#[data streams : audio]

[ortie-pnk]

We are supposed to interact with the web we visit. We are supposed to upload and download. We are supposed to leave a footprint behind us, other than cookies and trackers.

The web will not stay still, it is perpetually changing and what we are seeing today may not be tomorrow.

Share your things, comment and post.

But also save what you want to keep : write down the name of the artists you follow, download the content you like to stream, copie/paste the posts you want to re-read... We forget faster than internet but it is still fragile. What you got on a disc is far more durable.

[j-esbian]

the other thing i hate about Live Ads is that if you have previously downloaded episodes, they get disappeared periodically because god forbid you hear an old advertisement instead of the New Current Sponsor

[jcmarchi]

5 Best Digital Billboard Advertising Companies

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/5-best-digital-billboard-advertising-companies/

5 Best Digital Billboard Advertising Companies

In the rapidly evolving landscape of outdoor advertising, Digital Billboard Advertising Companies are at the forefront of innovation, harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence to revolutionize how advertisements are delivered and experienced.

These companies are leveraging AI to dynamically optimize ad content, ensure ads are displayed at the most effective times, and target specific audience demographics with unprecedented precision. By employing AI for dynamic pricing, they can adjust the cost of ad slots in real time based on various factors, ensuring maximum revenue generation and efficiency.

This integration of AI technologies allows these companies to not only enhance the effectiveness of billboard advertising but also redefine the viewer’s experience, making it more relevant and captivating. Here, we introduce the top 5 Digital Billboard Advertising Companies leading the charge in transforming urban landscapes into interactive, intelligent platforms for digital advertising.

Image: Cirrus

Cirrus has carved a niche in the digital marketing landscape with its innovative LED display solutions. Specializing in both indoor and outdoor digital signage, Cirrus caters to diverse business needs, offering visually captivating and cost-effective marketing tools. The high-resolution displays provided by Cirrus set a new standard in on-premise advertising, ensuring messages are not only seen but also remembered. Their unique approach combines aesthetic appeal with practical functionality, making high-impact digital marketing accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Cirrus’s technological edge is evident in their focus on display quality and user experience. They offer displays with higher pixel densities compared to traditional signage, resulting in sharper and more engaging visuals. This technological superiority extends to the ScreenHub content management system, an intuitive and powerful platform that simplifies content scheduling and management. ScreenHub’s versatility and ease of use empower businesses to create dynamic and compelling digital campaigns with minimal effort.

Top Offerings by Cirrus:

High Pixel Density Displays: Provides sharper, more detailed images for impactful visual messaging.

ScreenHub Content Management: An intuitive system for easy scheduling and management of digital content.

Solid-State Technology: Ensures reliable, long-lasting displays that withstand various environmental conditions.

Modular Architecture: Allows for easy upgrades and expansions, adapting to changing technology and business needs.

Comprehensive Support: A dedicated team offering personalized solutions, customer service, and technical support.

Cirrus not only leads with advanced technology but also with a commitment to service excellence. Their approach to customer satisfaction involves a concierge-level sales experience, backed by a team dedicated to ensuring optimal performance and longevity of their products. This emphasis on quality service and technological innovation positions Cirrus as a forward-thinking company in the digital billboard advertising space, continually driving the industry towards new horizons of customer engagement and marketing efficacy.

Image: Lamar

Lamar Advertising Company distinguishes itself as a leader in digital billboard advertising by offering the largest network of digital displays in the United States. With over 4,800 digital billboards, Lamar provides unparalleled reach and visibility for advertising campaigns. Their digital billboards are strategically positioned to capture the attention of a wide and diverse audience, making them a prime choice for businesses looking to expand their advertising impact.

The dynamic nature of Lamar’s digital billboards is a key differentiator. Ads on these billboards rotate in a slideshow format every 6 to 8 seconds, ensuring each message receives ample exposure. This rotation system is not only eye-catching but also allows for a variety of ads to be showcased, increasing the diversity and reach of the messages conveyed. Lamar leverages this dynamic feature to enhance the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, providing advertisers with a flexible and impactful medium.

In addition to their expansive billboard network, Lamar extends its advertising reach through specialized channels like airport and transit advertising. Their airport digital networks feature high-definition, full-motion LCD screens located in key areas such as concourses and baggage claims, ensuring high visibility to both arriving and departing passengers. Similarly, Lamar’s transit advertising takes the message off the interstates and into the heart of communities, engaging targeted consumer and business audiences through digital transit advertising. This form of advertising creates a striking presence in everyday settings, offering a cost-effective and memorable way to elevate brand messaging.

Top Offerings by Lamar:

Slide Show Ad Rotation: Ads rotate every 6 to 8 seconds, offering frequent and varied exposure.

Real-Time Data Streaming: Integrate live data and user-generated content from websites and social media.

Instant Ad Display: Ability to display ads within minutes of creation.

Cost-Effective Message Changes: Frequent message updates without additional production costs.

Dynamic Digital Content: Enhance campaigns with real-time updates, including live scores, news feeds, and more.

Through these diverse advertising channels, Lamar not only amplifies brand visibility but also ensures that messages resonate deeply and effectively with a broad spectrum of audiences.

Image: OUTFRONT

OUTFRONT stands out in the digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising arena with its innovative approach that combines location, creativity, and smart audience data. This synergy creates powerful connections between brands and audiences, making OUTFRONT a leader in America’s versatile and visible OOH media network. They are known for their ability to leverage the impact of outdoor advertising with the agility and flexibility of digital platforms, establishing themselves as a key player in one of advertising’s fastest-growing formats.

OUTFRONT’s digital billboards offer a distinct blend of contextual relevance and creative dynamism. Their advanced technology allows for advertising content to be triggered by various real-time factors such as daypart, location, traffic, or weather, enhancing the relevance and impact of the ads. Additionally, these digital platforms enable marketers to launch campaigns swiftly, a significant advantage over traditional billboard advertising. This flexibility is further enriched by the option of programmatic purchasing, providing a seamless integration of digital advertising strategies into outdoor media.

OUTFRONT’s focus on digital billboards extends to high-traffic and coveted locations, ensuring that brands make a significant impact where audiences are most receptive. They understand the importance of placement and have strategically positioned their digital billboards to capitalize on audience readiness to engage and purchase. Whether it’s digital place-based media in airports, lifestyle centers, shopping malls, or engaging digital street furniture in urban neighborhoods, OUTFRONT’s extensive network ensures that brand messages are not just seen, but experienced by the right audience at the right time.

