(Credit:
Crave UK)
You know CDs are capable of pristine sound quality, but we've been playing with a digital voice recorder that records audio even higher than CD-quality. Capturing sound in 24-bit 96kHz WAV format with its sensitive stereo microphones, the new Olympus LS-10 allows for serious high-fidelity recordings and we're extremely impressed with it.
In fact, we took it to Pendulum's album launch party last night (no, it won't be on BitTorrent) for "testing" and the results were terrific. The recorder coped with being right at the front of the stage as the amps heaved under pressure from the intense volume, yet as we heard during playback, it didn't distort the recording and the sense of openness is superb.
You'll want to smack the bass up in EQ when listening on a hi-fi or when you're splitting tracks on your computer, but the bass that's captured is clean and tight.
Inside the rugged metal recorder is 2GB of flash memory, which gives you two hours of recording in 24-bit 96kHz WAV mode. But you can lower the bit rate to increase recording time, or simply record straight into MP3 or WMA if you don't need uncompressed clarity.
Have a listen to an uncompressed, 24-bit 96kHz spoken excerpt of this article, as recorded on the LS-10, here.
If you need even more recording hours, you're able to plug in up to 8GB of memory with SDHC memory cards, and all this memory can be accessed with simple dragging and dropping on a computer via USB. AA batteries will give you about 12 hours of juice, but we've not been able to confirm this, though we're very grateful to Olympus for not using a pain-in-the-arse internal battery that requires a degree in engineering to get at.
Listing for around $400, this is not a typical run-of-the-mill recorder. It's for those who are extremely serious about the quality of their recordings, though it'd make an extravagant gift for a loved business person or student. It'd be a terrific podcasting tool, too, and legality aside, it makes capturing bootleg recordings of your favourite bands and shows a breeze.
It's on sale now and we won't be giving it back to Olympus in a hurry.
(Source: Crave UK)
Making a professional-sounding recording can be expensive, particularly for ensembles (like rock bands) who want to capture at least some semblance of a live performance.
Sure, you can get an decent recording with a portable stereo recorder, or a couple of inexpensive mics panned left and right and plugged directly into the mixer, but most artists want their music to sound as good as it possibly can--as good as any other artist played on the radio. That takes an array of microphones and other audio gear and somebody who knows what they're doing. In other words, money.
Slicethepie offers an online trading market that lets you speculate on the number of singles and albums a band on the service will sell over two years.
(Credit: Slicethepie)In the post-label world, who funds these recordings? Peter Spellman, director of career development at the Berklee School of Music, explores three fan-funded (or "crowdfunding") options in a blog posting on KnowTheMusicBiz.com.
ArtistShare, which has been around since 2002, allows fans to contribute to particular artists and receive exclusive tidbits, such as in-progress recordings.
SellaBand works more like a small-scale venture capitalist for bands: fans can "invest" $10 apiece, and when an artist reaches $50,000, Sellaband will hook them up with industry professionals, including producers and studios, to record and market an album. Revenue comes from advertisements shown next to free downloads, as well as sales of the finished album, and are split three ways between SellaBand, the "investors," and the artist.
U.K.-based Slicethepie not only allows fans to invest, but essentially asks them to do artist discovery. Fans are compensated a few cents for listening to acts and writing reviews, and bands who score the best end up in a showcase, where labels might find them and offer them a deal.
Fans can also earn money by betting on the success of artists in a stock market. The winner of the showcase gets 15,000 pounds from the organization to fund a recording, while Slicethepie receives some royalties from sales of the album. (I'm always a bit wary of showcase-type models--often bands must pay up front to participate, labels and radio stations ignore them completely, and the only party who benefits is the organizer. In this case, the entry fee for each song appears to be around 20 pounds, although the FAQ isn't entirely clear on this, and entry fees are currently being waived. Still, proceed with caution.)
Whether or not any of these particular organizations actually ends up funding the next Radiohead, it's interesting to see all this business innovation occurring outside the bounds of the traditional label system.
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