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Amazing tool for exploring music

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I thought most people here would be interested in www.pandora.com. It's the result of an ambituous attempt by a group of musicologists to map music (they buy crates of music from the used section of Amoeba in CA and listen to each some and painstakingly catalog each song for their Music Genome Project). You just type in an artist you like and it'll create a radio station that plays artists that they've tagged as having similar characteristics (e.g., Townes Van Zandt was picked based on "folk influences, mild rhythmic snyncopation, acoustic sonority, major tonality, and a good dose of guitar pickin"). From there you can tweak what it plays by approving or disapproving and can request a reason for any of the algorithm's choices.
I've always enjoyed clicking on the "related to" links in allmusic.com and have now become thoroughly addicted to this new way of finding great music. Now if they'd just find some way to route this through the Squeezebox (it's a macromedia flash player)...
Demian

http://www.pandora.com (Open in New Window)

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Very interesting... - marc g. 12:19:59 12/28/05 (6)
As I have been recording some internet radio stations 24/7, I know I have some more samples of suggested matches to check out. I'm amazed at some of the connections I never would have thought of. I agree with the other poster... too bad it can't be streamed though my SB2 :(

marc g. - audiophile by day, music lover by night
- Re: Very interesting... - BFitz 15:02:34 12/28/05 (5)
  I agree it is really cool...
  You can stream it to the hard drive, and then replay the file later on the SB. This loses the individual titles and creates one big file, unless your recorder is "smart" and disconnects with an adjustable period of silence. If you need hints on how to do that, reply.
  Bob
  - Yes, please provide hints!! - marc g. 07:18:12 12/29/05 (4)
    Would be nice if individual song files could be made so as to identify what is what, assuming the files would be tagged accordingly. It's just that using Pandora means sitting in front of the computer to listen which is not really my thing...
    
    marc g. - audiophile by day, music lover by night
    - Re: Yes, please provide hints!! - BFitz 08:02:41 12/29/05 (3)
      I can tell about my experience with two programs that allow for recording internet streams. They both allow you to designate the "source" of the stream, usually the sound card in the PC, or "windows default". The first is RIP Vinyl, which is very easy to use and cheap at $11. USD. It allows one to set level and time for when to "break the stream" and make a new file. It is intended to record a a side of vinyl and automaticly create individual tracks based on using silence between tracks. It can do the same thing for streamed internet songs that has silence between the tracks. see here for more details
      http://www.ripvinyl.com/
      
      The other program I use has a lot more flexibility, and allows auto time based wake up and recording of local (with an FM tuner) or internet streamed FM radio broadcasts. It more expensive but worth it at $20. It will also allow for automatic breaking of streams based on silence between tracks, with an autoname function.
      http://www.cooolsoft.com/mp3rec.htm
      Note, neither one will log and insert the track names, but both will give you a designated file folder full of individual songs.
      Both allow for options of conversion in storing the songs. I assume both methods have conversions from compressed to .wav involved. That is, the data is streamed compressed, then converted to wave, and then stored however you want it, wave or mp3 (you select the compression). I have used both programs and can verify they work fine. You can also see other reviews of them, or find other similar programs at www.download.com
      Last, if you need to edit a file, the best free program to do that is Audacity.
      http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
      good luck, and happy new year to all !
      Bob
      - Re: Yes, please provide hints!! - marc g. 09:40:42 12/29/05 (2)
        
        In Reply to: Re: Yes, please provide hints!! posted by BFitz on December 29, 2005 at 08:02:41:
        
        Thanks for the info, will check it all out for sure to see if I can record the Pandora streams. Perhaps listenng to the streams then and there is more appropriate then recording them and playing back later. We'll see...
        FWIW - I use Stationripper to rip and breakdown your basic internet radio stream. It too creates a file for each station being recorded (can record multiple stations at once, supposedly 600 with the pay for version!) and applies a file name for each song file, though the file name is, from what I can tell, determined how it is input by the streamers end. I can get the same song but with slightly different names (due to mis-spellings, etc). The nice thing about Stationripper is that it won't record the exact same file name twice, so duplicates is not really a problem. Only problem is that one song may have a second or two of the last one attached to it. Since I use this as a means to check out new stuff, it doesn't bother me. If I have enough tunes from one artist that is worth making an "album" of, then I might be inclined to edit those tracks to fix that.
        
        marc g. - audiophile by day, music lover by night
        
        Re: Yes, please provide hints!! - BFitz 11:58:41 12/29/05 (1)
        
        In Reply to: Re: Yes, please provide hints!! posted by marc g. on December 29, 2005 at 09:40:42:
        
        Hi Marc;
        I also use Station Ripper, I broke down and bought the legal copy.
        Unlike the other's mentioned above, it saves the raw MP3 files.
        