Top Offerings by OUTFRONT:

Contextual Relevance: Dynamic creative content that responds to real-time factors for targeted messaging.

Flexibility and Speed: Rapid execution of campaigns, surpassing the limitations of traditional billboards.

Programmatic Options: Seamless integration with digital advertising strategies for efficient campaign management.

Measurement and Attribution: Advanced capabilities to track metrics like brand lift and foot traffic, offering valuable insights into campaign effectiveness.

OUTFRONT’s commitment to innovation and audience engagement through DOOH makes them a formidable force in the realm of digital billboard advertising.

Image: YESCO

YESCO, short for Young Electric Sign Company, has been a vanguard in the field of digital billboard advertising since 1920, consistently pushing the boundaries of what is possible in Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising. Specializing in custom signs, digital LED boards, gaming displays, and both outdoor and indoor advertising solutions, YESCO has built a reputation for quality and innovation. In the realm of digital billboards, particularly, YESCO has made significant strides, offering a range of traditional and digital options in strategic locations such as the greater Salt Lake City metropolitan area.

What sets YESCO apart in the digital billboard space is their strategic placement of billboards. By positioning their displays in high-visibility areas, they maximize engagement opportunities for advertisers. YESCO’s digital outdoor advertising capabilities allow for the delivery of multiple messages at a single location. This dynamism in content presentation enhances the ability of marketers to target specific audiences effectively and adapt rapidly to the shifting market needs.

YESCO’s commitment to innovation is exemplified by their distinction as the first company in Utah to deploy digital billboards. These digital billboards not only offer flexibility in displaying multiple ads but are also tailored to reach the right audience at the right time. This adaptability enhances the overall effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

Top Offerings by YESCO:

Customized Digital Billboard Solutions: Tailored to meet specific advertising needs and campaign goals.

Strategic Placement: Billboards are located in high-visibility areas for maximum consumer engagement.

Dynamic Content Delivery: Enables multiple messages at a single location, increasing targeting efficiency.

Experience and Expertise: A pioneer in digital billboards in Utah, demonstrating a long-standing proficiency in this technology.

YESCO’s focus on cutting-edge technology and creative design ensures that their digital billboards stand out, capturing the attention of passersby. This, combined with their strategic locations in key areas like Salt Lake County, Utah County, and downtown Ogden, positions YESCO as a highly effective and valuable partner for businesses seeking impactful advertising solutions.

Image: Daktronics

Daktronics stands as a testament to innovation and excellence in the realm of digital LED display and audio system manufacturing. Founded in 1968 by Aelred Kurtenbach and Duane Sander, two engineering professors from South Dakota State University, Daktronics has evolved from a dream to retain local talent into a world-leading manufacturer and service provider of digital solutions. This American company, headquartered in Brookings, South Dakota, has made significant contributions to various sectors, including sports, education, retail, government, and aeronautics, with its diverse range of products.

Daktronics is renowned for its extensive range of digital products, which include electronic scoreboards, large screen video displays, audio systems, digital billboards, and dynamic message signs. Their commitment to quality and innovation is evident in their history of notable achievements, such as providing scoreboards for the Olympic Games and developing advanced LED video displays. This legacy of innovation is underpinned by their global manufacturing capabilities, with facilities in China, Ireland, and the U.S., and business operations extending across North America.

Top Offerings by Daktronics:

Diverse Product Range: Electronic scoreboards, large screen video displays, audio systems, and digital billboards.

Global Manufacturing and Operations: Facilities in China, Ireland, and the U.S., with a strong presence in North America.

Commitment to Innovation: Notable achievements include Olympic scoreboards and advanced LED video displays.

Wide Sector Engagement: Catering to sports facilities, educational institutions, retail stores, government departments, and more.

Daktronics’ approach to digital billboard advertising is characterized by its blend of reliability, longevity, and intuitive control software. The company’s dedication to creating solutions that leave lasting impressions is evident in their commitment to sharing knowledge and expertise with their customers.

Choosing a Digital Billboard Advertising Company

The digital billboard advertising landscape is enriched by the innovation and expertise of companies like Cirrus, Lamar, OUTFRONT, YESCO, and Daktronics. Each of these industry leaders brings a unique approach to digital out-of-home advertising, leveraging technology, strategic placement, and creative solutions to connect brands with their audiences effectively.

Cirrus revolutionizes on-premise marketing with high-resolution displays and user-friendly software, while Lamar’s extensive network offers unparalleled reach. OUTFRONT combines impactful OOH impact with digital agility, and YESCO provides customized, strategically placed digital billboards. Finally, Daktronics’ global reach and diverse product range underscore its commitment to quality and innovation. Together, these companies exemplify the dynamic and evolving nature of digital billboard advertising, setting new standards in audience engagement and advertising efficacy. As this industry continues to grow, these companies are poised to lead the way in transforming the digital advertising landscape.

[stellophiliac]

how to build a digital music collection and stuff

spotify sucks aaaass. so start downloading shit!!

file format glossary

.wav is highest quality and biggest

.mp3 is very small, but uses lossy compression which means it's lower quality

.flac is smaller than .wav, but uses lossless compression so it's high quality

.m4a is an audio file format that apple uses. that's all i really know

downloading the music

doubledouble.top is a life saver. you can download from a variety of services including but not limited to apple music, spotify, soundcloud, tidal, deezer, etc.

i'd recommend ripping your music from tidal or apple music since they're the best quality (i think apple music gives you lossless audio anyway. .m4a can be both lossy and lossless, but from the text on doubledouble i assume they're ripping HQ files off apple music)

i also love love love cobalt.tools for ripping audio/video from youtube (they support a lot of other platforms too!)

of course, many artists have their music on bandcamp — purchase or download directly from them if you can. bandcamp offers a variety of file formats for download

file conversion

if you're downloading from apple music with doubledouble, it spits out an .m4a file.

