Never Ending Baustelle » Music

The next MP3 player will be a mobile phone.

frank — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:24:29 +0000

I’ve been considering for time now, whether I should buy a new MP3 player. Something in the iPod nano class. Samsung comes to mind, or San Disk or Creative. Having looked at some in more detail, none didn’t really convinced me. The San Disk Sansea didn’t have a resume function, which is a must for me. I usually listen to music files, which last at least a hour. So, it’s not really acceptable for me, if I can’t continue at the point where I switched the device off. Other players are not handled as simple USB storage devices, but must be loaded through the MTP protocol or through iTunes. Linux is my main OS and MTP is supported in the meantime to a large extend, but a device functioning as a simple storage device would provide the least hassle. All devices except the Apple stuff can’t play AAC+ files. What could draw me into the Apple direction is the larger number of accessories, which is available for the iPod players. However I don’t really want to support Apple as a company. While they are building very “cool” devices, I feel, that they act overly paranoid about their intellectual property. As such they are not a very “nice” company.

So, all in all, I didn’t find enough arguments to give up my old and trustworthy Pontis SP600 player, which uses CF-card as storage medium.

However in the meantime it hit me from the a completely different direction. I also considered a new mobile phone, one which is capable to run the latest cool Java MIDP 2.0 application from the Internet, for instance Google Maps for mobiles. And here I finally found the Walkman mobiles from Sony Ericsson, in particular the W610i and the W660i. They play all relevant music formats (MP3, AAC, AAC+, E-AAC+, WAV, WMA and m4a according to this review). They can be equipped with larger M2 memory sticks (2Gb should be available now). Sony Ericsson provides a very wide range of accessories. And the coolest thing, they can act as Bluetooth A2DP audio source (EDR enabled Bluetooth 2.0). In connection with these devices, the Sony A2DP Bluetooth Receiver TDM-BT1 , Sony Ericsson MBR-100 or the Sony High-Tech Bluetooth Car Radio MEX-BT2500 these phones can provide a marvelous music center, in the car and at home. Only drawback apparently is the slow USB transfer rate.

So basically, for two iPod nano’s you get tons of functionality. I’ll have to see, what the W660i, which sports UMTS functionality, will cost, once it is introduced here in Germany. Anyway, the W610i and the W660i are “the” devices, where I have laid my eyes on.

Mellomania Back On Air

frank — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:31:41 +0000

Hey, that’s pretty cool, listening to DJ Shah and Pedro Del Mar via ETN and at the same time watching them doing their thing via Internetradio. A completely new radio experience. And additionally the chance to chat with them on their community forum.

According to my Gkrellm download meter listening via ETN and watching via Internetradio causes a constant load of about 50Kbyte per second. Not too bad.

Nice to have them back.

Great News. Mellomania back on air

frank — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:00:19 +0000

Just read it here in the forum. Starting at March 5th, 2007 Mellomania will be back on air with a weekly show. Well not exactly air, but on Internet radio. ETN will be carrying an audio only stream and the Internet Radio will be carrying an audio and a video stream. Then you can watch DJ Shah and Pedro Del Mar actually live during the show. Details are here.

Mellomania Deluxe: no more

frank — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:19:54 +0000

Mellomania Deluxe (on Sunshine Live), one of my favorite radio shows since I got into this trance music thing, got kicked off the air. Yesterday evening the last radio show went on air.

Hopefully the Mellomania guys (Pedro Del Mar and DJ Shah) will find a new radio gig soon even if it’s on the Internet only. While all the radio shows I’m regularily listening to (A State of Trance, Technoclub, Vonyc Sessions and in parts Eins Live Rocker) play more or less the same direction of music, each has it’s own distinctive flavor. Therefore I will definitely miss Mellomania.

