Lazz

Hey Rudi. So you're about to become a MacNoid? Hard to envisage you having too many problems. Windows was intended to emulate the example of Mac interface re intuitive ease of use, remember, so if you've been using the Bill Gates packages up 'til now, I guess you'll find the migration pretty straight ahead and will have little need for a manual. Every other MacNoid I know regards their machine as far superior to MS although, to me, they both do the same job in pretty much the same way. But I guess there are reasons why Mac has long been the standard industry platform in recording and design. One clear advantage is the absence of viruses and trojans and such. I think the "Dummies" series of books is good all round. Maybe they have one for the Mac?

I think Marc was only jiving, T. Like myself, he doesn't tend to go in for these emoticon thingies, so you have to take his basic good nature into account, presume he's having fun, and read-in a more charitable interpretation. It's the "Give it!" gives it away.

Hey Finn. I see you have withdrawn from the computer industry and leapt full-time into music..... Sincere good wishes and good luck with it.

What's the rationale for that, Al? Not critical, just curious. I am very much looking forward to hearing the fruits of your labours. Just have a lovely time and do lots of laughing. Take it easy. But take it.

Not much anymore, Al, at this distance. But still a supporter. Those typos do persist at the Garindau though, don't they?

Try this one: Grokster Judgement

I see that it's now downloadable from the Grauniad site, too.

Done.

If there is anyone else out there besides me who is interested in this sort of nitty-gritty, I have a *.pdf of the court judgement. I can e-mail it willingly although, sadly, doing so will not constitute an infringement.

Great. Thanks for all the help, guys. It doesn’t look like I would have found my way unaided. Typical. Nigel – I am no programmer, so still feel a tad intimidated by coded stuff of which I possess such a limited understanding. On the face of it, “Free” seems a much better deal than “Expensive”, but I’m going to have to get someone else to look at your open source suggestion on my behalf and see how it can address what appear to be my two core needs for integrated payment and delivery processes. Do you have any other observations about how this could function? The delivery process has been bugging me the most. From what I can figure out, the common solution is for the purchaser to receive a “key” via e-mail that enables them to go pick-up the downloads they’ve bought. That way, they get only the copies they pay for and not unlimited access to multiple copies or even my complete library. Inventa, PayLoadzand Actinic have that end neatly covered, of course, because paid downloads is what they’re made for, but I’m not at all sure about the other off-the-shelf systems I had previously been looking at like Fortune, EziMerchant and Pinnacle. The one big advantage of the Actinic product is the fact that we can buy it and own it and use it ourselves rather than having to be committed to some regular monthly gouging in order to use what amount to third-party gateway facilities. We already use an external commission-based gateway for purchases and I'm waiting to see whether they have any mechanisms for handling this download business. Stevie the Parrott and Harry the Bear get a big hand for leading me to Actinic. This looks to be the canine’s testicles at the moment. Even if it is a big chunk of change. (I might have to get another paper-round.) Mille grazis. I’m getting a more informed geezer than me to help look at these options and I’ll tell you how we get along.

Thanks, Steve. I have added those to the small bundle of others I found. (Been looking for this Payloadz site for some time - but had been spelling it wrong, naturally, and ended up instead with information about particular viral dangers.) My search for an affordable independent on-line solution first started almost two years ago. The firm Finn mentions in passing, The Orchard, was one of my first stops. They are a digital distributor, by the way, not a store-front like iTunes. And they claim to be the biggest. But then, so does the company they led me to, one called Loudeye, who have been in the business of digitally encoding media since 1997, and are heavily capitalised by Microsoft, Intel, AOL-Time Warner, CBS, NBC et al. Loudeye were the guys who designed the shop-front software for all those other traders. It came as a kind of “white-label” package that enabled other operations to dress it up as a bespoke branded identity. It was predictably way beyond my means but, as they had by that time moved into the business of also supplying content, we instead entered a digital distribution deal with them. All the omens were good: the rate per download was significantly better than other options I’d been chasing, the ISRC encoding process was charged at around one fifth of the price offered by other companies, it promised a great deal more that I shan’t waste time going into, and it was non-exclusive. Just what we wanted. Only they don’t actually deliver the goods – far too busy with survival through growth and acquisitions to concern themselves with low priorities like proper service to small fishes like us. In the interim, thankfully, these other smaller software companies have developed packages that enable small-time independents like us to offer downloads for sale without losing an arm and a leg in the process. Great. We get quite a lot of site traffic, and we also have a lot of projects mixed and mastered that we can’t afford to manufacture yet. All I need to do is find out what the choices are and which one is right for us. So thanks again for your comments, Steve. I need the help and appreciate it very much.

I am a record company and I have a deal. Thank you. Do you happen to have any answer to the question, though?

Do any of you have information/recommendations for decent shopping-cart and shop-front software that is appropriate for selling downloadable music in MP3 format?

