Quite often, the sound that came from the session, that the engineer, producer, band, etc....all agreed on, is blown away by later 'mastering' people..over compression to make it louder...reducing the dynamic range....
No. You don't (can't!) get to the extremes of loudness-war overcompression just by doing it at the mastering stage. Reaching the sort of massively compressed, high-RMS level that you commonly see in mainstream pop and rock tracks today can only be done by compressing individual tracks, and perhaps submix stems, AND the master. As such the engineer/producer will be involved in it too.
(Arguably the band as well, since distorting guitar amps are very compressing, and "that's my guitar sound!" usually comes from the guitarist...)
The problem is that compression is multiplicative, not additive. So if the producer compresses stuff 3:1, and the mastering engineer compresses stuff 4:1, the net result is 12:1, not 7:1.
Fascism is sometimes defined as something more like what you might call Corporatism. In that sense the present day USA is very obviously and definitely fascist or fascist-leaning. Of course, this sense of the word is not the widely understood meaning, which is, as you say, totalitarian, dictatorial, agressively nationalist, etc.
Thank you for confirming that the designers are not using either RGB or CMYK but Pantone colors. He/she said nothing of the sort! In fact, they specifically said the opposite:
We go by the CMYK values and Pantone chip books.
Pantone does not replace RGB or CMYK.
Now can you enlighten me on how CMYK support is so important to this process? Pantone specifies single, exact colours. Commonly used for logos, for example - a corporate colour which has to be EXACTLY on brand. It doesn't do a full spectrum of colours.
For example, a brochure with a photo on the cover would print the photo in CMYK and then use a pantone spot colour for the logo.
Disclaimer: I do do some design work, but only very rarely for print.
True, but RTFA: the report includes web developers, who almost certainly do, as well as information architects, usability consultants, project managers... it was open to the whole spectrum of web-related jobs.
My guess is that the slashdot "groupthink" will be positive, and likewise, I'm broadly positive about the attitude behind this.
However, in the details, it ends up leaving me high and dry.
Downloads, for me, are for those cases where "there's only one or two tracks on the CD I really like". If an album is any good, I vastly prefer to buy the CD - I enjoy the physical product, the artwork, lyrics/inlay notes, the free backup, the future-proof lossless quality.
On the other hand, I've no interest in vinyl - I've got no decks!
So with a choice of "buy the mp3s" or "buy the CD and vinyl boxset", I don't really want either:(
Shame they're abandoning the middle ground of selling regular CDs, which I'd guess still represents the majority of music purchasing in the western world today.
(And no, this isn't one of these "and thus I feel justified in pirating" excuse-posts. I spend more of my money on music than any other form of leisure/luxury; over £100/mo isn't uncommon. And I'm in a band who has cd and mp3 sales of our own, and we've been at the wrong end of Russian allofmp3 style sites ("wholly legitimate" cry the slashdotters - legally, perhaps, on a technicality, but not morally... they're not sending any money through) and p2p. So, if I like the sound of this, I will pay for it, but I will be slightly miffed there is no way to get a CD without also wasting money (and space) on unwanted vinyl.)
Producers aren't creative and hardworking; they just front the money.
I don't think you understand the role of a producer in the music biz. It's not comparable to producer in the TV or movie world. They don't front money, they get paid (big bucks, sometimes even royalty points on top). And they are creative and hardworking, sometimes reshaping the material directly (songwriting/arrangement, basically), sometimes indirectly by means of people management - getting the most out of the band, whether that means buttering them up or getting them angry... etc. Some producers get very hands on and overlap considerably with the engineers, too.
A few interviews which better explain what I'm about:
Some of us actually WANT to pay the musicians, composers, lyricists, songwriters, engineers, producers and other creative and hard working individuals behind our most valued form of entertainment.
It was posted (here I think) on a previous related story, it's very long, and I would not have expected to find the subject interesting, but the article makes it fascinating and very readable.
The (fictional) Editor, given his/her job title, should have known better than to choose a title with a glaring grammatical error.
"Less" is used for continuously variable amounts. The correct word when dealing with discrete quantities is "fewer". Hence, "less oil", but "fewer barrels of oil".
I don't have modpoints and you're at +5 already, so let me instead say: BRAVO. Well said.
This sort of quirky, hard-to-categorise but somehow "of geeky interest" story is what brought me here. Sadly, in recent years, such stories have come along every few months, buried under a flood of flamebait RIAA/MS are evil / fanbait Google/Apple are glorious tripe, which are clearly just trolling for maximum ad impressions. And when they DO come along, someone pops up and complains they're not related to Halo 3 or whatever idiotic computer game is flavour of the month at the moment, and therefore not news for nerds.
Wish I had points to sling you a funny mod. (fwiw, I grew up in Cambridge, then my sister went to Oxford, so I know all about their history and rivalry)
You can tell with a name like "Lola Granola" and the fact that there are references in this strip to prior spiritual quests that this character is somewhat weak minded, always adopting some new life philosophy handed to her...
[snip]
Yeah, I got all that. I still personally found the strip not actually funny, nor very well drawn. So I don't think it's necessarilyfair to rebut the GP opinion with the suggestion that he wasn't smart enough to grasp the "elements of irony" or real world parallels.
Slashdot Mirror
Quite often, the sound that came from the session, that the engineer, producer, band, etc....all agreed on, is blown away by later 'mastering' people..over compression to make it louder...reducing the dynamic range....
