not my blog

Well, the new Acumen Nation CD, Anticore showed up all signed and purty with it’s T-Shirt last night. Got the disc ripped and into iTunes, and gave it half a listen while working on some projects last night. Sounding good, but feels strange as the machines are very near non-existant, something I’m not used to from the Acumen gang. Either way, go pick the disc up along with the shirt for the great value of $25 and enjoy some brand new crack.

Full review will be updated here in the next day or so when I have time to really dig into the tunes.

From Digg.com:

Found this and thought it was interesting. Seems the program copies the audio while it’s being played, probably as some sort of driver. Supposed to allow you to convert any DRMed audio file to an clean MP3/OGG/WMA file.

From the website of Tunebrite:

• Automatically records copy-protected music while it is being played in the Windows Media Player© or Apple iTunes©.player; automatically saves recordings in unprotected, digital quality MP3, OGG and WMA formats.
• Leverages High Speed Digital Dubbing for turbo-speed recording.
• Supports listening to other music during the recording process, independent from sound card functionality.
• Recognizes when music is being played and automatically records it (background mode).
• Automatically configures recording levels and devices.
• Supports automatically recording large volumes of music (batch mode).
• Automatically saves track title, artist and album name (ID3 tag compatible).
• Records using the standard volume level of the entire music collection (normalization).
• Allows music tracks to be saved in various folders based on artist and album.
• Displays the optimum recording level on an oscilloscope monitor while recording.

Sounds like an interesting little program… well, at least if it works. Don’t have any DRM crippled media myself. All my bands are small and don’t have huge record labels attempting to force them to screw over their fans. If anyone tries out the program and it works let me know.

read more | digg story

From Digg.com:

Slysoft’s AnyDVD product, which is designed to unprotect DVDs on the fly in the background (acting as a system driver), also has an added benefit of preventing Sony’s DRM program from installing itself. This article also mentions a $10 off coupon with the code “cdfreaks”.

All I can say is go SlySoft. I had actually tried this program out a few months ago and put it on my rather short list of software I will actually buy. Don’t need it too badly atm (and need to save funds for the holidays), but come the new year I think I will be buying a copy of this program. Especially with the fact that this program can defeat something as troublesome as Sony’s new DRM package. Trutfully, I hope someone smacks Sony upside the head and gets some coin for the damages to their system. Think if someone release a virus designed to hide behind this.

Lucky for me I like small regional bands that release their music themselves. Now we just need to turn up the heat on Sony, call, write, e-mail, tell them how angry you are over this program, and that they need to fix it. Sony Music’s contact information is available here. They also have a contact form available here. Let’s unite as the internet and make them pay for what they have done… bet they never thought they would get caught.

read more | digg story

Finally got the cable for the digital camera today so I can get the pics off from the Acumen Nation show from Sunday. Had a blast at Sonar, got to say wassup to Jason and Jamie (including a lengthy conversation regarding my friend Andy’s fave Acumen disc… I’ll give you a hint… MHH). It’s always grand to have the Crack family back in Baltimore. Sunday was my first ever visit to Sonar/Kommencement and I must say the place sounds like piss. Possibly the worst sounding club I’ve been to in Baltimore (at least as far as sound). Still enjoyed my evening. Picked up the new Acumen ‘05 shirt as well as finally grabbed a copy of the Fawn album.

Fawn really isn’t my preferred style, but it’s enjoyable and will make it’s way onto my iPod at some point. Sitting in the car in the CD player at the moment as I spend a good couple days getting to know my new disc before plopping it in the computer and letting it live it’s life in the closet whilst iTunes continues to rule my musical life. Still a little sad that I wasn’t able to grab a copy of WTF while we were there, but hey, things happen. Full story here.

But all in all, many a beer and good tunes later the night was a success. A pictorial chronicle of the evening can be found over at Flickr. Also for those that are interested got a couple of short clips from the show as well. Be warned though, turn those speakers way down! The little mic in my digital camera was completely overloaded and there is some serious distortion (even at normal listening levels). Hopefully those Acumen fans not on the East Coast can have at least a little love from the Cnat gang this way.

• Matador
• Gunlover
• Jason RE: WTF album

Look forward to more Cracknation goodness coming back to Nation in December kiddies!