NIN Releases Garageband Sources For 3 New Tracks

Kethinov writes "Nine Inch Nails has once again released the sources in Garageband format for three of their tracks from their new album Year Zero. You can also download user-created remixes. Trent Reznor claims that he plans to release the entire album this way."

Comments

Also released in 'Generic Format'...

[Angostura]

... for other applications, via torrent on the same page.

Re:Also released in 'Generic Format'...

[ystar]

Disappointed with the garageband vocal separation on 'capital g'....seems like everything but the interesting part is separated out -- the background vocals at the end are lumped together on just two tracks. Would have been interesting to check out how he's doing his harmonies, sounds like a combo of pitch alteration and weird effects hiding in there. hmm...might have to do some inversing in audacity....

Re:Also released in 'Generic Format'...

[Anonymous Coward]

I love how unpopular facts are guaranteed to be moderated "Troll" here. Funny stuff!

I still refuse to view all flash pages, it is just retarded.

RIAA

[revengebomber]

I hope I'm not sued for downloading them.

Re:RIAA

[Provocateur]

Wait, so if I buy the NIN CD of legally downloadable music, would that make me a ninja? Or a pirate in a bizarre alternate universe?
 

Re:RIAA

[Tazz_ben]

In the eyes of the RIAA, we are all pirates. I've never downloaded anything illegally (really), but I have most of my music on two computers and a couple of iPods, so I have no doubt in their mind I should have bought four copies (f fair use basically).

BNL also has a number of remixable songs

[SuperKendall]

BNL (Barenaked Ladies, from Canada) also has a number of remixable songs where you can download songs with the tracks split out.

These cost $2.49 for each song-related set of tracks (all in WAV) but that's more than fair for a bunch of lossless tracks that you can use for whatever. Pretend to be Ed or Steve just by leaving out a track and filling in yourself!

Re:BNL also has a number of remixable songs

[cayenne8]

"Hip hop as a genre since its conception, has been squarely based on the principle of fair use."

If hip hop/rap was as a genre based on music...

:-)

Re:BNL also has a number of remixable songs

[ravrazor]

lol!
nothing's more humorous than a joke writing off an entire category of music!

just as ignorant a comment as this one, but somehow this one's funny? good ol' slashdot...

What does garage band format mean

[Anonymous Coward]

What I the subject line said..

Why Apple?

[SolitaryMan]

Pardon my ignorance, but what this has to do with Apple?

(Just asking)

Re:Why Apple?

[MrPerfekt]

Pardon my ignorance, but what this has to do with Apple?

Well, GarageBand is a Mac-only application written by Apple.

That'd be a good place to start.

Re:Why Apple?

[miscz]

GarageBand is a Mac-only application bought by Apple.

Re:Why Apple?

[nugx]

Trent Reznor has been a Mac user for years.

Re:Why Apple?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, GarageBand is a Mac-only application written by Apple. Fortunately, those same "Garageband format" files work excellently in Logic, readily available for Windows at a torrent site near you.

Re:Why Apple?

[appleguru]

Apple is also HOSTING these rather large garageband files for NIN:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/nin/me_im_ not.zip

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/nin/capita l_g.zip

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/nin/my_vio lent_heart.zip

And a fourth not linked to from the NIN main page:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/nin/surviv alism.zip

Re:Why Apple?

[zmollusc]

So why are his song lyrics always along the lines of 'Oh crikey, life is horrible! Everything is dreadful! I am so depressed! Blimey, things just took an unexpected turn for the worse!' ? Are macs that bad?

Re:Why Apple?

[The One and Only]

That's only half-correct. Apple purchased Emagic (makers of Logic, a professional audio editing program) in 2002 and GarageBand was shipped as an Apple product in 2005. So they did purchase the personnel and maybe even some of the code used in GarageBand, but the product itself was first developed and sold by Apple.

Re:Why Apple?

[carpe_noctem]

GarageBand is a Mac-only application bought by Apple.

If you'd ever used logic 6 (the last version made by emagic before getting bought out by apple, who later produced logic 7 and recycled the sound engine into garageband), you'd know how ridiculous you sounded just now. Granted, apple didn't write the whole app from scratch, but what they did to it was the equivilent of "pimp my app" with a '79 chevy nova. Give some credit where it's due.

Re:Why Apple?

[Scudsucker]

Doesn't look that way.

Re:Why Apple?

[miscz]

Right, sorry, I've mistaken Garageband's history with Logic Pro. Still, I doubt they'd develop such an app in just two years, at least without some previous products. It's damn good for amateur recording, if there was some serious tempo / time signature functionality it'd be near perfection. Sometimes I wish I had a Mac just for this one app :/

Re:Why Apple?

[Capt James McCarthy]

Also, Trent loves Apple.

Re:Why Apple?

[Yggdrasil42]

Pff... Just think how he'd be if he were using Windows. Hell on earth?

Re:Why Apple?

[that this is not und]

This is about a band releasing the 'source' for their music created on a 'closed source' application made by Apple.

The title almost makes it look like NIN released the source code for Garageband, which would be significantly more newsworthy.

Re:Why Apple?

[that this is not und]

Trent sells to that market. It's not more complicated than that.

Re:Why Apple?

[Anonymous Coward]

He's got revisionism, and so, sir, do you.

Re:Why Apple?

[sarahbau]

GarageBand was shipped as an Apple product in 2005. Garage Band actually shipped in 2004 in iLife '04

Re:Why Apple?

[FrozenFOXX]

I think you're thinking of an emo band. NIN's usually more along the lines of, "Life is pain, your government is out to get you, you whore yourself to the lowest bidder, burn it all down and start the Hell over!"

I suppose it's more fitting for Linux taking that into account.

Re:Why Apple?

[Tyler Durden]

Was that before or after they released 'Hurt'? Trent really topped the emo crowd with that whine-fest of a song.

Re:Why Apple?

[ProfessionalCookie]

I'm a PC. Yes. ...ok you all know me better than that.

Re:Why Apple?

[FrozenFOXX]

Probably after what with "Survivalism" which is relating to the album at hand.

Re:Why Apple?

[Gr8Apes]

Pretty Hate Machine sounds like it's primarily against organized religion, the Catholic Church specifically. Intertwined there is the teenage angst of getting royally screwed over by a puppylove crush.

Or at least that's how I perceived the title, Head like a Hole, Sanctified, and Ringfinger among others.

Re:Why Apple?

[Provocateur]

His songs aren't like that at all, you must have downloaded a British bootleg of a NIN tribute band. Stay away from that server, I tells yaz.
 

Re:Why Apple?

[carpe_noctem]

Keep an eye out for a product called "Sequel" by Steinberg... it's basically garageband for windows.

Adblock: *.Myspace.*

[DogDude]

I'm just gonna add *.myspace.* to adblock right now. I don't want to accidentally run into somebody's horrible remix of any of these great tracks.

Re:Adblock: *.Myspace.*

[Cinder6]

Best to block it directly in the hosts file. That way you will never have anything to do with crap^H^H^H^Hmyspace. And best of all, it's cross-browser! (Plus, it has annoyed my sister to no end)

Stupid question

[Anonymous Coward]

What I the subject line said...

I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[photomonkey]

A band puts out their music for their fans to mess around with electronically, in a common format for very inexpensive software. Pretty neat shit.

A band can sell/giveaway/whatever their music through Apple iTMS (seriously, check out The Cells; a really kickass band, not mine.) or various other people with enough bandwidth and code to be able to sell or giveaway electronic tracks.

T-shirts, posters and other merchandise can be bought on-demand from certain sites and can be made in bulk cheaper than ever before.

Remind me again: Why do we need traditional record labels anymore? I mean, sure a band might not as easily book a night at Shea Stadium without Sony, but if smaller bands were able to keep more of their money (via not having to hand 80% of it over to the label), they don't need to play places as big as Shea Stadium regularly to still live the 'rockstar' lifestyle.

I think it's very funny that a Nine Inch Nail is helping to drive The Nail into the coffin of the record industry.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[Timesprout]

they don't need to play places as big as Shea Stadium regularly to still live the 'rockstar' lifestyle

Actually they do. Few bands/musicians are actually properly able manage this lifestyle and the majority of those who can have been around for a very long time, long enough and with enough sales to get a decent deal from the record companies. Of course there is the odd exception with someone like Robbie Williams who for some unknown reason scored a huge contract off EMI.

