Did anybody remember that Bungie wrote the game & it's backstory? Anybody here remember the three games that came before Halo, and served as its inspiration? Hmmmm... And how about the fact that THOSE games have an amazing story which is still being analyzed & dissected. Oh, and the fact that people are still playing Marathon & it's ilk. So, my opinion is that if Bungie is involved in any fashion, they've probably got some strong story cooking.
I'm not surprised that this is the case. I certainly find 192kbps AAC to be relatively transparent unless I play it on some studio monitors or high quality headphones. I certainly don't have golden ears, but I can usually hear a 128kbps file, especially if listening in comparison (even if it's done blindly.)
"The CD market is on the way out, that's just inevitable. It's a dead-end format and they restrict it more all the time."
You know, a lot of people say this, except for one small problem: 128kbps AAC audio (iTunes Music Store) is of much lower quality than CD audio. Granted, a significant portion of people are incapable of recognizing this difference, but most people who have any sort of musical training at all (which I find to be a large number of intelligent people, and most of the/. population are of such a type) can hear the difference if a comparison is made very directly (i.e. play the lossy music file, then play the CD audio).
This is not to say that I thing the iTMS to be a bad thing, I'm all for it (although I feel they should offer 160-192kbps files instead, or perhaps a lossless version as well for a higher price like many artists do for live albums [DMB, Galactic, etc]), but CD audio will not disappear, just like vinyl hasn't disappeared. It's a sonically superior format to lossy digital music, just like the original pressing of an album on vinyl is sonically superior (if prone to the occasional analog "pop") to its reissue on CD (and if anyone wants to argue this point, I invite you to come over and listen to my copy of John Coltrane's Giant Steps and compare it to the CD reissue, which supposedly has been remastered).
As for the whole bit about artists being ripped off, I am a musician. I am not signed to a major label, but, being someone who attends the Berklee College of Music, and has had a variety of discussions with both my peers and my professors, I can honestly tell you that the pop music side of the business is quite rotted. And a staggering example of this is Sony taking 70% of an online sale, and paying the artist 4.5 cents. Yes, I'm aware that Sony fronted the $250-500k studio costs, and the physical media distribution costs, and the promotion (radio play, MTV, etc), but dammit, they make a digital copy of the album, tag it appropriately, point to a favorable review of the album somewhere, and upload it to Apple ONCE. I agree with the poster on here who mentioned 50%. 50% would be damn fine for digital stuff, since it's ALL CONTENT, and requires nothing beyond the initial digitizing. Hell, how about 25%?! I mean, seriously, it's a sad thing when I can go out with a wedding band and make more in a few months playing "The Chicken Dance" than a relatively popular group can make with a major label contract.
There is one thing different about CDBaby's numbers, and that is the fact that they are considered your "label" according to Apple. Indie artists & major artists are paid differently I believe, seeing as the majors have one set of contracts, and the god-knows-how-many indie labels have theirs. CDBaby made it's own agreement with Apple as to how their artists will be paid & so forth, with CDBaby keeping a MUCH smaller percentage than the majors do. One should also keep in mind that everything a major label artist does that costs his/her/their label money is RECOUPABLE. The recording session, the touring, the crew, sounds guys, equipment, clothes, EVERYTHING. So, in the end, Apple makes 33 cents, and the label makes the rest after recouping what the artist "made." Which makes a great case for CDBaby, who are fantastic to us musicians.
Well, that would normally apply, except that when sound check is turned on, iTunes scans all of your music beforehand, pre-determining the compression point of all your music. But yeah, that would be the normal concept of compression as applied to music being played/recorded; when applying compression to a song in the digital realm, it will act upon the entire length of time you've selected (in this case, entire songs).
The reasoning for that would probably be because the vast majority of the public can't tell the difference, and think louder=better, which would be what yet MORE compression would accomplish. But why Apple wouldn't take the high (and easy!) road and just make it a simple normalizer is beyond me. Stupid pop music trends. Louder is NOT better, I LIKE DYNAMICS. Especially when I'm creating them.
Now, what other two huge money-making entertainment industries have had this problem for a little while as well? Music & movies. Now, since I'm not in the movie industry, I can't speak for that, but I am a working musician, so I can speak for what I see in that, both in general & personally. But, unlike the games industry, music is often the result of a single, creative mind, or a close-knit group of like minds. The artist, as it were. The game industry appears to be pushing entirely too hard towards ridiculous commercialism, employing vast corporate groups of developers, designers & artists to create these games, somewhat like the movie industry works, and in some cases this is necessary, but in others, a smaller team would work better.
Unlike the movie industry, which, if something tanks at the box office but IS a genuinely excellent film, will pick up in DVD sales, or the music industry where an artist can either purely play live & record/release albums independently or go for the mainstream appeal & sell out a bit, the games industry has only a single avenue of revenue, and that is the (relatively) small gamer audience. Keep in mind, unlike movies or music, the vast majority of video games audience grew up in the mid to late 70's-80's (I'm a child of the 80's & 90's, myself), so a VAST chunk of the world's population is missing from this equation. When the audience for games becomes more universal, I expect we can see a surge in appeal for a wider palette of games.
The original poster asked about finding ink for Lamy's Swift, an aluminum pen that absolutely rocks. I've had one for five years now, and it writes wonderfully. Levenger is where I order my refills from.
