|
Post by molotov889 on Aug 2, 2005 22:58:51 GMT -5
I'm sort of running into the same problem on my MP3 player. It's 20 Gigs and I just had to delete off some old techno I've had for like 4 years to make room for some new Jpop I plan on getting. Although, if I really wanted to, I could re rip all my CDs to a little lower quality and get more space that way. I currently rip to OGG at 256 kbps... which may be a little higher quality than i really need. (Some argue that the human ear can't tell the difference between 196 and 256 kbps.)
P.S. What's the latest status on Delta One?
|
|
|
Post by Joseph on Aug 3, 2005 5:04:03 GMT -5
I just got an email from YesAsia saying they finally shipped it. So I'll be thrilled to receive it.
I have been re-recording all my songs at the very highest quality. Honestly, all the songs I ripped originally a few years ago were 56Kbps because that was the highest quality my old program allowed me to record at. But now I'm recording them at the highest quality, which varies anywhere from 200-700Kbps. Is this too high? My largest Two-Mix MP3s are 10MB+. Do you think I should re-record them again at around 200-250 Kbps so I'll have more space? Or just only rip my most important music? My computer's a little old, and only has a disk space of 18GB.
|
|
|
Post by molotov889 on Aug 3, 2005 10:35:16 GMT -5
200-700? Do you mean that you're ripping to a variable bitrate format and that's the range of bitrates, or that you're ripping to constant bitrate and sometimes you choose 200 and sometimes you choose 700 kbps? Cuz 700 is really high. Like, 256 is already probably an unnecessarily high bitrate. I REALLY doubt you could tell the difference between 256 and 700.
I'm assuming that's a range of bitrates on variable bit rate format, though, since you said your largest song is about 10MB. That's about what mine turn out to be as well.
Just to give a little perspective: I now have something like 1.5 GB left on my player. I've ripped about 160-170 CDs and put them on there. (My player tells me I have 1823 tracks.)
So, I imagine you could expect to be able to rip that same amount- if all you had on your hard drive was your music. So if you have that much music, I think you might want to bring down the bitrate some. If you go with something that has an average of like 192 kbps, you can save a quarter of the storage space. That's the bitrate at which most people believe that any higher bitrate really won't sound any different. Which is why I'm contemplating re-ripping. (Even though I don't REALLY want to have to go through that long process again.)
|
|
|
Post by molotov889 on Aug 3, 2005 18:25:49 GMT -5
Oh yeah...
And WOOT! for Globe 2 being only 1 more week away! ;D
|
|
|
Post by molotov889 on Aug 7, 2005 17:42:27 GMT -5
So Globe's site has some new pop-up that says something about iTunes. Can anyone make heads or tails of it? I tried using a translation bot, but that didn't really make it clear to me. I really hope they're not saying something like there's exclusive iTunes songs or that they're just gonna release on iTunes from now on or something.
|
|
|
Post by flashyouback on Aug 7, 2005 21:17:23 GMT -5
There are exclusive globe songs on iTunes. Saw them this morning.
(Ulfuls was another group that had exclusive songs on iTunes :S)
|
|
|
Post by molotov889 on Aug 7, 2005 22:22:03 GMT -5
Noooooooooooo!!!! Dammit, that sucks for me. I refuse to use Apple.... Grrrrrrrrr....
Actually, it's more like it won't matter anyway. I don't use iTunes and my mp3 player isn't a 'pod.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr again........
|
|
|
Post by flashyouback on Aug 8, 2005 6:08:27 GMT -5
You couldn't buy them even if you wanted to; iTunes requires a credit card registered in the country corresponding with which store you're buying from...found that out when I tried to order songs from the UK store a while ago.
You can listen to samples of the songs, though.
|
|
|
Post by molotov889 on Aug 8, 2005 22:45:39 GMT -5
Wow... just wow. I already thought apple was bad before, but this is pretty stupid. Do they not think there is any possibility that people may be interested in popular music from other countries? Just wow.
|
|
|
Post by flashyouback on Aug 9, 2005 1:50:38 GMT -5
It's less "people don't care about music from other countries" and more licensing restrictions...
You'd probably come across this same problem trying Napster or Rhapsody or whatever; this problem is not unique to iTunes.
|
|
|
Post by Joseph on Aug 9, 2005 5:04:05 GMT -5
I finally received Delta One in the mail today. It was worth the wait.
Rinoie and Takayama make such a good mix with Delta One. Minami and Rinoie's music are so compatible with each other. Everything flows together so well. The whole CD is fun, exciting dance. It still sounds like video game music, and has all the hooks and catchy sounds.
Vision V starts off with church organs and a rock guitar, how you might expect Move or Malice Mizer to start a song. The rest of the song is strong dance, kinda like Move's Decadance. It has a certain edginess that the old Two-Mix seemed to be lacking.
Principal is a fun, happy dance song that sounds like it might be a DDR song.
Pocket Rocket starts with dialog between an astronaut and a lady at Delta station, having a background of brass fanfare. The instruments are enthusiastic and positive, which II Mix specializes in, and it has all the necessary side sounds to complete the song. It sounds like it would fit right in with the style of their previous album 0G. It's my new favorite song!
Kibou no Shizuku is a great song with synth and a cool drum sound composed by Joe Rinoie. The rhythm is very fresh and original.
