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The Next SoundCloud

next.soundcloud.com

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Re: The Next SoundCloud

#31

Post by asymmetric »

skore wrote: post #29

I wrote about things that have to change with SoundCloud a couple of months ago [1] I'm carefully optimistic that an improved interface will help improve how people end up using the site, but the biggest issues for me with SoundCloud are still signal-to-noise rate in community engagement and sound quality. I will pay close attention to how much behind-the-scenes improvement there is, but none is mentioned in the anno…

> in the year 2012, they still stream music at 128kbps

I guess one reason for that is that artists themselves don't want their tracks to be streamed at a higher quality for free.

I've personally heard this more than once from musician friends.

Re: The Next SoundCloud

#32

Post by skore »

asymmetric wrote: post #31
skore wrote: post #29

I wrote about things that have to change with SoundCloud a couple of months ago [1] I'm carefully optimistic that an improved interface will help improve how people end up using the site, but the biggest issues for me with SoundCloud are still signal-to-noise rate in community engagement and sound quality. I will pay close attention to how much behind-the-scenes improvement there is, but none is mentioned in the anno…

> in the year 2012, they still stream music at 128kbps I guess one reason for that is that artists themselves don't want their tracks to be streamed at a higher quality for free. I've personally heard this more than once from musician friends.

Sure, that's possible. But still - why not at least give artists that choice?

Re: The Next SoundCloud

#33

Post by pje »

spadgos wrote: post #11
fruchtose wrote: post #2

Nice preview, but their JavaScript is messed up. I attempted to connect to beta in the Sign Up tab of their pop-up, but the error message for already having an account says, "Sorry, [object Object] is already registered with another account".

I just reported the bug with the appropriate team - should be an easy fix and resolved shortly. (In theory) it would only show if you already have an account though, so perhaps just try signing in instead of signing up?

This message should be less javascripty now.

Re: The Next SoundCloud

#34

Post by minitrollster »

toemetoch wrote: post #16

suggestion: frequency domain instead of time domain. The waveform in time-domain doesn't really contain info, with a spectrum you can see lots of patterns, scroll to the section where the beat kicks in, look for vocals, ...

I fail to see how that makes sense. How would a spectrum enable you to skip to specific parts of a song? It only lets you see the frequency breakdown, and offers no benefits (that I can see) from a navigation standpoint.

Re: The Next SoundCloud

#35

Post by toemetoch »

minitrollster wrote: post #34
toemetoch wrote: post #16

suggestion: frequency domain instead of time domain. The waveform in time-domain doesn't really contain info, with a spectrum you can see lots of patterns, scroll to the section where the beat kicks in, look for vocals, ...

I fail to see how that makes sense. How would a spectrum enable you to skip to specific parts of a song? It only lets you see the frequency breakdown, and offers no benefits (that I can see) from a navigation standpoint.

If done properly (linear vs log scale, well-chosen cut-off frequency, thresholding values and discrete colors) you get a representation of the patterns in the song. With electronic/techno music you see where the intro/beats are. With other music you can see where the intro ends, the chorus repeats, instrumental solo, ...

The way it's done now you see a bunch of peaks/vertical bars. Unless there's a change in the power of the song the bars stay pretty much at the same level. It's a lot of real-estate that can be put to good use.

Re: The Next SoundCloud

#36

Post by adamaltman »

peterwiese wrote: post #17

in my opinion soundcloud is one of the hottest most amazing startups out there. they reached a critical mass of important artists already a while ago. the fact that they're located in the epicenter of electronic music is just the icing on the cake. recently i had a complete harddrive failure and lost 500gig of music. since i couldn't access my backup for 2 months i was limited to streaming music. after a short while…

> further more i'd like to create playlists in the browser and not just in the macstore app.

... you can in next.soundcloud.com, but only when you get access. and we call em sets.

Re: The Next SoundCloud

#37

Post by adamaltman »

elithrar wrote: post #25
moe wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just add an "off" button. It is beyond me why the current interface still does not have one. I, like many others, have long installed the greasemonkey script to suppress these idiotic popups. They're even worse than youtube comments. At least the youtube drivel doesn't pop up in your face all the time.

> I, like many others, have long installed the greasemonkey script to suppress these idiotic popups. They're even worse than youtube comments. At least the youtube drivel doesn't pop up in your face all the time. I agree. The comparison to YouTube comments is a good one - and not for the content. YouTube comments are typically below the fold, and therefore don't enter into your head when you're watching (listening to…

next SoundCloud comments solve this for me quite well.

Re: The Next SoundCloud

#39

Post by minitrollster »

toemetoch wrote: post #35
minitrollster wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see how that makes sense. How would a spectrum enable you to skip to specific parts of a song? It only lets you see the frequency breakdown, and offers no benefits (that I can see) from a navigation standpoint.

If done properly (linear vs log scale, well-chosen cut-off frequency, thresholding values and discrete colors) you get a representation of the patterns in the song. With electronic/techno music you see where the intro/beats are. With other music you can see where the intro ends, the chorus repeats, instrumental solo, ... The way it's done now you see a bunch of peaks/vertical bars. Unless there's a change in the powe…

>With electronic/techno music you see where the intro/beats are. With other music you can see where the intro ends, the chorus repeats, instrumental solo, ...

Absolutely not you don't see that, how can you see where anything starts or ends, when it's not a temporal representation? The only thing it represents is the presence (or lack thereof) of frequencies in a song. For example, what does this http://i.imgur.com/QRka5.png tell you about the song? Can you tell where the intro or chorus or whatever else begins or ends? A temporal representation works way better because you can skip to parts of a song. A spectrum can't let you skip to anything, nor can it give you any information that the general population would like to know about a track.

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