nice. However, I don't get where the "goa" tag is coming from. It's very much a downtempo release. It hardly exceeds 110 BPM, possibly with the exception of Dance of the Crow whose breaky rhythm may count as 140 or so. No straight trance there anyway. But within its actual genre, it's one of the better releases this year - deep, shamanistic, sort of organic, doesn't try to jump too much on Shpongle or dubstep bandwagons or whatever. It's not exactly chillout either as it's more wilderness than Ibiza. Try the samples, at least. It delivers a solid album if you like the style.

If you can simply enjoy the food without boasting to everyone and their dog how many billion scovilles it contains, it's OK.

Definitely. I think I've seen more failed last tracks than others put together. I'm not sure about the ultimate reason and it may vary, but most likely it's related to the spiral being written outwards. Especially for "full" (or over-long) CDs, the last track is right next to the disc edge. Therefore it has the best chance to get damaged from handling. Also, if there are problems with sealing, the metal layer may become exposed and corroded, obviously from the edge. Data density and linear velocity should be equal for the whole disc so that shouldn't play a role. (Compare that to vinyl where the angular velocity is constant and the centre has a tighter packed groove, hence worse sound. That's among the reasons why they're carved inwards and the centre is left empty for shorter releases.)

The booklet says "This version of Ka.El.mono is a work session. Earlier than the version which was released in Paname Rec. . That is the reason why it sounds Unfinished." (Quotation attributed to Deflo.) My CD rip is also 6:05 so I guess that's all there is. In other news, looks like I got a read error on track 9. Anyone else or should I just try again?

Already representing a 3-dimensional object on a 2D surface involves projection, or "faking it". For example, multiple points at different depths may overlap in exactly the same 2D position. This may be problematic or amusing. See classics like Ames room or Satire on False Perspective. If you ignore the scaling from distance and use some kind of axonometric projection, effectively you're choosing two directions on the surface that represent two spatial dimensions. That's fine, invertible and unambiguous. What about the third one? Just pick another direction (typically diagonal) and represent depth along that direction. In a simple case, you plot a cube by drawing a square and then extending it diagonally. Now, if you manage to figure that out, it becomes almost trivial to add more dimensions. Just pick yet another direction on the surface and declare that depth in the fourth dimension is towards that. Technically speaking it's just as accurate as using some direction to fake 3D. Unfortunately, we're not used to seeing or understanding 4-dimensional objects. That's why it becomes extremely difficult to follow. Also, you'll have even more information packed into a 2-dimensional image with even more ambiguity from overlapping points etc. Interestingly, >3 dimensions are very simple if you just forget about the spatial interpretation. One of my teachers gave an amusing example of representing simple recipes in a 4-dimensional space consisting of flour, milk, sugar and eggs or something. If you have pure flour, it's along one of the main "axes". If you need all of them, it's in a point in a 4-dimensional space where all components are nonzero. If you want to bake two different things, your shopping list is a sum of two 4-dimensional vectors. Even fancier concepts of linear algebra can be illustrated with that, such as "angle" between two recipes. We're working on concepts like that all the time. They just don't have an intuitive visualisation beyond three dimensions.

As we've gone wildly off-genre already... http://sabaziusdoom.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/the-descent-of-man/ It's on Youtube. I listened to the first three hours or so on my first attempt but had to go to sleep then. I might try the whole thing on my holidays...

2004 called. It told me to listen to Dune.

New New South Wales

Do we have any acceptable samples? Amazon's five second bits or whatever definitely don't count.