New Trance Compilations

frank — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:09:53 +0000

Not too long ago I purchased the trance compilations Mellomania Step 6 and A State of Trance 2006. Compilations in general imply the danger, that a certain tune can be found on multiple releases. The next Technoclub Vol.20 has just been released and Mellomania Step 7 is due out soon. To decide if should purchase these last two compilations as well, I decided to calculate the overlap. I cut’n pasted the track listings into an OpenOffice spreadsheet and sorted them.

Results (ASOT = A State of Trance 2006, TC20 = Technoclub Vol.20, MM06 & MM07 Mellomania Step 6/7):

On ASOT and TC20: Danjo & Rob Styles vs DJ Governor – Blue Woods / DJ Governor – Red Woods (I guess the different titles are due to different mixes)
On ASOT and MM07: DJ Shah with Jan Johnston – Beautiful (Different mixes)
On ASOT and TC20: Kuffdam & Plant – Dream Makers
On ASOT and MM07: O’Callaghan & Kearney – Exactly
On MM06 and TC20: Galen Behr & Robert Burns – Till We Meet Again
On ASOT and TC20: Giuseppe Ottaviani & Marc van Linden – Until Monday
On ASOT and MM07: Kyau vs Albert – Walk Down
On ASOT and MM07: Fable – Above

I guess, the overlap (8 tunes) is not too big considering, that all four compilations contain in total 129 tracks on 8 CDs.

A Chair Raver

frank — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:28:22 +0000

That’s what I am I guess. Just a tiny bit too old to be a real one.

Couldn’t resist to extract this jingle from episode 250 of A State of Trance.

I hope, I don’t getting fucked because of violating some Copyright.

Rocken oder Raven ??

frank — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:34:43 +0000

Arbeitskollege Chris hat mich drauf hingewiesen. Rocken oder Raven, das ist hier die Frage.

Das schiebt mich wohl eher in die Raver-Richtung (not really serious).

Online for ASOT 250

frank — Thu, 25 May 2006 17:57:45 +0000

I’m currently on-line to listen to episode 250 of “A State of Trance”. I’m a big of Armin van Buuren and his radio show since episode 138 and I think I’ve only missed a handful.

I was introduced to Armin and ASOT by Chris, who was about 20 years of age at the time and me being a little more than twice that age. If I would’ve belonged to the generation of my parents age wise he easily could’ve been my son.

Anyway, Armin keep going with the compilations and the radio show “A State of Trance“.

Sennheiser HD 457 vs. HD 201

frank — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 13:44:54 +0000

The Sennheiser HD 201 got a pretty rave review at the The Register. Not too long ago I bought the Sennheiser HD 457 in particular for listening to music in the company. This headphone is very comfortable to wear, but produces way to much bass.

Since the HD 201 is on offer for about 20 Euro in the local Media Markt, I decided to give the HD 201 a try and I concur with The Register. The sound of the HD 201 is really excellent. Much more balanced than the HD 457. However it is a notch less comfortable than HD 457 since the cushion around the ear of the 457 is clad with a kind of textile fabric while the the HD 201 uses a kind of smooth plastic with the tendency to let you sweat earlier. Sound wise the 201 is definitely better, although it is cheaper by a third compared to the 457.

A State of Trance – Tune of the Year Vote 2005

frank — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 21:20:59 +0000

So, this is it: the results of the A State of Trance – Tune of the Year Vote 2005. In general I agree with the list, although I must say, that I would have voted the lower half of the list somewhat higher. I didn’t vote this year, since no tune kept stuck in my mind like last years “Above & Beyond – No One on Earth” or “Ridgewalker ft. El – Find”. My personal favorites out of that list are (in no particular order): AvB – Shivers, Airbase – Escape, Above & Beyond – Alone Tonight, Gabriel & Dresden ft. Molly – Tracking Treasure down, Kuffdam & Plant – Summer Dream. And I would have thought, that the Sander van Doorn Remix of Police – SOS would end higher in the list. In my mind this is easily the tune, which received the most airplay.