Posted: 4/4/2012 2:31:42 PM EDT
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http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-trademarks-new-audio-format-20120403
They might sound like great song titles, but "21st Century Record Player," "Earth Storage" and "Thanks for Listening" aren't new Neil Young tunes. They're trademarks that the rocker recently filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Rolling Stone has found, and they indicate that Young is developing a high-resolution audio alternative to the MP3 format.
Young also said that he met with Apple CEO Steve Jobs before his death last fall, and that the two discussed the possibility of developing a device similar to an iPod that could store roughly 30 studio-quality albums. "We were working on it," said Young. "Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you've gotta believe that if he'd lived long enough, he would eventually have done what I'm trying to do."
My kind of guy. I knew he was alright. 
The thing is, such a lossless codec already exists - it's called FLAC, and it's unencumbered by patents or trademarks. What he wants has existed since 2001. |
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http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-trademarks-new-audio-format-20120403 They might sound like great song titles, but "21st Century Record Player," "Earth Storage" and "Thanks for Listening" aren't new Neil Young tunes. They're trademarks that the rocker recently filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Rolling Stone has found, and they indicate that Young is developing a high-resolution audio alternative to the MP3 format.
Young also said that he met with Apple CEO Steve Jobs before his death last fall, and that the two discussed the possibility of developing a device similar to an iPod that could store roughly 30 studio-quality albums. "We were working on it," said Young. "Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you've gotta believe that if he'd lived long enough, he would eventually have done what I'm trying to do."
My kind of guy. I knew he was alright.
The thing is, such a lossless codec already exists - it's called FLAC, and it's unencumbered by patents or trademarks. What he wants has existed since 2001. What he wants is money, more than likely. |
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Can ya smell the hippies ?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxs0ybnsEQ
I like me some Neil every so often 
Steven Stills is one hell of an under rated guitar player. 
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Can ya smell the hippies ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxs0ybnsEQ
I like me some Neil every so often
Steven Stills is one hell of an under rated guitar player. Yupper . . . and Neil aint too bad himself
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Can ya smell the hippies ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxs0ybnsEQ
I like me some Neil every so often
I don't give a fuck about his politics (if I did, I'd have a paltry music collection). I just like his tunes. Playing Ted Nugent over, and over, and over...gets old. He's not even that great of a guitar player, if we're honest. But he sure likes him some guns! 
Awesome (so do I), but how about making consistently good music while you're at it? Musicians (left or right) are TERRIBLE at sharing a political ideology, through words alone. That's why I tend to forgive them, when they fuck it up (and they near universally do). |
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Quoted: Quoted: Can ya smell the hippies ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxs0ybnsEQI like me some Neil every so often I don't give a fuck about his politics (if I did, I'd have a paltry music collection). I just like his tunes. Playing Ted Nugent over, and over, and over...gets old. He's not even that great of a guitar player, if we're honest. But he sure likes him some guns! Awesome (so do I), but how about making consistently good music while you're at it? Musicians (left or right) are TERRIBLE at sharing a political ideology, through words alone. That's why I tend to forgive them, when they fuck it up (and they near universally do). I dont give a damn about the politics of entertainers . . . . I just want to be entertained   |
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doesn't apple already offer a lossless codec? Not that I'm aware of (somebody else chime in?). They do have a new "Mastered for iTunes" initiative however, that is supposed to address his concerns. The Apple ACC codex is supposedly lossless...It's also the default encoding codex for iTunes, and the format that everyting is downloaded in, music wise, in iTunes.. And the guys in Skynard were huge Neil Young fans... Ronnie was buried in a Neil Young Tshirt... |
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The average music listener isn't going to care about loseless vs lossley. I don't see any point in making something like is unless its going to take over and sell,mwhich I doubt. I'm not an average music listener, but I do care about it. The thing is, I'm perfectly fine with MP3's when I'm in my car, or on a bike, or whatever. When I'm at home, I put records on. I'm in an environment that allows me to appreciate the difference. When I'm in my car? Who gives a fuck? Also, I'm not entirely sure that 99.9% of self-proclaimed "audiophiles" could tell the difference between an LP, and the same LP captured and encoded as a 320kbps MP3, in a double blind, level matched experiment. If it's encoded as FLAC, I'm pretty confident they couldn't tell the difference at all. I know I can't (that's why I encode my LP's with). In my opinion, he's harping on the wrong thing. It's not the medium that's fucked, it's the mastering process. The best of the best lossless codecs will not fix a bad master - they will sound exactly like the shitty master they were made from. My vinyl copy of Metallica's Death Magnetic sounds like shit - exactly as shitty as my CD and digital download copies. He's barking up the wrong tree, IMHO. |
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The average music listener isn't going to care about loseless vs lossley. I don't see any point in making something like is unless its going to take over and sell,mwhich I doubt. I'm not an average music listener, but I do care about it. The thing is, I'm perfectly fine with MP3's when I'm in my car, or on a bike, or whatever. When I'm at home, I put records on. I'm in an environment that allows me to appreciate the difference. When I'm in my car? Who gives a fuck? Also, I'm not entirely sure that 99.9% of self-proclaimed "audiophiles" could tell the difference between an LP, and the same LP captured and encoded as a 320kbps MP3, in a double blind, level matched experiment. If it's encoded as FLAC, I'm pretty confident they couldn't tell the difference at all. I know I can't (that's why I encode my LP's with). In my opinion, he's harping on the wrong thing. It's not the medium that's fucked, it's the mastering process. The best of the best lossless codecs will not fix a bad master - they will sound exactly like the shitty master they were made from. My vinyl copy of Metallica's Death Magnetic sounds like shit - exactly as shitty as my CD and digital download copies. He's barking up the wrong tree, IMHO. There have been very few correctly mastered albums since vinyl died. Mastering actually got a little bit better after MP3 made it big, but not by much. The low water mark for production was easily the mid 1990's - early 2000's. EVERYTHING sounded like shit
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A southern man don't need him around, anyhow. F Neil Young and the Crazyhorse his digital format rode in on. 