.m4a is ok for some people but if you prefer .flac, you may wanna convert it. ffmpeg is a CLI (terminal) tool to help with media conversion

if you're on linux or macOS, you can use parameter expansion to batch convert all files in a folder. put the files in one place first, then with your terminal, cd into the directory and run:

for i in *.m4a; do ffmpeg -i "$i" "${i%.*}.flac"; done

this converts from .m4a to .flac — change the file extensions if needed.

soulseek

another way to get music is through soulseek. soulseek is a peer-to-peer file sharing network which is mainly used for music. nicotine+ is a pretty intuitive (and open-source) client if you don't like the official one.

you can probably find a better tutorial on soulseek somewhere else. just wanted to make this option known

it's bad etiquette to download from people without sharing files of your own, so make sure you've got something shared. also try to avoid queuing up more than 1-2 albums from one person in a row

tagging & organizing your music

tagging: adding metadata to a music file (eg. song name, artist name, album) that music players can recognize and display

if you've ripped music from a streaming platform, chances are it's already tagged. i've gotten files with slightly incorrect tags from doubledouble though, so if you care about that then you might wanna look into it

i use musicbrainz picard for my tagging. they've got pretty extensive documentation, which will probably be more useful than me

basically, you can look up album data from an online database into the program, and then match each track with its file. the program will tag each file correctly for you (there's also options for renaming the file according to a certain structure if you're into that!)

there's also beets, which is a CLI tool for... a lot of music collection management stuff. i haven't really used it myself, but if you feel up to it then they've got extensive documentation too. for most people, though, it's not really a necessity

how you wanna organize your music is completely up to you. my preferred filestructure is:

artist > album > track # track

using a music player

the options for this are pretty expansive. commonly used players i see include VLC, foobar2000, clementine (or a fork of it called strawberry), and cmus (for the terminal)

you can also totally use iTunes or something. i don't know what audio players other systems come with

i personally use dopamine. it's a little bit slow, but it's got a nice UI and is themeable plus has last.fm support (!!!)

don't let the github page fool you, you don't have to build from source. you can find the releases here

click the "assets" dropdown on the most recent release, and download whichever one is compatible with your OS

syncing

if you're fine with your files just being on one device (perhaps your computer, but perhaps also an USB drive or an mp3 player), you don't have to do this

you can sync with something like google drive, but i hate google more than i hate spotify

you can get a free nextcloud account from one of their providers with 2GB of free storage. you can use webDAV to access your files from an app on your phone or other device (documents by readdle has webDAV support, which is what i use)

disroot and blahaj.land are a couple providers i know that offer other services as well as nextcloud (so you get more with your account), but accounts are manually approved. do give them a look though!!

if you're tech-savvy and have an unused machine lying around, look into self-hosting your own nextcloud, or better yet, your own media server. i've heard that navidrome is a pretty good audio server. i unfortunately don't have experience with self-hosting at the moment so i have like zero advice to give here. yunohost seems to be a really easy way to manage a server

afterword

i don't know if any of this is helpful, but i just wanted to consolidate my personal advice in one place. fuck big tech. own your media, they could take it away from you at any moment

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Coldplay - Hymn for the Weekend 2016

"Hymn for the Weekend" is a single by the British rockband Coldplay from their seventh studio album A Head Full of Dreams, featuring uncredited vocals from American singer Beyoncé. It was written by the band's members, while the production was handled by Rik Simpson, Avicii, Digital Divide, and Stargate.

"Hymn for the Weekend" reached number six on the UK Singles Chart and also reached the top twenty in countries such as Switzerland, Ireland, France, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Spain. In the US, with the Seeb remix, the song reached number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The music video was shot at various Indian cities including Worli Village, Mumbai, and Kolkata. The fort showcased at the start and in between is Fort Vasai in Vasai, Mumbai. Scenes were also shot at the Maratha Mandir theatre, which is known for showcasing a single film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, for over 22 consecutive years. The video is themed on the Indian festival of Holi and was filmed by Ben Mor. It features Beyoncé and Indian actress Sonam Kapoor. With 2 billion views on Youtube as of January 2024, "Hymn for the Weekend" is Coldplay's most-viewed video. Luminate Data reported the song "had the most total combined audio and video streams globally in 2022", with 35.9 million views coming from Canada, and 434.5 million from the US.

"Hymn for the Weekend" received a total of 57,6% yes votes!

[sirfrogsworth]

Froggie's Guide to Budget Headphones

@nimrella I am more well versed in traditional audio and home theater with big honking speakers, so I don't have much personal experience with headphones and headphone accessories. But I can tell you what I've learned from other people who are in the headphone world. And since you are starting more within the "budget" range I think I am somewhat qualified to guide you at this level.

You have three paths to choose from...

Wireless, low impedance wired (no amplification required), and high impedance wired (amplification required).

Basically... easy, medium, and hard.

But also... good, better, best.

Wireless Headphones

Wireless headphones have come a long way. Audiophiles used to scoff at them but now there are options that really do sound fantastic and the Bluetooth data rates are good enough to deliver high resolution audio. They also have noise cancellation options which may be desirable. If you do not have a quiet, dedicated space for listening to music you might find high end noise cancellation a godsend. People love them especially for planes, trains, and automobiles.

I don't know if everyone knows how noise cancellation works or not, but basically the headphones have microphones that listen to the world around you. They measure the incoming sound and then generate an opposite sound that just about kills ambient noise. If you play the same sound 180 degrees out of phase it basically nullifies those sound waves. The tech works best between 50 Hz and 1000 Hz. For reference we hear between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz (lower if you are old). So anything super high or super low pitched can still get through.

In any case, if that sounds appealing, wireless headphones should be a consideration.

The other advantage of wireless headphones would be the ease of use. They pair to your phone, your laptop, your TV. They have controls to help you pause and skip songs and change volume. Some allow you to take phone calls.

But the big downside is the sound quality takes a bit of a hit. As I said, the bluetooth standards have actually gotten very very good. (Though there are audiophiles who will swear it still sounds like a 1990s MP3.) So streaming the actual media files are not really an issue. But trying to cram all of that tech into lightweight headphones you can wear around town all day requires compromises and added expense. Not to mention the battery has a limited lifespan. You may have more limited or inconsistent frequency response, poor dynamic range, distortion problems, weak output, and a high noise floor. Wireless options still can't match wired headphone systems in the same price range. And the wireless options that come close are quite spendy.

Wireless Headphones Suggestions

In your price range the two wireless options that I hear mentioned over and over again are the Sony WH-1000 series and the Bose QuietComfort. They are both well regarded for having a good mix of sound quality and noise cancellation while also being a decent value. You might be able to visit a Best Buy and demo them to see if you prefer the sound and comfort of one over the other.

