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| Author |
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| 25 new of 154 responses total. |
krj
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response 71 of 154:
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Jun 3 19:21 UTC 2002 |
Mickey and I are listening to the "World on the Waterfront" concert
from London, as we type. This is part of BBC Radio 3's "Music Live"
festival of concerts to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. There was a
fine live set from Irish band Altan, and right now it's a Indian
wedding brass band -- similar to the one from the film Monsoon Wedding
I guess -- of probably limited appeal.
But the main thing I wanted to comment on is that, starting with last
Friday, BBC Radio 3 has raised the maximum stream rate to 64Kbps, which
produces a significant sound quality improvement from the old max of
44K. I don't know if this is a special extravagance for the Queen's
Jubilee concerts, or if this is a permanent upgrade.
The change is like going from AM stereo to a low-quality FM station,
perhaps.
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krj
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response 72 of 154:
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Jun 4 17:39 UTC 2002 |
BBC Radio 2 has also upgraded to a maximum Real Audio
stream of 64K. Now if we can convince Radio Scotland to do it...
The second highlight of yesterday's "World on the Waterfront"
concerts was the set by Mary Gauthier, a singer-songwriter who is
so good she overcomes my bias against the style. I'm trying to
make myself wait patiently for the US release of her new album,
rather than rushing off an order to Europe where it is already out.
There was also an interesting live hour by Cheikh Lo from Senegal,
and some less interesting stuff from a Maori folk-rock band
called Wai (marred by connection problems) and a Indian flute
and tabla duo who came close to lulling me to sleep. (Their
CD might actually be good to get for bedtime music.)
This was all stuff for the Jubilee celebration. God save the Queen!
(Heh, I'm not going to see another British Jubilee in my lifetime.)
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micklpkl
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response 73 of 154:
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Jun 4 18:56 UTC 2002 |
I heard that the Diamond Jubilee is celebrated in the 60th year of the
monarch's reign. So you might very well see another, ken. :)
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krj
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response 74 of 154:
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Jun 4 20:29 UTC 2002 |
Nice live set today by a classic-style Scottish folk rock band
called Trudge Euphoria. Too bad I forgot to push the record button
on the music machine. Also a nice track from the new Baka Beyond
CD and a set of familiar Scandinavian artists. The new track from
Finnish accordion player Kimmo Pohojonen sounds like something I might
want to run down.
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krj
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response 75 of 154:
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Jun 5 22:38 UTC 2002 |
Today was the first time I listened to acoustic folk and classical music
at the 64K speed which BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3 are now using.
On Radio 3 I caught the tail end of Massenet's opera HERODIADE,
and then on Late Junction there has been wonderful stuff by
Spanish Galician band Berroguetto, piper Kathryn Tickell, and
a Stravinsky violin concerto; now there is something by
violinist Jordi Savall, I forget the composer. This is the first time
I have felt the wonderful emotional reaction you get with decent
sound reproduction; for the last three months it's been a bit of
gritting my teeth over the sound quality because of the interest
of the programming. There is just such a sense of detail in
the music now. Yum. This is the most beautiful Real Audio broadcast
I have ever heard.
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krj
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response 76 of 154:
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Jun 5 22:44 UTC 2002 |
(OK, it still overloads and gets some weird RA sound artifacts
sometimes. :( )
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krj
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response 77 of 154:
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Jun 6 04:54 UTC 2002 |
Note to myself: I just found a web page http://support.bbc.co.uk
which goes into technical details about their web operations.
Will have to poke at it later.
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krj
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response 78 of 154:
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Jun 12 22:01 UTC 2002 |
The national BBC radio channels -- the ones which concern me are
Radio 2 and Radio 3 -- now bring up a new "BBC Radio Player"
on their "Listen now" links. The new player seems to be just a new
skin for Real Audio.
Selected shows on Radio 2 and Radio 3 are now available for playback
for one week after broadcast. This includes all the shows I care
about: Mike Harding on Radio 2, and Late Junction & Andy Kershaw on
Radio 3. Also included is Saturday's World Routes show.
The index of available shows is on the right hand side of the new
player's window.
The replayed shows seem to stream at a lower rate: roughly 44K
for the replays, vs. 64K for the live stream. But, the convenience
of catching a show one has missed is not to be underestimated.
And, I can catch Lucy Duran's "World Routes" show without having
to be up at 8 am Saturday.
(The bit-rate speedometer is constantly showing small fluctuations
on the new player.)
The BBC says that they cannot offer fast-forward and rewind
buttons because of copyright issues. There is a "skip 15 minutes"
button.