Much of the lifestyle you see with modern artists is funded by the record companies and when the sales dry up the cars, planes and cribs tend to vanish with them.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[Mikachu]

So get a manager. A manager would need a lot less of the money, and yet he would be paid to deal with this kind of thing. A far better idea than paying 80%+ to a record company. At that point, you really DON'T need to play in the Continental Arena to get a good chunk of cash.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[photomonkey]

I wasn't talking at all about sustaining the lifestyle, but rather getting to the point of having that lifestyle, however untenable, without the assistance of a record company.

Let's say a band can make $20,000 for performing at a 5,000 seat venue as a self-promoted event without record labels getting involved. Now, if said band were signed to a label and had to pay to play (or had to sell even more to get the record company the profits they want), the band may very well have to play a 30,000 seat arena to see the same $20,000.

They get the same amount of money either way, but since they're paying out less in scenario A, they don't need to worry about selling more seats. Then when they do get to the point of having the draw to fill Shea on their own (or have Shea approach them to do the show) they do get the super-mega-huge bucks.

I would totally expect that what you say is correct for rockstars as much as it is for anyone else: lose the market and lose your shirt.

What I'm saying is that bands are in a position now to be masters of their own destiny. The smart ones who understand the business will do very well for themselves, and those who have ten minutes of 'flash-in-the-pan' fame will be gone as quickly as they arrived.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[CrackedButter]

The record industry is a big beast, you're gonna need nine inch nails to do it!

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[aussie_a]

Marketing. More RIAA songs are illegally downloaded then any non-RIAA song (legal or otherwise). So clearly the RIAA offers great marketing to artists.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[Anonymous Coward]

Except many bands/performers don't want to just to well for themselves. They want the mansions, six cars and full VIP treatment. The major labels can provide that up front, making you a huge star over night, while going the DIY way you may never even get there. Sure you might end up in serious debt to the label and they'll have full artistic control over everything you do and they will eventually dump you like yesterdays trash, but at least you got snort coke off a hooker in VIP lounge in some of the most exclusive clubs in California. Sometimes short term satisfaction beats long term sustainability.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hoo boy. "Drive a nail into the coffin of the record industry"? You sound just as deranged as every poster you'll see in any Linux-related article ever on this site. I'm sorry but the record industry isn't hanging on to a cliff looking up with glossy eyes praying for your saviour while your monstrous ass bellows out the laugh of a mountain giants while stomping on its fingers. That's just not how it is. Get your head out of your ass and acknowledge the simple fucking fact that the record industry is as strong as ever and one or two hackneyed artists spilling out GarageBand source isn't going to change that. Fuck.

Yeah, like you deserve the moderation you have. Moron.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[nwbvt]

Big bands like NIN probably don't need record labels at this point, assuming they are willing to do all that boring work (marketing, accounting, production, legal, etc.) along with writing the music (Reznor might be willing there, but I imagine most are not). But a garage band has a nearly 0% chance of getting a hit on the radio without help. Yes, there are occasional exceptions, thats why I said 'nearly'.

BTW, how do you think sucking up to the general RIAA hating /. population sounds like a troll? If anything that sounds like karma whoring.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[TheForgotton]

Let's say a band can make $20,000 for performing at a 5,000 seat venue as a self-promoted event without record labels getting involved. Now, if said band were signed to a label and had to pay to play (or had to sell even more to get the record company the profits they want), the band may very well have to play a 30,000 seat arena to see the same $20,000.

They get the same amount of money either way, but since they're paying out less in scenario A, they don't need to worry about selling more seats. Then when they do get to the point of having the draw to fill Shea on their own (or have Shea approach them to do the show) they do get the super-mega-huge bucks.

I would totally expect that what you say is correct for rockstars as much as it is for anyone else: lose the market and lose your shirt.

I imagine that selling more seats in itself might not have the advantage in that scenario, but out of 30,000 people, there is a bigger chance of making some dough on t-shirts, posters, wallet-chains, etc. Merchandising is one of the big moneymakers for bands.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

[clifyt]

"Let's say a band can make $20,000 for performing at a 5,000 seat venue as a self-promoted event without record labels getting involved. Now, if said band were signed to a label and had to pay to play (or had to sell even more to get the record company the profits they want), the band may very well have to play a 30,000 seat arena to see the same $20,000."

I've worked with larger and smaller bands over the years.

The problems with physical spaces come with need for roadies, techies, engineers, insurance and everything else.

I've seen a small band go bankrupt for a single concert that goes badly because of poor planning and the idea that they can do things cheaper and make more money. Hell, I've seen a multimillion dollar festival I was once involved with go bankrupt because the board decided not to go with weather insurance. Sure, they would have doubled their profits if things had gone well without it, but the director who signed his name to a personal loan ended up losing his house.

I have to say, my career with the music industry as both a labeled artist as well as a consultant / hired gun, I never found anything unfair. It was all up front to what they will take and what risks they assume for you. Working in tech, I know the year I did as a technical on-call consultant, my company that did nothing but take calls took 50% of my take home...and only later did I find out they were charging a fee to the businesses as well. This is a common complaint in the field. AND I had to be bonded...they took absolutely no risk.

But a band playing to a 5000 large audience or a 30k one? Who cares if they make $20k for both. The first one will require a hell of a lot more work and coordination. I have done work as a production director in the past (its amazing how tech project management skills fit right into this area) and I know others in my field have charged $20k for a single night because of the coordination involved (I've done the bigger stuff under the auspices of charity, so I get a check that I turn right back in, though I've seen others that walk away with these checks and never look back).

The fact is, the band that has to do a 30k large show does a LOT less work than one that does it in front of a 5k one and assume a lot less risk.

The problem with the music industry is that geeks and nerds really just don't understand what is all involved in the real world, yet they pass along suggestions and pat each other on the back for being so insightful about how bad this industry is. It is almost as bad as non-technical managers showing up to a development meeting and telling the programmers that we need XYZ feature and it should be a slam dunk because its obviously easy as they've seen others do it (not realizing they have had a team of 20 and a budget of $10M...where as you have 3 people who are also dealing with desktop support and told that when Bob leaves we don't have the funding to replace him).

Finally

[zappepcs]

Not to press a point, but NIN has been pushing a viral release of their new CD for some time now. They are a band that 'gets it' so to speak. They will make money even while giving away their music. If only the RIAA will learn from this, give content in new ways, give content that is more than an MP3 file, give content that is *WORTH* paying for.

I don't care if you don't like NIN's music, you have to admire how they are approaching the new medium and embracing a new environment. I will buy their CD just to have that heat sensitive label. NIN 'gets it' in my opinion.

Re:Finally

[TooMuchToDo]

I'm a firm believer that Trent has had his shit together for quite some time. I have all of the albums (although Year Zero is the only one I purchased from iTunes, the rest are CDs). I highly suggest you go see him live. I saw him at Summerfest in Milwaukee last year, and it was a god damn amazing show (with Peaches opening for him, which made it a whole lot more interesting).

Re:Finally

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice to see someone from the Milwaukee area on Slashdot. NIN rocked the shit out of the Marcus... and I'm sure Tool will do the same on the 4th of July.

Re:Finally

[Anonymous Coward]

If only the RIAA will learn from this, give content in new ways, give content that is more than an MP3 file, give content that is *WORTH* paying for. Well, of course they're giving more than just an MP3 file! They're giving an MP3 (or similar) file with DRM! What a bonus!

Re:Finally

[Mr. Flibble]

Did you notice his comment about using torrents... and that the torrents are hosted on the pirate bay?

Brillant.

Re:Finally

[Tawnos]

I think Trent takes subtle digs at the RIAA on the CD itself. There's a "morality" warning that looks very similar in style to the FBI antipiracy warning. This also brings up a question, though. There's a warning on the CD about making unauthorized duplicates and the copyright infringements related to that... but Trent's releasing all of the "source" for these songs...

Just something to ponder.

Re:Finally

[hmccabe]

I don't care if you don't like NIN's music, you have to admire how they are approaching the new medium and embracing a new environment. I will buy their CD just to have that heat sensitive label. NIN 'gets it' in my opinion.

