Video blogs
Hey, I’m thinking it might be nice to add an occasional vidblog/podcast to the site. I dashed this one off as a trial. It’s a clip from my song The Flat Earth at last February’s TED Conference (Technology, Entertainment and Design) and I’ve added a voiceover explaining what I’m doing–a bit like a ‘Director’s Cut.’
Download the clip. Try it on your computer. Try it on your video iPod if you have one. Let me know what you think. Is the quality good enough? Is the file size too big? Can you see my nose hairs?? etc etc. Click on the pic below to download the video clip. And thanks for being my guinea pig. It’s the only way to test how well our server holds up to multiple simultaneous 19.2mb downloads!
April 27th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Looks great from here! I’m on a Mac G5 Dual 2.7, OS 10.4. Very clean and sharp image. But that’s my work’s computer. I’m not even sure if I could view it at home on my rickety old G4 (350!). And if I could it would probably be quite a bit jumpy.
Oh, strange thing was that it added “.txt” to the file name, but I just deleted that part of the file name to “.m4v” and it played fine through my iTunes.
Thanks for uploading this particular clip as I was just trying to explain to a concept artist I work with (who’s also interested in electronic music) how you “build” your songs. Now I can show them directly!
April 27th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
I don’t have an ipod of any kind. I did however manage to get something out of Quick Player. I managed to get the audio but not the picture, but what I could hear sond great. I love The Flat Earth, it’s my favourite track.
April 27th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
Hey, Mr. Dolby,
It’s a thrilling clip for me because I’ve sang that song for years now and know every inch of it. Thus to see the song created before my eyes was astounding. The clip is a great idea, looks sharp here in Miami, downloaded easy, and I would love any clip you want to put on.
Thanks so much and I will have the great honor of joining you for both nights at Joes Pub in NYC which I still can not believe at this point.
A very grateful fan,
Micah/Ziggy the Clown
ziggytheclown.com
April 27th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
I’m the same, I’ve got Audio, but no Video. Do you know what video codec you used?
It’s probably a pc compatability thing.
But the Audio sounds great!
April 27th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Cool video.
Have your webmaster add m4v MIME type and it won’t download as a .txt file.
April 27th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
One word: fantastic. It downloaded into iTunes no problem for me, and I could play it from there (no video iPod, sadly, just the audio kind). As to the content, it was fascinating, and also great to see you still obviously getting a real thrill out of playing something that you wrote more than 20 years ago!
April 28th, 2006 at 12:48 am
Plays fine in Quicktime Pro and iTunes. Video a bit jumpy in places, but audio was top notch.
Thanks Thomas. Nice to see you recreate a classic tune from the ground up. Looking forward to seeing you at Scala. Don’t forget May 13th – the Hammers are in the final! Will you be watching?
April 28th, 2006 at 2:29 am
Looks very cool here. I always recommend mplayer to anyone having troubles watching these.
April 28th, 2006 at 2:36 am
Wow. Simply fascinating. I cannot wait for Scala. I’ve waited more than 20 years for this.
Please do more of this Thomas. It gives a wonderful insight to the crafting of your music.
Brilliant!
Jon
April 28th, 2006 at 3:53 am
I’m not much of a talker and I’ve never done the podcast thing, but with a couple of hitches I got it to work perfectly. The first download attempt came through as text in my browser so I had to have another go at it. When I had it on my system (G4 cube with OS 10.3) It wouldn’t open until I moved it to the iTunes library folder. From there on everything was magic. It was rock solid playing.
Thanks!
Michael
April 28th, 2006 at 4:27 am
Looks ace.
No problems with itunes.
thanks
April 28th, 2006 at 4:35 am
Brilliant! (And your server seems to be holding up fine.)
April 28th, 2006 at 5:17 am
Cool! When you added the piano line, I got chills. Great tune!
April 28th, 2006 at 5:29 am
Awesome clip!
Love the “Director’s Cut” voice over.
Been following the tour through the blog etc.
I wish you were going to be coming to Florida!!!
Maybe next time Florida.
Anyway, continued success on the tour.