We might be if it worked. Fortunately for us, and despite all the flack we might read, it's dead in the water. Too many variables, too many unknowns. And I'm doomed already.

Thanks. ISC replied that this would indeed be the right category and that some of their finalists were jazz vocalists. Never submitted to any of these events before (never had anything worthwhile before) so I'm going ahead anyway just for the crack and just like you guys suggested.

I seem to recall Lagoa de Canoa and/or Brasil Universo. But let me root through my stuff and get back to you. (Did you see my recent CD review of that other slice of Brasilian excellence, Grupo Fundo de Quintal?) Let's get that thread started..... (you first - I'm kinda shy.)

I took it as friendly - but no joke. Having playful appreciation from Steve, Young Tom, Old Tom, and you is more than cool. It means a great deal.

That'll be from "Slave's Mass". Oh, I don't know about that... I think he studies ALL the time. You don't get that good at expressing genius without working at it. His fellow muso-nagicians think of it as attending university. Have you heard the little games he played with Brasilian football cheers and commentary, Hari? (Gee - I just had to do that - I like the way it rhymes - especially with lazy English pronunciation dropping the "H" off "Hari".) Last time I saw him, for one piece the guys all stepped forward holding metal cooking pots containing dried beans and, reading intently from the music charts in front of them. rattled and shook their way through something so percussively sophisticated I could hardly believe it. Music from anything, this guy. Maybe we should have a complete thread on Hermeto. More people should get the chance to hear him before he pegs out.

Hey Hari, Just followed one of your links to discover a list of "influences" and see to my pleasure your inclusion not only of Wes and Martino but also Caetano Veloso and the little loco albino Hermeto Pascoal. No insult intended here, by the way. I love Hermeto. Met him a couple of times. He is quite small. He is indeed albino. And he is very crazy. Doesn't speak a word of English. I have no Portuguese. But we had a great laugh. You obviously have an admirably broad and hungry pair of ears. Very cool. Alistair, Thanks again for all your support and encouragement. Steve, Maybe euro-mantic should be a category, but I was merely showing off that I finally had my poetic licence restored by the authorities. Now I can commit verbal abuse freely once more.

Thanks for that Jim Hillman name, Nigel. Funny I've never heard of him before, even though I know many of the guys he's played with and we're kind of on the same scene and definitely in the same country. I'll be getting in touch with him. My uncertainty is mainly about what they mean and want in this category - two out of the three from last year are edgy New York style hard-bop pieces while the other from Toon Roos is more euro-mantic - but they're all instrumental. They already have a category called "instrumentsl". I'm just reluctant to drop 100 bucks on 'em if it isn't going to count because of some unwritten rules that I don't know about. I have written to ask them about this but no reply yet. Ah well - maybe yours and Finn's immediate response is the best way. Finn - you (or anyone else) can check out a handful of songs on our Songstuff Artist Page for Coleman-Lazzerini

Right then. I'm considering submitting some songs to this International Songwriting Competition flagged at the top of the pages here. Problem is I'm not category confident. I know I'm not AAA/Roots/Americana even if I understood what it meant. Neither is my stuff Dance/Electronica. Nor Country nor Rock nor Pop. Automatically I want to submit to the jazz category because, after all, I write jazz songs with a jazz composer. However, none of the listed previous winners in this category employ any lyrics. Would that rule me out right at the start? Is it only for instrumentals? Am I wasting my time? How can something be considered a song if it has no words to be sung? Anyone familiar with this competition and some of my songs have any advice?

There is really nothing much to understand. The "resonator" was a means of "amplifying" a guitar in the pre-electric era. The famous Steel Nationals had a series of cones built into the body to rattle and project the sound more than normal. These particular ones were designed to be played on the lap, open-tuning, with a slide. But that is not true of all resonator guitars. Sacrilege? Some people say it is unacceptable to "strum".!!

....... and what we don't know, we can always learn, if we really want to or need to. And hey Steve - what's happening with your recent trio-playing invitation?

Hyberbole aside (probably fungible) there is of course tons I don't know. What I do know - I'm willing to share - if it helps. For example: There are known unknowns like Rumsfield. Steve's shoe size is ten and a half in old money. H.H. is completely right.

Don't know how possible this could be for you, but a good approach is to carry your regular guitar into the store and check out a range of amps with it. Might take you a couple of days to find the right one. Shops are usually ok with this. If they're not, they don't deserve your business. You might find Marshalls a bit crude and lumpy for your tastes ("funk/lighter knda jazzy sounds"). And of course there are Fenders, and there are Fenders. Different years, models, and builds. You need to make firm friends with an amp-geek. Yours may be a classic. My friend - one of the finest jazz guitarists around - has long insisted on dragging around an old black-faced Fender with groove tubes, but lately - like all the other finest jazz guitarists around - he has finally started coming around to Clarus. I think they hold the standard you may be looking for. They might be out of your reach right now but it's something to measure the alternatives by.