I mentioned in the Random Thoughts thread a while ago that I have this surreal opportunity. My dad, who died in 1983, sent fifty four recordings to his friend in Canada (most cassette, some reel-to-real) between 1970 and January 1983, one month before he died (the tape didn't arrive until after the day).

My dad was an interesting dude. Bob Dylan freak, photographer, beat poet, and musician. The majority of the tapes are in the form of a 'radio broadcast'. He plays a lot of music, speaking over music beds in this weird DJ/black dude affect, reciting his "beat poetry" (I can't think of any other way to describe it) and occasionally playing his songs in between. That thing I posted earlier was one of his pieces of poetry.

The Canadian started ripping the cassettes to MP3 using a cheapie cassette-to-MP3 and I have five of them now. There are no tracks - it's just one MP3 per cassette side.

I downloaded Audacity and I've started to track them out, starting with his performances. I have to say there's something pretty good about his stuff.

Anyway - now I want to share these with family friends etc. I think I've seen folks here use some kind of YouTube/Flickrish music sharing embed thing, but for the life of me Google is not helping. It would be cool to use something like that, rather than forcing them to download MP3's and import them or whatever.

Anyone have any ideas?

If there are any wackadoo audiophiles out there, I'd love to pick your brain about some of the outliers and what to do with them. For example, I have one cassette that he dubbed reel-to-reel to cassette at 15/16 i.p.s. (the same speed the Watergate tapes were recorded). It sounds like high speed jibberish. According to the instructions he put inside the cassette, the intention was that the Canadian would dub the cassette to an 1800 foot reel of recording tape at 7 1/2 i.p.s. then played back at 3 3/4 i.p.s. Just slowing down the chipmunk MP3 doesn't help - it's still distorted. If anyone has any ideas on what to do with this, I'd love to hear them.

Hoya is using the same avatar as slowhand has here on the Hoya board

It make me happy when I see it

VoxOrion wrote:I mentioned in the Random Thoughts thread a while ago that I have this surreal opportunity. My dad, who died in 1983, sent fifty four recordings to his friend in Canada (most cassette, some reel-to-real) between 1970 and January 1983, one month before he died (the tape didn't arrive until after the day).

My dad was an interesting dude. Bob Dylan freak, photographer, beat poet, and musician. The majority of the tapes are in the form of a 'radio broadcast'. He plays a lot of music, speaking over music beds in this weird DJ/black dude affect, reciting his "beat poetry" (I can't think of any other way to describe it) and occasionally playing his songs in between. That thing I posted earlier was one of his pieces of poetry.

The Canadian started ripping the cassettes to MP3 using a cheapie cassette-to-MP3 and I have five of them now. There are no tracks - it's just one MP3 per cassette side.

I downloaded Audacity and I've started to track them out, starting with his performances. I have to say there's something pretty good about his stuff.

Anyway - now I want to share these with family friends etc. I think I've seen folks here use some kind of YouTube/Flickrish music sharing embed thing, but for the life of me Google is not helping. It would be cool to use something like that, rather than forcing them to download MP3's and import them or whatever.

Anyone have any ideas?

If there are any wackadoo audiophiles out there, I'd love to pick your brain about some of the outliers and what to do with them. For example, I have one cassette that he dubbed reel-to-reel to cassette at 15/16 i.p.s. (the same speed the Watergate tapes were recorded). It sounds like high speed jibberish. According to the instructions he put inside the cassette, the intention was that the Canadian would dub the cassette to an 1800 foot reel of recording tape at 7 1/2 i.p.s. then played back at 3 3/4 i.p.s. Just slowing down the chipmunk MP3 doesn't help - it's still distorted. If anyone has any ideas on what to do with this, I'd love to hear them.

Well, there's the Audacity 'Effects'...

- Change Pitch ... change pitch without changing tempo (speed)
- Change Tempo ... change tempo (speed) without changing pitch
- Change Speed ... changes both pitch and tempo (speed)

I'm guessing you did try the speed one and the resulting sound quality was crappy. Maybe it might make a difference if you tried to slow it down in steps (a little at a time in increments, instead of half-speeding it in one swoop). Or maybe the other two effects in conjunction... change pitch first, then tempo (or vice versa). If not, then maybe there's a free filter/plugin on the internets that does a better job "expanding" the waveforms (I believe Audacity can use VST and Nyquist plugins/filters).

But being digital, it's probably a case of "the data just isn't really there", so the best result would probably be from the analog end (a tape player that can slow down the playback).

Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in. I'm not an audiophile by any stretch, just learned the hard way that analog and digital are completely different beasts in every way.