Absolutely. I'm a music student in a program for digital arts and experimental media*, and I think it's fantastic to see a well established band taking steps to move the music industry forward. I don't care for NIN music (like, at all), but you have to hand it to them, I haven't seen anyone else do more to connect with their fan base, educate interested parties in the process of modern production and composition, and build interest about a new release. With the option of digital distribution, I can use techniques such as this to market my music (and hopefully monetize it through instructional downloads/official tab PDFs) while remaining free of an RIAA contract. If Trent were here, I'd say "good show." I'd probably also say "cheer up dude."

*University of Washington, Seattle if you care. :)

Re:Finally

[smittyoneeach]

I went through college on "Pretty Hate Machine" and "Broken". Happiness in Slavery, after failing a EE exam in particular, was poignant.
Guess I'm old now, but his stuff doesn't seem to have progressed much.

Re:Finally

[Tim C]

They are a band that 'gets it' so to speak.

If by that you mean that they have a large and dedicated following, most of whom will buy the CDs, DVDs, T-shirts, etc and attend the concerts, then yes, they "get it". (Although by "they" I assume you mean Trent - it is still essentially a one-man band, isn't it?)

Not all bands/stars are so blessed, even some of the big names are living essentially on hype and marketing saturation. We can argue relative worth until we're blue in the face (although I suspect I'd likely mostly agree with you), but not everyone can "get it" in this way, however much they may like to.

(Although again, I think we'd probably agree on how many actually *would* like to)

Re:Finally

[that this is not und]

Guess I'm old now, but his stuff doesn't seem to have progressed much.

Like Coca-Cola, he doesn't dare change the formula.

Re:Finally

[smittyoneeach]

Which is a shame, because he clearly has talent. Nihilism eats itself after a while.

Re:Finally

[Gordonjcp]

There's a warning on the CD about making unauthorized duplicates and the copyright infringements related to that... but Trent's releasing all of the "source" for these songs...

Then obviously you can make an authorised duplicate from the sources!

Re:Finally

[tepples]

There's a warning on the CD about making unauthorized duplicates and the copyright infringements related to that... but Trent's releasing all of the "source" for these songs... Compare Microsoft's Shared Source initiative. Some "Shared Source" components are still under non-free licenses.

Re:Finally

[sg3000]

> his stuff doesn't seem to have progressed much.

I think his stuff has progressed a little bit. It's a little more organic sounding, particularly compared to Pretty Hate Machine. For example, one of the songs on his new album has a trumpet!

More importantly, I think his lyrics have gotten more mature. A lot of Pretty Hate Machine all the way to his previous two albums were about angst and navel gazing: "Woe is me, someone I love dumped me!". Maybe throw in a bit of "wow, the music industry is full of phonies! I blame you, God!". Maybe it's completely appropriate when you're a teenager or in college, but as you get older, it's a bit tiring.

"With Teeth" represented a shift in his lyrics in that they're more mature and he seems to be finally using his bully pulpit to say something important. "The Hand That Feeds" is a brilliant questioning of the war in Iraq ("what if this whole crusade is a charade?"). "Every Day is Exactly The Same" perfectly describes my job (particularly after a bitterly depressing day) after working for more than a decade ("I believe I can see the future, 'cause I repeat the same routine.")

Year Zero improves on that even more. He's gone from complaining about his love life to providing an interesting commentary and warning against the move to fascism. My favorite track "Capital G" is a perfect description a young Republican or someone who is on his way to becoming a "Brown Shirt".

So while the music isn't wildly different, I think that his lyrics have matured quite a bit. In that way, he's gone from entertainment to art, and it makes his music far more interesting.

Re:Finally

[plurgid]

> They are a band that 'gets it'

*yawn* ... wake me up when they submit sources for one of their tracks to the creative commons for remixing (at ccMixter.org).

Trent, we get it that you're depressed and all, why not let people REALLY go wild with one of your tracks? It might cheer you up, and all the cool kids are doing it, anyhow:

The Beastie Boys did it.
Fort Minor did it.
Vieux Farka Toure did it.
DJ Vadim is doing it right now.

Why should I bother putting my time and creative energy into remixing your tracks, if I'm legally bound not to post it on my blog, make a music video with it and post it on youtube, or even burn CDs for my friends with it?

Indeed ... NIN / Resnor "almost get it".

Re:Finally

[DrBdan]

Speaking of NIN on Pirate Bay, this isn't the first time Trent has posted content on that site. Last December the DVD version of NIN's Closure video (which was put indefinitely on hold by Interscope) as well as a DVD version of the infamous "Broken" movie were posted to Pirate Bay. Coincidentally enough a short post on the NIN website around the same time said "12/21/06 : Happy Holidays! This one is a guilt-free download. (shhhh - I didn't say that out loud). If you know what I'm talking about, cool." (quote taken from Wikipedia but I remember reading it and thinking wtf?). I think it's pretty cool that Trent is willing to put stuff out there to keep his fans happy even though he might not directly make money off it. Not that he himself posted that stuff (nudge nudge, wink wink).

Re:Finally

[Anonymous Coward]

Trent has learned to game the system to get his stuff out there. The main releases, those are the ones full of the songs that most people want to hear. ("Dude! That's the animal fucking song!") He is, honestly, one of the last few major artists to understand the single/EP format; most of his singles contained multiple remixes (some far better than the original, some just devolving into noise; I'll let the individual decide whether they appreciate that or not), or a cover song, or leftovers that were cut from the album. But almost every one is worth picking up for the gems of brilliance that shine above and beyond the albums themselves.

For a really good example, check out _Still_. It was sold as a companion disc to the _And All That Could Have Been_ live album, but you can get it by itself. Aside from the semi-acoustic reworkings of several songs, there are some instrumental pieces there that are brilliant.

Re:Finally

[Gr8Apes]

Personally I thought it started with an angst/anti-religion bent in the first 2 studio albums moving to I'm not sure what in The Fragile, although the first anti industry sentiments came out there (StarFuckers comes to mind). I saw that same bent in "The Hand That Feeds", although maybe I need to go back and listen to it with a different mindset.

Personally, I liked "Getting Smaller" best, although I thought the album as a whole . I'm looking forward to getting the new one. (NIN is one of the few bands I'll buy without hearing most if any of the songs. I've been surprised, but not disappointed so far) I'm glad he's backed off the artistic bent he went with The Fragile.

Re:Finally

[Tragek]

As just a sampler of seeing NIN live, Open Source Resistance has a copy of a mini-concert that NIN put on as part of this year zero ARG. (You'll need to watch the raw footage though; the cut one doesn't have the whole concert) And I Agree with you; Impressive to see. I had a chance to see them when they came around a year or two ago, but ended up not going for a variety of reasons. I really regret that now. Here's hoping for a North American tour in late '07 or '08.

Re:Finally

[fatlaces]

Another MKE dood here.

WTF? NIN played Summerfest? Did they destroy any instruments? I was tired of the drunk hicks there, so I've pretty much boycotted Summerfest. Please don't mention the Tool show anymore - I'm paranoid, I won't get tix.

Re:Finally

[fatlaces]

u should call the number on the Morality warning.

Re:Finally

[multisync]

Not to press a point, but NIN has been pushing a viral release of their new CD for some time now. They are a band that 'gets it' so to speak.

Too bad their record company doesn't.

Re:Finally

[anaesthetica]

It's pretty clear that Trent Reznor also uploaded high quality versions of his Closure DVDs and the Broken Movie when he couldn't get them properly released through the record companies without hassle. They're on Pirate Bay as uploaded by "seed0". He's a hero.

Re:Finally

[sg3000]

> although the first anti industry sentiments came out there (StarF*ckers comes to mind).
> I saw that same bent in "The Hand That Feeds", although maybe I need to go back and listen to it with a different mindset.

Give it another listen, and see if you notice the subtle criticism. He's basically speaking to the people who were tacitly for the Iraq war (or at least weren't strong enough to say no). Perhaps he's even talking to the reporters who were so gung-ho about the war? To top it off, Reznor wanted to perform the song on the 2005 MTV video music awards with a picture of George W. Bush behind him. MTV wouldn't let him -- it was just the picture, no doctoring-- so he dropped out:

"Nine Inch Nails will not be performing at the MTV Movie Awards as previously announced. We were set to perform 'The Hand That Feeds' with an unmolested, straightforward image of George W. Bush as the backdrop," Reznor wrote. "Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me. See you on tour this fall when we return to play in America."

