MP3
Articles about MP3:
Algoriddim has upgraded DJay, their mixing software for iTunes, to version 3.
Many new features have been added, including Automatic Beat and Tempo Detection, Auto-Cut Scratching, Beat-Matched Looping, enhanced Audio FX, Automix Queue, Auto-Gain and MIDI Learn.
Algoriddim DJay 3 retails for $49.95.
If you’ve used DJay 3, leave a comment! Read more…
This tutorial shows how to strip vocals from MP3 files using the open source Audacity software. Read more…
Touch DJ: teaser video
This is the early alpha preview of Amidio’s new app Touch DJ, expected to be out in September 2009.
There’s a great article by Suzanne Vega today at the New York Times.
In it, Vega talks about her song Tom’s Diner getting remixed, illegally, by DNA:
We were backstage at the Arsenio Hall show when my manager told me that some boys calling themselves DNA, in England — Bath, to be specific — had taken “Tom’s Diner” and put a dance track to it. They had “re-mixed” it. (I don’t remember what we called that type of music back then — house? rap? hip-hop? It wasn’t “disco” or “thrash-metal.”) My manager, Ron Fierstein, told me that A&M and Polygram were considering taking legal action against them for copyright violation.
I thought, well, let me listen to it — and immediately liked it. It made me laugh. It wasn’t a parody, which is what I was afraid of. The song is the same, my voice is still my voice, the story still the story, even though they left out the very end (they told me later they thought it sounded weird, musically, to keep the ending).
Instead of sending the boys to jail, my manager worked out a deal with them for a flat fee. A&M Records paid the fee, and we retained all rights.
I made the decision to call the remix “Tom’s Diner, by DNA featuring Suzanne Vega” because I didn’t know if the audience would accept the new sound, and I wanted to make it clear that it wasn’t my production. To my surprise, I didn’t have to worry about that as it was accepted everywhere. DNA were surprised to find themselves suddenly classified as an “act,” since they did mostly production.
I had imagined that a few dance clubs would play it, and that would be the end of it. But it was played on radio right away, including the R&B stations, a new experience for me. I even received a plaque congratulating me for having one of the most played R&B songs of 1990. R&B! How cool.
Vega goes on to talk about all the other remixes of Tom’s Diner that this led to, and how Tom’s Diner was used by the creators of the MP3 format to test their compression algorithms.
It’s a great article, touching on digital media, copyright and the benefits of working with people that want to remix your work.
New Mac Audio Converter
Techspansion has introduced AudialHub — an inexpensive Mac app designed to convert dozens of different audio formats (and even the audio tracks from video files) to AAC, MP3, WMA, WAV and Apple Lossless formats, with the standard metadata tags in most formats converted and passed on to the finished file.
Nearly every aspect of the decoding and encoding workflow is available for tweaking. A dynamic Preview panel allows for quick playback checks. Multiple queues — all with their own separate settings — can be run simultaneously.
Key Features:
- Conversion from dozens of audio types to popular formats like AAC, MP3, WMA, AIFF, WAV, Apple Lossless, 3G (cell phones), Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and Audio and MP3 CDs.
- Audio tracks inside video files can also be converted.
- Common tags (Artist, Album, etc) are automatically passed when applicable.
- Up to 16 hours of audio can be converted to a single MP3 CD.
- Easy-to-use Trim capabilities to narrow down short segments of audio.
- Quick Preview capability to check out compression quality and Trim settings before a full conversion.
- Dynamic file queue, allowing mid-conversion changes or additions, Pause/Resume, and an “always ready” Assembly Line Mode.
- Run multiple simultaneous conversions in separate queues with separate settings.
- Growl notifications, Dock progress indicator, and AppleScripting automation support!
- Normalization, audio track selection, multiple decoder options, and direct access to add custom low-level command-line settings.
- Detailed Users Guide and Help Center.
AudialHub is available immediately for $18.81 USD. A free trial is available.