-----
Now playing on "Late Junction": a collaboration between Kate Rusby
and Chumbawamba. Fiona says that the new Chumbawamba CD also includes
a collaboration with acapella trio Coope Boyes & Simpson.
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krj
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response 79 of 154:
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Jun 25 20:57 UTC 2002 |
I've been taking a bit of a vacation from the Beeb because I've just
been overwhelmed with Too Much Music, but I came back to Radio Scotland
today for the Celtic Connections show, which had a great live concert
set from the Galician singer Mercedes Peon. After that Mickey encouraged
me to come back for Iain Anderson's singer-songwriter show because he
wanted to know what I thought of the new Chuck Prophet single
"Summertime Thing," and after that was a Tim Buckley song, which was
either from the albums "Happy/Sad" or "Morning Glory;" the announcement
and the posted playlist differed. And a bit later was a great stomping
electric blues track from Mississippi Fred McDowell, "Dankin's Farm."
Froots magazine editor (yet another) Ian Anderson has raved about
McDowell as one of his formative influences, so I was delighted to
get to hear it -- have to get that Arhoolie album.
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krj
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response 80 of 154:
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Jul 2 20:47 UTC 2002 |
On today's "Celtic Connections" broadcast: Good live set from
the Scottish folk/whatever band Croft No. 5. The live concert was
more appealing than the studio tracks I had heard from the band,
but unfortunately the session was plagued with network dropouts for
me. Croft No. 5 are sort of following the path set out by Shooglenifty
in doing a folk/techno sort of thing, but there are some other things
in their hybrid, so I'm really quite unsure how to characterize them.
The first hour concluded with a GREAT song by Myshkin's Ruby Warblers.
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krj
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response 81 of 154:
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Jul 11 17:01 UTC 2002 |
BBC Radio Scotland has now made some programming available on demand.
As with the Radio 2 and Radio 3 shows, Radio Scotland shows are kept
available for one week after original air date.
The fabulous "Celtic Connections" show and the pretty good "Travelling
Folk" programmes, which Mickey and I have been following faithfully since
March, are available.
Also available are some weekend shows which I had not been able to get
before, and some things from an Irish radio channel:
"Culan: the best in traditional Irish music"
"Folk Club: Traditional and contemporary folk music"
"Pipes and Drums: Celtic sounds from home and beyond"
"Take the Floor: Scottish Dance Music"
Eek, probably another four hours a week to try to listen to.
I'll hope to sample these after my trip to visit Leslie.
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krj
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response 82 of 154:
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Aug 14 20:51 UTC 2002 |
Today I had a chance to get back to some BBC programming after my
three-week misadventure in Colorado. Mike Harding had a couple of
interesting new tracks: each from new or upcoming albums, by
Blazing Fiddles, the Threlfall sisters, and the Oyster Band.
The Threlfalls do wonderful harmonizing on traditional songs,
and the Oysters seem to be returning to trad material after a 20
year digression through original music... :)
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anderyn
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response 83 of 154:
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Aug 15 16:48 UTC 2002 |
Oh, yeah! NEW OYSTERS!!!!! Twila does a happy dance!!!!!
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tpryan
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response 84 of 154:
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Aug 16 21:21 UTC 2002 |
Ken, do you just web in, or do you also record when
you web-in?
Their is a product called Total Recorder (IIRC) that
gets the audio stream between, say, WinAmp and your common
sound board. Result, .wav files can be recorded without
the additional Windows noises.
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krj
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response 85 of 154:
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Aug 17 02:40 UTC 2002 |
Mostly I just connect a Minidisc recorder to the headphone jack
if I'm going to record. The lazy man's approach.
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tpryan
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response 86 of 154:
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Aug 18 14:28 UTC 2002 |
That works.
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krj
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response 87 of 154:
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Aug 27 18:53 UTC 2002 |
BBC Radio 3 web pages have a pile of concert recordings from WOMAD
online. I think these may only be available through August.
Mickey, note the Souad Massi set! Others of possible interest include:
Bob Brozman, Cara Dillon, Geoffrey Oryema, Lila Downs, Mariza,
Rachid Taha, and the Bisserov Sisters. Whine, I'll never get them all.
Radio 3's WORLD ROUTES program currently in the archive, through Friday,
should be a show featuring Dick Gaughan and Souad Massi from the
Edinburgh Festival.
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micklpkl
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response 88 of 154:
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Aug 27 21:02 UTC 2002 |
Once again, thanks go to krj for finding more music I can't live
without. :)
I'm listening to the Souad Massi WOMAD performance right now, and it's
quite good, as I expected. Souad is an Algerian protest singer, and
gets compared to Tracy Chapman a lot. I've never heard anything quite
like her.
