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Tag Archives: FLAC
It's Getting Green Up Over
It's Getting Green Up Over.
Spring is still working above the equator, gotta be thankful there. Along with new budding leaves and flowers the interest in MQA as a great way to deliver CD quallity and hi-res PCM to ears via downloads or streaming or CDs continues to grow as well.
Right now you can try a pristine acoustic recording originally mastered as native DSD, and since converted to DXD and encoded as MQA for downloads. It plays on any music player!
If you have an MQA decoder it can unfold the hi-res to 24/352.8kHz. The original master was encoded for MQA by MQA Ltd. as FLAC. The audio files are small and download fast.
Go here to get the 50% off Acoustic Trio….Album of the Week!
Use the code AcousticTrio50 on checkout to get the 50% off.
Have a Happy Spring and thanks for Listening!
~ DE
This entry was posted in Acoustic, Art of Listening, CD and HD Downloads, MQA and tagged acoustic, dsd, FLAC, hi-res, MQA, music on April 2, 2018 by david elias.
4 MQA Songs to Try (1 Free) – CD to Hi-Res
Introducing you to MQA with 4 songs.
These 4 songs now download for $4. There is 1 free track available
Here is how MQA Ltd. described me in their newsletter this week (emphasis is mine):
MQA Artist Release
Sound quality has been a driving motivation for singer-songwriter David Elias since he started recording his music digitally more than 20 years ago. On listening to some of his earliest recordings encoded with MQA, David noted, "The original intention and sounds are much more accurately represented [with MQA] and are therefore much, much more enjoyable to listen to. The convenience of MQA's smaller file size is an additional no-brainer."
This paragraph says a lot for me because I've lived with CD and its problems with sound quality as long as everyone else. In fact I had no CDs long after many did, sticking to vinyl and even my own mix tape cassettes (analog ruled) for years after the CD deluge. It sounded better. I liked album covers. What can I say.
I broke my teeth on CD quality recording in 1995 making my first CD in a home studio setup. I recorded to Hi-8 Video Tape at 16/48 on an 8-track Tascam DA-88. I'd recorded myself at times on various tape machines and a few digital boxes for almost 20 years but this was much different.
I listened to a lot of everything I put on tape through that whole process of recording, mixing analog (lengend original Mackie 1202!) to 16/44.1 (Sony TCD-10 DAT) and then mastered on a DyaxisII Workstation. It sounded good and in fact better in the studio than on the final CD that was printed.
Those early CDs and many later recordings were either created or converted to PCM to be moved online one way or another. All my released songs are on YouTube Music now for example, as audio, as well as lots of other places, like 50 or more. The more they travel in the Etherspace the worse they sound generally. They get downsampled and converted into whatever suits the retailer or streaming radio like Pandora (one of my least favorites for sound quality).
But shoots, I want to get heard…otherwise I wouldn't put music I write out there in the first place.
Enter MQA… I started listening to it in February on hi-res converted music from 2L in Norway. Classical works. I knew some of them from 10+ years prior as SACDs I had actually been given by Morten Lindberg there. 2L put MQA converted masters (DXD conversions which are PCM at 24/352.8) online to try as well as other hi-res formats. I was using a Meridian Explorer2 MQA DAC connected to my Dell Windows 10 notebook running the latest JRiver.
All I can say is I didn't hear anything I didn't like, and in some cases heard some things I really really liked.
So I started listening to other MQA encoded tracks. MQA is not a new audio format. It is still linear PCM, just has its own corrections (aka filtering) applied to the encoding of the music.
What I started paying attention to more and more and hearing more and more were the timing coherence corrections in the playback. What PCM has always done to my ears, along with countless others, is present a very sharp unnatural edge to the sound that can get worse for me the louder or harder the music is played. It doesn't flow like vinyl, cassette, or DSD. Usually it kind of attacks quickly, then disappears. It's not relaxing, let me put it that way.
MQA encoded tracks I listened to had lost much of that sharp attack, no decay characteristic. They were well presented and much easier to listen to. They positioned things more clearly in the stereo space noticeably including the front and back locations in addition to left and right. The soundstage was then more 2 dimensional with depth as well as 3 dimensional with up and down.
This listening started with a lot of music I didn't know, yet I was happy to listen to it with open ears so to speak.
Over the next few months, I decided I wanted to hear some of my PCM recordings as MQA and started making inquiries as to how I might do that. In the end, I became an MQA artist partner and have converted my catalog and archives to MQA encoded PCM.
I've actually had most of my catalog online as PCM on the Bandcamp site (http://davidelias.bandcamp.com) as CD quality up to 24/88.2 for a couple years now. Now most of that has been updated to download in the smaller FLAC or ALAC MQA encoded files.
Overall, MQA sounded better to me than any CD or hi-res PCM master I had. It doesn't need much more proof to me. I have read a lot about the "what it is" and "why it works" to understand that better, but after my intro through reading and some YouTubes, I just started listening a lot. I still am.
What About The 4 Songs… The first album on the page at the link above is a free download. You can also stream it as much as you want. Bandcamp lets you download songs in a variety of formats. The default is MP3. Don't download it as MP3!
MQA requires what's called a lossless format — The 4 big lossless formats being used out there are the original WAV (PC) and AIF (Mac) and their file (not audio) compressed counterparts FLAC (PC) and ALAC (Mac). Choose one of those when you download from anywhere no matter what the site or music! It is not missing some of its music from the original like MP3!
FLAC and ALAC are roughly 1/2 the size of WAV and AIF. They sound identical and are better at carrying the magic metadata or tags that include all the song and album info for the media player to display when playing the track.
MP3 and Apple's AAC use math to remove audio data in an original CD or hi-res audio master to make it a much smaller file (in general about 1/10th the size). That was the strategy from the beginning when everyone was dialing up the Internet on modems. It made sense then as one didn't want to stay online for hours or days to download an album. Apple cemented that approach since iTunes Store came online in 2004. How long will that go on? As long as people buy it I guess.
Excuse Me, What About The 4 Songs… Ok, I have a lot of MQA encoded music I am really kind of hearing for the first time myself. This includes both very good and some not so great recordings (like live public hall stuff through a single $99 Sony stereo mic to DAT).
Most of it got created as a PCM recording. The MQA encoded versions of these tracks changed how they sound to me and took me a lot closer to the original performance whether was studio or live stage. It sounds more like the sound in the room at the time and what was played and I am relaxed when I listen to it because of that.
Go here and try 4 songs at 3 different PCM resolutions, all encoded as MQA
https://davidelias.bandcamp.com/album/mqa-track-sampler-any-player-works-1-free-track
If I went into too much detail this email might get long :)
Here's the (short) not so fine print:
1) If you have an MQA DAC you can hear the full resolution up to 24/352.8 or the limits of your MQA DAC.
2) If you don't have an MQA DAC you can just play it anyway at 16/44.1, 24/44.1 or 24/48 depending on source track
3) If you get an MQA DAC later (or the media players do it for you) you'll hear the hi-res then
The song audio resolutions range from CD (16/44.1) hi-res (24/96) to DXD (24/352.8). They are all only about as big as a CD file to download (about 700MB), maybe a little bigger.
CD's sound better as MQA to me with or without the MQA DAC gear. You can just play them. I've had different people tell me the same thing about my stuff. So far I have heard its biggest benefits on the lowest res recordings. I might even know why.
If you have questions you can reply to this email, it just comes to me…I hope you try downloading the tracks. If you have an MQA DAC, don't stream them, download them!
http://www.davidelias-mqa.com (MQA Downloads)
http://www.davidelias.com/dsd_downloads (DSD Downloads)
http://youtube.com/davideliasvideo
This entry was posted in Acoustic, Art of Listening, CD and HD Downloads, DAC, Discography, DIY, DSD Downloads, Free Download, HRA, HRA Downloads, Media, MQA, singer-songwriter and tagged ALAC, audiophile, DIY, dsd, FLAC, free download, HD, hi-res, MQA, music, time smearing, unfold on July 23, 2016 by david elias.
Black.. Cyber.. What Next ? Purple Saturday?? – 20% off Coffeehouse (music)
Black… Cyber … what next .. Purple?
OK it's a holiday season thing. Good!
I got included in a nice promotion from one of most CAREFUL hi-rez download sites out there. www.nativedsd.com is in Holland (you know Amsterdam, but they are in another city nearby). They are offering the DSD download of my "Coffeehouse DSD Playlist #1" for 20% off from now through January 5th, 2015 (2015???).
Here's the page link:
https://skettisandwich.nativedsd.com/albums/coffeehouse-playlist-dsd-1
Don't forget to use the Coupon Code: XmasCoffee (capital X, C) when you checkout. Friends of mine have told me that NativeDSD.com is one of the friendliest, easiest download sites for hi-rez.
For my part, I created the downsampled 24/48k FLAC of the same playlist album. This sampler has hi-res songs from all my other full releases so anyone wondering what all this DSD or FLAC stuff is about… here's a way to try it.
If you're not into DSD (yet), try the FLAC, it plays on PC and Mac (with free Flip converter) with most if not all media players and sounds way better than MP3 or lossy AAC.
Here it is on Bandcamp:
https://davidelias.bandcamp.com/album/coffeehouse-dsd-playlist-1
Use the same Coupon Code at checkout: XmasCoffee
The songs on the Coffeehouse sampler from "The Window", "Crossing", "Slipperworld DSD Sessions", "Acoustic Trio DSD Session" are:
– The Old King
– Half An Hour Away
– Rodeo On A Ridge
– Mend My Mind
– Close My Eyes
– Morning Light / Western Town
– Vision Of Her
– Poor Polly
– Aspen Rose (solo, prev. unreleased)
Click here to look at the PDF with lyrics and notes on each song. Musicians on these tracks include: Sally Van Meter, Ross Martin, John Magnie, Matt Flinner, Marc Dalio, Charlie Natzke, Chris Kee, Scott Beynon, Ken Owen, Peter Tucker.
Enjoy the holidaze season…Aloha!
– DE
This entry was posted in Acoustic, Art of Listening, DSD Downloads, Hi-Rez, HRA, singer-songwriter and tagged coffeehouse, dsd, FLAC, Hi-Rez, nativedsd, sampler on December 12, 2014 by david elias.
Free Download: Slipper DSD Sessions
10/27/2014 – Update
Cut to the chase.. Free EP download as MP3-320 through the end of October is online .. Click Here!
Password is: slippah1
To celebrate the release of my new 6-song EP "Slipper DSD Sessions – And The Bit Goes On…" hi-rez download I am giving away the entire album in MP3 format.
Just send me a note from my contact page at http://davidelias.com/contact.html and I'll reply with the download link and password.
Just when you thought you understood "genre" you get Independent Acoustic ranging from heavy wood trio to electric quartet and a chilling solo thrown in for good measure. You also get a full PDF booklet with lyrics, notes and photos.
Read below what audiophile Gary R. wrote about these songs.. Hope you get to hear them and tell others about this offer through October.
The album is online for download in 3 different hi-rez formats: DSD, FLAC 24/88.2 and FLAC 24/176.4 — you get all formats now for $9.95 as well as the MP3 — Buy it in hi-rez here.
What you get to hear on this release is a very dynamic side of the David Elias catalog recorded carefully at Slipperworld to take advantage of the rich spectrum of harmonics, decay, resonance and natural analog like sound captured by single bit, 2.8mHz sample rate Direct Stream Digital (DSD…and the bit goes on…). You can listen to these nuances using any computer audio gear or home/studio hifi gear in any DSD or downsampled PCM digital formal.
Here is what audiohile Gary wrote me about these new tracks – Aloha! – DE
Miracles take time
There is a delicacy, hushed reverence and deeply felt awe in this song, a melancholy "smiling with sad eyes" vibe. I was deeply touched. Love that your lyrics are both accessible and enigmatic. They require the listener to pay attention and "get it" but without the struggle and off-putting frustration of completely obscure and inaccessible lyrics. You've always had the right balance as a poet and song writer in tuning in to this balance.
Poor Polly