The Apple AirPods Max are said to work really well within the Apple ecosystem. They have some interesting spatial sound modes and very good audio quality. I've heard the noise cancellation is some of the best currently available. But they seem too expensive and a lot of people feel they are too heavy. I also suspect they are due for an update. That said, if you wait for the new ones to come out and buy used, they could come into your price range. I'd really only suggest these if you have multiple Apple products that you will be streaming sound from.

Before we move into wired headphones, let's go over some terms that you might see pop up when doing research and reading reviews.

Froggie's Glossary of Audiophile Terminology

Driver A speaker is made up of drivers. Some speakers have a woofer, a midrange, and a tweeter. Each individual thing is a driver. And with headphones you will often hear "headphone driver" instead of speaker because it is more specific. Headphones typically have an all-in-one driver that does all frequencies. A woofymidteet.

That's not a thing.

I made that up.

Frequency Response This is the range of frequencies produced by the drivers from low to high. You want to make sure your headphones have good, deep bass. That will make more of a difference than anything else. It's the foundation of all sound and what is sorely lacking in devices with small/cheap speakers.

Music typically doesn't go much below 40 Hz in the bass range. So if you are only interested in music listening, that is plenty deep. Movies can go down to 20 Hz, but this isn't necessary for a good immersive experience unless you have giant subwoofers. So if you find something that can play ~40 Hz with decent output, you should be all good. Every speaker has a frequency response curve. It looks something like this.

The X-axis represents the frequency and the Y-axis represents the volume in decibels. We are most concerned with the 40 to 10K Hz section, as most sound happens there.

I'm not going to go super in-depth and overwhelm everyone, but typically you want this graph to look fairly flat in that range. A flat-ish line will give you a "neutral" response.

The above graph gets a little bumpy in the high frequencies. That means those frequencies will have a higher volume than the lower frequencies. If a higher frequency has a big peak, that could make your sound seem too bright or tinny.

Or you could have the opposite problem. You could have a null in the bass where the output dips below everything else. This can make your sound a bit anemic and lacking punch.

Whereas a more flat speaker will output all frequencies at about the same volume and sound much more balanced and smooth.

Equalization or EQ A flat response is good because it will accept EQ well. Equalization is where you add peaks and dips in volume deliberately to taste.

This can be as simple as 3 knobs.

Or it can be a more complicated parametric EQ.

A lot of digital EQ methods have presets to help get you started. I promise it isn't as intimidating as it looks.

Some people like to buy speakers/headphones that are EQ'd how they prefer out of the box. (Or if you get Beats by Dre they just turn the bass all the way up and say "Fuck them other frequencies!") But this is often a bit of a crapshoot because it is hard to EQ a speaker that sounds good in every room or every environment or just to varying individual preferences.

By making the speaker more neutral, it can be much easier to equalize specifically to your needs and enjoyment.

So if you like the bass a little bassier and the mids a little quieter, you have the power to dial that in with great specificity on a neutral speaker. You can apply any EQ you wish and you won't be fighting the speaker's predetermined response.

Basically if you are reading reviews and the headphones are described as "flat" or "neutral" that's a good thing (in my opinion). Just remember nothing is going to be perfectly flat. We're shooting for flat-ish.

If you do decide to get a neutral sounding pair of headphones you may find them a little bland out of the box. Do not panic. You just need to learn a bit about how to apply EQ, but thankfully YouTube is plentiful with tutorials.

The Harman Curve was researched to be most liked by the most people, so you might start there. (Also, SoundSource is a very popular EQ app for Mac.)

Dynamic Range This is the spectrum of how quiet to loud something can get. If you have speakers that can render both a pin drop and a big explosion with great fidelity and proper intensity, you will be in audio heaven. There is so much emotion and drama that can be expressed by expansive dynamic range and most cheap speakers compress it to an inch of its life. When the soft and the loud sounds are the same you miss out on so much audio information intended by the composer.

Distortion This is just how loud a speaker can go without breaking up. Low distortion is good. While every driver distorts at some point, usually that is at a much higher volume than you will use. This typically only plagues cheap, tiny drivers.

Sound Pressure Level (SPL) This is a measurement of how loud a speaker can get. While you don't want to listen to anything louder than a sustained average decibel level of 80 to 85, you do want peaks over 100, especially in the bass. Bass is less damaging to ears and hearing damage is all about sustained volume rather than quick peaks here and there. Most headphones can comfortably do an SPL between 90 and 110 dB. The ability to go louder is good, but only because that expands headroom, not because you should actually listen to them that loud. So if the headphones can get super loud, that means they will have a much easier time delivering normal levels.

Noise Floor Every sound system has background noise. You know that static you hear when you turn a radio up really loud when there is no sound playing? That is your noise floor. You want that to be as quiet as possible because if you turn up the volume, you don't just turn up the volume of the sounds you want to hear, you also turn up the volume of that background noise.

If you can find a headphone system with a decent low noise floor and you can also find a very quiet space to listen in, you could have a religious experience. I don't think people realize how much the room you are in matters, even when listening to headphones. When you are in a quiet room, you can play at lower volumes. And that can mitigate a lot of the problems associated with cranking the volume. You won't damage your ears for one thing. But the speakers won't have to work as hard so you'll have less distortion and better clarity.

Noise mostly comes from the amplifier, which I will talk about later on.

Froggie Pro Tip: If you want cheap speakers to perform better, go to a quiet room and move them as close as possible. This allows you to play them at a lower output while maintaining your desired perceived volume.

Okay, now we can finally talk about...

Wired Headphones

You have open back and closed back styles.

Open back tends to have a more natural sound and feels more comfortable. Like listening to regular speakers. People generally feel they are able to listen to them longer because they don't create a seal and cause pressure on your ear drum. However, if sound can get out, it can also get in. So with open back headphones people nearby will be able to hear what you are listening to. And if you are not in a quiet room, all of that sound will leak in. Meaning you have to increase the volume and the noise floor and the distortion.

Closed back seals off your ears and gives you a quiet and immersive experience. You can be in a noisier room without having to crank the volume as much. Some prefer this style just because it helps them feel like they are going into their own personal dimension of sound. These are great for ASMR too. But ear fatigue can become an issue and you may need to take little breaks to let your ears breathe and your ear drums rest.

And the last thing we need to discuss is impedance.