My father used to keep the entire house awake night after night drinking to excess and blaring that nauseating cross between a strangled cat and an emphysemic goat. Nobody gave a shit when it was Country Joe and the Fish, Sam Sham and the Pharohs or anyone else that wasn't tone deaf and arrhythmic. Neil Young should claim Micheal Bolton's title (no-talent assclown) for his own. I'm not saying don't listen to him. I'm not down on anyone for liking his self-absorbed pity-party depressing material. I'm saying F Neil Young right in his monkey ass. |
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Quoted: There have been very few correctly mastered albums since vinyl died. Mastering actually got a little bit better after MP3 made it big, but not by much. The low water mark for production was easily the mid 1990's - early 2000's. EVERYTHING sounded like shit such as ? |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: FIFYQuoted: A southern man don't need him around, anyhow. F Neil Young and the Crazyhorse his digital format rode in on. My father used to keep the entire house awake night after night drinking to excess and blaring that nauseating cross between a strangled cat and an emphysemic goat. Nobody gave a shit when it was Country Joe and the Fish, Sam Sham and the Pharohs or anyone else that wasn't tone deaf and arrhythmic. Neil Young should claim Micheal Bolton's title (no-talent assclown) for his own. I'm not saying don't listen to him. I'm not down on anyone for liking his self-absorbed pity-party depressing material. I'm saying F Neil Young right in his monkey ass. u got issues ? fair enough |
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I had a roommate in grad school who was a complete audiophile, a brilliant guy. He built A-to-D / D-to-A converters that were much better than MP3, etc, and you could see tremendous differences when putting the output of both on a 'scope.
You know what? My roommate could never come up with anything that could remove/deaden/mask the screech of Neil Young's voice. |
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Quoted: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-trademarks-new-audio-format-20120403 They might sound like great song titles, but "21st Century Record Player," "Earth Storage" and "Thanks for Listening" aren't new Neil Young tunes. They're trademarks that the rocker recently filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Rolling Stone has found, and they indicate that Young is developing a high-resolution audio alternative to the MP3 format. Young also said that he met with Apple CEO Steve Jobs before his death last fall, and that the two discussed the possibility of developing a device similar to an iPod that could store roughly 30 studio-quality albums. "We were working on it," said Young. "Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you've gotta believe that if he'd lived long enough, he would eventually have done what I'm trying to do." My kind of guy. I knew he was alright. The thing is, such a lossless codec already exists - it's called FLAC, and it's unencumbered by patents or trademarks. What he wants has existed since 2001. 30 whole albums... meh. Lossless FLAC –– that would be 10GB or so. Not very groundbreaking. I can only imagine that Neil is thinking 24-bit/192kHz... Even that should easily fit into 32GB there or thereabouts. m |
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It's a bunch of audiophile garbage, and has already proven to actually degrade the reproduction of music.
They're pushing for a uncompressed, 24bit, 192kHz sampling rate audio file to be sold as "full fidelity" digital audio. No only can no human hear anything resembling 90kHz audio frequencies, but audio equipment can't handle or reproduce it correctly either, and it just adds distortion which can extend into the audible range of hearing. Here's the exhaustive explanation about why it's a bad idea: http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html Techniques that are useful in studio recording or internal digital processing are completely superfluous to final-product music delivery formats. Another possible reason for it, is that the staggering filesizes of the 24/192 music would be substantially more difficult to fileshare/pirate. It's a particularly ludicrous idea considering the heavy amount of compression that's endemic in recorded music for the last decade or more. The amount of compression on a typical recording makes even 16 bit silly, 24 isn't even remotely necessary. ETA: Quoted:
I can only imagine that Neil is thinking 24-bit/192kHz... That is indeed what they are pushing. Quoted:
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My vinyl copy of Metallica's Death Magnetic sounds like shit - exactly as shitty as my CD and digital download copies. He's barking up the wrong tree, IMHO. L1 made things LOUD. Fuck a bunch of dynamic range. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war Death Magnetic is mentioned by name. |
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http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-trademarks-new-audio-format-20120403 They might sound like great song titles, but "21st Century Record Player," "Earth Storage" and "Thanks for Listening" aren't new Neil Young tunes. They're trademarks that the rocker recently filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Rolling Stone has found, and they indicate that Young is developing a high-resolution audio alternative to the MP3 format.
Young also said that he met with Apple CEO Steve Jobs before his death last fall, and that the two discussed the possibility of developing a device similar to an iPod that could store roughly 30 studio-quality albums. "We were working on it," said Young. "Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you've gotta believe that if he'd lived long enough, he would eventually have done what I'm trying to do."
My kind of guy. I knew he was alright.
The thing is, such a lossless codec already exists - it's called FLAC, and it's unencumbered by patents or trademarks. What he wants has existed since 2001. Indeed, but open codecs are open. |
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For a guy with a only a decent tune or two in his lengthy career, he sure gets a lot of attention. Besides: Pre-Neil Pearl Jam? Awesome fucking rock. Post-Neil Pearl Jam? Whiny bitches whose music morphed into the crap the Young plays. I would argue that other than Evenflow, everything PJ did was whiny nonsense. ...but that being said, did you ever see them perform "Keep on Rocking in the Free World" with Young live? Did you see Young's "guitar solo" during that abortion? It was so awful I almost considered giving up the guitar because I was pretty sure he ruined it forever. Of course, that was before I had ever heard Slipknot.
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Quoted: I always wanted a better quality version of this. Thanks Neil! I knew you were a robot. |