I'm think I might have seen some...illegal/sketchy...activity on my way home tonight. Stopped at a CVS, and some dude pulls up in a black V12 Mercedes SL AMG, with heavily tinted windows. Just a silly amount of power in that thing. Said dude is wearing all black -- leather coat, maybe even leather pants, I couldn't really tell. Chrome/silver chain around his neck, conspicuously designer glasses. Hair full of product. Kind of a frumpy, portly person, but clearly one with a lot of money.
Then out of his passenger side steps an incredibly hot woman, who looks a lot younger than he does. She doesn't look happy at all.
This is on the outskirts of NE Philly, where there's a little bit of Russian mob-like activity. I mean, there's probably a thousand explanations for what they were doing at a CVS after 2 a.m., but I guess only the most entertaining ones popped into my head right away.

won some poker money, screwed up things with a gal, heard a shooting on the way home. yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

VoxOrion wrote:I mentioned in the Random Thoughts thread a while ago that I have this surreal opportunity....If anyone has any ideas on what to do with this, I'd love to hear them.

I'm afraid I can offer absolutely zero help on your technical challenge, but can offer plenty of encouragement for your overall project. You'll thank yourself, & your kids will thank you, many times over.

Given the era they hail from though, you might wanna try playing one or more of those tapes backwards, because, y',know

Phan In Phlorida wrote:But being digital, it's probably a case of "the data just isn't really there", so the best result would probably be from the analog end (a tape player that can slow down the playback).

I think this may be what's going on. When I slow it down, it sounds like a chipmunk speaking slowly, there's something not "right" about the source (as it was transferred to digital). I'll look into those other things you talked about, I never even knew Audacity existed until yesterday, so I don't really have a great understanding of how it works.

drsmooth wrote:

VoxOrion wrote:I mentioned in the Random Thoughts thread a while ago that I have this surreal opportunity....If anyone has any ideas on what to do with this, I'd love to hear them.

I'm afraid I can offer absolutely zero help on your technical challenge, but can offer plenty of encouragement for your overall project. You'll thank yourself, & your kids will thank you, many times over.

Given the era they hail from though, you might wanna try playing one or more of those tapes backwards, because, y',know

I don't think I have to play backwards... forwards is odd enough. Once I can figure out how to embed I'll post some of it.

Harpua wrote:I'm think I might have seen some...illegal/sketchy...activity on my way home tonight. Stopped at a CVS, and some dude pulls up in a black V12 Mercedes SL AMG, with heavily tinted windows. Just a silly amount of power in that thing. Said dude is wearing all black -- leather coat, maybe even leather pants, I couldn't really tell. Chrome/silver chain around his neck, conspicuously designer glasses. Hair full of product. Kind of a frumpy, portly person, but clearly one with a lot of money.
Then out of his passenger side steps an incredibly hot woman, who looks a lot younger than he does. She doesn't look happy at all.
This is on the outskirts of NE Philly, where there's a little bit of Russian mob-like activity. I mean, there's probably a thousand explanations for what they were doing at a CVS after 2 a.m., but I guess only the most entertaining ones popped into my head right away.

You should have killed him. I'm sure you could have got something out of it for a while until you got killed yourself.

Actually he was probably just a really cool fat and portly mafia guy that this girl was drawn to by charm. Probably just out getting a bag of bagporn for the festivities.

Harpua wrote:I'm think I might have seen some...illegal/sketchy...activity on my way home tonight. Stopped at a CVS, and some dude pulls up in a black V12 Mercedes SL AMG, with heavily tinted windows. Just a silly amount of power in that thing. Said dude is wearing all black -- leather coat, maybe even leather pants, I couldn't really tell. Chrome/silver chain around his neck, conspicuously designer glasses. Hair full of product. Kind of a frumpy, portly person, but clearly one with a lot of money.
Then out of his passenger side steps an incredibly hot woman, who looks a lot younger than he does. She doesn't look happy at all.
This is on the outskirts of NE Philly, where there's a little bit of Russian mob-like activity. I mean, there's probably a thousand explanations for what they were doing at a CVS after 2 a.m., but I guess only the most entertaining ones popped into my head right away.

Buying condoms at 2 is illegal?

TenuredVulture wrote:

Harpua wrote:I'm think I might have seen some...illegal/sketchy...activity on my way home tonight. Stopped at a CVS, and some dude pulls up in a black V12 Mercedes SL AMG, with heavily tinted windows. Just a silly amount of power in that thing. Said dude is wearing all black -- leather coat, maybe even leather pants, I couldn't really tell. Chrome/silver chain around his neck, conspicuously designer glasses. Hair full of product. Kind of a frumpy, portly person, but clearly one with a lot of money.
Then out of his passenger side steps an incredibly hot woman, who looks a lot younger than he does. She doesn't look happy at all.
This is on the outskirts of NE Philly, where there's a little bit of Russian mob-like activity. I mean, there's probably a thousand explanations for what they were doing at a CVS after 2 a.m., but I guess only the most entertaining ones popped into my head right away.

Buying condoms at 2 is illegal?