The impedance of headphones mostly determines how hard they are to amplify. Impedance is measured in ohms which is this little horseshoe symbol... Ω.

Lower ohms means less electrical resistance and easier to amplify.

Higher ohms means more electrical resistance and difficult to amplify.

If you get headphones rated below 100 ohms, they can typically be driven by smartphones and laptops just by plugging into a standard headphone jack. Though depending on the device, 100 may sound a little quiet so you may want to go lower. 30 ohms is fairly typical if you plan to drive your headphones with everyday electronics.

Above 100 ohms you are going to need some sort of amplification—usually a DAC with a headphone amplifier. (There are DACs without amplification so be sure to check that.)

A DAC, or digital-to-analog converter, is already built into your phone and laptop. But those are very small, don't have a lot of power, and might have a higher noise floor due to interference from other components and heat and just a lot of electrical signals nearby.

By getting an external DAC w/amplifier you separate out the components, make them larger and more powerful, and typically improve the sound quality. Because it is more isolated, the amplification can be much quieter despite being more powerful.

If you plan to stay in a static location and you have high impedance headphones, you can get a little box DAC that sits on your desk. It works like an external sound card for your computer. If you record music or stream, a digital audio interface works great as well (remember to check the Ω).

But if you need to be more mobile with your headphones you can get a little USB dongle DAC, though you will probably not get the same sound quality and power.

Both will be superior to the internal DAC built into your computing devices.

So, low impedance headphones are easier if you need to move around.

High impedance headphones are better for staying put in a single location unless you get a dongle DAC.

Just remember, high and low impedance doesn't necessarily indicate quality. It's just that in order to drive high impedance headphones you need the larger amplifier with the nicer components and, by necessity, you automatically get that quality bump.

You can get very good low impedance headphones. However, if you power them *only* with a smartphone, you may not use them to their full potential. Which is why getting an external DAC is a good idea regardless.

But the nice thing about low impedance is you can get the headphones and still use them until you save up for the DAC. Or you can use them as normal while out and about and have a special listening spot at home with the DAC.

To review...

Low impedance and high impedance can both be high quality.

Low impedance (less than 100 ohms) works with anything.

High impedance (more than 100 ohms) requires amplification.

Both will be used to their full potential with a DAC/headphone amplifier of some kind.

Wired Headphones Suggestions

Again, I have not personally listened to any of these. I am just relaying what experts I trust have mentioned as being nice quality in your price range.

The beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones are some of the most well-regarded budget headphones I've heard of. They come in low and high impedance versions.

The Sennheiser HD 560 high impedance headphones are also praised for their value and performance.

If you can go a little pricier...

The HIFIMAN Sundara headphones have low impedance and can be driven easily by all your devices.

And the HIFIMAN Edition XS are even lower impedance and about the same price.

And if you want to try a DAC, I've heard good things about both Fosi and Schiit (yes, like the poopies), though there are many different brands. Just make sure the DAC has a headphone amplifier rated for the ohms you need.

The FOSI K5 Pro is a cheap "beginner" DAC that will power anything up to 300 ohms. This is the kind that sits on your desk.

And if you want a more portable dongle DAC, you can get something like the iFi Go Link.

I've also heard good things about the AudioQuest Dragonfly, though I hate recommending AudioQuest products due to them claiming they can do magical things. They use scientific gobbledygook to scam customers most of the time. That said, the DragonFly might be their only valid product.

Note from Future Froggie: AudioQuest just can't help themselves. While the Dragonfly itself is a good product and not a scam, they developed the "DragonTail", which is a scam.

It's just a USB A to C Adapter for the Dragonfly. But they have to find a way to justify 30 fucking dollars so they came up with this bullshit.

Definitely need to stabilize my geometry. If I have unstable geometry that could lead to quixotic trigonometry. And we all know that could introduce vertices into dodecahedrons. Which leads straight to accelerated cosmotic entropy catalyzing the heat death of the universe.

Fucking AudioQuest.

ANYWAY...

An inexpensive DAC may be all you ever need but DACs can get crazy expensive—just like headphones. And if you are really fancy you can get a DAC and a headphone amplifier as separate items. Audiophiles claim when you simplify components to a singular function you increase quality. While I think there is some small truth to that, I suspect they just think the tubes look neat.

Froggie's Disclaimer: I am not telling you to get these specific things, but I do think you'll probably be happy with anything I've suggested. But sound is a subjective experience and it is always best to test things out before you buy them, if possible. Or make sure there is a return policy. You might see if there is a brick-and-mortar store nearby that allows you to demo headphones. Remember that comfort can be just as crucial as sound quality for long listening sessions.

Final Thoughts

Good sound has been life changing for me. And I am excited when anyone goes down this journey. While the stuff mentioned is considered "budget" by audiophiles, this can give you a good starting point if you want to upgrade down the road. You'll get to know your preferences and get a better understanding of how this all works and choose your own adventure from there.

Though it is very possible you'll be quite content with "budget" and the sound quality is more than enough.

Personally, while I am very happy with my current home theater setup, I am hopeful one day I can upgrade one budget tier above where I currently am and that will be my endgame. I've heard $10,000 speakers and it is mostly a land of diminishing returns once you reach that level.

I'm fine in "budget" land.

Further Research

I didn't mention the different types of headphone drivers because I didn't want to put too much data in everyone's head. But if you want to do additional research you can learn about the 4 main types... dynamic, planar magnetic, electrostatic, and balanced armature.

[iliketangerines]

I've been loving ur work this past month, can't go a day without them 🥴 ... With that being said, could I ask for one with Johnny? Where the reader gets horny at work, and so she starts texting Johnny to tease him about it, going to the bathroom to send him spicy stuff and whatnot. I'm not particularly creative, so u may go all out with this one! Thank u !! 🥰

big tease

a/n: wrote this while i was at work actually lmao

pairing: johnny cage x afab!reader

warnings: nsfw (MDNI), phone sex (?)