April 28th, 2006 at 7:35 am
Downloaded fine here back in the London night (OK, sunny spring afternoon), played so-so in iTunes for W*nd*ws. Rather laggy, in fact, and it’s a fairly new motherboard with 2.1GHz dual core thingy, 2GB of wotsit and a SATA-2 quarter terabyte gizmo.
Worth it, though.
Popping down to the Scala to buy some tickets tomorrow (it’s only ten minutes down the Caledonian Road from me, so it would be positively impolite not to). No TMDR gigs for two decades, then two in as many months? With these noises, you spoil me, Ambassador!
BL
April 28th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Played fine on my D2.3 G5, except for a few dropouts, which I think is due to the encoding (or source?).
The video itself was fun to watch. Thanks for sharing.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:03 am
Wow, wow, wow. Played the video with Quicktime on my Windows Laptop here at the office…worked great. More, more, more please.
Thanks TMDR!
MiniCoopGuy
April 28th, 2006 at 10:17 am
Wow, it was great to listen to you and your music. Nice the video too. I can’t wait to listen to you again in London.
Camilla
April 28th, 2006 at 10:19 am
This is a brilliant clip. It looks/sounds great and plays perfectly on Windows XP with Quicktime.
It’s amazing to see how you build a complicated, loop-driven, completely synthetic track from the ground up – and live, even!
Thanks for sharing it.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Sweeeeet.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:30 am
It’s great to hear you rework a classic song, and talk us through the process. More please!
April 28th, 2006 at 10:37 am
More geek-speak please….would love to know what voices you are using, etc.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:39 am
The video is great, the quality and the size is fine! And the Flat Earth has alway been one of my favorite! I have added the clip to my video collection, actually stored on a gameboy micro / play-yan. For the ones who use other portable video players than the ipod video, the .mp4 is a more compatible format. Isquint is an osx free utility to convert the videos.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:53 am
Wonderful! The quality, music, narration, download time, etc. are all great. I’d love to download gigs of any content you provide, so please don’t feel like you should reduce any quality (at least IMHO) for filesize.
I’m on a Quad G5. Playback seemed slightly different when playing in iTunes (v6.0.1) vs. the Quicktime Player (v7.0.3). The clipping sounded harsher in iTunes (e.g. “bongos”, with the EQ off). I noticed a dropout/glitch at 2:00 that shows up in both iTunes and the QT Player.
.. and thank you! Very cool.
April 28th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Video was perfect on my imac G5. Audio great as well.
Mr. Thomas can you explain how you are going from one section to the next section? Is it laid out before you start or do you go to part B and then C whenever you feel like it?
I think it’s especially nice that there is no cowbell metronome when you’re in cycle record!
April 28th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
This is great Thomas just what we need more live footage of you doing your stuff!!!
I had a few probs getting the video to work but found that nero showtime played it perfectly
looking forward to ordering the tour T-shirt when they all become available
Im off to book 2 tickets for scala now
C’ant wait to see you play live i still cannot belive your touring again
more videos and information please its been far too long
chuck…
April 28th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Hi Thomas,
This is superb and your blog keeps getting better every day! I really like the “Director’s Cut” voice-over and analysis. Since your tour doesn’t make it to Texas, I would surely buy a DVD with a collection of video clips like this.
Awesome…
-Chris
April 28th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Hi Thomas,
OK… so I don’t feel as bad that you added this after the San Francisco show. It too is one of my favorates though I have to say “Budapest By A Blimp” was something I never thought I would get to hear live. Thank you for that! Cheers and good luck with the rest of the tour.
-Todd
April 28th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Logic’s Environment has a meta command for ’setLocators.’ So I can decide that the intro is bars 1-8, and the B section is bars 9 to 16. I set up any MIDI key or button and it resets the locators. I hit it at any time during the intro loop, and now instead of looping back around, it will play on to bars 9-16. This only works moving forwards, unless I want to do it in 2 moves! In the B section I can either alias what I recorded in the intro; record a brand new part; or pre-record the notes. Doing this in Logic is clunky. Ableton Live deals with this stuff much better. But I had dinner with the founder of the former eMagic last week (now an Apple exec) and told him what I’d like to see in future revs.