Étranger is a cool, mysterious mid-tempo song that has a lot of mood, which is a perfect blend of Rinoie and Minami's talents. It sounds as good as a good Megumi Hayashibara song.
Splash is a fast Eurodance song.
If you look at the back cover, the copyright is by Copyrights Bank. Copyrights Bank seems to be a new company that allows people to create their own labels. II Mix Delta has created their own label called J-A-W-S Records, and they're distributed by Geneon Entertainment.
Delta One is a dream come true. It will be getting heavy play in my CD player in the next few months! The sound is just as high quality as you'd expect from Two-Mix. I think I like Pocket Rocket the best. Their songs sound like before, but I want to say it sounds a little bit more like DDR? It's incredible!! It's dance!
|
|
|
Post by molotov889 on Aug 10, 2005 2:13:47 GMT -5
Sounds pretty awesome. Glad it turned out to meet (and possibly exceed) your expectations. I have it added to my Yesasia cart for the time being... It may get shuffled around though, as I have about 15 items in my cart/wishlist . I really should stop picking random artists I hear to "look into" ... and then end up liking and feeling compelled to have most of their music. But it will be bought probably in the next couple months. And I look forward to hearing it. ;D
|
|
|
Post by Joseph on Aug 10, 2005 4:30:37 GMT -5
Now that I've listened to it more, I realize I love Kibou no Shizuku more and more, and it's becoming my favorite song. It has a kind of cool, smooth feeling with mid-hi tempo. I sometimes listen to it on loop. II Mix Delta never overwhelms you with too many loud instruments, but it's not too slow either-- it's just right.
I will probably purchase Globe 2 Pop/Rock sometime in the next little while, and I'm planning to purchase it along with Megumi Hayashibara's latest single Makenaide Makenaide.
Yeah, you kind of have to narrow things down a little at times if you have a lot of CDs you want. You can make priorities of what CDs you want the absolute most. For example, I really want to buy Smile.dk's debut album Smile at sometime in the near future. However, don't you just love it when you randomly pick up a CD on an impulse, and then later you realize it's much better than you ever expected? It doesn't usually work like that, though-- usually you have to put effort and thought into good purchases. I couldn't count how many hours I've spent researching Two-Mix and Smile.dk on the Internet, and sometimes failing, but I have made some first-grade buys because of it. I remember it was only a few months ago when I didn't know anything about Smile.dk other than they made the Butterfly song on DDR.
Normally, I wouldn't recommend making too many purchases at once if you don't feel comfortable. I don't like to buy too many CDs at the same time because I like to savor them as they come. I have several things in my YesAsia wishlist, like Euro Dream Land, but it's going to stay there until I'm sure I'm ready to buy it.
With favorite artists, sometimes you don't even need music samples if you trust in their quality. For example, I could buy any new CDs by II Mix Delta, Nami Tamaki, Megumi Hayashibara, et al, without putting much thought or doubt into it. Although sound samples are so helpful-- I wish YesAsia had them.
|
|
|
Post by molotov889 on Aug 10, 2005 21:08:31 GMT -5
Yeah, I'll usually keep about 15 things in my list on Yesasia, and buy them in chunks. For some reason, I like to get multiple things at once. I think it's just something about having multiple styles to look forward to arriving in my mailbox. The only problem with this system is that I'm constantly adding things, and somethimes particular CDs will get pushed back in favor of stuff I decide I want at the moment... like Koda Kumi's Grow Into One; I've had that on mylist for more than a year and I keep pushing it back. Sometimes I like having samples, and sometimes I really want to be surprised. Especially if it's an artist I'm not sure about. It sort of ruins the surprise. Like with Boulder, I kept telling myself I wouldn't listen to any previews before the album came out. But about a couple weeks before it came out, I forgot to click the "off" on their homepage and hear part of How To See You Again. Then, I just HAD to watch the video posted here, etc... But the anticipation was fun during the time that I hadn't heard anything yet. Oh yeah, and I hear you on the hours spent trying to choose some CDs. Although, like you said, impulse buys that turn out to be really good ARE very satisfying. That happened with me and Best Of Rhytmzone. I really like all of the CD, except the last two songs. But I just pretend they're not really there. Even with them, though, I still think of the album as one of the better ones I've bought.
|
|
|
Post by Joseph on Aug 12, 2005 13:18:56 GMT -5
I'm trying to free some space from my computer by decreasing the file size of my music files. I use Roxio Creator Classic v. 6.2.0.110.
Here's a textbook example ripping some Sarah Brightman songs. It compares the the bit rate vs. the filesize for the same song. When I choose "VBR Highest Quality" as the bit rate format, it automatically records at the highest bit rate it can.
A Whiter Shade of Pale.MP3 VBR Highest Quality (481kbps) = 6,053KB 256kbps = 6,862KB 192kbps = 5,147KB
La Luna.MP3 VBR Highest Quality (385kbps) = 8,987KB 256kbps = 14,096KB 192kpbs = 10,572KB
I don't understand what the heck is going on here. When I record it at 256kbps, it is always a larger filesize than VBR. And when I record it at 192kbps, it is either slightly lower or slightly higher than VBR. And when I record these files, I'm making a brand new file, not overwriting the old one. And I'm not willing to make it lower than a 192kbps bit rate. I don't have time to play around with this junk all day. I think I'm just going to continue recording at VBR speed so I know it will be a fairly low filesize. I'll just have to limit my ripping.
|
|