you’re sitting in your chair, looking at the computer, except you can’t focus as you rub your thighs together and try to relieve some of the pressure between your legs

something about today had you particularly frustrated, and you desperately wanted Johnny right now, to hold you down and fuck you until you were satisfied

but you’re on the clock at your boring desk job, putting in data entries and receiving too much paperwork for one person

but still…you look from your cubicle to the entrance, you’re situated in one of the corners and tilted conveniently away from the cameras so that they couldn’t see you on your phone and only had a view of your back

you rub your thighs together, biting your lip, and you pull out your phone and click on Johnny’s contact in messages, typing in a simple text for him

it’s a simple message, that you want him, but knowing Johnny, he would be all over you if he could the second he saw the text

hitting the send button, you put down your phone and put on vibrate, not wanting to get caught being on your phone by your desk, and place it on your desk

then, you look at your phone again and then carefully pick it up and place it between your legs right against where your clit is

that way you would know exactly when Johnny texted you back, and then you went back to clicking away on the computer, trying not to focus on the way your phone was pressed right against you

the seconds seem to tick away slowly as you put in number after number, and then there’s a slight buzz against you, making your spine shoot straight

you hadn’t realized that the phone’s vibrate function was so strong

picking your phone up carefully, you unlock it and read Johnny’s text

he’s sent back that he wants you too, and a picture of himself sitting in a chair in his trailer, legs spread and an obvious bulge in his pants

usually you would snort at the picture, ever the diva and the need to take a good picture but there’s a buzzing in your head and you wish you were there between his legs instead

you text back that you need him to fuck you so bad, need him to ruin you right now and press send before shoving your phone right back between your legs

it’s a while before he texts back but when he does there’s several in a row, sending buzzes through your clit and up your spine

you’re sure that you’ve soaked right through your panties, but you can’t find yourself caring as you check what Johnny’s sent you

it’s a series of messages of him stuttering and then finally a text saying that he wishes he was there with you right now to bend you over your desk

another photo, him with his dick in hand, the tip flushed and a slight bit of pre-cum pearling at the tip, and you nearly drool as you wish you could get a taste

you shake the thought from your head as you type back a response with shaky fingers, speaking your thoughts and saying that you wanted his cock in your mouth

it’s just a short message, but you’re sure he would recall the memories of you in bed, his fingers in your hair pushing you down further, your lips stretched around the girth, the tears streaming down your cheeks

it’s only a minute when he responds back, and it’s a video this time

he’s slowly pumping his cock and god you wish you could turn on the audio and listen to his groans

his thumb swipes over the tip, spreading the pre-cum along the shaft, and then the video cuts off, only a few seconds long

his text underneath it reads that he wishes it was you because you would look so pretty between his legs right now

you can’t control the way your legs slightly twitch, how you want to grind your hips into your office chair except you’re still at work

so you hurry off to the bathroom and thankfully, they’re one of those family bathrooms where it’s like a small room in of itself

you lock the door, leaning against the wall, and turn on your own camera and record yourself with shaky hands as you dip your fingers below your waistband and rub at your swollen clit

small whines and whimpers come out of your throat, and you’re sure that the microphone has caught them as it points at your fingers moving underneath your pants

you dip your fingers a little lower and let out a little breath at how wet you are: you’ve definitely soaked through your panties

you slide in two of your fingers and curl them to push against that spot that makes you see stars, and you let out a small moan, hoping the door was thick enough to hide the sound

the pleasure is building, your palm grinding into your clit and your fingers buried deep in you, and the slick is just making everything so intense

you can barely think, only focused on how you desperately need to cum and that you want Johnny’s fingers  instead of your own

his are so much more rough and thicker than yours, and he would whisper in your ear with that smug voice of his and tell you to cum for him

he would be pressed against you, hot and heavy and so intense, and he would kiss you, tongue making its way into your mouth

he would trail kisses down your jawline and then suck dark hickeys into your neck, before biting you as you came

it’s enough to make you clench around your own fingers and cum on them, a slight whine of Johnny’s name coming out of your mouth 

you stop the video, taking a second to breathe as you slip your fingers out of yourself and stare at the mess on your fingers

you angle your phone with a shaky hand and take a picture of you licking your own cum off of your fingers, and then send the video and photo together

you collect yourself, wiping yourself clean with toilet paper and washing your hands in the sink, and you check your phone again and find a message from him

it’s a text saying that you’re in for a surprise when you get home, and there’s a photo of his cum splattered against his exposed stomach

you wish you could clock out early

[transmechanicus]

look this is really probably unnecessary, but I've seen tons of posts about how everyone is mad about the page that's going to post unmasked pics of the st guys and how outrageously disrespectful it is to them and well... I gotta say that it's just not that deep.

it's been pointed out that they've only ever said that 'their identities aren't important to the music or the story'. and that's it in terms of the "extreme lengths" they go to hide their identities.

i'm a regular follower of the reddit page where their identities are openly discussed and there is a decent amount of evidence that one of them or someone from their team lurks there and plays around a little with that community. ie, a few of the recent "the summoning solo shenanigans" were suggested in that thread and then seen on stage the next show. but who knows.

some of the guys are actually still participating in other media to a small extent. one of them still streams with a friend on twitch often. one of them just put out some older official music project on Spotify. one of them gets his new tattoos posted unmasked on his tattoo artist's page.

look, I'm not saying that this person who plans to bring this stuff to Tumblr shouldn't be warned about and of course everyone should have the opportunity to block and avoid it to keep their experience of the band how they prefer. that's no question how it should be.

but like... everyone is saying that this person who's starting the unmasked blog is like, evil and so disrespectful to the band. and I think that's just not right. it's their right to start whatever kind of page they want. it's everyone else's right to avoid it.

like I said, this is not really going anywhere, and it's not personal, I just have seen so many people bashing that person on a personal level and I just gotta tell someone, it's not that deep. thank you for reading

To me it is that deep, from what i’ve heard there was a major panic on Instagram in 2023 bc freaks were using info on there to harass II and his family. Hell he still alters his voice in videos, which you only do if you’re concerned someone is dedicated enough to scrape the internet with audio of your vocal patterns. I’ve seen video footage of Vessel cussing out a guy at a festival for yelling real names in the audience. There is direct evidence that the band members dislike off-stage info being known and shared, and that a portion of Sleep Token’s fanbase cannot be trusted to respect the secrecy that allows the band members to live comfortable lives relatively peacefully and out of the public eye.

In my personal opinion, your examples of how they’re still on other social media, and that you know that info abt them are reinforcement of my dislike for unmasked data aggregates. Unless the tattoo artist’s posts or the twitch stream is tagged #SleepToken there is probably a reasonable expectation that they don’t want band related attention for those things. Even if somebody does recognize them as the band members, it would be a minority population if it weren’t for subreddits and archives directly connecting dots between those things and Sleep Token, which is presumably why you have that info yourself in the first place.

