Oh and while I'm add it

Update on my OGG-ification of my musical life.

So, I started ripping CD's at Q1, which is roughly 80 kbps.

This was not a good idea. While the files sound absolutely fantastic at low volumes, at high volumes most music tends to sound like they're coming out of inferior speakers that cannot handle the music's whole "width," so to speak (deal with me - sound is very subjective).

With minor testing I've found this effect is minimal at Q2 (96kbps) and non-existent at Q3 (112kbps). I guess it's time to re-rip some of that stuff. Some of the music I'm just listening to briefly, for nostalgic purposes, so I'll probably leave that at Q1, but for the rest I think it's time to up the ante. OK Computer deserves more bits!

Music library size before upping the ante? Forty-five-ish albums at about 2.5 GB. A lot of that girth is from Kahvi and Jamendo, both of which, for reasons unknown to me, rip their OGG files at Q7 (224kbps). Well, it sounds great, at any rate.

Good OGG albums:

-Relics of the Chozo, an excellent ambient and moody remix of the Super Metroid soundtrack (considered by many to be one of the best game soundtracks of all time). Metroid music has always created a very distinctive alien world, and this album does it just as well as the game.

-Tom Bragl's Zerochoice, my favorite Kahvi release and probably my favorite electronic album. Also of note is his label-mate Polaski, whose Bendii Syndrome will lull you to into bliss faster than any cold medicine can push you to sleep.

-NanoWar's metal parody album, which had me in stitches, once I understood past the Italian accents. The great songwriting helps. Also on Jamendo, Revolution Void. Though I'm sure that K. Mandla has already recommended this artist far more than I ever could (and I assume you're reading him), it's worth your time.

EDIT: I forgot that I shrunk You look Nice Today's original MP3 archive from 1 GB of MP3 files to about 400 MB of Q0 OGG files (64kbps). Sounds fine.

Somewhere in the world, a lossless fan is crying.

EDIT 2: After some retooling, deleting and re-encoding (OK Computer was actually ripped at some obscene bitrate - like Q10) I managed to get the library down to 1.5 GB with better quality. 38 albums, some of them Kahvi EP's, most of them full length and wonderful.

I'm listening to Matchbox 20 again for the first time in years (I loved them when I was eleven). Such a great feeling.