Love the intro. Mysterious but inviting where an expectant anticipation is created. The ensemble playing is, as always, first rate.your voice is in a higher range which conveys a bit more anguish at being sometimes bewildered by life itself. Settle Down the Questions indeed? Love the riffs between stanzas. To me the song is about not taking the easy way out and giving in to glib and ready answers to life's most difficult questions and quandaries. One continues the pursuit; the struggle because one must. There is really no other way to be truly human.
White & Blue as a propulsive allure that conveys a mystery within mystery. Perhaps the passage of time with its inevitable longing and as perceived from the different vantage points of other living creatures.
Silver Pen.. I love the opening intro and the transitions. Playing and ensemble are, as always, top rank. Nothing is overdone or underdone. The tonal balance matches the purity and honesty of your singing. Pristine.
River of Dreams is very much in the same spirit of longing and remembrance of what once was but can never be again . . . no regret . . . just sadness, longing and acceptance. Loved it.
With these last two songs, I'm reminded of several of my favorite songs of longing that make me deliciously melancholy every time I hear them. A contradiction in terms? I think not. These songs describe the person left behind and explore what draws the other person – sometimes inexplicably – to another place – like a magnetic north that can't be resisted. These are some examples:
Bob Dylan "Man in the Long Black Coat" on Oh Mercy
Alison Krauss "Maybe" on Forget About it
Alison Krauss "Ghost in the House" same CD
Joan Baez "Jesse" on several of her classic CDs
With the final song "Miracles Take Time" the listener is gifted with two versions of the same song in this, David's latest offering. One version is with his band; in the other he is solo. Both versions convey the same words but, at least for me, create a slightly different emotional response. Part of the delight of listening to great music like this is that the listener must construct meaning for his/her self. For me, "Miracles Take Time" conveys the indefiniteness of both outcome and time of things worth waiting for. The solo version is a deeply personal rendition that revels in the silence between the notes, whereas the version with the band is more communal – a shared experience, that is more upbeat in the sense of creating a lament that is shared with others in real time.
This entry was posted in Acoustic, Art of Listening, DSD Downloads, Hi-Rez, mp3 and tagged download, dsd, EP, FLAC, free mp3, Slipper on October 11, 2014 by david elias.
New Album! David Elias – Acoustic Trio DSD Sessions
David Elias – Acoustic Trio DSD Sessions
It's Like You Were There In The Studio…
David Elias – "Acoustic Trio DSD Sessions"Released 11/04/2013
Download these 14 original songs as both DSD (DSF) and 24/88.2 FLAC audio files for the price of $24.95.
You get both formats! FLAC files are hi-rez lossless downsamples that can be played by all popular PC/Mac media players including JRiver, Winamp, Audirvana, Windows Media and many others.
http://www.davidelias.com
"What excellent compositions…exceptional performances…and rich, harmonic, organic sound, as natural and mellow via DSD as one could wish…10 stars…Love it, big time" – Dr. David W. Robinson, Positive Feedback
This collection of original material from the independent acoustic singer-songwriter David Elias is a special organic, natural sounding set of pure DSD recordings created at the Slipperworld Studios in La Honda, California (www.slipperworld.net). These 14 tracks feature David Elias (acoustic/vocal/harmonica), Charlie Natzke (acoustic/vocal) and Chris Kee (upright bass, Blue Coast Records).
This Acoustic Trio session release was captured in the studio on a single day as a series of live takes without any edits or overdubs. It was recorded by Charlie Natzke to no more than 8 tracks directly to a Sonoma DSD Workstation using Meitner converters.
The essence of the performance is the ambient and acoustic nature of all the instruments and vocals including natural resonance, harmonics, decay, and microphone bleed and decay using minimal micing without any artificial or digital effects.
"Acoustic Trio DSD Sessions" was recorded on a sunny day among the redwoods with the windows open. The musicians recorded standing roughly arms length from each other in a small circle with no isolation. A pair of microphones were positioned overhead to capture a stereophonic image of "the room". This was used as the only source of natural reverb in the mix.
The songs were mixed as DSD using a Sony mixer card in the Sonoma workstation. These tracks have never left the original DSD format, even as analog conversions for mixing!
As a result, what you hear from these pure DSD master recordings are the natural live performances of the trio, as if you were standing or sitting with them in the studio during the session.
Songs: 01 – If I Had My Way, 02 – Ohlone Dream, 03 – Above The Creek, 04 – Crossing, 05 – Changing Down, 06 – Take Me Down The Road, 07 – The Riddle Song, 08 – Rodeo On A Ridge, 09 – Summer Wind, 10 – One More Savior, 11 – Good Old Days, 12 – Vision Of Her, 13 – Transcendental Deprivation Part II Straw Dream, 14 – Morning Light Western Town
David Elias began recording to DSD in 2000 using a similar minimal microphone setup directly to the prototype 2-channel Sony SACD Project DSD mastering/archiving prototype workstation. Working with Gus Skinas (www.SuperAudioCenter.com) he went on to record live studio performances with a large acoustic band to 8-tracks in 2002. This resulted in the landmark independent hybrid multichannel SACD "The Window". The followup award-winning SACD "Crossing" was released in 2005. Both SACDs received the coveted "Brutus Award for DSD Excellence" from Dr. David W. Robinson, Positive Feedback.
These and other DSD Downloads are available from his website at www.davidelias.com as well as from www.SuperHiRez.com and www.HighDefTapeTransfers.com.
This entry was posted in Acoustic, Art, DSD Downloads, DSD Recording, Hi-Rez, HRA, singer-songwriter and tagged acoustic, ambient, Charlie Natzke, Chris Kee, dsd, FLAC, Hi-Rez, natural, organic, pioneer, singer-songwriter, Slipperworld, trio on November 4, 2013 by david elias.
Silver Pen – new single, HRA to compare as downloads
David Elias – SilverPen
A DSD Download, plus other Hi-Rez to Compare.
NEW SONG to Download as DSD – "Silver Pen"
The new release "Silver Pen" from the upcoming DSD album "Slipper DSD Sessions – And The Bit Goes On…" is now online to download. If you are interested in hearing what some of the different Hi-Rez (HD) formats sound like compared to one another, you might want to try this.
You will get a DSF download of the original DSD source mix, recorded on Sonoma at Slipperworld.net in La Honda, California. This session recording featuring me, Charlie Natzke (guitar/vocal), Scott Beynon (Fender bass), and Ken Owen (drums) was done live to less than 8-tracks and used no overdubs or edits. It is pure DSD!
You will also get 4 other copies of the song "Silver Pen" in different audio formats (FLAC, WMA, WAV, MP3)… I know… keep reading…
Too Many Acronyms…DSFFLACWMAALACMP3WAVAIFFDon'tKnowDon'tCare…
Hi-Rez downloads are going nuts these days. Sometimes too many choices are just that. I have been working (my ears) on getting it right about lots of audio downloads issues since the beginning in the mid-90's when MP3 started making it possible to get music online.
The tradeoffs then were file size (due to slow dialup Internet connections) and sound quality. MP3 at 128k is just about 1/10th the size of the CD quality WAV file. So a "pretty good" sounding file that you could download in less than an hour was a "pretty good" way to go. And boy it went…by the millions of songs.
Cut to 21st century cable modem at 10mbps (million bits per second) compared to the dated dialup modem at 19.2kbps (thousand bits per second) and you can suddenly get either a lot MORE music files in the same time, or…maybe… just BETTER SOUNDING files in the same time. (BTW, Apple iTunes has given us MORE files — 25+ Billion Sold — but not BETTER SOUNDING yet.. maybe we need to ask them about that!)
"Silver Pen" is a native DSD file you can download as DSF with tags (metadata) that includes song info and the graphic (above) for the player to present to you. It is about 150MB as DSD.
Other popular formats you get with the download include the 24-bit, 96kHz sample FLAC, and WMA lossless (for Windows users) at about 80MB. I also included the CD quality (Redbook 16-bit, 44.1kHz sample) WAV for your comparison across formats at about 40MB.
I also included the highest quality MP3 (320kHz) which is just under 10MB. This is to put in your Smartphone or tablet where size does matter…
It's a new era for audio. Sony is calling it High Resolution Audio or HRA. (I always thought "acronym" had to be pronounced as a word, but I looked it up and sure enough, it includes abbreviations.)
With the new era it is important to learn some new things about what's out there and how it might fit your taste for quality with the tradeoff for size and cost.
I'm putting this new track out there for those who want to compare quality. There are other choices, but I made mine for this selection and hope it helps give you a reference point.
Feel free to reply to this message if you have questions about this. I don't think it's simple, but I do think there are differences. "Better" and "Worse" are like the weather. They change from place to place and person to person. So education helps. That's what I believe anyway.
Music is for enjoyment. Here's to enjoyment!
And if you just like to buy music from iTunes, here's the link!
PS – Muchos Mahalos to the outrageous CasualTees for playing to a full house in San Gregorio General Store last Saturday. It was like we never left…Roger, KO, Scotty, Gar, Reid and Marty – you guys rock!
TOMORROW – NOVEMBER 1st — Scott and Marty and I will be back at the Store this Friday, November 1st, from 6pm to 8pm to give everyone the trio version of some of these original independent acoustic stories. Hope to see you there.
Aloha! – DE
california beach, hmb
This entry was posted in Art of Listening, DSD Downloads, Hi-Rez, HRA, mp3, singer-songwriter and tagged dsd, DSF, FLAC, Hi-Rez, HRA, MP3, Redbook, Silver Pen, WMA on October 31, 2013 by david elias.
DSD Bartender — Give Me A PCM Sandwich!
The great news is that hi-rez (aka hi-res, HRA, or HD) audio is getting lots of renewed attention these days, by the likes of Sony and all kinds of audio loving creators and consumers.
I think that's a great thing because if we would all just remember to slow down a little and maybe sit down and just listen to some nice music more often (like many of us used to do every day!) then we might all feel just a little better about the rest of what's going on around us.
At 80 years old, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote that without music our civilization would have ended long ago. I'd have to agree with that. Pursuing a certain quality to whatever kind of music we might listen to is worthwhile. Music isn't a distraction to many. It's an essential part of our civilization and our lives.
DSD (Direct Stream Digital) is the High Resolution Audio (HRA in Sony's acronymous world) that has been around as the media format behind SACD (Super Audio CD) which came out nearly 15 years ago. SACD kind of went invisible for awhile due to lack of the music industry's support, but now is coming back around for big press and lots of attention and ears (new and renewed).
It has been reborn in the form of DSD Downloads, with the same audio quality of any equivalent SACD.
My question is: How many people out there think they are listening to DSD and are actually not hearing DSD but a PCM conversion of their DSD source track?
DSD DISTILLED CORRECTLY…
Frequently DSD is being changed (converted) by hardware and software alike into the more ubiquitous PCM format before it reaches your ears.
What's confusing, or worse is completely unknown to many listeners and audiophiles, are the proper steps required to actually play DSD in its native format. Despite the years that SACD has been around at this point, the proper direct DSD playback from both SACD discs as well as DSD Download audio files (DSF or DFF) is still elusive to or misunderstood by many.
Surprisingly, both SACD's and DSD Downloads often have similar problems getting played correctly in their intended DSD hi-rez format.
This seems to stem from the ways that audio hardware and software have evolved. They have both followed a PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) dominated path that was based on most of the digital music being recorded and played as CD (PCM) since the early 80's.
That's a long, long, time and a whole lotta CDs and iTunes downloads ago… We've all been listening to PCM since vinyl LPs, cassettes and 8-tracks went out the window…
So the DACs (Digital to Analog Converters) that were first developed catered to PCM, the same format as CDs (WAV/AIFF). As far as I know, the DACs to this day still require different circuitry to support both PCM and DSD.
The bottom line is that it is neither simple nor cheap to support both standards (DSD and PCM) in the same product. Yet they both exist. In September 2013, Sony announced they felt the CD audio quality consumers were being fed for the past 30 years was not nearly good enough. As a result, they decided to back their own HRA format: DSD! This approach removes the edgy and compressed feeling to the sound you are listening to and instead provides a much more natural and ambient analog-like sound your ears are more comfortable hearing.