April 28th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
I gotta have more cowbell!
April 28th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Techno-jargin aside, it was fantastic!!
My 5 & 7yr old boys dug it, too—we have a clunky, Casio keyboard that has some of the same sounds you use, & their eyes lit up w/every layer of sound you added on.
Honestly, you could’ve hit ‘play’ on a boombox & lipsynched & I’d be happy.
Thanks for doing A LOT more!!
Can’t wait ’til your Pittsburgh gig!
April 28th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
On Windows PC Platform:
History: I have been able to stream video stream of Quicktime, Real Audio and Windows Media Player in the past on apps versions below and on said PCs.
Explorer version 6.0.2900 ~ No option to download on physical drive. New window opens and takes about 4 minutes before beginning to stream on QuickTime version 6.5.2. Audio but no visual. Same result on a different PC #2 with same app versions.
Mozilla Firefox version 1.0.7~ No option to download on physical drive. It begins streaming within 1 minute. Audio but no visuals — PC #1
Mozilla Firefox version 0.9.2 (on PC #2) ~ Gave option to download physically on hard drive or stream. I physically download as .m4v. Unable to open with Real Audio, Windows Media Player or Quicktime.
Netscape 7.2 on PC #1. Opens new window, Audio and no visuals.
On Mac Platform
Wireless iBook ~ Safari 1.3.2 (v.312.6). Begins streaming almost immediately. Audio begins, visuals are static.
Netscape 7.0 same result as Safari.
Power Mac G5 ~ Safari 2.0.3. (417.8). Begins streaming almost immediately. No problems.
Same PowerMac G5 ~ Netscape 7.2. Opens up a new window and begins streaming almost immediately. No Problems.
Checked all above platforms with Steve Garfield’s Video Blogs at stevegarfield.blog.com with the option: Quicktime at 128K DSL. Video and audio runs fine.
Finally,
Quality of Flat Earth video and audio on PowerMac G5, very good!
April 28th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
This is such a GREAT blog entry. Very inspiring, it made me whip out my keyboard and start knocking out some chords and such. You know it’s great music when it makes you instantly pick something up and start to make your own stuff. Thank you much for posting this up!
April 28th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
Subject: Baseline and bandwidth
Your blog gets more amazing by the day.
That said, here’s some thoughts on compression and what not.
I viewed your clip on a cable line using a dell latitude d410, 2.0 ghz pentium M with a 128Mb video card and a gig of ram.
Quicktime was choppy losing about every third frame but the content was so compelling it didn’t deter from the experience. This was likely due to the fact that I didn’t wait for the clip to fully load before playing it. Unlike the frames, the clip’s soundtrack never dropped out and sounded crystal clear.
I think it’s safe to say that we’re all EXTREMELY appreciative of the video and your choice of the quicktime codec. I feel silly mentioning this but as you’re no doubt aware, a couple of thousand fans could run up your isp bills pretty fast. To that end, even though it would hurt the video ipod user base, you might also want to experiment with youtube and see if that will provide an acceptable alternative for future podcasts.
April 29th, 2006 at 2:56 am
Modification as of last post:
I have downloaded the combined iTunes+Quicktime 7.0.4 app from Apple site and install on PC #1 (self-built) & #2 (Dell Optiplex 280), played on Mozilla Firefox 0.9.2 & 1.0.7 respectively and PC #1 with Explorer 6.0.2900. ALL WORK FINE! Good image, fast stream, no hiccups.
April 29th, 2006 at 5:26 am
coool thanks for the explanation Thomas! It really looks like you have your method worked out well.
On the video it sort of looks like you just drop out of Cycle (or Loop) to go to the next sections, but instead you’re sayin you’re simply shifting the loop locaters to the next section by hitting a button on your Novation controller.
Very cool!
April 29th, 2006 at 6:29 am
Smooth & crisp playback on Mac OS 10.4. Using a cable modem – the streaming was exceptionally fast. Pulled into iTunes and moved to video iPod – no hitches. Works perfectly.