Talk about putting your money where your mouth is!

> Personally, I liked "Getting Smaller" best, although I thought the album as a whole . I'm looking forward to getting the new one.

Getting Smaller is a great track, too. The new one is just as good as With Teeth, although it took me a few listens to get into it.

As a iMac owner

[Mr. Flibble]

I have already downloaded them - proud to have garage band - but sadly I can't yet run the full songs through as they have too many tracks, and I have to figure out the optimization of Garage band to play them.

Did not have this problem prior, but then, I never tried this with real songs.

Has anyone else encountered the constant stoppages of garage band with these tracks?

Re:As a iMac owner

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to ``lock'' some tracks by clicking the little lock icon at the left side of the main GarageBand window for each one. Locking renders the track to the hard disk, decreasing CPU usage (but increasing I/O).

Re:As a iMac owner

[Mr. Flibble]

Fixed! Thou art wise!

Re:As a iMac owner

[Tragek]

It's just too much for my little macbook, and the stuff I run regularly... Poor thing. Have to wait for the iMac to arrive.

Why don't you actually follow link...

[SuperKendall]

I assume the parent simply means that these are instrumental and acapella versions of the song.

You didn't have to ASSume anything (proving out the old saying in the process), simply following the link you find this text:

For the first time in Barenaked Ladies history we are making available for download multitracks of our songs. May we introduce "Easy", "Wind It Up", "Bank Job", "Rule the World With Love", "I Can I Will I Do" and "Maybe You're Right" off our upcoming album Barenaked Ladies Are Me. It is our hope that you will remix, re-create, re-edit, re-configure, and realize what you will with these parts in coming up with your own versions. All tracks here are 16 bit 44.1kHz WAV files ready for re-mixing. Cost for all tracks of each song is $2.49. (note: all multitracks are copyrighted material)

and clicking on any song tells you something along these lines:

It is our hope that you will remix, re-create, re-edit, re-configure, and realize what you will with these parts in coming up with your own versions. All 11 tracks (5 of which are stereo - making 16 total) here are in 16 bit 44.1kHz WAV files ready for re-mixing. Cost for all tracks is $2.49 (note: all multitracks are copyrighted material).

These are real multi-tracks, with instruments and vocals split out.

It doesn't get any more re-mixable.

Re:Why don't you actually follow link...

[lemon_dieter]

Do I have to be limited to CD quality?

24 bit / 96 kHz will get me interested.

Using my Athlon 64 3000+ and 64Studio, a Debian distro with realtime pre-emptive patches, I could really use some QUALITY samples.

This specialized audio distro works better than any Mac any of my friends have attempted to use (however they are the artist types and don't even understand that you have to press CTRL while clicking to get the menu).

Is there anyone else in the Slashdot crowd using linux to record Pro Audio?

Re:Why don't you actually follow link...

[bensch128]

It doesn't get any more re-mixable.

They didn't give us the protools files or the midi or midi sample files they used to produce the tracks!
That is simply unacceptable and they should burn, burn, burn!! They have to release every revision of every patch file used in each track before the album can be considered "maximally re-mixable".

In fact, if they are really interested in connecting with their fans, they should be giving away instruments of the same type used to make each track.

Cheerio
Ben

PS. Trent Razor is a pretty cool but shy guy. Tried to talk to him once but he kinda escaped.

Offtopic? You can use these with GarageBand too.

[SuperKendall]

How is this "Offtopic". You can download for the six songs listed a set of 11 or so different tracks, with vocals and instruments split out - you simply drag all the tracks into GarageBand and play with to your hearts content.

Some people may like BNL more than NIN. For those people, BNL also offers a fun exploration of remixing with good quality tracks.

A sign of things to come?

[adona1]

So let me see....NIN are releasing the unadultarated tracks so other people can have a go at mixing and remixing the songs...

I guess the next step involves giving everyone guitars so they can write the songs for them? ;)

Re:A sign of things to come?

[pandrijeczko]

You're not alone - I don't get this "everything needs to be interactive" shit either.

What's wrong with just coming in from a hard day's work, opening a bottle of beer and chilling out to a good piece of music or a movie, rather than wanting to "change it" or "fiddle with it"?

My view is that musicians, movie producers & actors probably know more about their respective arts than I do so they can just get on with it and I'll throw some money at them when they turn out something worse listening to or watching.

Life's too short and I've too many other interests to worry about customising everything to the way I think it should be.

Re:A sign of things to come?

[Bacon Bits]

Life's too short and I've too many other interests to worry about customising everything to the way I think it should be.

Some people say the same thing about an operating system. They tend to get mocked as luddites here on SlashDot, or tools of Microsoft.

Not saying I disagree with you. Just trying to give you some perspective.

Re:A sign of things to come?

[Res3000]

Where are my mod points?

Re:A sign of things to come?

[Grimbleton]

You're obviously not the target audience for this sort of thing then. Feel free to press the magical Alt + F4 combination whenever you stop being interested.

Re:A sign of things to come?

[Nasarius]

Huh? In case you missed it, the album is already out. The files are being provided for musicians. There are zillions of people who specialize in just doing remixes, some of them very well known. And there are many people like me, who just like playing with this stuff. I've been waiting for this because I like Year Zero, but want to tone down some of the distorted noises so I can play the album loud without cringing. Once all the tracks have been released, I'll probably put my remix up on Demonoid for people who want a "less industrial" kind of sound.

Re:A sign of things to come?

[zero1101]

Nobody's forcing you to do anything. Feel free to opt out. Why are you offended that others who ARE interested are being offered the opportunity?

Re:A sign of things to come?

[slack_prad]

Here..you can borrow mine. Oh.

Re:A sign of things to come?

[Vardyr]

It's not about customization so much as modifying art to create something different. Sure, most remixes are annoying and immeasurably worse than the original song, but anything that gets someone in "creation mode" rather than "consumption mode" is a good thing, in my opinion. This brings to mind Mill's Utilitarianism. Some of us don't want to simply go to work, go home, consume, sleep, and repeat. At some point, all of those people you consider more knowledgeable about their respective arts started by knowing nothing about it. It was the drive to create (... or make money) and a bit of good fortune that brought them to where they are today.

Re:A sign of things to come?

[pandrijeczko]

but anything that gets someone in "creation mode" rather than "consumption mode" is a good thing

Excuse me, but I spend around 40 hours a week being "creative" at work - plus a bit more additionally either writing a shell-script, buying and arranging new plants in the garden or working out a strategy to defeat a game I'm currently playing.

So I don't need to do anything other than "consume" music and movies - bearing in mind also that I'm actually *VERY* picky about the music I listen to so every CD in my collection is a superb piece of music (in my opinion) anyhow so there's absolutely no need to change it.

At some point, all of those people you consider more knowledgeable about their respective arts started by knowing nothing about it.

Agreed - but only a minority of those who start out end up being successful. And, quite frankly, an artist that just plagiarises somebody else's work, rather than coming up with something original:

a) Doesn't deserve to be called an "artist" in the first place, and

b) Doesn't deserve success.

As a fan of artists like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Beatles, I feel *exactly* the same way about tribute bands that go round copying these (and other) artists. If they're good enough to play their music correctly *note for note* then they're good enough to come up with something new and original.

Re:A sign of things to come?

[pandrijeczko]

The files are being provided for musicians. There are zillions of people who specialize in just doing remixes, ...

Lesson 1 - People who remix other peoples' music are NOT musicians.

Real meaning of open source

[FormOfActionBanana]

That way, if NIN go out of business and musical styles change, we will br able to recreate their songs in the new formats.

Whew!

got my money

[anarchy_man3]

This is the first CD I've purchased before I listened to it in years.

Re:got my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I listened to the entire album, before it was released, on the NIN site. I then pre-ordered it through itunes (the only bad part was that I had to wait until it was released). I also plan on buying the CD.

I'm a long time music pirate and NIN has, and will be getting more of my money. Trent is really doing something right.