By aggregating and collecting unmasked info, a resource is being provided that essentially says “Hey i know these guys have almost entirely retreated from the internet for their own safety and comfort…but here’s their names and faces and loved ones and colleagues and past projects and every little activity they do in their spare time. All gathered together and directly tagged and marked in relation to the band they’ve purposefully tried to anonymize and distance their real lives from”.

It’s stalker behavior, it’s unhealthy, it could be genuinely dangerous for the members if the wrong person made use of it, and i reserve the right to passionately condemn it.

[mynicosensesaretingling]

Mic Check: Feelings Engaged

A Bono x fem! (Y/N) reader story

Summary: When Bono’s radio mic goes haywire , (Y/N) offers her colleague a helping hand, leading to an unexpected moment of intimacy between the pair with the teasing comments from Lewis only adding fuel to the fire.

Warnings: None except it’s been written in my notes app

Notes: I wanted to write something for Bono for so long now , since he’s so incredibly dear to me. So now I just did- anyways I hope there aren’t any mistakes and that you enioy this little story x

—-

It’s a bustling Friday practice session at the track, and the air is filled with the familiar sounds of mechanics working, engines revving, and the steady hum of team radios crackling to life. Bono stands in the Mercedes garage, his eyes flicking over the various data streams on the monitors in front of him as Lewis sends feedback through the radio. There’s a calm professionalism to him, his headset settled snugly over his ears as he keeps his cool amidst the chaos of the session.

(Y/N), working a few stations over, is equally immersed in her role, running through telemetry data and keeping an eye on the numbers as they stream in. It’s her second full season working with the team, and although the work is often intense, the environment feels like home. Especially with Bono around. There’s something comforting about his expertise, his quiet focus—and maybe, though she’d never say it aloud, something undeniably attractive too.

Attentively watching the data presented to her , the buzzing noise of the track outside the garage slowly but surely becomes more of a background noise to (Y/N) —until she hears Bono curse softly under his breath. Looking over at the engineer, she finds him fiddling with the mic on his radio headset.

“I’m losing audio,” he mutters, mostly to himself, his fingers rapidly tapping at the small mic attached to his headset. The frustration is clear on his face. His eyebrows drawn together in a frown, as he tries to fix the issue without missing a beat in his ongoing strategy communications.

Without thinking much about it, (Y/N) walks over to the man, noticing his struggle. “Need a hand?”

Bono looks up, his brows slightly raising, surprised by her offer. “Yeah, I think the mic’s loose. Keeps cutting in and out,” he says, his voice lower than usual, the usual steady control in his tone replaced by just a hint of frustration. Stepping closer, (Y/N) notices the faint flush creeping up his neck as he tries to juggle the malfunction and his job.

“Let me take a look,” she says, voice gentle as she steps right in front of him. Bono’s eyes stay fixed on her for a moment before he gives a small nod, lowering his head slightly so she has easier access to the mic. It’s the simplest of gestures, but (Y/N)’s heart skips a beat—being this close to him, especially in the middle of the chaos of the garage, feels strangely intimate.

(Y/N)’s hands lift to adjust the mic, her fingers brushing his cheek ever so slightly, as she reattaches the microphone more securely. His skin is warm under her fingertips, and the moment she touches him, she notices the slightest inhale from Bono, though he stays incredibly still, as if he’s afraid to move.

The garage feels smaller now, the noise fading into the background as (Y/N) concentrates on the mic, trying to focus on the task but fully aware of how close she is to the race engineer. Every brush of her hand sends a spark of awareness through her body. Focusing on the task at hand she feels Bono’s eyes on her form, though he’s trying his best to keep it professional.

“Okay, try now,” (Y/N) murmurs, stepping back slightly to give him some space. Bono clears his throat, his hand reaching up to adjust the mic himself, fingers brushing where hers had just been. He’s back to business in an instant, but there’s an edge to his voice as he speaks into the mic.

“Lewis, do you copy? How’s the connection now?” Bono’s voice is steady, but the slightest tension remains in his shoulders as he waits for a response.

There’s a brief pause before Lewis’s voice crackles through the radio, loud and clear. “Yeah, I hear you loud and clear, Bono. Thought you’d left me hanging there for a minute,” Lewis teases, but before Bono can respond, Lewis’s voice returns, this time with a playful lilt. “Wait a minute… was that her fixing your mic? That surely sounded like her voice ,mate.”

Bono’s reaction is immediate—he lets out an exasperated sigh, his hand coming up to rub the back of his neck, but keeping her focus on him, (Y/N) can see the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“Lewis, focus on your out-lap,” Bono says, his voice firm but with a warmth that betrays his usual stoicism. Slightly shaking his head, he’s trying to suppress his embarrassment, but the smile that’s breaking through is impossible to miss.

“Oh, I’m focused,” Lewis replies, his tone mischievous. “Just thought I’d ask. Should I leave you two to it, or are we going to talk about strategy?”

Glancing back at (Y/N), Bono catches her eye for a brief moment, both of them sharing an amused, slightly embarrassed look. There’s a tension between the pair, but the humor in Lewis’s words manages to cut through it, making the moment feel lighter.

Bono lets out a dry laugh, shaking his head as he taps on the mic. “Yeah, let’s focus on the strategy. We’ll debrief later, Lewis.”

The radio crackles again as Lewis’s laughter comes through. “Sure, sure. But, just saying—‘bout time you two got close. We’ve all seen it coming.”

Bono’s face flushes at that, and he quickly turns back to the monitors, his fingers tapping at the keyboard, pretending to be fully immersed in his work. (Y/N), on the other hand,feels a mixture of embarrassment and… something else, as she walks back to her station. The way Lewis spoke, as if everyone had noticed the way her and Bono seem to gravitate toward each other, leaves the woman flustered. Was it really that obvious?

“Well, uh,” Bono calls , clearing his throat again, “thanks for fixing that. Shouldn’t have trouble now.”

(Y/N) nods, her heart still pounding as she tries to shake off Lewis’s teasing. “No problem,” she says through a slightly awkward chuckle. There’s still something hanging in the air between them, something unspoken.

Bono glances over at her once more before looking away, his lips pressing together like he’s holding something back. For a second, it feels like he might say something, but before he can, the team radio crackles again.

“Bono,” Lewis calls, his voice still carrying that teasing edge, “when’s the next date? Need me to clear the schedule?”