Very insightful content, especially the voiceover. I’ve always loved this track, the MLK sample is a nice treatment.
I appreciate the frequency of updates on your blog. I keep coming back. Would love to see more video.
April 29th, 2006 at 7:01 am
-whimper- G4 OS 10.2
no go : (
can’t go higher with this mac-must run
9 in the background for my awesome photoshop 5.5
April 29th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Jeff, if there are no more cycle sections required it’s enough to just drop out of Cycle and let the song play through to the end. This is certainly less hassle than fiddling with meta commands, which are not very intuitive.
April 29th, 2006 at 8:32 am
well like you were saying Ableton Live is really excellent in regards to “instant/intuitive arrangements” especially when set up from an external controller (or even the regular keyboard). I’m still learning to use it but it is a phenominal app. (ad over!)
one other question, if i may. Do you basically play the same parts every time or do you do it differently every time?
April 29th, 2006 at 9:04 am
That’s an inspiring clip! Thanks for the insight into your technique. I like the way you keep your music fresh, and your comments on culture etc. are very astute. Nice to hear some of the old CMI sounds too.
G4 350, OS 10.3.9, no probs except for a few video glitches that appear to be in the file.
April 29th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Once I figured out that I needed to play this clip in iTunes (which actually took me a few days), it played nearly perfectly – only one brief pause that I noticed. I have a Win 2K homebuilt PC – AMD XP 2000 processor, ATA Radeon 7000 video card, Soundblaster Live sound card – certainly not a top of the line computer.
J. D.
April 29th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
I have been able to get the video working fine in QuickTime (Windows XP) but the sound is just staccato stuttering and delayed despite every tweak I have tried. Using E-MU sound card. I have tried it in iTunes as well with no audio joy.
Any ideas please?
Dying to hear this!
April 29th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
I think the video and audio turned out good enough to enjoy on a video ipod. I’m really looking forward to more!
April 29th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
FWIW: it played great for me in iTunes (and in Media Player Classic, once I realized WMP had stolen its file associations) except for a brief stutter right at 02:00 that crops up no matter which player I use. The box I’m using is my new baby and is pretty beefy so my download probably just got glitched a little.
April 29th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Cannot believe you’re touring again, what an awesome thing. Are there any plans in the near future for you to come down to South Florida on tour?? Miami, Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach …or all of them together. In my wish list : “Screen Kiss”, “Budapest by Blimp”.
God bless you and hope to see your show anytime soon!!
April 29th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Very cool! I had to download the latest version of itunes and Quicktime to be able to view this video, but once I did this, I was able to watch the video in fullscreen. I don’t have an ipod video, but everything downloaded and played great on my pc. Thank you, Thomas, for being such a unique performer, that is willing to share so much with his fans. Take care.
Larry M. Scrivens
April 30th, 2006 at 1:40 am
Thanks for the resurection Mr Dolby, the clip plays well on my old PB GHz.
As can’t go to see you (too far) i hope more online, thanks.
April 30th, 2006 at 7:55 am
I’m one of those unenlightened ones that is using Windows XP. I’ve got iTunes and QuickTime player, but I don’t seem to the have the write codec for the .m4v format. All I get is the audio; no video.
April 30th, 2006 at 8:17 am
Looks great! Windows XP laptop and iTunes used here. The video clarity was excellent, voice-over came through nice and clear. Download speed for the track was great as well, and the initial video size window was fine.
Wonderful to hear you narrate how the song was put together…it’s like taking a masterclass in electronic music! Can’t wait to see the Pittsburgh show.
- ES
April 30th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
It was interesting to watch from that perspective, because I performed one of my own tracks for the first time the night before. Not only is it am I relieved to be able to do something like this after dreaming for oh 30 years, but I see similar devices used by you.
I have reason on a dell with this clever little program called liveset from petertools. I have a novation x-station & edirol pcr-1 and wanted the remote sl and cme 7 before i knew you had them. I just did one song (the only one i’ve rigged for performace) and my friends said it attracted people from the street into the coffee shop. I don’t have to be in band anymore. It’s good to have that liberty.
