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I knew that was what you meant, A-man. I apologize if I seemed seemed insulting. Chalk it up to only the words but no non-verbal cues. I am an old guy believing that face to face communication is better. But not 20 times better. Ha ha. The interview would have been 20 times better if one of the interviewers had said, "Woah! 20 times better sound? Jesus, Neil, what in Hell would that sound like? Could you give me an analogy? I can't wrap my head around it".

 

I understand the "gazillion dollars" analogy but learned people speaking, supposedly, intelligently on a subject that is dear to them, shouldn't say things like 'gazillion dollars' or '20 times better sounding'. It was an interview with Neil Young, not Justin Beiber.

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Whatever. 20 times better sounding is a ridiculous thing to say. Could your photography be 20 times better?

 

He sounds like the stereotypical old hippie when he says silly shit.

 

I bow to your superior mathematics knowledge.

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I'm guessing Neil probably meant that the sampling rate would be 20 times better than the current rate for CDs/FLACs which is between 44.1 kHz and 92 kHz. Of course there are better audio formats out there already such as SACD (sampling rate of 2822.4 kHz) but hardly anyone buys those, and there isn't a wide selection of discs available in the format. It's mostly audiophiles that care about this stuff, most people these days seem content with substandard MP3s so I'm not sure how many would embrace a better audio format.

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Tinnitus, haha! I clearly understand your math point. Thank you for getting me to think about it. Would you concede that it is possible when someone says "20 times better" they mean exponentially, not times 20? Regardless, we agree on the futility. Again, communicating with words alone is less than optimal. I pledge to buy you a drink if the Spirit of the Thrasher ever causes our paths to cross. Cheers.

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Tinnitus, haha! I clearly understand your math point. Thank you for getting me to think about it. Would you concede that it is possible when someone says "20 times better" they mean exponentially, not times 20? Regardless, we agree on the futility. Again, communicating with words alone is less than optimal. I pledge to buy you a drink if the Spirit of the Thrasher ever causes our paths to cross. Cheers.

 

well i guess someone could confuse the two; i just took 'times' at its literal meaning. perhaps 'fold' would infer logarithmic behavior?

 

any way, i am never one for turning down a beer :D

 

 

:cheers

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http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2012/02/video-neil-young-discusses-crazy-horse.html

 

 

some interviews with neil. from what i can gather neil recorded an album of folk tunes with crazy horse and a boys choir. this album is called Americana. sounds like a nightmare, but might be good. he says he's working on a second crazy horse album. not holding my breath on that one. i feel a little sad for richie furry...the springfield is over.

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  • 2 months later...

A new article about Neil's new audio format (Rollingstone.com):

 

 

By Patrick Flanary

April 3, 2012 3:35 PM ET

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.

 

According to the filed documents, Young applied for six trademarks last June: Ivanhoe, 21st Century Record Player, Earth Storage, Storage Shed, Thanks for Listening and SQS (Studio Quality Sound). Included in the filing is a description of the trademarks: "Online and retail store services featuring music and artistic performances; high resolution music downloadable from the internet; high resolutions discs featuring music and video; audio and video recording storage and playback." The address on file corresponds to that of Vapor Records, Young's label. (Young's representatives declined Rolling Stone's request for comment.)

 

Young faces about a year of paperwork before the government will register his trademarks. Last week, they were approved for publication in a public journal for 30 days, a step that allows competitors to challenge Young if they find his registration harmful. The journal is set to be published later this month; if the trademarks face no opposition or snags, Young must then file documents detailing how he intends to use the trademarks, which the government could register as early as the holidays, according to the filing schedule.

 

A press release issued last September by Penguin Group imprint Blue Rider Press, which is publishing Young's upcoming memoir, may have revealed the working title of Young's entire project. In addition to the memoir, says the release, "Young is also personally spearheading the development of Pono, a revolutionary new audio music system presenting the highest digital resolution possible, the studio quality sound that artists and producers heard when they created their original recordings. Young wants consumers to be able to take full advantage of Pono's cloud-based libraries of recordings by their favorite artists and, with Pono, enjoy a convenient music listening experience that is superior in sound quality to anything ever presented."

 

Such a service would allow music fans to download audio files that sound like the studio recordings of the past, as opposed to the über-compressed song files that are currently available at MP3 stores like iTunes and Amazon. (When reached for comment, a Penguin Group representative directed Rolling Stone back to Young's publicist.)

 

Young has a history of paying close attention to audio quality. His 1968 debut LP was one of the first albums to be mixed with the short-lived Haeco-CSG technology, which improved the sound of stereo albums played on mono equipment. Young has also been heavily involved with the remixing and remastering of his catalog for years.

 

In the last year, the rocker has also been increasingly vocal about his frustration with the sound quality of digital music. On January 31st, during an appearance at the D: Dive into Media conference in California, Young proposed that "some rich guy" should create "a modern-day iPod for the 21st Century" featuring studio-quality resolution. "When I started making records, we had a hundred percent of the sound," said Young. "And then you listen to it as an MP3 at the same volume – people leave the room. It hurts...It's not that digital is bad or inferior. It's that the way it's being used is not sufficient to transfer the depth of the art." According to Young, a typical download contains only five percent of the data that an original analog recording master offers, and the average studio-quality audio file requires roughly 30 minutes to download because of its uncompressed size.

 

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."

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i really don't see anything new here. SACD, DVD-A, HDDVD etc. have essentially failed. Blue ray hasn't caught on. so is neil just proposing lossless streaming? i don't see this happing for a long long time...if at all. interesting though. i'd like to see lossless download albums for $5 before any of this stuff. what's funny is neil says he wants an ipod for the 21st century. the ipod is the ipod of the 21st century :)

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  • 1 month later...

There was a song accompanying the ending credits of Den du frygter, a movie starring Ulrich Thomsen.

 

Since I liked the song I googled it and turns out it was a Neil Young song, "Helpless" written circa 1970. I had never heard this, it's beautiful, especially the lyrics which reference a place in Ontario.

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There was a song accompanying the ending credits of Den du frygter, a movie starring Ulrich Thomsen.

 

Since I liked the song I googled it and turns out it was a Neil Young song, "Helpless" written circa 1970. I had never heard this, it's beautiful, especially the lyrics which reference a place in Ontario.

 

Wow you serious? One of his most famous songs.

 

Sometimes I wish I could hear some of the classics for the first time. Like music amnesia How cool would it be to hear led zeppelin IV fresh again

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Wow you serious? One of his most famous songs.

 

Sometimes I wish I could hear some of the classics for the first time. Like music amnesia How cool would it be to hear led zeppelin IV fresh again

 

right on. love to hear CSNY-Deja Vu and of course Zep 4 again for the first time. man, Stairway!

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right on. love to hear CSNY-Deja Vu and of course Zep 4 again for the first time. man, Stairway!

I remember the first time I heard LZ4. A friend copied the tape for me and I was listening on a yellow Sony Walkman. Needless to say, it was a paradigm shift for me, musically.

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  • 4 months later...

By way of Thrasher's Wheat:

 

Neil Young will be a guest on “The Late Show with David Letterman” tonight, Thursday, September 27. Also, Jimmy Fallon will be a guest as well.

 

That would be pretty cool if they did a song together.

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Another article about PONO.

 

Beginning next year, Pono will release a line of portable players, a music-download service and digital-to-analog conversion technology intended to present songs as they first sound during studio recording sessions.

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almost half way done with the book. it's interesting, but lots of the stories are about neil wanting to play with Crazy Horse again and....Pono. this does sound interesting, but it really isn't sound, it's shitty mastering. my hunch is that pono will go the way of DVD-A etc.

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