The Music Machine's still there

[Calyth]

It's actually kinda sad that NIN Year Zero sale is beaten by Avril Lavigne in Canada.
Bt at least we know that NIN would be longer lasting as musicians, and people would keep remixing their songs as long as Reznor going to keep releasing his songs like this.

This is a good thing

[el_flynn]

I for one think that this is a nice, new path for other musicians to explore. Put out a couple of tracks as teasers for the album, and if the audience likes it more likely than not they're going to end up buying the album. It doesn't cost much for him to promote the album this way (other than paying for bandwith/hosting I suppose); it sure does his "street cred" a world of good anyways.

It feels to me like he's taking a very honest approach about it; after all if the tracks suck then the no-one's going to buy the music. But if they're great, I'm sure we'd want to listen to the rest of the album. He's putting his music/reputation/karma on the line, and in turn indirectly he's looking for your support to buy the album.

I'd really like to see other enlightened artistes try this. That'd really flip ole Jack in his grave eh?

Re:This is a good thing

[Tibor the Hun]

Actually, Trent didn't just put out a couple of teaser tracks. He "leaked" a few songs during concerts on the European tour. Decent quality MP3s were found on USB sticks. I think this was done with 3 songs.
Then, a few days before the release he put the whole CD up for streaming on their web-page.
It's an awesome album by the way.

Not really.

[Anonymous Coward]

Jack dealt with movies, not music.

Isn't this the same band?

[Anonymous Coward]

.. who had a song about fucking you like an animal and feeling you from the insides?

Re:Isn't this the same band?

[pandrijeczko]

I thought that was "W.A.S.P." - "F*ck Like A Beast" or something like that?

Re:Isn't this the same band?

[Anonymous Coward]

What of it? And be careful how you put things. There is NIN the band, that tours, and NIN the Albums, for the most part entirely performed by trent himself. Especially the song in question.

Don't want an entire herd of NIN fans to eat you, myself included.

Anyways, about your post. Is there something wrong with Closer? Does it offend you that people have sex, and write songs that mention it?

Re:Isn't this the same band?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't want an entire herd of NIN fans to eat you, myself included.

Nothing to worry about there. You'd be too busy getting your hair properly messed, your eyeliner just right, and deciding which shade of black t-shirt best brings out the darkness in your soul.

NIN fans are one step above emo kids.

Re:Isn't this the same band?

[Tim C]

No, he's talking about "Closer" - the chorus is:

I want to fuck you like an animal
I want to feel you from the inside
I want to fuck you like an animal
My whole existence is flawed
You get me closer to God

Re:Isn't this the same band?

[newlydead]

you don't listen to music too much do you? you know the name of an obscure 80s song that was only released originally as an Import single b/side Show No Mercy (later to be released on a greatest hits and on the re-issue of their self titled) yet you don't know one of the more popular songs from the mid 90s?

Re:Isn't this the same band?

[pandrijeczko]

I listen to a *LOT* of music - but that doesn't mean I know the lyrics to *EVERY* song...

This is not a game

[Pandare]

Well, actually, it is, and seems to be embracing a different sort of audience than just NIN fans. The release is part of the Year Zero project and has a buinch of puzzles and related websites. Here: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?f=218 is a pretty good start on that aspect of it.

Garage-Band

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh dear - my first thought on seeing "Garageband" in a title was "I don't remember that variant."

I must ask

[aussie_a]

To all those who pirated RIAA content, with free content such as this, why do you feel the need to break the law?

Re:I must ask

[ErikZ]

I can't speak for everyone, but I'm not a robot who simply does things the law tells me to do.

You watch...

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

Slashdot will now praise Nine Inch Nails for their quality of music, their contribution to our culture, and their business sense.

Re:You watch...

[Mr Z]

And don't forget Open Source Resistance!

--Joe

How odd..

[Anonymous Coward]

to see so many people refer to NiN as 'them' instead of 'him' when it relates to anything except live performances..

anyway, I'm more surprised even that nobody even mentioned the http://www.opensourceresistance.net/ site. That should appeal to some more ppl in here.. (it's also part of the viral campaign for Year Zero)

Looks like they're wrapping up the ARG too

[cliveholloway]

Or at least putting it on pause for a while and summing up where we're at. I'm 24.24.2.1251 btw :)

Re:Looks like they're wrapping up the ARG too

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome to Exterminal.

"Musician," not "Musicians"

[Proofof. Chaos]

Trent Reznor is the only true member of NIN. He records everything himself, and only has a band for live shows. That's one thing I love about Reznor; he decided he didn't need a band, and then he decided he didn't even need a record label, he just created his own. Anyone reading this who is in high school and has a garage band with dreams of making it big, should use Trent as an example. He has clearly seen where the music industry is headed for a good fifteen years now, well ahead of everyone else.

Re:"Musician," not "Musicians"

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean ditch your buddies and hire temporary stand-ins for concerts?

Re:"Musician," not "Musicians"

[venomkid]

Trent Reznor is the only true member of NIN. He records everything himself, and only has a band for live shows.

This is a myth.

It's true, Trent Reznor is the leader/owner etc. of the band "Nine Inch Nails", but on every album he has worked with other musicians in the studio. On Pretty Hate Machine he worked with Chris Vrenna and Flood, if you don't believe me, go find some of the embarrassing early demos before that album came out. Broken included Vrenna again as well as Martin Atkins on drums. Downward Spiral included Vrenna as well, and Charlie Clouser's influence on the album's sound is undeniable. And so on and so forth. Even when talking in interviews about the recording process, he speaks in plural, "we" did this and "we" did that.

It's kind of crazy how this tall tale has spun him into some kind of industrial metal "John Henry".

Alternate Reality Game

[celerityfm]

Something else to consider regarding the significance of these releases- NiN also launched an ARG called Year Zero as well, and the album is simply just part of the ARG- Reznor said "What you are now starting to experience [,the ARG,] IS 'year zero'. It's not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record - it IS the art form... and we're just getting started. Hope you enjoy the ride." Reznor has also called the Year Zero game "a new entertainment form."

So, they also release the individual tracks from the songs of the album, in Garage Band and other formats. Bad ass. But you know what else? This is all part of the game - some of the songs contain hidden pictures, backmasked vocals that lead to website addresses, and there's even morse code on the album.

It is expected that there will be even more hidden goodness available to us now that we can examine the individual tracks. Not only that but holy crap some of these hidden tracks are creepy- the Reaktor instrument in My Violent Heart, for example.

And the heat sensitive label freaked me out, even though I knew it was going to change... that of course revealed another code for the ARG. All the songs seem different after reading up on the ARG. And thats the thing- this album is another concept album, but instead it centers around a fictional future universe rather then being a big metaphor for Trent's own trials and tribulations. Though I'm sure some of those are mixed in too ;)

Re:Alternate Reality Game

[Nasarius]

That is really creepy. I'm listening to the album again with a different perspective. It reminds me of Publius Enigma, which has been ongoing since 1994, and remains unsolved.

Re:Alternate Reality Game

[retep]

And aphex twin is known for doing the same sonogram trick.

Re:Alternate Reality Game

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure why "hidden artwork" is at all worth mentioning? This whole "Year Zero" thing gives me the impression Reznor-and-friends have just recently been introduced to Information Society, and now want to do something very similar to the modem noise on Peace & Love or the White Roses stunt...

I don't know how that's going to be *more* fun with a fan base that's in the bazillions, combined with such a large Internet populus. Such "puzzles" will probably be solved and documented within an hour of an album's release, and documented on a Wiki instantly. Thus, it's fun for maybe 3 or 4 people in the entire world, and the rest simply choose to be lazy + not utilise their minds.

Re:Alternate Reality Game

[celerityfm]

That Publius Enigma stuff is really cool- I wonder if Year Zero was inspired that or in part?

Enjoy the album. I've even started listening to the old ones thinking about possible intertextual references... start with Pretty Hate Machine and go on up and try to make up a story about how they relate.

Can't wait to see the live shows-- did you see this?

On April 18, 2007, Open Source Resistance hosted a gathering in LA. Musicians, artists, and ordinary people gathered in support of a simple message: speak up to defend the things that matter to you. The concert planned to end the evening was broken up by police. -- that link contains a video of the gathering and the concert that followed.. DIGG's coverage of the event is also worth noting.