I don't recognise many of the others "of possible interest," but I
notice that there are also performances by the wonderful Issa Bagayogo
(Mali) who has been getting some mainstream attention in the USA
lately. He plays a 6-stringed version of the kora. I'm also looking
forward to playing Kanda Bongo Man's set. I really enjoy his ramped-up
soukous, and am thrilled that he's still entertaining. The last thing
I'll mention is Trilok Gurtu, for some incredible percussion from India.
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krj
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response 89 of 154:
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Aug 28 20:16 UTC 2002 |
Poot. The students have come back and available bandwidth in the
afternoon, when the best shows are, has collapsed. I guess 40,000
students running P2P software will do that. :/
The live broadcasts of CELTIC CONNECTIONS yesterday and The Mike Harding
Show today had loads of dropouts and downshifts into monaural.
I can get Celtic Connections off the replay list for a week, and
the Mike Harding show was expendable today, but sheesh. This was
not a problem before the students left in the spring.
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micklpkl
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response 90 of 154:
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Aug 28 21:47 UTC 2002 |
resp:84 - Tim, thank you SO much for mentioning Total Recorder!
http://www.highcriteria.com
This is *exactly* the software for which I've been searching for some
time. This one actually works --- makes a crystal-clear digital copy of
streaming audio, and will even encode direct to mp3, with an external
codec.
There are two versions --- "Standard" costs only $12 to register, and
the $40 "professional" adds some scheduling and a few basic editing
commands.
Thanks again!
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tpryan
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response 91 of 154:
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Aug 28 23:14 UTC 2002 |
Now you got the tool to record Dr. Demento from the KOZT
web-cast. 11pm Texas time, 9pm KOZT time. They have the best
stream, at 64-22-S.
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krj
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response 92 of 154:
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Aug 31 15:17 UTC 2002 |
At home, in crummy quality, I'm checking out a few of the other
on-demand shows the BBC offers in their "Folk & Country" catalog.
"Pipes and Drums," Radio Ulster -- Mostly celtic tune sets, with a generous
helping of bagpipes, but the pipes don't monopolize the show.
The show I'm listening to opens with Slainte Mhath, Sharon
Shannon, and the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. The BBC
Radio Player says this is just a 30 minute show, so I'll probably
try to add it to my weekly listening. John Perry might also
check it out, since he likes bagpipes.
I can't find anything about this show on the Radio Ulster web site,
and the beginning and end of the program were clipped off.
"Culan," Radio Ulster -- Contemporary style yet fairly traditional
Irish folk music, from the three songs & tunes I got through
before I accidently stopped the player. Worth more investigation.
"Folk Club," Radio Ulster -- Unsure about this one, just seemed a little
dry for my tastes, though I didn't get far into it.
"The Reel Blend," Radio Scotland -- Very old-fashioned Scottish folk music,
presented in an old-fashioned way for old-fashioned people.
I liked the ceilidh tune sets, but when the host started talking
about a call-in quiz game with questions about Scottish culture,
I gave up.
I still need to check out Radio Scotland's program of traditional
dance music, "Take The Floor."
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krj
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response 93 of 154:
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Sep 4 19:25 UTC 2002 |
Campus network conditions have "improved" to the point that I can
get a solid 11K real audio stream for the Mike Harding show.
Bleah. Mickey will want to catch a replay for the tracks from
live CDs from Christy Moore and Bill Jones. I'm not gonna run off
and buy Bill's new CD, I have too many other things on the shopping
list right now.
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krj
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response 94 of 154:
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Sep 10 17:22 UTC 2002 |
Network streams only AM quality today. I'm trying to get a listen
in to last week's Celtic Connections show before it gets wiped
in an hour, and I should just make it. There is some interesting
stuff from Croft No. 5, Simon Shaheen and Nigel Eaton.
(And lots of stuff from Orchestra Baobab, who bore my pants off.)
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krj
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response 95 of 154:
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Sep 12 00:03 UTC 2002 |
A couple of good finds from yesterday's Celtic Connections show.
A very promising band of American urban folkies doing trad material
is Ham, whose "Cuckoo Song" comes off their album Rabbit Song.
The African track, I'm having trouble pinning down. Mickey and I
*thought* it would be Lokua Kanza, but the sound samples for that album
at amazon.com don't match what I think I heard on the radio.
Otherwise maybe it's a new Late Junction release by Suuf, or else
Papa Wemba. I'm gonna have to go over that show again and try to
pin it down. Yargh.
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