Tremor

Cool, Nice one Guys. I have around 10 sets ready for encoding and uploading. Simon I will have a look at the RAZORLAME encoder. I've heard of it just never used it. I won't have time to do anything on this til next week at some point now but hpefully soon there will be a decent chunk of sets to upload.

Thanks for listening guys. It's always great to hear back from people Who've checked the mixes out.

To be honest I am a bit lost reading your last post Fuzzy as I dont have the same level of knowlege about the detail behind the encoding of MP3s. I use Adobe Audition to record everything. As standard it records with a sample rate of 44.1k. I always save the recording as a wav file first. In the case of high quality source material or if it's a mix of mine, I'll keep the wav but will create an MP3 copy for uploading to the web due to the vast size of wav files. At this point I simply go to 'save as' in Audition, select MP3 from the list of file types, then set it at CBR, 192 for my mix uploads for example. Then I'll hit save. I have no idea what version of the MP3 codec it uses or what any of the values you mention mean or where I would change them. I do find all this interesting though so feel free to explain it a little more if you want. I wouldn't like to put people off uploading stuff if it all gets too complicated. I think we should have some guidelines in place and some good advice on encoding MP3s etc would be welcomed but I don't think it should be a rule that it has to be done a certain way. People use a wide variety of software to record their audio and some will be very experienced at it and using top end software, others will be far less experienced and will be using freeware which may not have all the required features. I think it would be hard to make very specific rules for audio uploads. Guidelines would be good - for example saying that ideally all audio should be at least 192k - I think most people will understand this and be able to implement it. It wouldn't hurt though to give a little explanation of what the 192k figure means so that anyone who doesn't understand all the numbers and jargon can get a feel for why it is important to encode at a decent bit rate.

Ok well I will make it all 192 then. Sorry to anyone if I seeemed a bit on the defensive in my initial reply to Simcut. I took some of the comments a bit to heart because it's not that I dont know what I'm talking about here. I'm a sound engineer and have also been recording for 10 or so years. On this particular occasion I made the unusual decision to go with 128 because in this situation I cant tell any difference. It's just one of those situations where what I'm saying seems so wrong to those who are passionate about qualiy audio like myself but I am the only one with the material here to compare. Fair enough I am not listening back on serious studio reference monitors but I would still be able to tell if there was much difference which the untrained ear would notice. I guess I felt slightly patronised but hey never mind. I want to do this properly and I'm getting the sense that people won't be that impressed with a whole load of 128 encoded new audio on the board no matter how it actually sounds. I have got the original WAV's as I'd forgotten they are all backed up somewhere else. So I will now go back through them and re-do all the post EQ'ing etc in order to re-encode at 192. This will make the files above the limit for submission to the board via the audio uploader so Fuzzy I will need to talk to you at some point about uploading them another way. Hopefully all the effort will be worth it as it is pretty time consuming but I'm sure I'll get through it all eventually.

Hi Guys, Squeezed in an extra mix for you this month with some more new stuff plus a few golden oldies at the end. Enjoy! http://soundcloud.com/nathantremeer/september-2010-part-2 September 2010 Part 2 01. Marco V & Benjamin Bates - 'Lost 1' (Dub Mix) [in Charge] 02. Marcus Schossow - 'Strings' [Tone Diary] 03. Ali Wilson & Lee Osbourne - 'Absolute' [High Contrast] 04. Sander Van Doorn - 'Daddy Rock' [Doorn] 05. Armin Van Buuren ft. Sophie Ellis Bexter - 'Not Giving Up On Love' (Jorn Van Daynhoven Remix) [Armind] 06. Ben Nicky & Mark Eteson - Altitude (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix) [Vandit] 07. Reverse - Final Fraction [Vandit] 08. Indecent Noise - Zokete [Discover Dark] 09. Jam X & De Leon - 'Can U Dig It?' [serious, 2002] 10. Jowan - 'PT-78' [silicon, 2005] 11. Joy Kitikonti - 'Joy Dont Stop' (Joyenergizer Mix) [bXR, 2002] 12. Mauro Picotto & Ricardo Ferri - 'Alchemist' [Primate, 2002] 13. Space Frog - '(X-Ray) Follow Me' [Tripolli Trax, 2002]

OK I have found the original WAV files still on my computer after all. So I could re-encode all of them at 192 kbps. In a way I do agree it would be nice to standardise everything much in the same was as there is a set format for writing tracklists. It would also be nice to be consistent with the audio archives. Fuzzy... I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this as well.

haha... Don't worry Simcut I always submit my mixes in at least 192 and always keep the wavs for them also so that anyone wanting a CD copy gets it burnt from the wav file. Ironically of course most people will only ever stream the mixes I upload via soundcloud which means they are listening to a 128 kbps stream. Only when downloading the file which hardly anyone does nowadays do you get the file in the intended quality. I do agree with your concerns here though.