That website, open source restance, is part of the ARG as was the event I think- if this is an indication of what the live shows might be like then holy crap, sign me up! :P

Re:36% growth in sales: Requiem for Macintosh

[Anonymous Coward]

as long as they're loosing their edge and and not losing it, then it's fine with me.

a format for garage band

[Anonymous Coward]

What I the subject line said

Because bad law deserves to be ignored

[Anonymous Coward]

To all those who pirated RIAA content, with free content such as this, why do you feel the need to break the law?

Because "the law" is not some fundamental axiom of the universe, nor carved in tablets of stone, but is merely a reflection of the studios' greed and their bribary of our politicians to suit their old business model.

"The law" that you so love is not a good law (one that serves the community well), but is actually a crap law that deserves to be ignored. It doesn't reflect the fact that ordinary people want to share music with others on the net, without financial gain. So yes, people feel the need to "break the law" as you put it, because "the law" doesn't reflect nor support their requirements.

Unless you're a sheep, you don't put "the law" above commonsense, and that includes commonsense about the reality of the net and the ease of replication of digital media. Law that tries to maintain some fictional alternative reality is doomed to fail, and it is failing.

And you also don't put "the law" above commonsense when our lawmakers are at the mercy of corruption and bribary from forces like the RIAA. "The law" is meant to serve *us*, but it doesn't, because we don't have the $$$ power of the lobbiests and so we can't bribe the lawmakers like they do. Instead, currently "the law" is serving only those who want to make money off us. And hence it is ignored.

Re:Because bad law deserves to be ignored

[CowboyBob500]

Actually, IMO, it IS good law, just badly and over-aggresively enforced. After all, it's just normal copyright law which I'm sure everyone here supports - otherwise the GPL is out of the window for a start. The problem is the way the RIAA/MPAA are going about enforcing the law, not the law itself.

Bob

Re:Because bad law deserves to be ignored

[aussie_a]

I agree not all laws are just or good. However laws are how we as a society govern the behaviour that is detrimental to our society. When breaking the law, it should be for very serious and good reasons. Breaking the law just to get some free music, when plenty of music is already available for free and legally, is not (IMO) a good or serious reason. I think most non-pirates would agree.

Re:Because bad law deserves to be ignored

[Anonymous Coward]

it's just normal copyright law which I'm sure everyone here supports - otherwise the GPL is out of the window for a start.

The GPL doesn't start from the nonsense idea that distribution and sharing is bad.

Nor does the GPL start from the moronic idea that making a copy somehow represents a loss to the original.

Nice try though, RIAA goon.

Re:Because bad law deserves to be ignored

[CowboyBob500]

Either you agree with copyright law or you don't. You can't have it both ways. What you seem to be suggesting is that music and film be excluded from copyright, which is by far the most moronic statement out of the two of us.

Bob

Re:Because bad law deserves to be ignored

[aussie_a]

Actually you can agree with non-commercial distribution of someone else's copyrighted material while still protect commercial distribution of someone else's copyrighted material. While it doesn't protect the GPL in all cases, I think many would say it protects it in the important cases ;)

NIN?

[fi1th]

It would be fucking better if you could remix better bands.. NIN are not the best, as the man early put it, his lyrics are depressing. But then again, you may only edit electronica? Synthetic music is crap anyway. Only a keyboard turned to Organ settings gets me going...

Re:NIN?

[Lesrahpem]

You might really like the artist DJ Shadow. If you can find it somewhere you might want to find the track Organ Donor. It's well worth it.

Re:NIN?

[scotch]

Synthetic music is crap anyway

Isn't all music synthetic?

Re:NIN?

[chinard]

Its kinda pointless to criticize NIN for releasing their material like this when your so-called 'better bands' have yet to step-up and offer theirs.

What does 96 kHz buy you?

[tepples]

24 bit / 96 kHz will get me interested. I can see where storing intermediate versions at 24-bit would reduce noise in the final mix. But please explain something about pro audio: What advantage does representing frequencies up to 47999 Hz have if the ear can't hear over 20 kHz?

Re:What does 96 kHz buy you?

[lemon_dieter]

Audio sample rates do not work like audio waves.

Think of it this way:

A sample is a piece of data. 16 bits long, or 24 bits long.
A rate is how often we do something.

I would like to get a 24 bit long piece of information from what I'm hearing right now, the project manager's telephone conversation in the office next to mine. In order to get the most accurate representation of how his voice sounds, I have to get more than one of these samples every second(24bit/1Hz). To remember what his voice actually sounds like, I will need more information than that. The more information the better. If I take a 24 bit sample of his voice 96,000 times over the course of a second's time, I have a much better understanding of what myriad of frequencies his voice box produces when saying ng's and sss's and th's, and how whiny he can sound when something isn't going his way.

Understanding Digital / Analog Conversion

Re:What does 96 kHz buy you?

[gilesjuk]

Some say it is due to harmonics getting lost.

But you are best doing calculations at a higher resolution than the final result to reduce rounding errors.

Just like flat bed scanners often scan at 30-bit even though 24-bit is apparently where the human eye can't see the difference.

Re:What does 96 kHz buy you?

[tungstencoil]

Part (most) of what distinguishes identical frequencies as being different sounds (think A played on both piano and violin) is the harmonics. Representing frequencies above 20kHz allows the subtle harmonics these frequencies can create to affect the frequencies we can hear, resulting in a more true, accurate, "real"-sounding sound. Analog recording equipment picks this up naturally, of course - digitally, one has to attempt to account for it.

Re:What does 96 kHz buy you?

[Jehosephat2k]

Nyquist frequency. To resolve 20kHz you need to sample at 40kHz or better:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_frequency

Re:What does 96 kHz buy you?

[AJWM]

There are two things that distinguish frequencies as different sounds; one is the wave shape (sinusoidal, sawtooth, square, etc) which is indeed (by Fourier) determined by harmonics, the other - which is much more significant when comparing two stringed instruments like piano and violin - is the envelope, the curve of amplitude over time (ie attack, sustain, delay, release).

Now, since the human ear perceives sound by, essentially, doing a mechanical Fourier analysis on the wave (the hair cells in the narrowing spiral cochlea of the inner ear respond to different frequencies), and since the highest frequencies those hair cells can respond to is not much above 20kHz (higher in younger kids, but the high-frequency-sensitive cells die off/get damaged first as we get older, they're more delicate), harmonics much above 20kHz aren't going to do a thing for you. (Hint, if you can't hear the 17kHz whine of the flyback transformer from an old CRT-type TV, they'll do absolutely nothing for you.)

Analog equipment responds best at the natural resonant frequencies of the mechanical components (mikes) and circuitry in the equipment; it takes a lot of expensive gear to counter the natural tendency of analog gear to introduce its own artificial harmonics.

Of course, some people like that distorted sound, so they convince themselves - and try to convince others - that it is somehow more true, accurate, and 'real'-sounding.

Re:What does 96 kHz buy you?

[lemon_dieter]

No. Computer Science....what we are doing here is taking an analog wave, and transferring it into something that can be written to and read from a disk or other medium.
To do that, we have to pluck a sample out of the air with a microphone, a little drum connected to a coil. This is amplified and sent to an A/D converter, which runs a process at what bitrate and frequency the specified A/D converter is rated. a 24bit/96kHz A/D converter takes 24-bit long samples 96,000 times in a second. It's like a movie camera, which run at 30Hz. Except this takes a picture much more often, because that's what our human ears require in order to be able to discern the difference between this guy's voice and that guy's voice. We can tell the difference when we're in the same room, but when we're on the phone the voices sounds totally different.

It's amazing how few people really understand how this works. It's not difficult stuff. It doesn't take an engineer to get it.

Re:What does 96 kHz buy you?

[tepples]

Except this takes a picture much more often, because that's what our human ears require in order to be able to discern the difference between this guy's voice and that guy's voice. But why is 24-bit 96000 Hz sampling required? Wouldn't 24-bit 48000 Hz be just as good to reproduce the frequencies from 0 to 23999 Hz that humans can hear?

