Author: wjl

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A ‘Thank You!’ to BigBrotherAwards

Have you ever visited their site? Maybe you should…

I just read the BigBrotherAward 2019 in der Kategorie Verbraucherschutz (in German) which went to Zeit Online for their paywall which basically lets you choose to either pay with money or with your data – something that 75% of all online news magazines seem to do now as the article and speech said.

And yes, I’ve seen the same paywall at spiegel.de or heise.de – and no, that *is* not acceptable. If you click “yes, go on”, the heise guys for instance will send your data to >200 “partner” sites all over the globe – so I just asked a member of the EU commission if we can’t stop these practices, for instance with forcing them to add the option “yes to ads, but no to tracking”.

Maybe we should all say “no” instead, and boycott these data tracking sites? If they’d all lose their readers like the British “Times” which lost over 90% of their audience when using similar techniques, then maybe that would stop them… according to Wikipedia (search for something like “Paywall”), some US news magazines are already taking these trackers off…

Thanks to digitalcourage, DVD, ILMR, and CCC for supporting these BigBrotherAwards!

And to you, like always, thanks for reading.

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Ardour 7.2 was released

About two hours ago, the Ardour team released their latest and greatest version 7.2. I have it already, and it works very nicely, just like it always does. Here are some screenshots:

Ardour 7.2.0 “Wrong Way Up”
Ardour 7.2 on Linux with a song I’ve had in 7.1 previously
Ardour 7.2 and its mixer view. My Sonarworks plugin is on the monitor bus.
Ardour 7.2 playing back the loaded song. Notice the threads on my CPU while playing back two tracks…

Very nice. I’ll start using it, keeping the 6.9 version because of older tracks, and the 6.5 one because it came with the OS. I also have the Windows version just in case Zuleikha would like to use my XLN Audio grand piano which came as a Windows VST plugin only (and yes, I know how to load these into Linux, but won’t do it).

Oh, and in case you want to hear the song I have in my DAW here (minus my tweaks to it), it’s this one. Please give Shi and Tom a thumbs up in case you like it.

In case that maybe you have no idea what Ardour is, it’s one of the best free and open source digital audio workstations available. Please have a look at its homepage in case that sounds interesting for you.

Like always, thanks for reading.

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Some two years ago: Pieces – Oliv’s mix, remastered

Just pointed an interested musician to a song which I accompanied in August of 2020. In retrospect, I should have pointed her to Monsieur OliVBee’s remix which sounded much better than mine, and which I later “remastered” for an album like this:

https://www.wikiloops.com/backingtrack-jam-197039.php
Pieces – Oliv’s mix, remastered

I recorded this some 11 days after buying my used Christopher DB202T upright bass, here’s a photo of it, also from Wikiloops:

At the time when I recorded this, that instrument had Presto Nylonwould Ultralight strings which are very nice Nylon-based strings – they sound great but aren’t the best for bowing, so I later replaced them with Thomastik Spirocore Weich strings.

Time to pick up that big bass fiddle again, and to play some more tunes… 🙂

Like always, thanks for reading, viewing, and/or listening.

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Remembering Tuna…

Today, only Crunchy came for some shorter visits – maybe at currently -2°C, cats like to stay home (where I hope they have it nice & warm).

Zuleikha decided years ago that December 5th should/would be Tuna’s birthday, so during this time of the year we often think of her. So at the moment, this is my current screen background again:

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Tuna the cat, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2020

I miss my furry friend and favourite “model”…

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A model B for free

This is a nice gift for Santa, thanks to Dore Mark: a Steinway grand piano model B, sampled in 7 velocity layers, and using different microphones and microphone placements:

Kontakt Interface view of Dore Mark’s Steinway Model B grand piano

On Windows and Mac computers you can use it within Kontakt, the same with Linux in case you have something like yabridge. In case you don’t have that, or don’t plan to use Windows plugins in Linux, you can still use the provided SFX versions.

