why would I search lyrics for a techno music ?
You are awaiting precise instructions for when exactly you should put your hands in the air?
Readit NewsSoleilAbsolu commented on Show HN: Search the lyrics of 500 HÖR Berlin techno sets hor.greg.technology/... · Posted by u/gregsadetsky
Ouch, this really hurts! Talk about someone who knew how to serve the music and make everyone around him sound absolutely fantastic! I've been on a Booker T & the MGs kick for the last few months so have been immersed in the minimalistic genius of Steve Cropper. He could lay back with a really simple part and then step forward with a flashy lick. The group also proved that folks of different backgrounds can come together and make wonderful things happen, sadly this message is as revolutionary today as it was in the '60s.
SoleilAbsolu commented on Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago? · Posted by u/ferguess_k
HP Probook or Elitebook models have upgradable ram, SSD, and are generally serviceable. You can usually find the previous generation on ebay for an inexpensive price.
I've had about 400 Windows HP laptops/200 desktops through my hands running IT for a nonprofit. They are not perfect, but the different models (from cheapo plastic-case 12/13 inch to top-of-the-line metal cased "16 inch desktop replacements" lappies and low to mid-level desktops) have been better built, and more easily serviced, than comparable Lenovo, Dell & Acer models I've had my hands on in the same time. Our new MSP pushed Lenovos on us for a batch of 25 or so computers including my latest laptop, and I regret it.
They just didn't have a 15" metal case in the price range so I got a plastic 16". Overall performance is lower than comparably spec'd HP Z-Book Fireflys I was using, when this Thinkpad T16 G4 hits the upper limits of RAM, it feels like it's using swap on a slow platter drive. Even on lower-spec HP Pro & EliteBooks, they slow down at max RAM but don't just freeze. Our staff thrashes the shit out of gear, so finding decently-priced lower-spec metal-bodied laptops is essential.
Even on latest HP laptops I am able to replace RAM, batteries, SSDs without dealing with epoxied sockets. Haven't had to often, but displays and keyboards could be swapped if absolutely needed last time we had to several years ago. That said, the performance of onboard HP Bluetooth sucks compared to others I've used and their stock bloatware is terrible.
Specific to Lenovo, when I was shopping for a bunch of laptops about 3 years ago there were weird gotchas like "I can get every spec I need EXCEPT backlit keyboard, which kicks me up to the next model, at least $300 more/unit" and "Gee, they solder in a low amount of RAM on this one to make you...yup, spend at least $300 more/unit"...
SoleilAbsolu commented on Anthony Bourdain's Lost Li.st's bourdain.greg.technology/... · Posted by u/gregsadetsky
Hands down the funniest thing I ever saw, live and in person, was Anthony Bourdain staring with naked, enraptured joy at the woman doing the American Sign Language translation of what he’d just said, then stopping just after she did to let us all know that “I just had to know what it looks like to sign ‘felching Mrs. Butterworth.’”
Thank you, Tony, wherever you are… if for nothing else, then for the Pho Chay I the Lunch Lady made just for my newly vegetarian self in Saigon.
It's honestly hard to think of a better title for the definitive Anthony Bourdain biography then "Felching Mrs. Butterworth"!
SoleilAbsolu commented on Pitch Multiplication (2017) klangnewmusic.weebly.com/... · Posted by u/ofalkaed
Interesting, will have to look/listen to this in more detail later, but I found it odd to consider Slonimsky's "Thesaurus of Scales & Melodic Patterns" in the context of multiplication because he presents it as division and addition, dividing a pitch space (not necessarily an octave) into equal or unequal portions, then adding (infra-/ultra-polating) either chromatic, diatonic, or other chosen intervals above/below a given tone.
Also TBH though I have expended considerable time/energy trying to do so (lifelong musician and music-skool dropout), I find most serialism-based music, whether Schoenberg or Boulez, to be generally the very last thing I choose to put in my earholes, which is generally as much silence as possible, and music made by folks wanting to make an emotional connection to the listener regardless of genre or era.
As Varese said, "Music must sound" and intellectual satisfaction in the construction based on mathematical principles doesn't equal stuff I necessarily want to listen to. I was planning to do some serious study/practice over the long weekend, so I'll bust out the Thesaurus and see what happens. More thoughts later, but that's it for now!
Whenever I hear that LP I instinctively start "Manchester walking"; dangerous as it leads to hair growth between the eyebrows
"Maybe you're going to be the one who shaves me" ;-)
SoleilAbsolu commented on They don't make 'em like that any more: tone controls kevinboone.me/tone_contro... · Posted by u/ingve
Love it, beyond the Baxandall I kinda sort miss just a single passive "tone" treble-cut control, often found on low-end cars like the '92 Tercel I drove into the ground. It's not the same as having bass/treble/loudness, but to boost bass you learn to turn up the overall volume and then take off enough treble so that it's bassier overall...same exact scheme as on a passive electric guitar/bass. Also, for any car with speakers in the trunk, fade toward the rear a little to boost the bass naturally.
I'm really a one knob per function kinda person when it comes to audio, and IMO burying digital tone controls in multi-level menus in cars is user-hostile and unsafe.
SoleilAbsolu commented on Can Dave Hurwitz Save Classical Recording? newyorker.com/culture/per... · Posted by u/FinnLobsien
The stuff about the titular individual is amusing, but I'm more interested in some of the underlying issues this article touches on. I typically go to a handful of classical concerts in a year, and have been doing so (with occasional gaps) since college. As time passes my own age has approached the average age of the audiences, although I'm still probably a solid 20 years behind.
But I always wonder how this can be. When I was 20 I went to classical concerts where most of the audience seemed to be over 60. Now I'm going to concerts where the audience is still over 60. That means they were in their 40s twenty years ago. So where were they in the audiences I was in back then? It's as if classical music is a developmental stage or ailment, like menopause or arthritis, that consistently hits most people around the same age.
When I think about it, I sometimes feel a sense of dread for the future, because if old people don't keep liking classical music, attending concerts, and donating to orchestras and similar groups, there's the possibility that the whole remarkable apparatus that supports this art will wither away.
FWIW - I have seen several symphonic shows this last year, and will see a few more - they happen to be local orchestras accompanying Beck or The Blackstar Symphony (including musicians who played on David Bowie's final album). Beck's catalog is filled with incredible orchestral arrangements written by his father, David Campbell, it's great to finally hear them live. Trey Anastasio from Phish is also a "serious" composer who writes for orchestra and varied ensembles. I think this is a viable way forward for orchestras to at least fill their calendars and attract people who might not have come to see a Mahler or Beethoven symphony.
SoleilAbsolu commented on Welcoming the Next Generation of Programmers lucumr.pocoo.org/2025/7/2... · Posted by u/ingve
I concur. This post of one being welcoming, accepting and encouraging is appreciated.
What is the opposite of "gatekeeping"?
In this case, opening the Flask and passing it around!
It is the editorial board, i.e. academic peers, not the publisher, that are (?were) the arbiters. As far as I can see, the primary non-degenerate function of journals is to provide a quality control mechanism that is not provided by "publishing" on your own webpage or arxiv.org. If journals really are going to abandon this quality control role (personally I doubt it) then I fail to see their relevance to science and academic discourse at large.
Completely off topic, but thanks for creating AudioMulch, I don't use it actively anymore but it totally revolutionized how I approach working with sound!