Ye Macce Threade

[gepardcv]

Where are you moving the data from the old media?

[HiWire]

Probably to a hard drive for now. The files and folders have to be sorted out and re-named... some of them are probably redundant as they are already stored in our archive. Most of the disks are about 15-25 years old.

I have an old Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to open some of the really old files. The really critical files have long since been upgraded to new formats, but a few files got left behind.

Edited June 27, 2021 by HiWire

[TMoney]

Where is everyone at on spatial audio? I think I'm done with it for now. Every time I turn it off I like the sound better on the traditional stereo mix.

Apple sets spatial on by default when using AirPods or beats so maybe it will gain traction in a way binaural never could. At least for right now though I think it is more "gimmick" than improvement.

Edited June 28, 2021 by TMoney

[blessingx]

As it was a per-album thing for me (and sometimes when I preferred Atmos it isn't Atmos itself, but I wanted the recede mids a little and balance out, course reverse that and sometimes I preferred stereo to bring out the mids, and of course some tracks are great in mono), I've turned it Always On and going to try for a few weeks and see how I adjust with a variety of phones. Problem being there aren't many Spatial Audio albums I want to listen to so I'll be stereo all the time and when listening on work laptops older OSs prevent it even being turned on. 

At this point it really reminds me of the iFi 3D+ implementation (which I like most of the time) at about three times the strength. That strength makes the preference more obvious one way or another. Apple usually launches 1G products/services with a bang and I really don't feel that way with the AirPods Max and specific Spatial Audio albums this round. We'll see. 

Anyone remember the Zenph "re-performances" with half stereo and repeated half binaural tracks? Those were the days. It lasted what a year?  

[Grahame]

Maybe there is a market for an enterprising head-fi-er, to  not only re-master (re-eq?) your tracks but also to re-spatialize(?) your favorite tracks and sell them back to you?

[HiWire]

I have most of the Zenph discs. The binaural piano performances are kind of redundant... there was not a huge amount to be gained there, in my opinion.

[gepardcv]

I love the Zenph version of Gould's older Goldberg Variations recording. As far as I can tell, the same amazing playing but much better recording quality. I'm ambivalent on the binaural versions compared to vanilla stereo.

[blessingx]

Giles Martin on The Beatles in Spatial Audio - what works and what’s not quite right yet 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/beatles-best-spatial-audio-albums-apple-music-abbey-road-giles-martin-1202832/ 

[morphsci]

This makes me happy.

[Knuckledragger]

As I mentioned in the broadcast thread, my laptop (which has been giving warning signs of going south for a while now) is stuck in a boot loop.  I've been doing research on what precisely to replace it with and I have come to the conclusion that right now is a crap time to try to buy a new Macintop.  The 13" MBP (too small for my freakishly large hands) is nearly 300 days old, and due for a refresh.  The 16" is 650 days old and comically overdue.  I've looked at Apple's refurb stock and it's underwhelming.  Similarly, MacSales (OWC) has what can charitably be described as a picked over selection.  Trying to buy a Mac laptop in 2021 is like trying to buy a GPU.

[Fitz]

This may come as a surprise, but have you considered a desktop PC? Very servicable if it has problems, quite affordable, and you're not locked into anything. Even with hardware prices the way they are, I'm pretty sure you could put together a PC that will do everything you need for less than the cost of a laptop.

[Knuckledragger]

I'm actually typing to you on a PC now, which I built in late 2013.  It has a newer GPU (8GB RX 580, which was supposed to be a stop gap) but other than storage is unchanged in 8 years.  It was my plan to build a new machine Real Soon Now but the GPU (and high end CPU) market continues to get worse, no better.

Also Windows is a horrid OS for anything other than video games.  I have neither the skills nor inclination to run Linux.  That leaves MacOS.  While I could write a book on what I dislike about Apple in the modern era, their computer OS is really the only option if I want to get shit done.  I DJ on MacOS.  I edit photos on MacOS.  I hoard terabytes of data (mostly FLACs and photos) on MacOS.  

As I have mentioned before, I am an old man with freakishly large hands and increasingly bad eyesight.  I don't use smartphones anymore than I have to.  The way the younger generation is "connected" with their mobile devices, I am similarly with a laptop.  Part of the Apple Tax(tm) is accepting that one is buying a multi thousand dollar device that is essentially disposable.  

[Fitz]

I think you overestimate the difficulty of using Linux. I myself used to use it as my primary OS for a while until I switched back to Windows solely for gaming reasons. A few quirks, but it kinda Just Works. I even have a Linux VM I use for things like recovering old disks, which Windows absolutely sucks at. Plugged an old HDD into Windows... it sees a blank drive and offers no other option than to format it, link it to the VM and Linux immediately recognizes its original format and recovers it with all data in tact.