Except this takes a picture much more often, because that's what our human ears require in order to be able to discern the difference between this guy's voice and that guy's voice. You and some other people who have replied to my post appear to claim that speaker recognition requires the (inaudible) information in 24000 to 47999 Hz. Citation needed.

but when we're on the phone the voices sounds totally different. That's because telephones sample at the rough equivalent of 12-bit 8000 Hz, an engineering tradeoff to preserve the information in the 300 Hz to 3500 Hz range that contributes to intelligibility while keeping costs down.

Re:What does 96 kHz buy you?

[tepples]

To resolve 20kHz you need to sample at 40kHz or better: And when sampling at 96 kHz, you can resolve up to 48 kHz. But why does one need to sample at 96 kHz (and resolve up to 48 kHz) when one can sample at 48 kHz (and resolve at 24 kHz), preserving audible frequencies?

Re:36% growth in sales: Requiem for Macintosh

[aichpvee]

Interregnum? Really? If that's the case you might want to clean up your writing BEFORE pressing submit. It reflects poorly on King Steve when you're so sloppy.

But how do I write software to parse it?

[tepples]

What I the subject line said

FM radio

[tepples]

Why do we need traditional record labels anymore? To advertise music to people who commute, except those in the slim minority with a recent computer and an MP3 player and high-speed Internet access and motivation to seek out new music. Only radio reaches vehicles, and a major record label has the clout to get songs onto commercial FM radio in the United States.

A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[mi]

Not only is not "open", it is also remarkably stupid — the largely plain-text page (its background being a giant JPG) linked from the write-up is written entirely in Flash... There are not ringing bells and no blowing wistles — their web-master, apparently, knows only the single tool (hammer), and everything looks like a nail to him/her... Eeewwww..

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be Rob Sheridan. He has pretty much used the same style of flashing for 8 years. He was famous for the Dancing Baby that proliferated the net when Allie McBeal was on television. I think that may be how Trent discovered him. Rob also edits the tour DVDs that are released and I think he directed the Survivalism video.

I think all of this Year0 stuff is ridiculous myself. Trent Reznor trying to warn me about 1984 is hilarious.

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly my reaction. Flashblock stopped it in mt browser and I never loaded it. I refuse to load all flash pages, html works just fine thank you. I will never know what is on that page unless they put up an html version.

[changed my IP address for this post to defeat the inane and irrationally excessive "flood" interval of 30 minutes on Slashdot, you'd almost think that they did not want any comments at all or are trying to protect the non existent performance reputation of mod_perl]

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, their site is dumb, but you're far more stupid for thinking that it makes what they're doing unimportant.

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[DrBdan]

their web-master, apparently, knows only the single tool (hammer), and everything looks like a nail to him/her

Well duh, I mean the band is Nine Inch NAILS :)

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh shut the fuck up. NIN wants a look to their site that can't be accomplished with straight HTML (e.g., exotic font, positioning, shading.) In short, the band wishes to create a certain mood, tone and functionality that's impractical without the use of Flash. What would you suggest they use?

Flash is available - free of charge - for 99% of desktops. This isn't some annoying banner ad or obnoxious webapp or anything like that. This is an artist using Flash on the web in a fairly tasteful context. "But, but, but... Adobe won't release a Flash plugin for my NetBSD MIPS toaster! And even if they did, it probably wouldn't be compatible with Lynx! And even if it was, Flash is proprietary, and that's evil! Plus the site would probably use JavaScript - and that's evil too!"

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[Anonymous Coward]

I refuse to load all flash pages, html works just fine thank you.

But how do you watch Homestar Runner? :(

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[Ilgaz]

It is a mainstream rock band for God's sake, what next? Didn't appear nice on your Lynx?

As far as I know, Garage Band is not GNU either.

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[Anonymous Coward]

Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth. It's all about bandwidth. As a 28.8Kbps dial-up user (only connection available at my location), Flashblock is the only reason that the web is still usable for me. Thank God for Flashblock.

Why use a few hundred kilobyte flash object when a few bytes of text will convey the same information? Looks and style, you say, well I guarantee that I could achieve the same effect with optimised pngs at a fraction of the bandwidth if I was unwilling to use text for its intended purpose.

Flash is evil, pure and simple. It is ridiculously overused and threatens the very usability of the web. It has nothing to do with what platforms flash runs on or the "openness" of its code; it has everything to do with bandwidth, accessibility and usability.

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[mi]

It is a mainstream rock band for God's sake, what next?

"Mainstream" rock bands don't usually release their songs for free. This one did, for whatever reasons, one of the reasons — by popular opinion, at least — being "to show our openness and appreciation for the fans". Well, this fan is offended, rather than pleased...

Didn't appear nice on your Lynx?

It did not appear nice in my Firefox-2.0.0.3. A 64-bit version... My primary objection was not even to their use of Flash per se, but to the gratuitous use of Flash. They did not use any of the features, that are only available with Flash. It is a static page. You click on a link, you download the files — that's all.

As far as I know, Garage Band is not GNU either.

I care not for the licensing — my beef is availability, or, rather, the lack of it. There is no Flash for 64-bit platforms, not even for Windows... An iPod can play "Garage Band", but I can't get the NIN's files onto mine, because their web-master (obviously one with stress on style, rather than utility) is of poor qualifications.

Re:A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

[Anonymous Coward]

Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth. It's all about bandwidth. As a 28.8Kbps dial-up user (only connection available at my location), Flashblock is the only reason that the web is still usable for me. Thank God for Flashblock.

...

Flash is evil, pure and simple. It is ridiculously overused and threatens the very usability of the web.

No, it threatens YOUR usability of the web. Just because you have an awful dial-up connection doesn't mean a website should compromise its look and feel for your sake. Why should the web designer invest more time cobbling together some clapboard website with hacked up images and statically positioned text - without any guarantee that it will look consistent across platforms? Again, Flash is available for a wide range of platforms and browsers - and it looks consistent across such platforms.

Why use a few hundred kilobyte flash object when a few bytes of text will convey the same information? Looks and style, you say, well I guarantee that I could achieve the same effect with optimised pngs at a fraction of the bandwidth if I was unwilling to use text for its intended purpose.

Yeah, well, when you have a successful band and a large group of people who would visit your website, feel free to stick it to The Man by not using Flash. For the rest of the world, Flash is just fine for these kinds of things. Why use Flash? Because Flash is a more cohesive environment for websites like NIN's - no div transparency-trickery or image-slicing involed or any other shenanigans. You design it once in an IDE, and it looks pretty consistent across other Flash installations.

Jesus come off it. I'd agree with you if this were some news wire or something, but this is a band's website. Most people who visit the website are expecting a multimedia-oriented experience - videos, music, wallpaper, pictures. For those of us in the greater 98% of people with Internet access, the site is fully functional. I would submit to you that it's not Flash that's incompatible with the Internet, it's your connection.

Promoting to commuters?

[tepples]

With the option of digital distribution, I can use techniques such as this to market my music (and hopefully monetize it through instructional downloads/official tab PDFs) while remaining free of an RIAA contract. But how will people who don't have a recent computer and an MP3 player and high-speed Internet access and motivation to discover new music? They'll just fall back to the FM radio that they have always relied on while commuting, and the major labels have that promotion venue all sewn up.

Define "normal copyright law"

[tepples]

it's just normal copyright law which I'm sure everyone here supports Define "normal copyright law". Would you consider a copyright term greater than a human lifetime "normal copyright law"? What about contradictory language surrounding the status of fair use and other exempt uses (what the law giveth in 17 USC 107 through 123 it taketh away in 17 USC 1201)?

Re:Define "normal copyright law"

[CowboyBob500]

I'm not from the US so you'll have to spell out exactly what the references you state mean. However, I think 50 years for copyright is reasonable, as it is here in the UK.

Bob

Re:Define "normal copyright law"

[tepples]

I'm not from the US so you'll have to spell out exactly what the references you state mean. The statutes I cited are the U.S. statutes describing "fair use" (the U.S. counterpart to "fair dealing"), other uses exempt from copyright exclusivity, and various statutory licensing schemes. 17 USC 1201 is the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, whose European counterpart is national legislation implementing the EU Copyright Directive.

However, I think 50 years for copyright is reasonable, as it is here in the UK. UK copyright lasts up to 120 years, as it expires 70 years after the last surviving author dies.

For free and legally? How can the author tell?