When software media players such as Winamp and QuickTime came out in the 90's, they were meant to play the popular PCM formats (WAV and AIFF) as well as the ubiquitous compressed MP3 (lossy – meaning audio quality is lost), AAC (Apple lossy) and then the more accurately compressed lossless (meaning quality is not lost) formats such as FLAC for the PC and ALAC for the Mac.
There are many more audio encoding formats and what are called containers for video and/or audio playback. I can show you a list of audio/video encoding formats and containers that is a long as your arm! They all have different approaches to compression vs quality and player compatibility.
By the way, notice any pattern here? The PC and the Mac never really support the same encoded audio files! The Mac will now even run Windows (under a Lion OS X dual boot), but it won't play a PC FLAC file…Give me a break! Things are not better on the PC Windows side playing the Mac ALAC files…Give me 2 breaks! Even the mighty "cloud" won't help you with this one…
A similar discrepancy has occurred in the HRA world of playing DSD through software media players including Winamp, QuickTime, JRiver, Audirvana, AudioGate, Pure Music, and all the rest. The circuitry does not exist inside the PC or Mac to decode the 1-bit DSD directly to analog! This is pervasive, but perhaps not that well understood.
There is insufficient hardware (specialized chips) in the typical PC and Mac to play DSD as DSD without PCM conversion. Instead it must first get converted (via software) to PCM to then be played directly through its speaker or headphone audio out jack. (For historical reference, the Sound Reality chip in older Sony Vaio computers could in fact play DSD as DSD but that chip no longer exists in the newer Vaio computers.)
If you are using any of the popular media players such as Audirvana Plus, JRiver, Pure Music, AudioGate, Foobar2000, and if you are listening to DSD without an External DSD DAC (see below), then you are not listening to DSD, you are listening to PCM. Here's a list of media players from HighDefTapeTransfers.com…
IMPORTANT NOTE: Korg's AudioGate software does not support an external DSD DAC! There's no way to hear DSD from the Korg software. You can only hear DSD directly output from one of its MR-series recorders (MR-1 or 2, MR-1000, MR-2000). AudioGate software always plays DSD files (DSF, DFF) as PCM!
AudioGate is a great tool for mastering and converting between many hi-rez audio formats including DSF/DFF (I use it a lot), but it does not offer any DSD playback without converting to PCM, nor does it integrate with USB DSD DACs.
THE DSD DAC SOLUTION
Fortunately, there is a way to listen to native DSD from a PC/Mac without converting it to PCM first.
The solution is to add an external DSD DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) to decode the DSD stream to analog and feed it from there to your amplifier, etc. The DAC typically connects to your PC/Mac via a USB cable. More recent DSD DACs are USB sticks that connect to the PC/Mac directly and also act as headphone amplifiers…this approach (like in a product called GEEK) just might blow the roof off the cost/value proposition in the market! Other interfaces for popular DACs (old and new) include Firewire, S/PDIF, AES/EBU and Toslink. DSD DACs usually support PCM as well.
In addition to the original Meitner (EMM Labs) DAC products, DSD DACs now are becoming a beautiful audio bouquet of selection from companies such as Mytek, exaSound, TEAC, PSAudio, and others. Some good DSD DAC lists exist at Positive Feedback… and AudioStream…
SAMPLE THIS….
There are differences in the sample rates supported by all of these things so that's one more thing to pay attention to as a futureproof type of purchasing if that's important to you. The original DSD 1-bit sample rate was at 2.8 MHz. This is referred to as DSD64 or 64fs or 64x because it is 64 times the sample rate of the CD (aka Red Book CD) standard of 44.1 KHz (44100 x 64 = 2,822,400).
To achieve even better sonic results, DSD sample rates have increased by factors of 2x (DSD128 at 5.6 MHz) and 4x (DSD256 at 11.2 / 12.2 MHz). Different software and different hardware have different capabilities in this regard. exaSound's e20 and e28 DSD DACs are some of the early adopters supporting DSD256 in stereo and 8-channels! Pyramix and Horus from Merging Technologies also support DSD256.
DSD – NO PROBLEM……PCM – NO PROBLEM…
IF IT SOUNDS GOOD…IT IS GOOD!
I have no dispute to settle. I like good sound. I like to make good sounding recordings. It can be on a cassette in a boom box or DSF file being played and sent analog to that same boom box. It can be an iPhone sitting on a pallet out in the yard turned up like an AM radio from the 70's. And no, not everything sounds good to me…
In many ways, listening carefully to DSD since 1999 has taught me to appreciate a good recording no matter what device or media it is playing through. I have come to call this the Art of Listening.
Roger Powell gave me the confidence back in the early 90's to accept the fact that "if it sounds good, it is good." Thank you Roger! I was trying to make the first "really good" recordings of my life at that point, having done lots of messing around for the previous 20 years. The digital DIY revolution was breaking and I was hooked…
I was hoping not to screw up. A lot of things that I used and did for those 90's recordings were dirt simple at the time, yet still just sounded good (honest, accurate, clean, natural) compared to most of what I was listening to on home recordings and many pro recordings. My sound was nearly all acoustic so that made it easier to evaluate for these attributes of clean, natural, etc.
Roger's answer to my "is this good quality?" questions gave me the courage to stay on my track. Before too long I would be introduced to DSD by Gus Skinas. I've never had to look back or look anywhere else for a truly excellent audo quality resource. I'm not alone. If it sounds good, it is good! DSD has been all of that for me from the very start.
BARTENDER, GIVE ME A SANDWICH!
Say you walk into a bar famous for their home infused jalapeno margaritas. In fact they specialize in all kinds of infused drinks with deep colored bottles lining their shelves.
You sit at the bar and say "Bartender, give me a sandwich!"
He looks at you and shrugs and then goes somewhere and scrounges up a ham and cheese sandwich (maybe from the take out next door) and gives it to you, (Give the customer what they want!). You eat the sandwich and are not too impressed.
Then you go back home to your "Famous Bar Review" webzine work and write something about the poor quality you experienced at what you thought was supposed to be a very high quality establishment.
I'm afraid that this is what too often happens to DSD in its evaluations and comparisons to any other format (analog tape, vinyl, PCM, etc.).
A lot of people are listening to DSD as PCM. This happens if you don't use the external DSD DAC as described above. This is also likely to happen if you play the DSD from an SACD player that is using HDMI to connect to an amplifier/receiver or to even a video monitor to display its menus. The transport over HDMI (at least prior to HDMI v1.2) in the mainstream pro and consumer world is always for PCM encoded audio, not DSD.
This is only recently overcome and not usually implemented on the HDMI side of things. Prior to HDMI v1.2 DSD gets converted to PCM for transport to the amp/receiver. With newer HDMI versions, BDP players such as OPPO are now supporting the improved integration with some A/V receivers (some Onkyo, Integra and Yamaha models) where the DSD is preserved over the HDMI transport. There are apparently licensing issues here so DSD support is not guaranteed. You have to check with the manufacturer and spec for each model at both ends.
They have also gotten around this on the software USB side (PC/Mac media player to DSD DAC) using what's referred to as DoP (DSD over PCM). DoP manages to keep the DSD intact and unconverted when it leaves the software player and arrives at the DAC. Other software drivers called ASIO and WASAPI also exist for similar USB DSD DAC integrations.
So….The hardware and software both cater to the PCM market — no problem…unless you want to hear native DSD and you don't carefully setup and configure the hardware and software you are using for direct DSD.
The default settings for all these products are to convert the DSD to PCM before it is output.
I've seen this so many times now that I had to write this post.
It's like asking that bartender for a sandwich instead of a jalapeno margarita. The finest most exotic and delicious specialty of the house is skipped for what the customer is most used to…
I've been on an education type track with hi-rez since well before 2009. I started recording with DSD in 2000 and recorded the self-produced "The Window" in 2002. In 2003 I was taking my SACD disc around to the hi-rez audio retailers in the SF Bay Area asking about all the gear that could play it and testing it out their audition rooms.
Similar issues always existed with the HDMI integration of amplifiers and receivers to SACD players. There can be other default player settings that just convert DSD to PCM for no apparent reason unless you turn it off in the setup configuration. I've seen this on Sony BDP players as well as others. Software will always convert to PCM unless you have the right path for it not to (to an external DAC) and set it up (with the right DSD drivers) properly.
People often want to hear my DSD recordings. If they end up listening to my DSD recordings as PCM conversions, they may be nonplussed with the results, especially as sonic comparisons to other (PCM) recordings they have. I want to help them configure their systems to actually hear the DSD recordings in their native formats. Since they were recorded as DSD, they should be played as DSD.
Usually the response to a changed DSD playback configuration starts with: "Wow!". The same benefits apply to any other SACD disc or DSD Download audio file played on the same system.
So I recently created my own checklist for setting up DSD playback. This is so anyone can hear the DSD directly, and not as PCM masquerading as DSD. It is a pretty confusing product world from one standpoint, but the checklist I came up with is pretty simple.
It is the mental list I've used when helping others listen to DSD recordings in their intended way. This list has changed as the whole thing continues to evolve.
So here's my current Checklist to try to help others listen to native DSD if at all possible. There may be exceptions! In fact, I can think of a few. No matter. It is written for the general and common systems out there.
DE's DSD PLAYBACK CHECKLIST
1. BEWARE: If you are using a computer's analog audio jack (headphones/audio or line output), then software as a PC/Mac Media Player ALWAYS plays DSD as converted to PCM, not native DSD.
2. So….An External DSD DAC connected to a PC/Mac via USB is required in order to play the native DSD from a Media Player. This also includes a requirement for proper hardware (DAC) driver configuration on the computer. (The "driver" is software!).
Popular External DSD DACs are available from companies such as exaSound, Mytek, TEAC, Meitner, PSAudio and many others. A good list is here from AudioStream…
3, BEWARE: HDMI (v1.1) converts DSD to PCM before playback and therefore should be avoided when critiquing or trying to fully enjoy DSD audio quality. You can investigate HDMI (v1.2 and later) to see if DSD playback is being supported by your specific BDP (player) and A/V Receiver or Pre/Pro products.
CAUTION: Enabling HDMI Output on your SACD/DSD player may cause DSD to automatically be converted to PCM on any direct output. This is currently true on OPPO 103/105 models. Check with the manufacturer for your player.
4. The best and simplest audio quality solution from a DSD/SACD player is usually to seek the configuration/setup that sends DSD directly to the analog RCA outputs (L/R stereo or 5.1 Mch). You also need to enable DSD (instead of PCM) on SACD Output!
5. Finally, most DSD players (hardware and software) give some indication on a screen somewhere of what they are really playing based on their configuration.
Read the screen!
This can be the media player (software) screen, or the SACD/Blu-ray player (hardware) display. If it doesn't say "DSD" or "SACD" and says "PCM", or AIFF or ALAC, or WAV or FLAC or anything else, then it's probably converting the DSD to PCM before it sends it to your amplifier or elsewhere. You may need to disable HDMI Output and/or enable DSD on SACD Output.
ONE MORE SIDE NOTE…… If you are using an OPPO BDP (103/105) and are playing DSD Downloads that you have on a USB stick, the OPPO and HDMI video screen displays do not tell you whether you are listening to PCM or DSD!
This is true for the latest firmware dated July 2013.
I was told by OPPO that the player will follow the SACD setup when playing USB DSD file (DSF/DFF). So if you see "PCM" in the display when an SACD disc is playing, then you need to fix your setup as described above (HDMI Output = Disabled, SACD Output = DSD).
Then go get a good margarita and enjoy yourself!
This entry was posted in Art of Listening, DAC, DIY, DSD Downloads, DSD Listening, Hi-Rez, Media, SACD Players and tagged AIFF, ALAC, ASIO, dac, digital to analog, DoP, dsd, dsd downloads, FLAC, HDMI, Hi-Rez, Mch, multichannel, PCM, WASAPI, WAV on September 27, 2013 by david elias.


