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Amazonia


Post Posted Mon Apr 12, 2021 9:36 pm
shadow


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Curious why they use two different directions anyway, I know most of the world writes it from the top to the bottom, so what's up with those few countries that do it the other way around? They also do so with their DVD/Blu-Ray and I assume books going by your posts... Why?
27-11-10: Ahoy Rotterdam
22-11-16: Heineken Music Hall Amsterdam
Post Posted Tue Apr 13, 2021 6:00 am
Dr_Jones


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Early UK album chart midweeks:

1 Taylor Swift - Fearless (Taylor's Version) (14,716)
2 Ariana Grande - Positions (3,382)
3 Justin Bieber - Justice (2,267)
4 Jean Michel Jarre - Amazonia (2,192)
5 Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia (2,077)

Source: https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/a ... rt-update/
Post Posted Tue Apr 13, 2021 9:22 pm
SF01


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It's bloody annoying, I have some albums that have this problem.
Isn't it logical that when you lay the album/book flat on the back so that the front is on top the spine should be normally readable? Why would any sane person invert it?
Post Posted Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:15 pm
Hotmailer


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Dr_Jones wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 3:16 pm I just made a .cue file for the binaural WAV file for people who are interested. See attachment.
I made this file in Linux and since there's a unicode character in the file (ô), things might go wrong according to 1906's First Law: "there's always a unicode problem".

If there's a problem on Windows, create an empty file and copy/paste the contents of my file in it. Most important thing is: make sure the filename of the WAV in the cue file is the same as yours. Save your new file (as a .cue file) and you're ready to go.
Thanks for this CUE file and the additional info on how to change it when there is a Unicode problem! :clap:
And there was. Foobar2000 did not show the ô correctly.

The only thing I had to do was (with Notepad++) to change the name back to "Amazônia" on all titles and since I was already busy I did change JMJ's name in the separate titles with a dash between Jean and Michel. ;-)
After that, I did save the CUE file and it was directly converted from Unix (LF) to Windows (CR LF), but still in UTF-8 format.

Still strange behaviour, since both files are UTF-8 encoded.
Post Posted Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:28 pm
Dr_Jones


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After a few days of listening here are my impressions:

The album is composed as background music and this is how I experience this music. There is enough to listen to but my main gripe is (and this is the same problem I have with the album Interior Music which this album is most comparable to): every time a track starts to get interesting the music stops and gets into something different, which makes it an uneasy listening experience. Because of that I would probably not play this album much. There is not much progression between the tracks, everything can be played in random order and you probably won't notice. I can imagine playing the album as background noise, because everything is quite soothing. But I think JMJ will not play anything from this album at a live concert. It's like he said in his past facebook/twitch stream: it's not a "real" studio album.

Having said this, the 5.1 version really shows its strength with all the sounds and effects coming from all directions.

I expected this to be a low-profile album like Sessions 2000 and Geometry of Love were (and in some extend the Radiophonie CDs) but I've seen JMJ doing some online promotion and there's the binaural and 5.1 mixes available so it seems there is some effort and money put into this release.

All in all, I'm happy he's released this, it is interesting enough and as a completist it's fun to have, but I won't be playing it a lot.
Post Posted Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:32 pm
Dr_Jones


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Hotmailer wrote: Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:15 pm Still strange behaviour, since both files are UTF-8 encoded.
Yeah, in my work experience, encoding is always a problem. Just look at some older posts here on this forum, there have been some migrations in the past and in some cases the characters are mangled.