[tepples]

Breaking the law just to get some free music, when plenty of music is already available for free and legally, is not (IMO) a good or serious reason. How is the composer of a piece of music that he wants to publish under a free content license supposed to be able to tell whether or not he subconsciously copied an existing copyrighted work? See Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music.

Re:For free and legally? How can the author tell?

[aussie_a]

I don't know, and yet people somehow manage to do it all the time.

Year Zero

[Anonymous Coward]

The year is 2022. The drug Parepin has been placed into the water supply to pacify the masses. Gay sex, topless couch potatoing, and impromptu apartment musical performances are all secretly recorded by the government. One man has been sent from the future to write the industrial ballads that will save human-kind. Only one artist can write a song to show us just how repetitively annoying the future sounds. That man is Tre... [intercepted by the government]

Re:Year Zero

[celerityfm]

Hahah for AC this is pretty good. Mod parent up plz for maximum funnay.

Because you don't own the masters?

[SuperKendall]

So rather than admit you were just plain wrong, you're going to bitch because BNL doesn't deliver the studio master tapes to you personally along with a piece of chocolate cake?

What a freaking whiner. I guess you are more interested in complaining than playing with music.

Re:Because you don't own the masters?

[Anonymous Coward]

Go check the PS3 sales numbers, shill.

This is one of those bands who's CDs I always buy.

[xx01dk]

There are certain bands' CDs that I'll always buy even if I haven't heard any of the songs, and I doubt I'm alone in this. Trent's already made his money from me and countless other fans; I think it's really a cool thing to do to release the tracks in modifiable format for all of us.

Another good thing I see more and more nowadays are the bands who make their songs available to listen to online. I bought the Black Keys CD after listening to their songs this way.

How long before the RIAA gets the hint?

Suggested album title: "Passive Aggression"

[Just Some Guy]

One thing I'm not clear on: if I put the songs on a USB keychain, will the RIAA sue me?

None

[ProfessionalCookie]

None if all you're doing is listening.

96kHz is nice for editing because you have more data to tweak- for instance if you were to timestretch a track. Plugins my friend. Essentially it's the same reason I do all my Photoshop edits at full resolution and the downscale to my output.

Absolutely!

[JacksBrokenCode]

Synthetic music is crap anyway.

Yeah! Instruments are for pussies, a cappella is the only real music...

Re:Absolutely!

[Anonymous Coward]

You jest, but a capella can be some of the best music. Check out the group Conspirare for some amazing songs. Those are some real musicians.

Wrong topic

[Anonymous Coward]

Lost your userID password, PS3WillFail?

Talk about a shill... you can't even enter a topic on music without thinking about your tasty, tasty 360 lovin waiting at home. Warm slot, mmmmm....

So what are the NIN samples at?

[SuperKendall]

Are the NIN samples at 96kHz?

It still seems to me that we should be happy bands are doing this at all.

---> Kendall

Re:So what are the NIN samples at?

[lemon_dieter]

I don't know....I'm at work doing my job. When I get home I will definitely try to use them in Ardour.

We are definitely happy about bands doing this. My wife actually wrote a paper on how bands are beginning to release albums with all of their unmixed source material to let the user have some fun. Wired wrote about it with Beck's Guero album. Soon after Guero, Guerolito was released. Guerolito is in my opinion a poor, amateur album, but that's due to some unknowing hippy or raver doing a poor remix of Beck's source, simply because they don't know how to properly record.

It's possible that the sound quality of the source has something to do with the outcome of the peons' mixing efforts.

When you mix pure organic ingredients in a blender, you get pure organic juice. When you start adding Monsanto GM Alfalfa and fortifying with mass produced vitamins, you get V8. I'd go for the former. Pure source, pure outcome.

Not Too Surprising

[morari]

Reznor had released several tracks off of With Teeth in this same manner. I believe that there was even a remixing contest (whether officially so or not). With that said, Nine Inch Nails is one of few "bands" worth listening to today and they (him?) continue to prove so.

IT'S A TRAP...is it?

[Brunellus]

Under what license(s) did Reznor/NIN release the sources? Who's to say the record company/IP rights holder won't come after you if you redistribute or even sell remixes?

So?

[Anonymous Coward]

NIN hasn't really been relevant in a long, long time, and with Year Zero they're trying just about anything they can to distract people from that very fact. Clever viral marketing, cheap gimmicks (i.e. fading CD), now they're giving out their tunes for people to remix...not that it matters. People's tunes were being remixed long before NIN decided they were going to graciously "allow" people to do so by releasing the Garageband sources...admittedly making it easier for anyone owning a Mac and Garageband to do what people have already been doing for years, i.e. remixing.

The real meaning of Year Zero is that they're starting over in 2007 from rock bottom, hoping to shoot their way back to the top by masquerading as some sort of avant-garde experimental band. The truth is that other than a few neat tricks and marketing schemes they aren't offering anything new...the clever part is making it -appear- new.

this just in

[rubberbandball]

Nine Inch Nails are still together. Read these comments from Apple: "Yeah we were surprised at first too, but now that we've got one of the coolest bands of 1995 plugging our software; we could really care less that you won't buy an iPhone."

Been there, done that

[RahoulB]

The Shamen released Pro-Gen (Move any Mountain) on CD as a set of distinct samples about 15 years ago - same aim - sample the clips and build your own remix.

Those additional frequencies are inaudible

[tepples]

If I take a 24 bit sample of his voice 96,000 times over the course of a second's time, I have a much better understanding of what myriad of frequencies his voice box produces when saying ng's and sss's and th's, and how whiny he can sound when something isn't going his way. How is taking a 24 bit sample of his voice 96,000 times a second better than taking a 24 bit sample of his voice 48,000 times a second, if the human ear can't hear myriad of frequencies in the 24,000 to 47,999 Hz range that the additional sample rate covers?

Re:Those additional frequencies are inaudible

[xororand]

How is taking a 24 bit sample of his voice 96,000 times a second better than taking a 24 bit sample of his voice 48,000 times a second, if the human ear can't hear myriad of frequencies in the 24,000 to 47,999 Hz range that the additional sample rate covers? As someone previously explained, this has no advantage if you only listen to the material, though if you plan to do things like time-stretching or pitch-shifting, it will matter.

Re:Those additional frequencies are inaudible

[da007]

The sampling rate determines the accuracy of the digital representation of the analog signal. It has nothing to do with the frequency, so if my waveform frequency falls within the range of human hearing (20 Hz to 17 kHz), then the number of samples determines how many times the frequency changes in a fixed time. This gives a truer representation of the original signal when it's converted back to analog.

Re:Those additional frequencies are inaudible

[tepples]

The sampling rate determines the accuracy of the digital representation of the analog signal. It has nothing to do with the frequency, so if my waveform frequency falls within the range of human hearing (20 Hz to 17 kHz), then the number of samples determines how many times the frequency changes in a fixed time.

I thought that's what "oversampling" algorithms were supposed to do: add zero samples and then low-pass filter the audio just below half the original sampling rate so that the DAC can perfectly reconstruct the audio.

This gives a truer representation of the original signal when it's converted back to analog.

Not significantly more than the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit. If you sample at 96000 Hz and store the entire signal, rather than sampling at 96000 Hz, filtering, decimating to 48000 Hz, and reconstructing, you don't add more than a few decibels of SNR in the audible spectrum. All you have in the audible band of a 96000 Hz sampled waveform is more room for noise shaping.

Or should digital cameras capture and store near infrared and near ultraviolet too?

Re:Finally progressed

[hguorbray]

I also thought he hadn't progressed much over the years until I saw him at last year's Neil Young Bridge School Benefit at Shoreline.

Mr 'techno' reznor had the guts to play not only acoustically, but also did it without a DRUMMER.

Nothing but Acoustic piano and a string section that made a lot of noisy pendericki-type sounds.

He said he was scared sh*tless, and didn't know if he would do it again, but he took the effort to make new arrangements of some of his newer songs and go outside his comfort zone and challenge himself and show his audience and others a different sound.

Contrast this to NIN opening for Bowie's 'Outside' tour at the Portland Rose Garden where I had to walk outside halfway through their set because I felt like I was being hit over the head repeatedly by a hammer.....

-I'm just sayin'

Will Mantovani please let me remix their stuff ...

[Balbas_Scriptor]

... so it has the grunge sound everyone wants?