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Eddie Berganza/Executive Editor, Ivan Reis/Cover Artist, Joe Prado/Cover Artist,
James Robinson/Writer
Nicola Scott/Penciler
Trevor Scott/Inker
Dezi Sienty/Letterer
Pat McCallum/Editor
Sean Mackiewicz/Editor
Mercury (Earth 2)/Quotes
Michael Holt (Prime Earth)/Appearances
Mercury (Earth 2)/Appearances
Sam Zhao (Earth 2)/Appearances
Terrence Sloan (Earth 2)/Appearances
New York/Appearances
Manhattan/Appearances
Michigan/Appearances
Lansing/Appearances
China/Appearances
Hong Kong/Appearances
Poland/Appearances
T-Spheres/Appearances
2012, August
2012, June (Publication)
Earth 2 Vol 1
Earth 2 Vol 1 2
"Age of Wonders": Mister Terrific emerges from a wormhole that he had entered in his T-Sanctuary. When he realizes that he is on Earth, he wonders if the portal even worked. That is, until he notices that this Earth is quite different from the one he left. Comp
"Age of Wonders"
Pencils Only Wraparound
Earth 2 Vol 1 #2
Age of Wonders
Trevor Scott
Dezi Sienty
Pat McCallum
Sean Mackiewicz
Earth 2 # 1 Earth 2 # 3
You claim to lack a future? Let me give you one. My spirit wanes. So too would my powers fade to naught if I let them... But while I yet live I can pass them on to another. My final act, my final gift... The Speed of a God!
-- Mercury
Appearing in "Age of Wonders"
Mister Terrific
Jay Garrick (First appearance as the Flash)
Mercury (Dies)
Sam (First appearance; dies)
World Army (First appearance)
Terry Sloan (First appearance)
Apokorats
Bernard (First appearance)
Hawkgirl (First appearance)
The Wonders of the World (Mentioned only)
Superman (Mentioned only)
Wonder Woman (Mentioned only)
Batman (Mentioned only)
Supergirl (Mentioned only)
Robin (Mentioned only)
T-Spheres
Synopsis for "Age of Wonders"
Mister Terrific emerges from a wormhole that he had entered in his T-Sanctuary. When he realizes that he is on Earth, he wonders if the portal even worked. That is, until he notices that this Earth is quite different from the one he left. Compounding the confusion, a man greets him by name. He introduces himself as Terry Sloan, the self-proclaimed smartest man on Earth. However, Sloane's intentions are apparently malicious, as he explains that Michael Holt's otherworldly knowledge is a threat to his goals. He anticipates Michael's defensive use of T-Spheres, and counters by releasing a nanite virus that turns the T-Spheres on their owner.
In Lansing, Michigan, Jay Garrick stands over the crater caused by what he thought was a shooting star. Instead, he has found a brilliant glowing man, who resembles the Greek god Mercury. The man explains that he is exactly what he looks like. He is a god, and the last of them. The others were all defeated by Steppenwolf's army. He, meanwhile, has been a prisoner to a great dark force - even greater than Apokolips - for the last ten years. His escape has come at a great cost, and now he is dying. But the darkness that imprisoned him will soon return as a great threat to the Earth and its people, and as such, it will need living heroes instead of dying gods.
Jay is sure that Earth doesn't have any heroes left; that the age of wonders is over. Mercury says he can see the good and evil in man, and he sees a hero before him. Jay argues that he's nobody, and that he has no future, but Mercury believes in him. If Jay Garrick has no future, he will be given one. With a bolt of lightning from his fingertip, Mercury passes on his power of speed to Jay, along with a protective costume. He tells Jay to use his power well, to honor him, and to save the world. A World Army helicopter arrives, ordering Jay to stay where he is and put his hands on his head. The police arrive to investigate the crash site, but Mercury warns Jay to distrust everyone until he is sure of them, as the evil he spoke of can wear any face, or use any guise. Jay asks what he should do, and Mercury answers simply, "Run!"
Alan Scott's jet arrives in Hong Kong, and he is greeted by his driver, Bernard. Bernard asks about the recent deal in Beijing, and Alan replies that, though he was there longer than he wanted to be, G.B.C. now owns its own a satellite. Alan is surprised to find that his boyfriend Samuel has come to meet him at the landing strip, and they reunite with a kiss. Rather than go back to their penthouse, Samuel has planned a romantic getaway at a hotel in the country, knowing that Alan would never escape his work, if he stayed in Hong Kong.
Jay, having outrun the helicopter, decides to test his powers. He realizes he can switch between his costume and his street clothes at will. Speeding around, he nearly runs into a wall, but then discovers that he can run up walls. He leaps across rooftops with ease, noting that everything seems as if it is moving in slow-motion. Suddenly, though, he hears a cry for help from a nearby alley. A young couple are being attacked by Apokorats; small but fierce red-eyed creatures. He promises to get them out of their predicament in a flash. Using his new-found speed, Jay captures all of the rats in a trash can before they can hurt their victims anymore. After accepting the couple's thanks, Jay tells them to get to a hospital, and then speeds off. As he runs away, the couple struggles for a name to call him, and they settle on the Flash.
Jay then decides to see just how fast he can run. He runs so fast that his surroundings become a blur - even with his enhanced senses. When he finally comes to a stop - which proves to be quite difficult - he accidentally digs a trench into the land with his feet. He asks a nearby man where he is, but the man runs off, afraid he is a parademon. A voice tells him that he is in Poland. He looks up to find Hawkgirl flying above him, pointing her crossbow at his head. Apparently, she was expecting him.
Alan and Samuel ride the bullet train, hoping to be at their hotel within the hour. Alan, having planned what he intends to say for some time, explains that Sam's business keeps him in China, and as a result, they are often apart. He proposes that they Sam's head office to America so that they can be together more often. Then, pulling a gold ring out of his pocket, he presents a different proposal, asking Sam to marry him. Before Sam can utter a response, the train runs off its rails and crashes.
When Mister Terrific lands, a billboard behind him is advertising a boxing match between "Grant" and "Montez". Another billboard advertises for Tyler-Chem.
While the origins of the Flash's powers are scientific in nature prior to the events of Flashpoint, they are presented as magical in nature here.
Discuss Earth 2 Vol 1 2 on the forums
Cover gallery for the Earth 2 series
Images from Earth 2 Vol 1 2
Retrieved from "https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Earth_2_Vol_1_2?oldid=2193428"
Eddie Berganza/Executive Editor
Ivan Reis/Cover Artist