That's a fair comment Simon but the raw recordings of these tapes do not sound great to start with. I am then applying some post production to them to make them sound nice again, all the time working with the raw file. I only then encode down to 128 at the very end. This was after a number of experiments of different bit rates and checking how they sound. I can't personally tell the difference between them in this instance. I would be able to if we were compressing a brand new digital production from a wav into 128 mp3 but we are not talking about doing that here. I dont have any issue with doing them at 192 but the slightly frustrating thing is that I have already done about 8 of them at 128 and deleted the wav files so as not to clog up my hard drives. I am not going to do those again. The other thing is that I checked with Tim if he felt there was a standard for submitting audio in terms of the quality because we are talking about such a large number of tapes and he said not to bother doing any higher than 128 except if the odd tape sounds really good and I agree that sometimes they do stand up to the test of time pretty well. It all depends what type of tapes they are and the quality of tape deck they were recorded on and for that matter what they are played back on. My tape deck may not be the best ever but I dont think it's too bad. Anyway I can do them at 192 from this point onwards if people feel stongly about it - I wouldn't want to go through all the hard work and people to be disappointed by the encoding I've used. All comments welcome.

Hey Fuzzy, Ok I had a little discussion with Tim a while back. These tapes are now 8 years old so they basically sound like 8 year old tapes! I am recording them from a tape deck straight into Adobe Audition. I then save the recording as a wav file which is generally about 1GB in size for 90 minutes of tape. I have made a general observation over the years that the 2nd side of a casette tends to record a little quieter than the first, especially when they turn over automatically and play back in reverse direction. So my first step is to amplify side 2 of the recording by 2dB which seems to bring it in line with side 1. The tapes tend to be lacking in clarity or treble as a general rule. I use the parametric EQ in Adaobe audition to boost the high frequencies across the recording. The recordings now sound nice and crisp where as before they were dull or muffled almost. Then I save the changes made to the WAV file. I then convert this to MP3 encoding at 128 kbps. The reason for the low bit rate encoding is simply that the original source recording is from 8 year old cassette and does not sound great. I have tweaked it to make it sound nice again but even still, you will not notice any degradation in sound quality once I have compressed it to 128kbps MP3. This also keeps the file size relatively small. I always encode CBR. I did pose the question of bit rates with Tim and he was also of the opinion that with audio coming from cassette it is rare to find anything which sounds better than 128 MP3 enoding in the first place. Occasionally you will come across a really good sounding tape but most of the time they will sound fairly dated by now. I am a sound engineer by trade so I normally would want to encode everything at the highest possible bit rate but in this instance I can not hear any audible loss between the original wav files and the mp3s for these recordings. That for me is always the ultimate test. So the files will all be 128 MP3s but they do sound good as I've done some post production on them to put the clarity back into the sets which will have been lost in the recording to cassette. I have got 7 sets recorded to date. Hopefully will add another 4 or 5 tomorrow. I must say there are some great tunes in these sets that for one reason or another I missed back in the day. I must have not been listening as regularly in 2002/2003 as I was in say 2000.

Hey guys. I realise that I have not been very productive so far with these tapes but I have not forgotten. I have finally had a couple of days break from work where I dont have any other arrangements and have digitized 4 tapes so far today. I'll hopefully get another load done tomorrow. Just doing some re-mastering on some of the wav files before converting them to MP3 for upload to the board. My plan is to wait until I've done a reasonable batch and then get them uploaded in one hit so I'll let you know when I get to that stage.

I also mentioned the bootlegs. My general comments were saying that I still like Jules as a presenter but some of the music in the show has really gone down hill. I said I'd like to see more support of new artists.. and not just unknown artists doing bootlegs but original tunes. Also no need for remixes of classics all the time. I said that the best bit of the show is still the 30 minute mix at the end.