Slashdot Mirror
Did anybody remember that Bungie wrote the game & it's backstory? Anybody here remember the three games that came before Halo, and served as its inspiration? Hmmmm... And how about the fact that THOSE games have an amazing story which is still being analyzed & dissected. Oh, and the fact that people are still playing Marathon & it's ilk. So, my opinion is that if Bungie is involved in any fashion, they've probably got some strong story cooking.
I'm not surprised that this is the case. I certainly find 192kbps AAC to be relatively transparent unless I play it on some studio monitors or high quality headphones. I certainly don't have golden ears, but I can usually hear a 128kbps file, especially if listening in comparison (even if it's done blindly.)
You know, a lot of people say this, except for one small problem: 128kbps AAC audio (iTunes Music Store) is of much lower quality than CD audio. Granted, a significant portion of people are incapable of recognizing this difference, but most people who have any sort of musical training at all (which I find to be a large number of intelligent people, and most of the /. population are of such a type) can hear the difference if a comparison is made very directly (i.e. play the lossy music file, then play the CD audio).
This is not to say that I thing the iTMS to be a bad thing, I'm all for it (although I feel they should offer 160-192kbps files instead, or perhaps a lossless version as well for a higher price like many artists do for live albums [DMB, Galactic, etc]), but CD audio will not disappear, just like vinyl hasn't disappeared. It's a sonically superior format to lossy digital music, just like the original pressing of an album on vinyl is sonically superior (if prone to the occasional analog "pop") to its reissue on CD (and if anyone wants to argue this point, I invite you to come over and listen to my copy of John Coltrane's Giant Steps and compare it to the CD reissue, which supposedly has been remastered).
As for the whole bit about artists being ripped off, I am a musician. I am not signed to a major label, but, being someone who attends the Berklee College of Music, and has had a variety of discussions with both my peers and my professors, I can honestly tell you that the pop music side of the business is quite rotted. And a staggering example of this is Sony taking 70% of an online sale, and paying the artist 4.5 cents. Yes, I'm aware that Sony fronted the $250-500k studio costs, and the physical media distribution costs, and the promotion (radio play, MTV, etc), but dammit, they make a digital copy of the album, tag it appropriately, point to a favorable review of the album somewhere, and upload it to Apple ONCE. I agree with the poster on here who mentioned 50%. 50% would be damn fine for digital stuff, since it's ALL CONTENT, and requires nothing beyond the initial digitizing. Hell, how about 25%?! I mean, seriously, it's a sad thing when I can go out with a wedding band and make more in a few months playing "The Chicken Dance" than a relatively popular group can make with a major label contract.
There is one thing different about CDBaby's numbers, and that is the fact that they are considered your "label" according to Apple. Indie artists & major artists are paid differently I believe, seeing as the majors have one set of contracts, and the god-knows-how-many indie labels have theirs. CDBaby made it's own agreement with Apple as to how their artists will be paid & so forth, with CDBaby keeping a MUCH smaller percentage than the majors do. One should also keep in mind that everything a major label artist does that costs his/her/their label money is RECOUPABLE. The recording session, the touring, the crew, sounds guys, equipment, clothes, EVERYTHING. So, in the end, Apple makes 33 cents, and the label makes the rest after recouping what the artist "made." Which makes a great case for CDBaby, who are fantastic to us musicians.
Well, that would normally apply, except that when sound check is turned on, iTunes scans all of your music beforehand, pre-determining the compression point of all your music. But yeah, that would be the normal concept of compression as applied to music being played/recorded; when applying compression to a song in the digital realm, it will act upon the entire length of time you've selected (in this case, entire songs).
The reasoning for that would probably be because the vast majority of the public can't tell the difference, and think louder=better, which would be what yet MORE compression would accomplish. But why Apple wouldn't take the high (and easy!) road and just make it a simple normalizer is beyond me. Stupid pop music trends. Louder is NOT better, I LIKE DYNAMICS. Especially when I'm creating them.
Now, what other two huge money-making entertainment industries have had this problem for a little while as well? Music & movies. Now, since I'm not in the movie industry, I can't speak for that, but I am a working musician, so I can speak for what I see in that, both in general & personally. But, unlike the games industry, music is often the result of a single, creative mind, or a close-knit group of like minds. The artist, as it were. The game industry appears to be pushing entirely too hard towards ridiculous commercialism, employing vast corporate groups of developers, designers & artists to create these games, somewhat like the movie industry works, and in some cases this is necessary, but in others, a smaller team would work better.
Unlike the movie industry, which, if something tanks at the box office but IS a genuinely excellent film, will pick up in DVD sales, or the music industry where an artist can either purely play live & record/release albums independently or go for the mainstream appeal & sell out a bit, the games industry has only a single avenue of revenue, and that is the (relatively) small gamer audience. Keep in mind, unlike movies or music, the vast majority of video games audience grew up in the mid to late 70's-80's (I'm a child of the 80's & 90's, myself), so a VAST chunk of the world's population is missing from this equation. When the audience for games becomes more universal, I expect we can see a surge in appeal for a wider palette of games.
Anyway, just my 2 cents
The original poster asked about finding ink for Lamy's Swift, an aluminum pen that absolutely rocks. I've had one for five years now, and it writes wonderfully. Levenger is where I order my refills from.