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text:
Called to Serve as Christ
Map of Facilities
Pastor's Thoughts
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The Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the United States, accounting for about 25 percent of the country's population.
The Church continues to grow and many people have chosen to convert to Catholicism. The Church is a vibrant, active community of believers which continues to have a positive influence on the lives of many people. However, there are people who for one reason or another have stopped actively participating in the Church and attending Mass. We live in a busy culture and society. There are many demands that are placed on us. Yet people are searching for a deeper sense of meaning, for a closer relationship with God, and for a more authentic spiritual identity.
Since the Church is a family, we miss those Catholics who may have left the Church or who have stopped participating in its vibrant liturgy and sacramental life. Perhaps you or someone you know are in this situation and do not know how to come back or how to become active again. The first thing you need to know is that you are always welcome back. The Church misses you and hopes that you will choose to come home as an active member.
Catholics Come Home is a non-profit, independent charity whose purpose is to invite inactive Catholics, and others searching for a faith home, to the Catholic faith. Their informative and interactive website helps to answer questions about Church teachings and gives an overview of the Catholic faith. Some of its founders and supporters recently returned to the Catholic faith and want to share their positive experiences with others. Many never left the Church, but recently grew to understand and appreciate their Catholic faith more deeply. All feel part of a big Catholic family, who sincerely hope others will also find more peace, real answers, and true happiness through the gift of faith.
Please feel free to explore any questions you may have about the Catholic Church or how you can return to an active participation in the Church by visiting the Catholics Come Home website.
Visit this link for valuable resources and personal witness testimonies about living a committed Christian life: http://www.catholicscomehome.org
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PEXA's digitial certificate software download is signed with a certificate issued to 'pexa.net.au'. Why should anyone trust software signed by a website? Especially one that is not in use? It is trivial to register website names, and numerous 'pexa.' domains are available for registration now by anyone. How are we to discern whether pexa.net.au is actually owned by the Property Exchange Australia Limited? How then, are we to determine whether to trust the signer and install this software?
The software should be signed with a certificate issued to PROPERTY EXCHANGE AUSTRALIA LIMITED.
Surely PEXA does not think that users should ignore incorrect security certification of its software? Or that we should trust anything with 'PEXA' in it somewhere? This is EXACTLY how fake (malicious) software is promulgated.
I posted about this in the general forum section, but received no response.
Hi @Andrew_GC, thanks for posting this, pexa.net.au is a PEXA domain. I have shared this with our security team to find out more information.
Thanks Emily. Any response from the team?
Hi @Andrew_GC - the team are looking into it so hoping to share more info with you asap.
Sooo.... any news? I would have thought a month was enough time for your security team respond?
Hi @Andrew_GC - our security team have reviewed the Digital Certificate package and it will soon be updated to show Property Exchange Australia. Thanks for bringing this is our attention.