I took it that he thought this dude was going to force his will on her eventually but I guess if you look at it like that he was at least considerate enough to bag himself. Or maybe it was just some rich guy that got a smokin hot wife. It does happen. I'd dig for gold myself if I was a really hot chick, then I'd just go lesbian crazy any chance I got.

WilliamC wrote:
I took it that he thought this dude was going to force his will on her eventually but I guess if you look at it like that he was at least considerate enough to bag himself. Or maybe it was just some rich guy that got a smokin hot wife. It does happen. I'd dig for gold myself if I was a really hot chick, then I'd just go lesbian crazy any chance I got.

Am I wrong to conclude our WilliamC has what you might call a nuanced interior life?

More than likely I am a little bit insane. You have no idea the amount of death threats I have edited out of posts through the years.

And a little sleep deprived too.

I am still spinning nuanced interior life around and trying to find some way to work that into a resume somewhere down the line. Sounds brilliant.

If you don't like it, you can talk to my little less nuanced exterior.

WilliamC wrote:More than likely I am a little bit insane. You have no idea the amount of death threats I have edited out of posts through the years.

George Carlin once did a bit about how gross it would be if our scars and warts and pimples, etc. never disappeared, or if they all reappeared at once (I forget how he worded it).

Similarly, I bet it'd be funny to read all of our posts including the plethora of edits we've made.

TenuredVulture wrote:

Harpua wrote:I'm think I might have seen some...illegal/sketchy...activity on my way home tonight. Stopped at a CVS, and some dude pulls up in a black V12 Mercedes SL AMG, with heavily tinted windows. Just a silly amount of power in that thing. Said dude is wearing all black -- leather coat, maybe even leather pants, I couldn't really tell. Chrome/silver chain around his neck, conspicuously designer glasses. Hair full of product. Kind of a frumpy, portly person, but clearly one with a lot of money.
Then out of his passenger side steps an incredibly hot woman, who looks a lot younger than he does. She doesn't look happy at all.
This is on the outskirts of NE Philly, where there's a little bit of Russian mob-like activity. I mean, there's probably a thousand explanations for what they were doing at a CVS after 2 a.m., but I guess only the most entertaining ones popped into my head right away.

Buying condoms at 2 is illegal?

Yeah, probably just what it was. Who the fuck knows, maybe they just needed milk. My imagination was running wild, I guess.

Harpua wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:

Harpua wrote:I'm think I might have seen some...illegal/sketchy...activity on my way home tonight. Stopped at a CVS, and some dude pulls up in a black V12 Mercedes SL AMG, with heavily tinted windows. Just a silly amount of power in that thing. Said dude is wearing all black -- leather coat, maybe even leather pants, I couldn't really tell. Chrome/silver chain around his neck, conspicuously designer glasses. Hair full of product. Kind of a frumpy, portly person, but clearly one with a lot of money.
Then out of his passenger side steps an incredibly hot woman, who looks a lot younger than he does. She doesn't look happy at all.
This is on the outskirts of NE Philly, where there's a little bit of Russian mob-like activity. I mean, there's probably a thousand explanations for what they were doing at a CVS after 2 a.m., but I guess only the most entertaining ones popped into my head right away.

Buying condoms at 2 is illegal?

Yeah, probably just what it was. Who the $#@! knows, maybe they just needed milk. My imagination was running wild, I guess.

Could you have asked the question, "are you ok?" to the girl without getting a bullet between the eyes? If not you were probably witnessing something a little bad going down. If yes, you probably could have stole her from the fat greaseball and had the best night ever.

ANN LANDERS

WilliamC wrote:Could you have asked the question, "are you ok?" to the girl without getting a bullet between the eyes? If not you were probably witnessing something a little bad going down. If yes, you probably could have stole her from the fat greaseball and had the best night ever.

ANN LANDERS

Probably a 90 percent probability had I asked the question I just would have gotten a puzzled look and a "fuck off" from the dude.

If this board had launched today instead of three years ago, would it have been called CadillacTime.com?

Harpua wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:

Harpua wrote:I'm think I might have seen some...illegal/sketchy...activity on my way home tonight. Stopped at a CVS, and some dude pulls up in a black V12 Mercedes SL AMG, with heavily tinted windows. Just a silly amount of power in that thing. Said dude is wearing all black -- leather coat, maybe even leather pants, I couldn't really tell. Chrome/silver chain around his neck, conspicuously designer glasses. Hair full of product. Kind of a frumpy, portly person, but clearly one with a lot of money.
Then out of his passenger side steps an incredibly hot woman, who looks a lot younger than he does. She doesn't look happy at all.
This is on the outskirts of NE Philly, where there's a little bit of Russian mob-like activity. I mean, there's probably a thousand explanations for what they were doing at a CVS after 2 a.m., but I guess only the most entertaining ones popped into my head right away.

Buying condoms at 2 is illegal?

Yeah, probably just what it was. Who the $#@! knows, maybe they just needed milk.

Or tampons.