Muzak Encoding at Home?

zonker asks: "I work for a company that requires Muzak to be played over the speaker system all day long. However, I work into the night, well passed closing time, and often just crank up my own tunes on a computer with a nice set of speakers. I've been curious if anyone has developed any software that allows you to encode and burn to whatever format Muzak is using to make their discs. I've scraped around the net and haven't seen anything like it other than other people in similar environments that would like to make their own Muzak discs for their own after hours enjoyment. That thread has some interesting informational tidbits for starters. Does anyone on Slashdot know anything more about this?"

Comments

I could tell you how

[Anonymous Coward]

But that would violate the DMCA.

Sorry :(

your problem

[chris_mahan]

"I work for a company that requires Muzak to be played over the speaker system all day long"

There's your problem right there.

Re:your problem

[Philip K Dickhead]

I have become a perverse enjoyer of Muzak - especially the traditional Montivani/1001 Strings variety!

I really did when they get a Dylan tune going in soft, tinkly piano and have the whole sound compressed like helium.

Re:your problem

[Hakubi_Washu]

It's not as if the link actually explains that, though... Instead it's a good example of why "designer" should not necessarily be the most important part of a webdesigners work.
So, for us unenlightened people: Is Muzak a company, a general term for "elevator music", a specific electronic application or any of the above combined?

Re:your problem

[MrResistor]

It is a company, but the term has also become synonymous with "elevator music". Basically they offer background music -- guaranteed to be prescreened, scrubbed of any hint of offensiveness, and utterly bland -- for "public" spaces such as elevators, department stores, lobbies, etc.

Re:your problem

[ibennetch]

Why play such background music in those places?

Because having silence would be very awkward. There's a bookstore near here that doesn't really have any music playing. When one is shopping near another customer, there's this sense that you must remain absolutely silent, so as to not disturb them or something. I can't really explain it further, but having silence is very awkward, having a background bed of music allows at least quiet conversation, walking without having to step tenderly, gas passing, all sorts of things that some would feel uncomfortable doing in silence.

Unless you were asking why play that specific music in that setting, in which case I suspect the reason is so as to not offend anyone...having no words makes it sink in to the subconsious background more -- you don't notice it as much. The bland style of reproducing all genres makes it possible to play a wide variety of music while still maintaining a bland unoffensive style. Keep in mind that no everyone likes Metallica, or Hootie and the Blowfish, or Yanni -- but everyone dislikes Muzak equally!! ;-)

I suppose it's a little like in TV -- when you're watching a sporting event, and they bring in a full-screen graphic, there's music -- but you rarely notice it. When they do a promo, there's music -- because it needs something to help set it apart from the game, but it's barely noticable. No, I'm not talking about the video-game style sound effects to call your attention to stats and the like, just music beds

easy fix

[jacumba]

years ago i had the same problem. here's how i solved the problem: the muzak system plugged into the overhead speakers w/ a standard headphone size connection. i created a male-to-male 1/8" headphone jack and plugged my portable cd player into it.

Three sites that might help:

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Another discussion on this very topic- includes the potential dip switch settings to get MUZAK equipment to play Red Book CDs.

The previous link led me to suspect Green Book as the format for Muzak. CD-Interactive Spec

CD-I Bridge: A program that reads Green Book Formats

So it looks to me like you have two options- fiddle with the dip switches to find a setting that will allow you to play Red Book CDs, or find a program that allows you to write CD-Interactive Green Book Format discs.

Re:Three sites that might help:

[Myself]

Here's another CDFreaks thread that goes into a little more depth. The format is almost certainly CD-BGM, but all the authoring software is years old.

Anyone who makes progress getting this stuff to run, let me know, it'd be great to carry a few "muzak that doesn't suck" CDs in the car at all times, and offer them to repressed workers in such environments. :)

Re:Three sites that might help:

[Anonymous Coward]

Disregard that.

Or moderate it to +4 informative. Either way.

Device to override Muzak

[RomulusNR]

here's some...

Re:Device to override Muzak

[ResidntGeek]

Better way to "override" Muzak: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0974 458902/qid=1129077145/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0930 777-9171137?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Literary References?

[Philip K Dickhead]

All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music. For while in all other works of art it is possible to distinguish the matter from the form, and the understanding can always make this distinction, yet it is the constant effort of art to obliterate it.
--Walter Pater

The Condition of Muzak - Jeremiah Cornelius

Thus, in a scene in Condition of Muzak (the end of the section called 'Outcast of the Islands'), there is a short discussion about the Japanese invasion of Australia and Jerry makes a reference to big egos and Hitler. Shakey Mo then asks if he was a character in a children's comic and then immediately asks if Hitler wasn't a police chief they'd met in Berlin. The first reference is to Big Ego (a cartoon ostrich in The Dandy or The Beano); the second reference is to an earlier story of mine (a 'key' story, in my view) called The Pleasure Garden of Felippe Sagittarius (where Hitler was a rather pathetic police chief in an imaginary Berlin), leading to a reference to the fact that the historical Adolf Hitler doesn't exist in this world.
--Michael Moorcock

Re:note to the "editors"

[blincoln]

Just because words sound the same doesn't mean you can switch them.

While pouring over messageboard posts, you should of come to the conclusion that for all intensive purposes, the battle your fighting... its hopeless.

Re:note to the "editors"

[bibliophage]

you should of come to the conclusion

Ahem. "You should have" instead. The "should of" sound you are looking for is the contraction, "should've." Check your own before you check anyone else's.


;)

French benefits

[bibliophage]

for all intensive purposes I'm sorry, I can't stop myself, you're making me giggle.

Re:"Buy?" Ha! (Obligatory cynical response.)

[ayden]

Radio Shack:

You've got questions. We've got blank stares.

The problem with CD-i...

[benjamindees]

and the reason you won't find many tools to help you author them, is basically this:

every CD-BGM disc also needs to include a CD-i application to allow for playback on a CD-i player.

If you read the CD-i spec, you'll see that it's basically just a generic "autoplay" type of disc. In fact, it may not even be that generic. Apparently, the CD-i machine either runs the OS-9 realtime operating system (made by these guys) or it's loaded from the disc itself.

So, to make your own discs, you need to add a software program (or maybe even an entire OS) along with the content.

Unfortunately..

[digitallystoned]

I did work for Muzak's satellite division once. Depending on where you work, which really doesn't matter, this is a relatively simple fix. The speakers hook to some type of amplifier, which, in turn, has an 'input'. This 'input' is RCA, SO......Hook up your favorite CD player to the audio amp, (you may need a 1/8" jack to RCA adapter Y cable, Radio Shack, 5 bucks) and viola, the speakers now play your best of Cat Stephens record.