That admonition would probably upset a lot of people. But you still ought to do it.
Some rules are OK. They don't violate any aspect of Rightful Liberty.
But a lot of rules are really bad and harmful. Your default setting shouldn't ever be "obedience".
When confronted by any rule, evaluate it and decide whether the rule is legitimate, whether it respects or violates Rightful Liberty, whether the person imposing the rule actually has the right (not the "authority") to do so, and whether the benefits of obeying the rule outweigh the costs.
What you find may surprise you. Or not.


Featuring warm autumn colors floating on the wind, this beautiful Autumn themed quilt set brings the colors of the natural world into your bedroom.
Dancing leaves in shades of gold, amber orange, scarlet and emerald green on a soft cream colored ground. This set reverses to an all-over coordinating leaf print on a scarlet red ground for two looks in one!
Set comes with quilt and two pillow shams (one sham per twin set). 100% ultra-soft microfiber shell with 100% polyester fill for extra loft.


In recent years prevailing wage policies also known as Davis-Bacon laws have been hotly debated by city councils, state legislatures, and the United States Congress. What's often missing from these discussions is the voice of working people. The broader impact of prevailing wage on communities usually goes unreported. However, Southwest Carpenters are from the community, and for the community—there is no debate, we must protect prevailing wage!
In 2016 New Mexico's state officials had their own discussion about prevailing wage, and the results were House Bills 110 & 200, proposals to cut and ultimately eliminate the state's prevailing wage standards. The costs of such actions far exceed the benefits. HB 110 & 200 would've increased costs for New Mexico's taxpayers through reduced economic activity, increased poverty, and expenses on public assistance. According to Smart Cities Prevail, each year losses in economic activity across all industries tally up to $288 million Additionally, by underpaying workers states and local governments lose $7.7 million. Out-of-state contractors nab $160 million of business from our communities, too.
In the Southwest, we believe in hiring the best craftsmen in the community, on every project, but public works most of all because projects built with taxpayer dollars should benefit the greater good. Using union workers helps control construction costs by increasing project efficiency, which makes projects built with prevailing wage standards more likely to come in on time and on budget. More local spending and higher wages boosts local, state, and federal tax revenues by billions of dollars.
Join the fight and stand up for your community by defending prevailing wage laws also known as Davis-Bacon laws, or as we in the industry call them Big Bacon and Little Bacon laws.


1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until 1983, was an American airline that operated from 1928 until 1982. Its routes were primarily in the midwestern and southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America. In the late 1970s it expanded to Asia and Europe. The airline ceased operations in May 1982 because high fuel prices and the Airline Deregulation Act of December 1978 rendered it uncompetitive.
In this somewhat comical image, the viewer is invited to Peru where cattle raising and consumption is a prominent factor. We see the bull breathing heavily and with a curious grin on its face.


text:
Q: Is "in which" relevant here? I am writing the following sentence.

In contrast to the object modeling, (ABC et al., 2009) present an approach for urban object recognition using shape knowledge in which a set of features describing the object shape and their spatial context are introduced in order to classify objects.

I am not sure whether I used the correct clause to get the clear meaning of the sentence. Is "in which" correct in this case?

A: "in which" sounds perfectly natural here.
However, here are a couple things to look at.

*

*What/Who is the subject doing the presenting?

*"the object shape" vs. "the object's shape" (general vs specific)

*"their" vs. "its" (one object shape vs many object shapes)

*"in order" (ambiguous: "to be able to" vs. "in a particular sorted order")

In accordance with the above, I would rephrase it as:

In contrast to the object modeling, ABC et al. (2009) presents* an approach for urban object recognition using shape knowledge in which a set of features describing the object's shape and spatial context are introduced to classify objects.

* Present and presents would both be okay here. I am American and I favor presents; a British English speaker might favor present.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Choice of Intel and AMD processors.
Find deals for the HP Pavilion 590 Desktop PC from the official HP UK store, John Lewis, Currys / PC World and Very listed in the table below. Any available discount codes are show alongside the cheapest attainable price.
The Pavilion 590 is a new and redesigned tower desktop PC from HP and comes in a sleek and modern design. Various configurations are available with a choice of Intel and AMD processors. It offers powerful graphics with discrete graphics card options from the AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce range. All models come with 5.1 audio, an integrated Media card reader and a DVD writer.
Connectivity options include Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN and 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2x2) and Bluetooth® 4.2 M.2 combo. Ports included are USB 3.1 and USB 3.1 Type-C™, 1 audio in; 1 audio out and 1 microphone in. Expansion slots include PCIe x16 and MiniCard, Video connecting ports included are VGA and HDMI.