But.

Linux is not a great option for casual use, I'm 100% agreed on that. It's the OS equivalent of a straight razor, very powerful, but easy to hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing.

[gepardcv]

You need to look at the software you use (DJing sounds like you need some pro audio support) and make sure it works natively on Apple’s new CPUs, or at least through Rosetta2 binary translation. If it is not supported for any reason, buy a MBP now while you can still get one with an Intel CPU.

If you’re good with Apple Silicon, then definitely hold off on buying a MBP. If rumors are to be believed, a refresh will come soon (this fall, so within a few months) and will bring a new form factor. Supposedly, it’ll get rid of the idiotic Touch Bar on the keyboards, bring back MagSafe power connectors, and bring back extra ports.

As far as typing comfort goes, just buy a nice external keyboard. I rather like Keychron keyboards, for example. Battery life and power management sucks compared to Apple external keyboards, but the typing feel is massively better.

[dsavitsk]

55 minutes ago, Fitz said:

I think you overestimate the difficulty of using Linux. ... A few quirks, but it kinda Just Works.

This has been the claim of Linux proponents for going on 20 years. Someday it will be true.

[Fitz]

5 minutes ago, dsavitsk said:

This has been the claim of Linux proponents for going on 20 years. Someday it will be true.

One Day (TM)

Maybe the same day us Python devs get some respect.

One can hope.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Fitz

[dsavitsk]

7 minutes ago, Fitz said:

Maybe the same day us Python devs get some respect

Kids today. You have no idea what it was like using Python 1.5 in the late 90s when even perl programmers looked down on you.

[Fitz]

Just now, dsavitsk said:

Kids today. You have no idea what it was like using Python 1.5 in the late 90s when even perl programmers looked down on you.

You say that like I didn't originally cut my teeth on python then. Getting used to 3.x is a world of difference from what I once knew.

I actually got permission from a professor to use his equations in a project I was working on around then, for a game I was making in Python.

[HiWire]

Was the game Snake? 🐍

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_(video_game_genre)

I've found the 16" MacBook Pro prices insane... paying thousands of dollars for old hardware, middling performance, and fan noise (with external displays) is unacceptable. Or maybe I just don't make enough money from my computers.

People are going to be dumping their Intel Macs once their software workflow has moved to native Apple silicon support.

The refurb 27" iMacs offer the best performance/value in the Intel Mac lineup, but obviously they aren't portable.

Edited September 1, 2021 by HiWire

[Fitz]

2 hours ago, HiWire said:

Was the game Snake? 🐍

Battletech actually. I wanted a way to more easily play it with people online since I didn't really know many people locally who played it. I did all the backend work implementing the board state, rules, movement and line of sight calculations, etc, then kinda abandoned it when I got to having to implement visuals and UI. Even without any graphics the performance was abysmal, as you'd expect trying to do anything big with Python on the hardware of those days, so it's probably for the best I never finished it.

[HiWire]

Cool. I thought about doing the same thing myself with the old BattleTech board rules (along with CityTech, etc.), but not in Python.

RIP, FASA.

[Fitz]

The current Battletech PC game is pretty damn good, even if it's taken a heavy dose of X-Com.

[HiWire]

Thanks, I lost track of the BattleTech games after the previews of MechWarrior 5 a while ago.

Looks like BattleTech is more my speed – I found the pace of the MechWarrior game plodding, even if its graphics are nice.

I loved Harebrained Schemes' Shadowrun games. Spent a whole summer a few years ago finishing Shadowrun Returns, Dragonfall, and Hong Kong.

Edited September 1, 2021 by HiWire

[Fitz]

Yeah, although I like them, I've always been disappointed with the heavier focus on the Mechwarrior games than something closer to the tabletop. Mechcommander was pretty nice back in the day, but the HBS Battletech was an incredibly pleasant surprise. Though it still has that x-com influenced gameplay the Shadowrun games do, it's still pretty distinctive and familiar to the tabletop. I think the thing I appreciate the most about the current Battletech game is its set before the Clan invasion so there's no stupid bullshit from that, though there is a little bit of Lostech thrown in the mix.

[HiWire]

Yes, I still have the BattleTech Technical Readout: 3025 with the classic Mechs and the first MechWarrior (1986) RPG book.

The Clan invasion was interesting, but I'm not sure I like where everything went after the Clan timeline (i.e., when I'm reading on sarna.net and the BattleTech wiki). At least you have a lot of choices for settings and technologies.

Edited September 1, 2021 by HiWire