Camera Labs

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Thanks, Richard.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Surely not, she's an amazing vocalist even if Kurdish (I think) music isn't flavour of the day with most people. I've had to order the CD though: listening to the mp3 download last night through my Tannoys, as opposed to my computer speakers, was like listening to a radio covered by a cushion. It sounded like someone had cut off my tweeters and I'm at an age where I value every additional year of actually hearing frequencies high enough to emanate from my tweeters!!! mp3 sucks

Bob.

Update: Yes, she is Kurdish. The album title, Keçe Kurdan, actually translates as Kurdish Girl. She has an English website here. According to Wiki the album was initially banned by a provincial court because it "incites women to take to the hills and promotes division."

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

MP3 truly doesn't suck, as long as it has a proper bitrate => 192 kb/s, and is encoded with the newest version of the codec (lame v2 I think).

I've done some blind AB test, and after 192 kb/s I couldn't hear the difference between the FLAC, and the MP3. Headphones used were a pair of Grado SR80i's. and I used Porcupine Tree's "Deadwing" album, which is known for it's great sound quality and proper mastering

Glad you liked the track by the way. I'm all about the weird genres, really.

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

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Maybe I just got a bad mp3 encode but the difference with the CD is startling and if I were, ahem, to convert it to "wma" I believe the file size would only be about 10% larger.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

WMA is pretty much a Microsoft's answer to MP3, but the two are quite similar, as they're both lossy encoders. If you want the quality of a CD, but the convenience of a digital song on your PC, rip your CD to FLAC

File size will be big, though.

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

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Must have been a rubbish mp3 encode then, despite a fairly high bit rate, as I'm now more than happy except that I've paid for the album twice! Here's my favourite track: Bexo/Uyan

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

I only buy CDs for music and then I load them onto my HDD as .mp3 @ 320kb/s.
A friend of mine is only using the .ogg file format saying "it's MUCH better than .mp3!!!!"

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III + Canon EOS 33v
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466

Well, Ogg is open and free, so that would make it better at least. Technically, I think Ogg wins at the lower bitrates (efficiency), but MP3 at the higher ones.

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

it can't be better,lol...
it all depends on the bitrates & the quality of that song.

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
Visit my work here

It doesn't solely depend on the bitrate, it also depends on the algorithm/compression form. For instance, a FLAC and a WAV are both lossless, but are identical in quality, despite the FLAC having a lower bitrate.

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Somebody played me some Feist, as well as some Adele, now I can't stop listening to them! They're really great musicians, I'd highly recommend checking them out. It's modern music that hasn't been autotuned and all that crap, it's actual music!

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

I'm a cheapskate who buys $7 Greatest Hits CD's from Walmart... so old music for me!! Just bought Chicago, Creedance Clearwater Revival, and Simon & Garfunkel. Yeah, I'm waaaay behind the times here. I try to avoid more than 1 CD per artist these days. I now want a cheap Alan Parsons Project CD so I can have Sirius playing when the Cornhuskers do their tunnel walk in NCAA 2012.
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Also encoding to 320kbs MP3 via Windows Media Player is probably not the best quality MP3 encoder. My Sandisk portable music player only does MP3, WMA, secure WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC. I have trouble telling 128kps from 320 kps MP3's. WAV files "can" sound better to me, depending on the music. The more layers of sound, the more I notice it.

Anything that is Progressive House Tune from Otographic Music Label release which are absolutely in Heaven

Here is my pick so far from it KIWAMU - Rest (Part 1) & Tin5ha - Clear Blue Sky (Original Remix)

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Soon.....

Jazz Sax for Meditation

http://youtu.be/1VnUEB3lrRk

Enjoy it

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Panasonic DMC-FZ35 - Velbon CX 540 - Olympus TCON17

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Having offered some Kurdish singing a few posts ago how a spot of Mongolian artistry? Check out Khusugtun and navigate to the "VIDEO" tab. The singing style is unique in that the singer produces an overtone as well as the main note. The third video (4th international throat singing festival) features this technique particularly prominently at about 1:40 in from the start - quite remarkable. Khusugtun appeared recently at the "Human Planet" BBC Proms concert.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.