Good, Better, and Best Music - a brain dump.

I recently went looking for 'better' music to listen to. Not just good music but best music. Music which feeds my soul as well as my interest. Here's a dump of my search.

First, I went to the hymns. Specifically, I loved these recordings which my Mom sent me on my mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8agHyFm1mz0. There is enough variety in the arrangements and the vocals are accessible (not overly classical). Unfortunately, after listening to the first and second albums 30 times or so I wanted to move on and there is a surprising dearth of high quality similar hymn arrangements out there. There are a TON of music only renditions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upgxEQHyz3Y&list=PLpepxoaYeb3NL8YHNJLFAVju0SjVRP3M1, Jenny Oaks Baker, and The Piano Guys) of the hymns out there but I really want the accompanying lyrics. Let's face it, the hymns have some INCREDIBLE words. So I went looking for other recordings.

First foray: MoTab. Some AMAZING music here. I've listened to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaQYQnrPgSM and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQPC-SX-Rvw countless times - the entire O Divine Redeemer album is incredible. So, don't get me wrong, I really like choral music but not all choirs are The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and whole albums over and over begin to sound the same to me.

So, we move on. I love a good classical or crossover classical album from time to time and there are some fantastic LDS artists in this space. Nathan Pacheco, Dallyn Vail Balys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWpNfZfcUhw), etc.

Last night Paul Cardall posted this gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0SVPjHc8C0. Hard to beat an endorsement like 'lyrics by David A. Bednar'. So this must be good music (and it is).

What about hymns put into 'Pop' stylings? This sort of bugs me so I'd be curious to hear other thoughts here. When someone performs a song in sacrament meeting and they add pop licks or glottal frye/start/stops it kind of irks me. For example, I could not make it through this cover of I Know that My Redeemer Lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBT4sfxj4V4. The song is a bit too tied to the spirit for me and I just don't enjoy seeing a popular rendition. However, I did like the same group's cover of Come Thou Fount/If You Could Hie to Kolob: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBT4sfxj4V4.

So, does that mean spiritual singers should all be 'classically' trained singers only. Probably not. Consider the hymns covers of Adam Young from Owl City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfQO99HVogE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipl-rLRxOrs. In my opinion these are good - not appropriate for the pulpit, but good listening. Perhaps a bit Evangelical in execution but that's not all bad IMO. (I'll sidebar my comments about mainstream Christian Pop/Rock for now.)

There is another problem here: there are only a few popular hymns which get professional treatment so A LOT of great hymns never get heard except in sacrament meeting - especially all of their verses. To hear these you can actually listen to recordings right through the LDS Library app which is cool but there isn't much styling in the song but you can get the lyrics. It'd be nice to have Music and Lyrics well done together :)

By now, I'm getting to the point where I have a large enough library of classical sounding music to fill hours of Mp3s. But, what about when I'm driving in my car and I want something a bit more 'poppy'. First question - is that even okay? Well, the church sponsors EFY albums for youth and they have had people like Gladys Knight perform at Christmas devotionals - certainly, there is a place for this kind of music. So here's what I found in the uplifting popular music genres:

Of course David Archuleta has been a huge influence on the LDS popular music scene. Songs like Glorious (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTKC8q0JAUw) have kept him VERY popular with LDS audiences (his other solo albums ain't bad either). The unavoidable endorsements of being connected to a Church produced movie and performing at church sponsored events hints at how church leaders feel about this kind of music. So, at least some of his music should be okay. I need to slip in here that David Archuleta and Nathan Pacheco have accomplished something I thought impossible - they produced a version of The Prayer that I enjoyed (this song is WAY too overdone but they do a good job with it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DRLmrboGK4

Hillary Weeks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyX-I-um5Kk) has also been a longtime standby for me in terms of good LDS pop music but her music still sounds somewhat the same as it did back in the 90s. Evolving music to match modern trends is a dangerous and slippery slope but I'm sure one decade did not have the corner on the LDS pop sound.

Which brings up questions like LDS Rap or rock? I know great people taking a swing at this one (Bobby, I'm looking at you) - here's a possible execution:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNBwM7iCL4k. BTW Archuleta is saying "we out here grinding we working". How many of you feel this crosses the line? Would you want to listen to this? Hm...not sure this is my cup of tea...er...apple cider especially when it veers into songs like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV1CSjxbfqQ. So, where do we go from here?

The good news is, there are a ton of good links above to keep exploring out from and we have a handbook to help us discern what's good and bad:

16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

 17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.

Batch convert videos to MP4 - I've done a ton of work so why should you?

Using HandbrakeCLI to create MP4



Both of these use Handbrakecli.exe which is Handbrake's command line interface bundled with Handbrake when you install it. Handbrakecli.exe is, as you might guess, used in the command line (or console, or bash depending on your system).

