Jean,
Free music, like free culture, is not simply a great concept -- it is a
reminder and affirmation of the inherent right to cultivate and share
cultural artefacts.
If as you say choice of music is of fundamental importance in the
education and socialisation of a child, I hope you will agree that the
right to educate and socialize a child 'properly' should not be owned
by a small group of individuals who can choose whether or not to
license said music to you.
It should go without saying that old yet beautiful recordings of
canonical works which have been enjoyed and revisited for centuries
should be available for anyone (such as OLPC) to share with millions
of children throughout the world. That there is a legal sense in
which this is not possible is a testament to deep failings in our
conception of how and where culture is created.
To your implied criticism of the Jamendo collections: If there are
particular pieces you find of poor quality, not merely distasteful,
please let me know which they are. The collections posted were selected
with care, and none would suggest that low quality works have a place
there. If you link to the Jamendo collection, your comments will appear
directly on that page[1].
I would like nothing better than to see those collections become better
rounded. While we must start somewhere, that is not because we
philosophically privilege the first entries over others. I would likewise
love to see our collection of sounds grow to include samples from every
family of the animal kingdom.
You are in a position to help ensure this. Your input, and suggestions of
specific works and collections, is most welcome. While we are careful
about the licensing of collections we distribute, we can be more flexible
about the collections we link to.
Thank you for the upate on the audio response; I do not know the hardware
details, but often feel I don't have very subtle control of the audio
environment. Perhaps there is some way to offer more than linear volume
control?
SJ
[1] the top post right now: http://conley.toejammer.net/blog/?p=201
On Sat, 27 Oct 2007, Jean Pich? wrote:
SJ,
Two things.
More important:
Free music is a great concept... for people who have global access to
ineternet-based music pools. Given enough "community mass" and discernment on
the part of the listener, one can get to the subjective and elusive concepts
of "quality" and "exemplariness". The problem here is that OLPC, by the
very fact it will include collections of music by "curated" artists out of
the free music ethos, gives a value imprimatur where perhaps none is
warranted. We dont need a discussion about music's influence on culture but I
think everyone will agree its serious business in the education and
socialising of a child, increasing manyfold in adolescence. Alas, much of the
music that is presently included in the Jamendo collection is, to be honest,
dreadful in style and of rather poor quality in production. I am perhaps not
in a position to be an arbitrer any more than the undoutedly generous and
sharp young minds at Jamendo but I suggest OLPC thread VERY carefully here.
Even when there is quality, I am not certain what to think of Nigerian
children being fed a diet of DJ Spooky, no matter how much I personally enjoy
his work...
We should be discerning about what we wish for. "Open System" ia not "Open
Culture".
Less important:
A head's up on the XO audio subsystem: The speakers have a severely biased
frequency response. We have recently performed a thorough analysis of the
audio response curve of the machine and there is a spectacular 12dB peak
between 3000 and 4500 Hz, this on all models. I suspect these are mobile
phone speakers designed for voice clarity. What this means is kids will
likely crank up the volume so that they can hear some of the lower
frequencies. Since the physical size of the speakers prohibits any
frequencies below 350 HZ, as they try to get a decent bandwidth, they will
get the "membrane-against-the-casing" distortion (which has the merit of
making the kids lower the volume but risks killing the speakers if done
routinely). Someone on the hardware side really should look at the long term
prospects for audio hardware failure and see what correction we can bring, by
limiting signal output and/or equalising the output of the AD1888 (we dont
know what can be done on chip...)
The solution we have implemented in TamTam is to simply apply a reverse
notch filter on the audio signals we send to the speakers. This works well
and provides a more pleasant listening experience, but inevitably reduces the
dynamic range. It does nothing per se to protect the speakers becasue you can
still crank up the volume to casing distortion. Furthermore, our solution
only works with the speakers of course, since the line out/headphone output
produces an acceptably neutral signal. Thus, to make it sound good in the
spea