But good to see your file is working, I love that my mp3 player with Rockbox firmware recognises cue files.
Post Posted Thu Apr 15, 2021 8:22 am
Kanta
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Promotion:

Interview with Jean-Michel Jarre - 14/04/2021

"Stereo is a scam"

The pioneer of electropop has new music ready. A conversation about the accusation that he makes pleasing utility music and his theory that audio freaks have gotten something completely wrong for decades

Source: https://www.zuonline.ch/stereo-ist-ein- ... 5945951454

You have to register to read the complete interview.
Jarregirl YouTube
Concerts attended:
Théâtre Marigny, Paris - 2007
Symphony Hall, Birmingham - 2008
RAH, London - 2008
Wembley Arena, London - 2009
NIA, Birmingham - 2009
POP Bercy, Paris - 2010
NIA, Birmingham - 2010
O2 Arena, London - 2010
Zénith Aréna, Lille - 2010
Port Hercule, Monaco - 2011
TUI Arena, Hannover - 2011
Festival International de Carthage - 2013
Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham - 2016
Post Posted Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:03 am
Dr_Jones


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(NB: I used Google translate)

"Stereo is a scam"

The pioneer of electropop has new music ready. A conversation about the accusation that he makes pleasing utility music and his theory that audio freaks have gotten something completely wrong for decades.
Joachim Hentschel
Published: 04/14/2021, 12:00
0kZkZ1CMaFr8_c4uJ0DDZL_002.jpg
With “Amazônia”, Jean-Michel Jarre composed the soundtrack for a photo exhibition.
Photo: Getty Images via AFP

The album "Oxygène" made Jean-Michel Jarre world famous, and with it he ushered in the age of electronic music. Over the decades he ignited further career stages with daring events and self-invented technologies. His 1997 open-air show in Moscow, with 3.5 million listeners, is the best-attended concert in the world to date. He also provided great entertainment with the jet set stories about his stormy liaisons with Charlotte Rampling or Isabelle Adjani. Jarre has now composed the soundtrack for “Amazônia” for the new exhibition by the photo artist Sebastião Salgado about the Brazilian rainforest.

On New Year's Eve, an avatar controlled by you played in a digital 3D reconstruction of Notre Dame. 75 million people logged in. Is that the future of entertainment?

Virtual reality shows will never replace live concerts, they work completely differently. It is bitter irony that the pandemic is now acting as an incubator for them, but it is effectively beneficial to technology. Stories like the Notre Dame action still remain a risk.

Where is the risk?

It quickly becomes a political issue when you juggle heavy symbols. If our very clever Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had not understood and supported the concept immediately, it would not have worked. She put it perfectly: We have created a symbolic connection through art, between us as a nation that is wounded by the pandemic and the destroyed cathedral. To thank you for her courage, I let Madame Hidalgo play as an avatar.

You can find a similar idea in your music for the «Amazônia» exhibition. You build a virtual rainforest out of sounds. Have you been there yourself?

Never! But is that a problem? I have to think of a conversation I once had with Federico Fellini in Cannes. "Filming the real sea, the real beach, that doesn't interest me at all," said Fellini. “If I want to film the sea, I recreate it in the studio, with water, wind machines and a painted sky. My works are about my idea of ​​the world, not about the things themselves. " I sign that. And that's exactly how you should hear «Amazônia»: as my idea of ​​the rainforest.

You did your research. Some sounds come from the holdings of the Ethnography Museum in Geneva.

When it comes to rainforests or similar exotic locations, it quickly becomes dangerous. You fall into the world music trap, you end up in the New Age music limbo, and so on. Rationality doesn't do any harm. So: what is the sound of the forest? A bird is singing here, trees rustling there. Another animal screams back there, natives pass by singing a song to the left, and then another plane flies overhead. All random events, but the human brain tinkers a harmony out of them, an invisible image - music. That's why I mixed two versions. One in stereo, one in 5.1 surround sound.

Aren't these surround versions just gadgets for hi-fi freaks?

I beg your pardon? Shall I explain to you what an unbelievable fraud the stereo system is?

After all, it is the principle behind the headphones that is sure to be used to listen to most music.

Which doesn’t change the fact that it’s a ridiculous trick that the industry established in the 1950s to sell the illusion of all-round sound. But tell me: is there anything in nature that is stereo? A chirping bird? Mono. A passing car? Mono. I am mono when I speak to you. A really immersive sound can only be created in real rooms, not through two fixed speakers or headphone buttons. The 5.1. Systems, which you consider to be gimmicks, are the only way to hear music in three dimensions that is half true to the original. Stereo, on the other hand, is fraud.