1. To rip a DVD (or video file) and compress it to MP4:
HandbrakeCLI.exe -i d:\video_ts\ -o videofile.mp4 -b 1200 -B 128 -v -O -d

Explanation starting at the beginning:

Handbrakecli.exe tells the computer to run handbrakecli.exe based on all of the options that follow. NOTE:if you are not in the folder that contains handbrakecli then you need to put in the full path to it - something like "c:\Program Files (x86)\Handbrake\handbrakecli.exe"

-i [options] is the input video/device/folder

-o [options] is the output video file (mp4)

-b [options]is the video bitrate. 1200 is large enough for good quality video. My low quality encodes use -b 800 and sometimes -w 320 which sets the width of the video to 320 (SD is 720 and HD is 1080 or 1440)

-B [options] is the audio bitrate. 128 is CD quality.

-v is...I can't remember

-O optimizes the video for online streaming - it lets you load the beginning of the video before the other parts of the video. Think YouTube with it's loading bar. BTW that is a capital O as in ho ho HO <--

-d deinterlaces the video. Old home movies and some other SD sources usually need this. I use it as needed.


2. Here's a LIFE SAVER I came across and retooled for my collection.
To convert an entire collection of .avi (or other file types) files to .mp4 you can create and run this batch file:

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%G IN ('DIR /B /S *.avi') DO "C:\Program Files\Handbrake\HandbrakeCLI.exe" -i "%%G" -o "%%G".mp4 -b 1200 -B 128 -v -O -d && DEL "%%G"

To use this, open a notepad document, paste the text above into it and then save as converttomp4.bat. Move the .bat file to the folder where the files reside and then run it (double click). WARNING: THIS WILL DELETE THE ORIGINAL FILE!

The explanation of this is too much for here. The main thing you need to know is that where it says *.avi tells the computer to go (loop) through all of the .avi files in the folder and then DO everything after the word DO. %%G is the variable which carries the name of the current file it is working on so after && you can see it says DEL %%G. This deletes the current file after it is converted.


Other stuff:

For a long time I resisted using Handbrake because of it's Apple slant but, since the Bassett Channel, I have used it almost exclusively for my video conversions. Mind you, this is only for converting TO MP4 which is the current trend in compressed quality videos. The phrase 'current trend' is what inspired me to share the information above because I am in the process of converting MY ENTIRE digital video library over to MP4 and I thought others might like to know how I'm doing it. So here you go.

handbrakecli is Handbrake's Command Line Interface and, for some reason, it rips, converts, and compresses faster than just about anything else I've used. Not only that but it gives you as much or as little control over the conversion as you might want/need. The handbrake UI didn't work for me because the presets weren't exactly what I was looking for and, rather than navigate all of the menus and try to figure out what "Optimized for viewing online" meant I just went to the core of the system and have been much happier...but that doesn't mean you will be...

In any case, I hope this helps all you videophiles out there and, again, let me know if you've got questions or need any help.

Richie

Guess who missed their nap today.

Cordelia's walking too!

She's a quick one! But OH MAN is she cute :)

How to use Kindlegen to create ebooks for your Kindle

Apparently, this has been a pretty popular article so I decided to provide a quick overview if you just want the fast, dirty steps for using kindlegen. If you would like some more detail then read the further explanation below.

1. Get kindlegen here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621

2. Unzip the files to the folder where you keep your ebooks (it's really much easier that way)

3. Open your command line and point to the folder containing your ebooks and kindlegen.

4. Enter the command 'kindlegen.exe ebook.html' where ebook.html is the name of the ebook you want to convert. note: in order for kindlegen to make the conversion the file must be in html format.

5. Move the newly created .mobi file to your kindle's ebook directory

6. Enjoy a favorite book or new adventure that you've converted yourself :)

For some reason (not so difficult to imagine) there appears to be no simple explanation of how to use Kindlegen on the internet. This amazed me since I would think lots of people would want to convert and add their own ebooks to the Kindle. Kinlegen can be used to do just that. The catch is, it is only available in the command line. This may be intimidating for some but I guarantee it's not that difficult once you understand how it works. Here's what to do.

1. Get the latest version of kindlegen from Amazon's website (available here at the time of writing this article: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621 )

2. Unzip the files to a chosen location

3. At this point your options open up considerably. You can create a very basic book or a very complex book depending on how dirty you want to get with HTML and XML coding. Among the unzipped files you'll find a folder called 'Sample' that contains a complex book (the Kindle User's Guide) with all of the supporting files that would be needed to create it, you can review how this is all set up if you like. For now, I'm going to just go over the basic book option in order to keep this short. If you would like more in depth info on how to create a complex book (linking images and table of contents, etc.) go ahead and comment or email me directly.