text:
March 29, 2015 Johanna First Second	One comment
Sleepless Knight
Sleepless Knight by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost uses the characters from the Adventures in Cartooning series of kids' books about making comics to tell a straightforward (if goofy) story. The only nod to the series' history of instructional how-tos are a few endpapers showing how to draw the book's four main characters: the Knight, Edward the horse, a rabbit, and a bear.
The Knight and Edward are going camping. Although poor Edward is completely overloaded with unnecessary stuff, the Knight adds one more thing: "I can't sleep without my teddy!" After the beloved bear is found, the two unpack and set up camp, with a fire and plenty of marshmallows. There's a talking rabbit and a little bit of danger to get the adrenaline pumping, and Teddy gets lost once again.
Visually, the cartooning is fun, although I found it odd how Edward was drawn with his saddle on even when he's tossing and turning on the ground, trying to sleep. For those interested in making comics, there are lots of interesting sample panels here, but I miss the guidance of the lessons in previous installments. I preferred combining education with a picture book format — but there's a reason the approach has changed. This is aimed much younger than the how-to books, for 3-to-5-year-olds instead of 6-to-10-year-olds, and intended as an introduction to the series. (The publisher provided an advance digital review copy.)
Pingback: Links: More Phoebe, the Return of Planetes, and a James Kochalka Crossover — Good Comics for Kids


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In Covid Economy, More Uncertainty for Gas
Above, Jessica Woycehoski is a resource planner for CMS Energy, Michigan's largest utility and the 10th largest in the US. Problems for natural gas were becoming evident even 2 years ago when I interviewed her.
Natural Gas in the age of Covid-19 is looking more and more like coal did about a dozen years ago – that is, what was once considered a slam dunk no-brainer for additions to the grid, now reveals glaring weaknesses and contradictions.
I posted yesterday about a cancelled gas pipeline on the East Coast – that developers attributed to increasing uncertainty in the gas world.
I'll continue to post the bread crumbs that lead me to believe we are seeing an unraveling of natural gas, about a decade sooner than even optimistic renewable fans might have predicted.
Fundamental quandary: Gas is and has been, for a decade, too cheap for frackers to make money. If they start charging enough to make a profit, the renewables, and increasingly, battery storage, will eat them alive.
Any new developments that add more layers of doubt just make investors more skittish.
Reuters:
LONDON (Reuters) – Prospects for nearly half of the world's projects to build infrastructure for exporting liquefied natural gas have faltered in recent months, amid rising concerns about climate change, public protests and delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report published Tuesday.
Out of 45 major LNG export projects in pre-construction development globally, at least 20 – representing a capital outlay of some $292 billion – are now facing delays to their financing, researchers at Global Energy Monitor found.
That marks a stark shift by investors away from what many had considered a promising fuel market, already buffeted by slower growth in demand, rising competition from renewable energy technologies and opposition over the industry's climate-warming emissions.
The vice president of the European Investment Bank said the report underlined the unacceptable risk of investing in LNG assets.
"Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure like liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals is increasingly an economically unsound decision," Andrew McDowell told Reuters in an email.
The bank had announced in November that it would stop financing fossil fuel projects at the end of 2021.
The LNG industry has made big bets on a more positive outlook, as many analysts have predicted that demand would outstrip supply sometime in the next decade.
Companies committed $160 billion to $170 billion to new LNG export terminal construction around the world in 2019, almost triple the roughly $65 billion committed in 2018, said researchers at the San Francisco-based non-profit research group.
In total, companies had announced plans to build $758 billion of projects that are as yet in the pre-construction phase. But with 20 projects now in jeopardy, including nine in the United States, that planned capital outlay could be reduced by $292 billion, or 38%, if the delays persist indefinitely, the researchers told Reuters.
"LNG infrastructure faces the risk of becoming stranded assets and should be avoided," said Erik Fransson, head of the fund department at the Swedish Pensions Agency, which has $12 billion of assets under management.
3 Responses to "In Covid Economy, More Uncertainty for Gas"
dumboldguy Says:
Goody, Goody—-Semper Fi, and OOH-rah! Bad news for NG is good news for the planet.
Of course, we have been hearing similar "bad news" about COAL for a long time. If NG is pushed out at the rate COAL has been, does anyone think we'll avoid the looming tipping points and resulting CAGW?
leslie graham Says:
Warren Buffet thinks gas has a great future. Not that he's a hero of mine or anything but he has become one of the top five richest men in the world solely by predicting future trends.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/warren-buffett-buys-dominion-energys-natural-gas-storage-assets-51593980905
We seem to be on course for extinction of the human race (and every other higher life form) but at least there are some great opportunities to get rick before we all die. Yay!
rhymeswithgoalie Says:
How many houses and buildings in the US are plumbed for gas appliances (heating, stoves, ovens, water heaters, etc.)? What kind of load would it transfer to the power grid for all homes heated with gas-fired heaters to convert to electric-powered?
« Nitrous Oxide: No Laughing Matter in Permafrost
Energy's Future Increasingly Renewable…Even in Texas.. »


Ravi Karandeekar's Pune Real Estate Advertising and Marketing Blog: 3.5 BHK & 4.5 BHK Flats at Baner Launched!
3.5 BHK & 4.5 BHK Flats at Baner Launched!
Open Bookings of "Emirus Baner"
at Sr. no. 107, Baner Road, Near D' Mart, Baner, Pune- 411 045, Maharashtra, India.
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Thanks for sharing details on this projects.
Emirus is a blend of privacy of a bungalow and safety of an apartment.It is located at Pune's highly favored area Baner and its close proximity to to multiplexes, shopping complexes, restaurants, clubs, schools and supermarkets that make life convenient for your entire family.


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Fanshawe grad uses business to create social change
Thomas James Sayers Culture January 30, 2017
CREDIT: SIXFIVE INTERACTIVE
Tyler Bryden is the chief executive officer at SixFive Interactive, a business that was funded by entrepreneurial grants.
Fanshawe graduate and entrepreneur Tyler Bryden has a lot to be proud of. His marketing and production company SixFive Interactive has just hired on a new employee and has an established office space in Innovation Works, a big step for the propel entrepreneurship program graduates.
Bryden has been interested in working for himself from a young age; he got his first job at 12 working from home as a copywriter. As he got older, his ambitions turned from odd jobs at home to starting his own company. Now he wants others to see that entrepreneurship is a real option.
"Right now one of the big things I'm trying to push is that these options are out there because no one tells you. I had to dig for months to find where I could get a grant."
Bryden's journey started back in May of 2015 when he took part in the London Small Business Centre's summer company program, where he received a grant of $3,000 to start his company. "It was a lot of fun and gave me my first taste of success in business," Bryden said.
He returned for his second semester in Fanshawe's interactive media design program. His next summer was spent at the propel entrepreneur incubator, where he received $15,000 and heaps of support and exposure.
"It gives you credibility. Now we're not just some guys who started a company, we got the validation of going through propel and working with other entrepreneurs."
He said that while the choice to start his own business was a bit of a risk, it's not as big as most think.
"It's more risky to not be an entrepreneur, I find. I have friends who have had good, safe jobs and then something happens to their company out of no part of their own doing and they get fired. They have no transferrable skills sometimes." He added that for a service company, little needs to be put in other than time and energy.
After completing propel, the company moved into Innovation Works. The co-working environment appealed to the SixFive team, as well as the social impact that so many of the tenants strive towards. "Everyone wants to save the world here and it's so inspiring."
Bryden is concerned with social change and uses revenue from the company to combat stigma around sexuality and mental health, issues he has dealt with himself.
"When I was 21, I finished my hockey career and went through a crisis of faith. We won a championship in London and it sent us into a vicious cycle of partying that summer."
Later in the summer, his father suffered a heart attack. "I went through this breakdown phase of, 'I don't know who I am, what do I want to do from life,' and it spiraled into mental health issues and depression. It was a really tough time in my life but it really helped me prioritize what I wanted to do."
Bryden went public about his experiences with mental health and a year later came out as bisexual.
"Those were two big moments for me that were very socially oriented. There're so many problems with mental health and LGBTQ rights that bother me."
SixFive Interactive is producing original content that will impact how people feel about mental health and sexuality; a project of theirs coinciding with Bell Let's Talk is creating videos about other Innovation Works tenant's experiences with mental health.
Bryden noted that social change and responsibility is something more businesses should strive towards.
"We have a drive to succeed in business, but like a lot of our generation we care about the actual issues behind it too."
Looking forward, Bryden wants to see more support for entrepreneurs, but also for those struggling with mental health who have the entrepreneurial spirit.
"Personally, I feel much happier now than before I started a company because what I'm doing is fulfilling."
Students interested in entrepreneurship should visit Leap Junction at Fanshawe and look into entrepreneurial programs in London.
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Location: Located in a hollow in high land, on the southern side of the Begwns, with access by farm road from the Fynnon Gynnydd to Glascwm road.
Farmhouse of the C17, extended or remodelled in the C18. Rubble stone with slate roof. Two storeys, lobby entry plan, with central gabled open 2-storey porch with pecked stone lintel and internal side seats. Two and 3-light windows with stone drip course over. Stable with granary over added to the S end, extending to the rear. The original building may have comprised only the two bays N of the porch, with entry at side of stack, and the porch added before the building was extended to the S in the late C17, but the rear wall is rebuilt at this end. Slightly projecting bay left of porch possibly originally a stair, now filled with concrete. C20 3-light windows, and blocked window to gable end with drip over. Large central 4-flue stack. The S bays have a large stone lateral stack on the rear wall. Blocked gable window within attached outbuilding. Stable door and windows to attached building.
Main living hall right of porch has ovolo-moulded ceiling joists sweeping out at ends. Timber framed partition to inner room, divided, with stair in rear section. Lateral fireplace blocked. Outbuilding has cobbled floor.
Included as a substantial hill farmhouse of C17 or earlier origins, retaining character and features of historic interest.