Flat earth in my walkman helped me survive Iowa on a family vacation when I was 14 in ‘86. I will forever be in your debt. Sorry I missed your show in seattle but I’m saving for said control surfaces. I’m still coming to grips with what I have at my disposal even with my simple setup. I hope for more opportunities to sit on your earphone as you work. You have a wealth of knowlege and it’s an honor to learn from you.
April 30th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Looks good on my iPod, but more importantly feels like a really good balance of form and function!
Keep promoting the digital creativity, and thanks for sharing the gifts of your talent.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:15 am
A great masterclass video, well produced and shot. It ran very well on my Win98 VLC (videolan.org) player producing a clean large sized picture. The size at 19MB is quite small compared to others and would easily fit on my sony k700 mobile phone as well. I’m so glad that Adam Curry (curry.com) gave you a shoutout.
May 2nd, 2006 at 7:58 am
yeah it even worked on my 128 mem processor Vaio…….a few pauses etc, but good quality…
Martin Luther King is nice….I agree with him and Belinda Carlisle about dreaming the same dream….
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:09 pm
I found it on iTunes and thought is was brilliant. Quality and quantity was great. I’ll see you in Pittsburgh.
May 2nd, 2006 at 7:54 pm
hey there Thomas I loved the video!
I’m really getting into all the Geek tech stuff. I’m a composer who has worked with computers and music for years and its great to see how you are pulling all the technology together for your shows.
I’m really disappointed your are not coming to Boston on this tour. My wife and I were thinking about a trip to NYC to see you but she could get away from work.
I work in the Music Tech division at Berklee College of Music and if you ever end up in Boston on tour it would be great if your could stop by and do a master class for the kids in the Music Synthesis Dept.
You are using all the stuff they are learning about. Logic , SoftSynths, Max. They would get so much out of it!
Keep up the excellent work!
John
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:47 pm
Woke up this morning and put on ‘Science, then proceeded to listen to the everything through Astronauts and decided to google TD. Wow, touring again.
As for the video, Click – up and running in seconds- on 17″ Powerbook/Safari on a LAN cable line. I ‘ll send my students to chceck it out next week. They have been constructing songs in Garageband and they will love seeing your construction process as it just what we have been doing. Come to Tokyo!
May 6th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
Great video! more please, maybe something from the tour which i saw last night in Sellersville, Great show! Had no prob Downloading and transfering to ipod.
May 8th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
LOVED IT!
Please come to blighty Thomas!
May 8th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
oops, sorry, just seen your tour dates.
see you in London!
May 13th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Hello Mr. Dolby:
Just viewed the video clip using Quicktime — had one small pause, but audio and visual were right on.
Keep the great music coming — look forward to your return back to Seattle some time soon!
May 14th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
i also have my own video blog, i use many tools to convert dvd into ipod, PQ DVD to iPod Video Converter is the most favorite one that i like.
May 19th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Absolutely superb! Plays perfectly on my Sony PSP by the way.
Can’t wait for the Scala gig
July 28th, 2006 at 2:46 am
Hi Thomas
Nice to see you haven’t lost the knack of making music! The podcast plays great in iTunes…
Is there anywhere we can hear some new material?
All the best
Ken
July 28th, 2006 at 3:02 am
ps. Is it true you’re going to be working with Paddy McAloon again? “Steve McQueen” will always be a big fave of mine, it would be great to hear you team up again… saw the Sprouts in 2000 and I just went along because I thought ‘it wouldn’t hurt’, you know…
I’d forgotten how good they are… half way through “Cruel” I just melted…
Anyway, the reason I came here was I was just trying to record a piano line like the outro fade on “Moving the River”, but of course being a ham fisted guitar player this is far beyond my meagre keyboard thumping skills…
lol
November 7th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
I love in a suite case!
I love – I live.
What a great song! Mr. Dolby thank you for that gem of a song, this one seems to just make me drift some where in time.
Great song and your voice does it all…
December 22nd, 2006 at 11:29 pm
hello. it’s a nice day for your ideas…
…
December 24th, 2006 at 8:45 am
hello, good idea…
…
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