4. Okay, in order to create a simple ebook for the kindle you'll need an HTML file of your ebook. If you go to Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org) you can download a TON of out of copyright books in HTML format. You can also use PDFs or txt files you've purchased but you'll need to convert them to html (you can use PDFtoHTML and txt2html respectively to do so). Okay, once you have the HTML file, do yourself a favour and put it into the same folder as Kindlegen.

5. Now, open up your command line. In Windows, go to Start > Run and enter cmd then press enter. In Linux, you should be able to find the terminal under Accessories or some other main menu option. Once open, navigate to the location of Kindlegen.
e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\myname\My Documents\ebooks\Kindlegen\

If you are not familiar with a command line then you are probably in Windows and can get there by entering
c:
cd..
cd Documents and Settings\myname\My Documents\ebooks\Kindlegen

6 Once your command line is pointing to the folder where you have kindlegen and the HTML file (we'll call it ebook.html in our example but you would put in the name of the HTML file you are converting) all you have to do is type

kindlegen.exe ebook.html

For some reason in Linux I had to enter the exact file path so it would be something like this:

/media/disk/Documents/ebooks/kindlegen/kindlegen /media/disk/Documents/ebooks/kindlegen/ebook.html

7. You'll notice that a new file is created in the directory called ebook.mobi. Connect your Kindle to your PC and drop the file into the same folder as your other ebooks.

8. Eject your Kindle, disconnect it and then start the Kindle. If you've done everything correctly you should see the ebook now available in your home screen.

Congrats, you can now take any HTML file you have available to you and create your own ebook for reading on the Kindle. Cheers!


Oh, as a final note - Again, you could get much more in depth in the process and use an OPF and NCX file but you should only need that if you are getting serious about publishing. You can open Kindlegen's help by simply typing kindlegen.exe or kindlegen without any filename following it. This will bring up all of the kindlegen options. Happy reading!

Two videos

I had to share these two. The first video is just a fun glimpse of every day life in the Franklin house - bup....GOOO - and the second is a video the kids and I made together one morning (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa's GeoTrax).

Kindle vs. iPad - Why I like my Kindle and don't need an iPad

With all the hype surrounding the release of the iPad this weekend I thought I'd throw a defense out there for the Kindle. People are erroneously (I hope) calling the iPad the Kindle killer. I disagree since I believe they are devices with different goals and audiences. And, as far as I'm concerned, there are some considerable advantages to the Kindle including e-ink, a literature focus, and free 3G.

The e-ink is wonderful! Truly wonderful. I can't believe I used to read books on my Palm. My eyes thank me every time I choose to read a book instead of work on my laptop now. The iPad will have an LED display which is softer (and longer lasting) than LCD but it still has the high contrast digital appearance. Great for watching videos and surfing the web, not ideal for reading novels. Which is the second main reason I like the idea of the Kindle over the iPad. It is meant to be a reading device.

I have heard and read several complaints about the Kindle's inability to present rich media content like Flash, Javascript, etc. Why? We keep looking for a device that does it all - and the iPad will - but that's not why you buy a Kindle. You buy it to read. And, while I'd love to be able to surf the web, watch my favorite videos and remote into my work computer on it, that is not why I pick up the Kindle. I pick up the Kindle because I want to read. If the Kindle was able to do everything the iPad does I doubt I'd get much reading done. Being the kind of person who likes to hack every last drop out of my 'toys' the Kindle limits me A LOT while still offering plenty of 'tinkering' options and all of those options are literature focused including converting my own ebooks, finding free (project guttenberg) ebooks, and changing the default screen saver images, etc.

Finally, you get free 3G on the Kindle. This sounds REALLY amazing and somewhat unbelievable which it is...to a point. The combination of the 3G with the e-ink reigns in the possibilities of wirelessly exploring the web all day while still keeping you connected to your preferred reading material. It makes it so you always have something to read as well as allowing you to explore new reading material. The 3G wireless on the Kindle makes me feel like I am essentially holding a bottomless portable library without distracting me from the purpose of the device.

So, am I an iPad hater and just painting the Kindle all kinds of rosy? Not hardly! I salivate with the rest over the upcoming installment of the iPod family. They are fantastic devices with tons of potential. So much so that I expect they'll replace a lot of user's laptops/netbooks. On top of all that, they are just so dang cool! And, the Kindle has plenty of limitations (most notably the inability to backlight your books). But, bottom line, stop this preposterous debate about the iPad killing the Kindle - they are two totally different products with totally different goals. I sure hope the Kindle doesn't go away since there are few things which make reading more important or more fun.