The Steinway model B is a 7 foot grand piano which is often found in the recording studios of this world, and in the homes of those who can afford such an instrument. The famous model D is too big for most places, and more at home in the concert halls. Dore Mark also has a Yamaha and a Fazioli grand piano if you prefer these.

Found via LinuxMusicians, and also linked within Wikiloops. Thanks Dore Mark!

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Crunchy under my chair

From this evening in very low light:

7e6_c024924-sfx016-crunchy-under-my-chair
Crunchy under my chair, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2022

I had the camera set to colour, and after exporting the .orf file to a .tif using OM Systems’ Workspace I used Silver Efex, and in it the preset 016, I think its name is something like “Full Dynamic Range” or so. The colour image wasn’t bad, but in the end I liked this one more.

Crunchy is gone by now, into the night with 1°C. I hope he’s fine.

Like always, thanks for viewing.

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Slumberland gets my 9/10

I’ve started to vote for things I watch in IMDB, and while Slumberland’s critiques and reviews are just so-so (average rating is 6.7/10 by 12,000 people while I write this), I thought about it and wanted to give it a proper 8. Then, after reading thekarmicnomad’s critique and rating of 9 I thought that (s)he’s right – this does have a lot of heart, and it is very well written as well – so I gave it a 9 also.

What won me over right in the first minutes of the film was the music, when daughter and father sat on the piano and played ‘The parting glass‘ (love love love that song, and forever I will):

The Parting Glass (taken from the Slumberland theme)

So if you have the time, I think it’s well worth it – Slumberland gets my recommendation (everything 8 and above will). The music’s just great, the piglet is really cute, and Flip… well you’ll find out, no further spoilers here.

Like always, thanks for reading/watching/listening.

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Google Pixel Buds A-Series

Got them for Mitchie during the last Black Friday Sale, and later for myself, both 40% off, so almost two for one:

Google Pixel Buds A-Series, dark olive (Picture: Google)

They sound okay, with a very full bass, even more so than the Moondrop Chu in-ears with cables. Not the best and most HiFi (or neutral) sounding headphones – the Moondrops are probably even better in that regard, but I’ve tried them with a bit of Wikiloops radio and TV via the Zapp app, and they’re good, and even for TV you won’t really notice the latency. Then I listened to one of my own albums because I know the sound of these of course, and yes, they’re still nice – of course not comparable to my open Sonarworks-corrected Sennheisers, but if you want neutral on your phones, there’s always Wavelet – if you believe in that. My personal experience especially with in-ears is that it’s mostly the correct fit which “makes” the sound, especially in the lows. And both Mitchie’s Jabra Elite Active 75T and my Moondrop Chu can’t reach these here in the bass *in my ears* (yours might be different – Zuleikha for instance would prefer the Jabras I think). Anyway, in case you want to read and know more about Wavelet, you can do that here, here, or here. Or directly at the source.

I started listening to my album with both the phone and the earbuds at 100% charge, and after the 41 minutes of my album it was 97% for the phone and 87% for the earbuds. All good.

So yes, if you want to (or have to) get rid of the cable, and for casual listening and/or phone calls, and for 59€ these are nice ones. Recommended.

Update, from Friday Dec 2nd, 2022:

For movies these are even great – if you have a low rumble like from a ship’s engine in ‘1899’, or some other low-pitched stuff, these are just massive – think Dolby in a good cinema. They’re better in that regard than my closed Sennheiser HD569, and I thought that these have a good bass as well. But these Pixel Buds A are a bit louder with the same setting on the phone, and even voices appear clearer, and are easier to understand. So what more could you wish for? These now have my ‘highly recommended’, especially for the movies.

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Using open source for music and video, by Bransby

This is a very cool video about what you can achieve using “only” open source software when creating music and videos for the tubes. The gentleman calls himself “Bransby“, and his explanation of things is about the best I’ve seen, so thanks for that, sir! Here we go:

Recording and Mixing using Open Source Software – Ubuntu, Ardour, Calf Plugins

I’ll use this for friends in Wikiloops in case they’ll ask about a howto, so thanks again for your good work and for the nice explanation, Bransby. Oh, and your song is great as well 🙂