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Cecilia Zoppelletto
Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media
Cecilia, born in Padua (Italy), living in London since 1994, has worked as a news producer for the Italian national broadcasting company RAI and as TV host and writer for the Italian network Antenna Tre Nordest. Cecilia is a PhD researcher at the University of Westminster, the research titled Decolonisation through 'Development Films': Constructing and Re-Constructing the Zairian Spirit on Film explores the archives of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the country's national film image of post-independence. She is a documentary filmmaker, director and producer of La Belle At The Movies (2015), the short experimental film Falling (2017) and currently in production of the film Jews of Congo (working title)
2017: Film BA - Module: Film Theory and Analysis: Hollywood and Genre
2017-18: Film BA: Thesis Supervision
2019: Film BA - Module: Art of Cinema
Decolonisation through 'Development Films': Constructing and Re-Constructing the Zairian Spirit on Film
An investigation of the creation of the "Zairian" identity on film as an attempt of decolonisation by the Mobutu regime, through the films recovered at the National Film Archives of the Democratic Republic of Congo


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Home Blog Vegan Fried Chick*n Brand (VFC) Set to Debut Bold New Flavor
Vegan Fried Chick*n Brand (VFC) Set to Debut Bold New Flavor
Vegan Fried Chick*n Brand VFC To Bring Bold New Flavor To Expo East & Plant Based World Expo 2022
The Plant Based World Expo in New York City and the Natural Products Expo East 2022 in Philadelphia this September are where VFC, the world's most innovative and rebellious vegan food company, will be showcasing their most recent product. This year, VFC will have one of the largest booths at Plant Based World Expo. In addition to this eye-catching booth, VFC is also bringing their famed food truck to Expo East, where they will offer attendees a variety of delectable meal options featuring their upcoming product, the Chick*n Tenders!
The launch of an exclusive IP (intellectual property) that enables them to provide a recipe that delivers the same taste, juiciness, and bite as traditional fried chicken without sacrificing any animals in the process shows how hungry VFC is to continue their wildly successful expansion onto US land! Following its successful launch the previous year and being named the "Best New Vegan Product" by Veg News earlier this year, VFC has expanded into a number of food service establishments, well-known retail chains like Bristol Farms, Central Market, Harmon's, and Raley's, as well as numerous colleges and universities across the nation.
With a bold, rebellious, and witty attitude, as well as a reputation for wit and humor, VFC stands out from the commercial crowd. However, what really distinguishes VFC from the competition is its unrelenting activism, which is reinforced by an ambitious brand mission: to end factory farming, save chickens, and change the world. With its unmatched products, VFC hopes to revolutionize the vegan food industry. It offers restaurateurs and retailers a variety of crispy, tender, vegan chicken options, such as Chick*n Fillets for the ideal burger bite, Chick*n Tenders for dipping and dunking, and Popcorn Chick*n for a quick snack. Each product has a high protein content without ever sacrificing flavor.
VFC can be found at stand 303 at the Plant Based World Expo, taking place September 8-9, and stand 1456 at Expo East, taking place September 28-October 1.
Kevin M. Gallagher, Jr
First and foremost, Kev is a dad to three wonderful children. He's also an uber Kevin Smith fan (all Smith's movies are worth a watch, even 'Yoga Hosers') who has cried during Kermit's monologue in 'The Muppets' and once owned two VHS copies 'Spice World'. He loves all pop culture, particularly the Berlantiverse (because 'Arrow' hasn't been the face of those CW shows for years), the MCU, and Star Wars. The Evil Dead franchise is his favorite horror franchise, though the original 'Scream' is his favorite scary movie. He bleeds Eagle's green in the (suburbs of the) greatest city on Earth, Philadelphia. Go Birds!


Discussions > How Do Certain Economic Factors Affect The Sale Of A Small Business?
23 years ago, someone told me - I don't remember who - that business brokerage was a great business to get into because people were always buying and selling businesses. Good times or bad, he said, businesses were always trading hands, After all, he reminded me, business ownership is a big part of the American Dream.
I'm sure he believed everything he was telling me. Owning your own business does mean that you control your own destiny, reap the full profits of your hard work and build equity in something that you may sell later. But the truth is that not every business sells and not every marketplace is good.
Just look at the Great Recession.
The Great Recession - officially December 2007 to June 2009 - hit business hard, and the damage it did is still affecting the business-for-sale marketplace. During the Great Recession, small businesses were driven out of business in droves and survivors were left hanging on by their fingertips. Would be sellers couldn't afford to sell at the suddenly depressed value of their business; would be buyers couldn't find a money-making business. And if they did, they found their investment accounts empty, their home equity dried up and their ability to buy a business suddenly gone.
Business sales ground to a halt.
Business sales, like most things, are subject to the rules of supply and demand. If there are tons of buyers and few sellers, prices go up. Conversely, when there are few buyers and many sellers, prices go down. This sounds simplistic, but in general, it's true - depending on the size of the business. Large businesses with management in place, strong patents or brands, and a long history are impacted less than "Mom and Pop" main street businesses.
But what about today's marketplace? Businesses are finally profitable, and buyers have gained back much, if not all, of their home equity and investments accounts. Buyers can afford to buy, and sellers are willing to sell based upon their most recent valuation.
So, things are all great, right?
Yes and no. Sales are strong for larger businesses. We typically find more buyers for a $10M in revenues and $1.5M in profits than we do for a $500K in revenues and $100K in profits business. There are more buyers for bigger businesses because the buyer-universe includes other companies, very high net worth individuals, private equity groups and international buyers. These buyers all seek a return on investment which is only possible with businesses with higher earnings. But where we continue to see business sales impacted negatively are with smaller businesses. For the local retail store, deli, or carpet cleaning business, whose owner/operator income (Discretionary Earnings, or "DE") is typically less than $100K a year, businesses linger in the marketplace. The surprising reason - the economy is too good. Unemployment is low so that buyers that otherwise might seek out a smaller business are finding it easier to get a good, high-paying job. This leads them to think, "Why pay for a business when I can make that same income in a job?"
My conclusion: Business sales happen in good times and bad, but even good economies affect the way in which they sell.
The Great Recession was a disaster for many businesses and business brokers. I started selling businesses in the mid 1990s, and as we got into the early 2000's up until 2006-2007, the prices of businesses went up, up, and up. I would ask buyers where they were getting the money, some said, they emptied out a retirement fund, while many said they were going to pull the money out of their house (Home Equity Line of Credit).
Coffee shops that would normally sell for 75K were now selling for 200K-225K in the mid 2000s, because money became so easily accessible, and the economy was on fire. The buyers who bought at the height of the market, mid 2000s, would call me 4-5 years later (2011 and on) and ask how much they could get, and were disappointed because money had become harder to get and prices went drastically down (or back to normal). Sellers were frustrated because for a while they were all getting cashed out, but now we had to go back to the old days of 50 down/50 owner carry.
Businesses will always sell, because people will always be willing to or have to buy a job, either because for immigration purposes, they were forced out of the corporate world, or they have just always wanted to be their own boss.
A simple mantra says it all, "The best time to sell is when the business is doing well." Waiting for the right business cycle can be a fatal error. Waiting to sell until there is no other choice, often results in no sale at all. Whatever the current state of the economy, a business owner can benefit from receiving an objective market valuation of their business from a professional business broker, rather than just assuming they know the value of the business at any particular point in time. Sometimes during economic downturns when it would be counter-intuitive to sell a business, there could be many potential buyers who can't find a job because unemployment is so high. When in doubt, consult a broker.


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