        If you right click on the station while streaming, under "file splitting", you can "pad around split point" a few seconds, or delay the switchover (at the top) from when the name changes.
        Beware, though, this option seemed to want to stay engaged for me even after I zeroed out the times. I may have done something wrong, but my fix was to uninstall, delete the file directories (saving the songs) and re-install. It certainly is possible there was simply a file that needed to be deleted. If anyone else had this problem and and the fix I'm all ears.
        I use this program to decide what music I want to go ahead and purchase, and then delete all ripped files from my hard drive in a short amount of time. I've seen the legality argued both ways. Apparently the law is clear on recording analog content, (you can) which made legal VHS TV and FM recording. But apparently less clear and open to discussion for digital content. If TIVO like devices provided by cable companies record digital content TV shows, why are internet audio stations any different? And why would recording my FM stations (analog) digitized to my sound card be OK, while internet streams not?
        Bob
        
        Re: Yes, please provide hints!! - marc g. 09:29:45 12/30/05 (0)
        
        In Reply to: Re: Yes, please provide hints!! posted by BFitz on December 29, 2005 at 11:58:41:
        
        I didn't know about file splitting options!! Thanks so much for pointing that out!! I'll certainly play around with the different settings available to see what works best.
        I dunno about all the legal issues. I don't copy or sell what I download, just use it my personal use at my leisure. Since I buy new music on a regular basis, I don't feel bad about playing some tunes I know I won't be buying.
        
        marc g. - audiophile by day, music lover by night
This is really good - Albert B. Broman 11:51:50 12/28/05 (0)
The difference between Pandora and Soundclick, as near as I can tell, is that Pandora is established artists and soundclick is anyone with a computer. Both very interesting, but for different reasons. I think the sound on Pandora is very good.
If you figure out how to stream into Squeezebox, .... - mr_bil 08:53:25 12/27/05 (0)
Let me know!!! This is a neat site.
Similar to Soundclick.com - Albert B. Broman 22:59:49 12/26/05 (0)
There you make your own "station" and when you find a piece of music you like on another person's "station" you just click to add it to your station.
You can take amazing journies on soundclick. Once I started in the traditional "World" genre and when I found someone who had tastes that paralleled mine, I checked out things that were unfamiliar to me on his station. I kept clicking on things I liked, then I somehow found myself in the Asia sub catagory. This led to a more contemporary Asia catagory. I ended up listening a long time to something I guess called Khmer rap from California. I don't like most rap. I liked a great deal of this, because the rap overlaid some older traditional Cambodian music played with what I guess are older, traditional instruments. I've never heard anything quite like it. When the evening was over I had made a very interesting playlist for myself and it is there for me to go back to at any time. The sound quality varies, with most being MP3, but there are some better than others and sound quality is not the main thing on this site.
Brotherman
Re: Amazing tool for exploring music - Dawnrazor 22:06:55 12/26/05 (2)
This is kind of what I have been looking for, but far from it.
Here are the problems for me.
1. The genome people know little about the music I like since it is a very unpopular and small genre...so out of the 8 songs I suffered through only 2 did I like, and one of them was the artist I put in!
2. It doesn't work on MY collection. There is a reason that I didn't have all the other music that it suggested...I don't like them.
2.a. When I typed in one of my favorite groups, it didn't have it in the database!!!
3. It is internet based. So I have to be connected, and run anti-virus, and have an internet connectin in the HIFI room. NOt what I want. Let me download a database and apply it to my collection.
4. The player is not a player I want to use.
But, for normal people, this is probably a great site.
Thanks for listing it.
- You're right Dawnrazor - Senor 007 07:38:27 12/29/05 (0)
  I typed in "whineylovetosmellmyownfartpeeonyourparadeguy" music and it only came up with 8 songs for me too.
- virus? get a mac. - danny kaey 06:49:08 12/29/05 (0)
  heh, there, that answers at least 1 of your concerns.

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