No. You don't (can't!) get to the extremes of loudness-war overcompression just by doing it at the mastering stage. Reaching the sort of massively compressed, high-RMS level that you commonly see in mainstream pop and rock tracks today can only be done by compressing individual tracks, and perhaps submix stems, AND the master. As such the engineer/producer will be involved in it too.
(Arguably the band as well, since distorting guitar amps are very compressing, and "that's my guitar sound!" usually comes from the guitarist...)
The problem is that compression is multiplicative, not additive. So if the producer compresses stuff 3:1, and the mastering engineer compresses stuff 4:1, the net result is 12:1, not 7:1.
I'm a great fan of Wikipedia, but really, this is one place where it does NOT serve as a valid reference...
And, ironically, you get modded flamebait for that! Unbelievable...
Fascism is sometimes defined as something more like what you might call Corporatism. In that sense the present day USA is very obviously and definitely fascist or fascist-leaning. Of course, this sense of the word is not the widely understood meaning, which is, as you say, totalitarian, dictatorial, agressively nationalist, etc.
For example, a brochure with a photo on the cover would print the photo in CMYK and then use a pantone spot colour for the logo.
Disclaimer: I do do some design work, but only very rarely for print.
OT: What is so effing stupid about 143056?
D'oh - I linked you to the wrong entry in the blog, sorry. (Although it is still on-topic, in that it's about this survey.) This is the one talking about the graphing.
True, but RTFA: the report includes web developers, who almost certainly do, as well as information architects, usability consultants, project managers... it was open to the whole spectrum of web-related jobs.
Eric Meyer (who I suppose might count as a "cool web developer") wrote about the choices/process behind producing the graphs.
Hehe. Well done you and Ignominious. I was wondering if anyone would catch that :)
Too bad none of the moderators did, you deserve a +funny.
Actually, they'll be selling a regular CD too, you'll just have to wait for it.
Great! Thanks, Sir ACMy guess is that the slashdot "groupthink" will be positive, and likewise, I'm broadly positive about the attitude behind this.
However, in the details, it ends up leaving me high and dry.
Downloads, for me, are for those cases where "there's only one or two tracks on the CD I really like". If an album is any good, I vastly prefer to buy the CD - I enjoy the physical product, the artwork, lyrics/inlay notes, the free backup, the future-proof lossless quality.
On the other hand, I've no interest in vinyl - I've got no decks!
So with a choice of "buy the mp3s" or "buy the CD and vinyl boxset", I don't really want either :(
Shame they're abandoning the middle ground of selling regular CDs, which I'd guess still represents the majority of music purchasing in the western world today.
(And no, this isn't one of these "and thus I feel justified in pirating" excuse-posts. I spend more of my money on music than any other form of leisure/luxury; over £100/mo isn't uncommon. And I'm in a band who has cd and mp3 sales of our own, and we've been at the wrong end of Russian allofmp3 style sites ("wholly legitimate" cry the slashdotters - legally, perhaps, on a technicality, but not morally... they're not sending any money through) and p2p. So, if I like the sound of this, I will pay for it, but I will be slightly miffed there is no way to get a CD without also wasting money (and space) on unwanted vinyl.)
I don't think you understand the role of a producer in the music biz. It's not comparable to producer in the TV or movie world. They don't front money, they get paid (big bucks, sometimes even royalty points on top). And they are creative and hardworking, sometimes reshaping the material directly (songwriting/arrangement, basically), sometimes indirectly by means of people management - getting the most out of the band, whether that means buttering them up or getting them angry... etc. Some producers get very hands on and overlap considerably with the engineers, too.
A few interviews which better explain what I'm about:See also, Quincy Jones, George Martin, etc.
I'd find more but since this thread is old I doubt anyone will see this message anyway.
Some of us actually WANT to pay the musicians, composers, lyricists, songwriters, engineers, producers and other creative and hard working individuals behind our most valued form of entertainment.
Radical concept on slashdot, I know...
If you hate DRM and use iTunes you're already very, very far from putting your money where your mouth is, and you can't put the cat back in the bag.
Don't miss this:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html
It was posted (here I think) on a previous related story, it's very long, and I would not have expected to find the subject interesting, but the article makes it fascinating and very readable.
You jest, but actually there is good reason to suspect kids in developing countries with no real techno-experience and no training provided will happily get to grips with computers. It's anecdotal I know, but it's a very interesting article, I'd recommend reading it.
Touché ;)
The (fictional) Editor, given his/her job title, should have known better than to choose a title with a glaring grammatical error.
"Less" is used for continuously variable amounts. The correct word when dealing with discrete quantities is "fewer". Hence, "less oil", but "fewer barrels of oil".
</GrammarNazi>
I don't have modpoints and you're at +5 already, so let me instead say: BRAVO. Well said.
This sort of quirky, hard-to-categorise but somehow "of geeky interest" story is what brought me here. Sadly, in recent years, such stories have come along every few months, buried under a flood of flamebait RIAA/MS are evil / fanbait Google/Apple are glorious tripe, which are clearly just trolling for maximum ad impressions. And when they DO come along, someone pops up and complains they're not related to Halo 3 or whatever idiotic computer game is flavour of the month at the moment, and therefore not news for nerds.
There are advertisers on facebook!!?? This is news to me.
Wish I had points to sling you a funny mod. (fwiw, I grew up in Cambridge, then my sister went to Oxford, so I know all about their history and rivalry)
That's the point!