MrKniceGuy.com

Category: Music

  • To Digital or Not To Digital – Musings on Mediums

    The buzz around the internet today regarding Xbox One and PS4 has me thinking more about this new age of downloading. It’s quickly becoming the prefered medium to obtain entertainment and tools. Just last week I downloaded  several ebooks to read on my Nexus 7, my prefered reading platform. On Saturday I streamed 3 new albums to my Galaxy Nexus via Google Play Music All Access while I mowing the lawn (by the way, the new August Burns Red is awesome). And in the last week, I’ve watched a ton of new stuff via Amazon Prime, YouTube, and other options.

    The last time I bought a CD was sometime in 2009. The last time I bought a film on disc was a year before that. I still buy physical books, but only reference pieces that I want on the shelf. And many of those I have digital forms that are searchable, which I honestly use more often.

    Microwaved-DVDSo today I’m thinking about all this as it relates to video games. I love video games. I’ve been playing the for close to 30 years now. I’ve had floppies, carts, CDs, DVDs and now… digital downloads of games I’ve loved to play. So what does the future hold for video games in relation to the trends we’re seeing in music, movies and books?

    I believe the future of digital is download. Who likes going to the store to buy a piece of digital content stored on a disc, when you can download it while you make a sandwich? Especially if you can purchase it for less than the hard copy available at the retailer? The last time I was at my local Gamestop they were terribly understaffed and overstocked with junk games. It really wasn’t a very pleasant experience overall. Who wants to deal with that?

    And the trends of the digital age are easily tracked. Nearly 3 years ago CNet was commenting on the trend in regards to PC games. And it hasn’t slowed down.

    Just look at the promotional material after the PS4 reveal. How many clips show people going to the store to buy a game? None. They’re all using their devices to download.  And Xbox is offering all their titles with digital download options as well as some disc based options (both systems have chosen to go with Blu-ray as their physical media of choice). But they’re both touting the age of downloads. And that’s because it’s the way of the future.

    But some may ask, what about “ownership.” Disc ownership is something that Sony mentioned was a benefit to the new Playstation. The reality is that people don’t really care anymore. The trends of “ownership” to licensed content is obvious, especially in the age of Netflix and Spotify. Millennials especially don’t really care about the ownership of things, they just want the easy access. Apple sought to provide this with the introduction of iTunes Radio on Monday and to compete with Spotify and Google’s All Access. No ownership here, just convenient access… for a fee.

    I actually think Microsoft is seeing this trend. They’re making ways to actually share and trade digital content on the new Xbox One (if the publisher allows it), something you can’t do many other places and nowhere in video games. That’s actually a more liberal approach to digital content than we’ve ever seen on a console before. Trade and sell digital downloads? Amazing! While the method may not be perfect, I think they’ve thought about this a lot more than they’re getting credit for.

    Whether the next generation of consoles can keep up with the digital trends or not remains to be seen. Either way it appears that the medium shift is in full swing, and here to stay. Hopefully, the consumer comes out on top.

  • JLab Pumps Up The Jams

    Anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes on my website here knows that I love music. I catalog my Mp3s religiously. I use special sorting systems, and I care greatly about what my audio sounds like. Which is why I’m a huge JLab Audio fan.

    JLab-CrasherSince Christmas a few years ago when my lovely wife bought me my first pair of J3s earbuds, the only headphones I will buy is JLab stuff. They make exceptionally good headphones that are extremely affordable. Since that Christmas I’ve owned a pair of J4 and J3M earbuds, Bombora TEKST headphones and most recently the Crasher portable Bluetooth speaker. All of them have reproduced sound like you wouldn’t believe and at a price you wouldn’t expect. My friends, you’re getting more than what you pay for here. These things are the best.

    The Crasher that I got today really has me excited. It’s a battery-powered portable speaker with Bluetooth built-in so it jams go wherever you go. And even cooler, the thing charges your USB powered device while it plays! I was nervous about the audio quality of this tiny speaker (it’s about 7 inches long) but it really impressed me. It’s no hi-fi rig, but c’mon, this thing is a mobile music player, not a 12 inch subwoofer. I cranked up some music via my Google Play Music All Access on my Android Galaxy Nexus and the music I was listening to sound nice even in the next room.

    Check out some JLab stuff.  They make all kinds of great devices. From earbuds, to headphones and speakers and more. I’ve been impressed and for the price you can afford to give them a chance. I’m sure glad I did.

  • Lot’s O’ Music – An Organization Post

    If you love music as much as I do, there’s a chance that you’ve spent hours ripping your CDs to MP3 (or if you’re like me you’ve done the whole process several times, just to get it just right), purchasing your DRM free music from Amazon, Google Play or iTunes and organizing and cataloging and, of course (most importantly), listening  to all your wonderful music.

    So how do you manage and keep track of all that tunage? I’m not claiming I’m an expert, but I’ve spent years working on my system. So I thought I would share it with you.

    File Structure

    This is the part that has gone through the most changes, but now that it is settled it’ll be staying like this for a long time. When managing thousands of files, a good folder structure is key. Especially if your ID3 tags get messed up! I use a folder structure like this:

    “C:/Music/A/Alice In Chains”
    “C:/Music/D/The Devil Wears Prada”
    etc.

    With all the different artists in my library it was necessary to break it down another level. Hence the alphabetical letters for each A – Z.

    The idea that all these artists could site in a single folder would never work for my collection. It may for you, but consider using what I’ve done here if you want to have room to grow your library.

    Format

    MP3 is where it’s at. I tried WMA, OGG and FLAC and by far the most flexible and good size to sound ration is MP3. I rip all my music to 320Kbps MP3. Now, of you might find that FLAC is more to your likeing because you can afford piles of hard drives. Or you’ve got a Windows mobile device and WMA works better for you. But for me (and most of the world) it’s MP3. If you dump thousands of dollars into a home stereo system consider FLAC since it’s lossless. But I find 320Kbps sounds just great. And I do hear a difference. I listen the most on my JLab Bomoba TEKST headphones, which sound amazing by the way.

    Tools

    Media Monkey Interface

    I’d be lost without Media Monkey. It’s the BEST audio manager tool out there. I would say you could get away with using the free version, but you really, really should just buy it. It handles my whole library with ease. In fact, I’m listening with it right now while writing this. Media Monkey provides massive library support, robust ID3 management and lots of transcoding options.

     

    Bonus

    If you want to listen to your music anywhere you’ve got internet access, there are two (pick your flavor) tools you can use. The first is Subsonic, a service you run like a server from your home. The other is Google Music which allows you to upload your music library (up to 20,000 files) for free and listen anywhere. Check them out.

     

    What do you use? Did this help? Let me know in the comments below.