Grabbing this now Mike. Looking forward to it.

downloading. Will stick on the iPod for the car. Cheers

Questionaire Just saw this on facebook and thought most of you would be interested. I'm sure many people here will have some feedback they'd like to give Jules on his show. Well here is an official request from him to do so.

Cheers guys. Some good tunes about at the moment and I'm particularly enjoying both your efforts featured hear. Thanks Simon for sharing the love!

http://soundcloud.com/nathantremeer/september-trance-mix-2010 September Trance Mix 2010 01. Steve Angello - KNAS 02. Moguai - Oyster (Michael Woods Remix) 03. Mat Zo - Land of the Free 04. Trac3d & White - Karma 05. Dido - Everything To Lose (Armin Van Buuren Remix) 06. Maor Levi - Chasing Love (Club Mix) 07. Moonpax vs Snatt & Vix - Disco Terra (Artento Divini Remix) 08. Corbossy - Madrid 09. 4 Strings - Sundown 10. Oryon - Atlantis 11. NSFW - Absolut Sique 12. Vascotia - Verano 2010 (Sean Tyas Remix) 13. Claudia Cazacu - Rain 14. Yolanda - No Speak Americano (Corbossy's We're From Landon Mix) 15. Charlie G & Vandall - In A State

Put me down as well please Jason. I do love the secret santa mixes.

Yeah that's pretty much what I mean. When I joined this site I was at University studying "Sound, Light and Live Event Technology" and hence put it in as an interest on my profile. I now work as a production engineer, setting up and engineering live events as either a sound or video engineer usually. I do enjoy a good lighting show particularly in the club scene but I leave that to the lampies to make that look good. I don't have the artistic flare or passion for lighting to actually be a lighting designer or operator. I am much more comfortable behind the sound desk making the gig sound good. Anyway this is a bit off topic but thought I'd point out that you are indeed correct in your interpretation of my interest in sound and light.

I would say about half that tracklist looks good but I'm with N2... about every other tune is poor. There are some belters in there which I am currently playing a lot though like: 04. Mike Shiver vs Fandy - Sique (Ronski Speed Remix) (Captured Music) 05. Ali Wilson - Shangri-La (In Charge) 07. Svenson & Gielen - The Beauty Of Silence (W&W vs Jonas Stenberg Remix) (High Contrast) 10. Stoneface & Terminal - Moment (Euphonic) 13. 4 Strings - Sundown (Liquid Records) 15. Tiesto & Diplo Vs. Rank 1 - C'Mon L.E.D. There Be Light (Rob G Digital Mashup) (White Label)

To be honest I have watched it in the past.. Came in about half way through a couple of the series. The thing is it can easily get you hooked for no real reason. I have avoided it for the last few years. I think its definitely got worse (its hard to avoid the occasional episode especially when other family members watch it). Basically I think it is scary how much time it can suck away out of your life when you become hooked on something like this. I have been there and done it now and have no interest in this current series. I think you are right Leonard that some elements of the group dynamics in this type of scenario can be interesting but I dont need to watch the same psycological experiment 10 times... I've followed it for a couple of the early series and that was enough for me. They deliberately put annoying people in the house to see how they will all cope with each other but for me that just makes it annoying to watch as those people get on my nerves.

I would like to think there will be. I'd certainly be up for participating. I'm afraid I am just so busy with work all the time at the moment that I couldn't take on the organisation of it right now. If no one has instigated the proceedings by October or so then maybe I'll have another look into it.

Big Brother is awful. I will be glad to see it gone. I hope we will be given some decent TV to watch in place of all the mindless hours of it which fill the channel 4 and E4 schedule during the summers for the last 8 years or whatever its been. However, I'm sure they will just come up with something as bad if not worse. There is so much rubbish on TV these days, it really is poor.

Nice one. There's a decent regular event in London, Vauxhall area I believe called 'kin hardcore, my mate has been to 2 of them (same mate I asked about that tune for you). I'm sure Ellis Dee played at one of them so will keep an eye out for the next one and see who's on that line up.

I agree that last mix looks dire. It's hard to imagine Jules at Privilege... then again I'm sure it was rammed with the right sort of clientel beign the R1 weekend and the R1 special event there. Somehow it's a bit more bearable in Eden but I think Eden looks very similar to an Oceana type club where some of those awful bootlegs would fit right in.

looks an amazing selection mate. will get this one on the iPod