Music like “Amazônia” now has the reputation of being a sound wallpaper for meditations and dinner parties. What do you think of the accusation of making music for everyday use?

An ugly accusation, but guess what? If you want, you can use any music in the world - heavy metal, classical, jazz. You just have to turn them quietly enough. I hate background doodling of all kinds, it distracts me and drives me crazy. At my request, speakers in restaurants have to be removed if they are hanging over my table. Idiotic ambient music!
4zjrLY1Sq1mADZMSQ4uZB3_004.jpg
Many artists in their genre work with samples, i.e. with fragments from existing recordings. You practically never do that. Why do you refuse sampling?

I don't refuse, I just work differently. I see the whole thing in a more universal way anyway. If you will forgive me for the somewhat pathetic-sounding words: Artists sample life. In my heart I sampled Miles Davis and Claude Debussy, Salvador Dalí, Werner Herzog, Stanley Kubrick, precisely at the moments when their works of art touched and stunned me. They are all present in my music, even without direct quotations.

"In the end, two huge piles of grass had gathered behind me."

Now and then you think you can hear other influences. What role have drugs played in your creative process?

None, never, and unfortunately there is a tragic reason for this. When I was a teenager, I went to a party with a very good friend. There we received a large dose of LSD without our knowledge. My friend got stuck on the trip and he never came back. That triggered a trauma in me. However, I know that I have brought the international drug trade nice growth rates with my records.

Is that what you suspect or do you know?

I had similar experiences. For example, in the late 1970s in San Francisco. There was an autograph session in a Tower Records branch. A huge line of people, every second said: "Thank you for your music, Mister Jarre, I have a present for you." They gave me little bags of cannabis. That was about 300 people, in the end two huge piles of grass had gathered behind me. "We can't let that go to waste," said the guy from the record company. We packed everything in his trunk. The lid barely closed. I was the most popular person at headquarters that afternoon.

Jean-Michel Jarre: “Amazônia”, 2020. As a sound carrier or on streaming platforms.
Post Posted Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:17 pm
Jote


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5.1 download is now also available as MP4 and 3GP
Post Posted Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:00 pm
SF01


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Yes, there is info that the 5.1 was updated:
Post Posted Fri Apr 16, 2021 12:10 am
nexxxus


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Jote wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:17 pm 5.1 download is now also available as MP4 and 3GP
Great ! Thanks
Post Posted Fri Apr 16, 2021 2:54 pm
feline1973


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I have been enjoying listening to this over past 24 hours.
One thing I noticed today with the 5.1 WAV download that comes with the CD: the LFE (low frequency effects) channel (i.e. the "1" of the 5.1) is empty, no signal on it. (I noticed this when I opened it in my audio editor, because I wanted to convert the WAV into a FLAC file...)
Odd! Surely this is another classic Dadwater mastering error?
Last edited by feline1973 on Fri Apr 16, 2021 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Post Posted Fri Apr 16, 2021 4:21 pm
Dr_Jones


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feline1973 wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 2:54 pm I have been enjoying listening to this over past 24 hours.
One thing I noticed today with the 5.1 WAV download that comes with the CD: the LFE (low frequency effects) channel (i.e. the "1" of the 5.1) is empty, no signal on it. (I noticed this when I opened it in my audio editor, because I wanted to convert the WAV into a FLAC file...)
Odd! Surely this is another classic Dadwater mastering error?
The Welcome to the Other Side 5.1 mix had the same thing. I don't know why they did this.
Post Posted Fri Apr 16, 2021 7:04 pm
SF01


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They're still waiting for the bass to drop.
Post Posted Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:08 pm
Jote


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It's especially funny given that the WAV download is uncompressed and ⅙ of it is just waste of disk space.







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