(Y/N) can’t help but laugh softly, shaking her head as Bono rolls his eyes. “You’re impossible, Lewis,” he mutters, though his voice is lighter now, the moment of tension dissolving into something more comfortable. He presses the radio switch again, sighing dramatically. “Focus on the driving, will you?”

Lewis just laughs in response, clearly pleased with himself, and Bono, despite his best efforts to maintain his usual professionalism, can’t help but let out a soft chuckle as well.

As the practice session winds down, the garage starts to return to its usual rhythm, but the brief moment of closeness between herself and Bono lingers in the back of (Y/N)’s mind. Every now and then, she catches him glancing in her direction, and when her eyes meet his, there’s a flicker of something unspoken—a spark that neither of the two can ignore.

And though nothing more is said between the pair, there’s an undeniable shift. (Y/N) can still feel the weight of his gaze, the soft smile that tugged at his lips, and the teasing words of Lewis echoing in the back of her mind.

Maybe Lewis was right—maybe it was about time.

[s12-kittie]

Social media in Magical Dimension (Headcannons)

1. Chirper. A social media used by fairies and most of the specialists. A user can post pictures, videos, texts, audios and react to a post with several cute emojis. There're also direct messages, an ability to create group chats and to hold a stream. The unusual thing is that the device device throws out glitter (it's just a hologram, though) every time the feed updates, this special effect can be turned off, if the user doesn't like it. Also, special nocification sounds :)

2. Notebook Of Doom (NoD). The social media used by thr witches and some specialists. Same functios with the Chirper, except the glitter thingy, and, ofc the design is more witchy XD

3. Whisper. More a forum than a social media, but still. Was primarily designed for asking smth anonymously, but now a user can choose whether they want to hide their personal data (such as username, pfp, bio, questio hisrtory (smth like browser history)) or not. Used by fairies, witches, and specialists, but isn't really popular

4. YuNa. Will appear in the book 3 or 4 of my fic as a result of merging Chirper and NoD, as a part of a Union program, which is supposed to fix the relationship between witches and fairies. All the functions remain, only now a user can choose a design of the app (more cute/more goth/new neutral design)

Actually, using Chirper is not prohobited for a witch, as well as using NoD for a fairy, but if someone did that they'd be considered a little nuts XD

[magentas-dystopia]

Something I really lament is the move towards digital media. Slowly we start to never own the things we like. Even if we "buy" a digital game, or movie or show. It's locked behind a certain platform or service. Once it shuts down we lose it forever.

(me when big booby anime girl explosion Is taken off of Netflix)

I also feel like there's a certain charm to owning physical media, like things you can hold and the satisfaction from pressing a clicky button or putting a disc or cassette in and seeing it work.

(oooh so classy so retro so.. expensive in the modern day)

More people should try to make copies of what they own digitally, or try to buy physical media before it's lost from streaming services and digital storefronts forever. Like the case with certain games like Godzilla 2014 and Transformers War for Cybertron. They don't exist digitally anymore. Only hard copies exist outside of emulation and at insane resell prices like... INSANE ones for a mediocre Godzilla game

So yea. Buy some more CDs of those albums you have on replay! Buy a DVD of that niche obscure anime you like! And most importantly PLEASE PLEASE START MAKING HARD BACKUPS OF SHOWS YOU LIKE THAT YOU PIRATE!!! media preservation is important!

(me downloading every episode of Daredevil onto my hard drive to burn to a DVD later so I can give it to all my friends)

This is now going to be a Comprehensive guide on how to rip a CD

POLL TIME!

Burning and Ripping Disc's❤️❤️💕💕🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

STEP ONE:

BUY A CHEAP BLU-RAY/DVD DRIVE FOR YOUR WINDOWS COMPUTER

here are some I recommend!!!

i personally use this pioneer one :)))

DVD drives in general are relatively cheap from 30-20 smackeroos, but Blu-ray drives are around 80-100 bucks depending on the manufacturer but offer better support for copying HD video such as on a Blu-ray.

STEP TWO:

FIND A PIECE OF MEDIA YOU ENJOY.

in this case its gonna be a CD!!

i really enjoy Vespertine by Bjork, but i wanna have it on my computer just in case anything happens to my CD. SO. ill open Windows Media Player

(she hasn't changed since 2011 <3333 be urself girl)

NEXT

ill insert the disc into the player. and it'll start playing!

Pause the disc and go into Rip settings

NEXT!! select the format!

if you want to conserve space and don't mind sacrificing audio quality select MP3! if you want to hear the same level of audio quality as preserved on the CD, select a format labelled LOSSLESS. I recommend .WAV files as they'll work with most devices including an android phone or iTunes on PC (more on that later ;3 )

NEXT!

create a folder on whatever u wanna save ur music to! (u can call it whatever u want the world is your oyster bestie)

THEN!!! FINALLY

go into more options on the Rip Settings menu!

select ur folder and press Rip CD!!!!

the fun thing of this now, is that you can pull these files on your computer and put it onto your Android device so you can listen to your hearts content without lugging around your CD in a player at high quality without any subscription service with free reign of who you can give your download to!

But Magenta! what if i have an iPhone?

ohohoo fear not bestie because iTunes on PC has an even EASIER way to do it

because simply putting in a disc with iTunes downloaded prompts THIS

(oooo so new age)

and if you have apple music on your iPhone this will sync to your phone if you logged into iTunes on PC!!

thank you for coming to my TED talk

[mbari-blog]

Deep-sea ASMR brought to you by a robot unspooling a cable. 〰️

MBARI's underwater hydrophone sits on the seafloor about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from shore, just west of Monterey Bay. It is attached (by this neat neon cable) to the MARS undersea cabled observatory, which carries data from the hydrophone back to shore.

Although the MARS hydrophone is located on the deep seafloor, most of the sounds it picks up are from animals and activities higher up in the water or even at the sea surface. For example, it is common for the hydrophone to pick up the calls of sea lions, dolphins, and other near-surface animals, as well as the sounds of rain, waves, and wind blowing over the sea surface.

Interested in listening to the ocean soundscape? Anyone can eavesdrop on sounds in the deep sea via a continuous audio stream that carries live sound from 900 meters (3,000 feet) below the surface of Monterey Bay. Start your auditory adventure here.

[dronebiscuitbat]

Oil is Thicker Then Blood (Part 27)

Uzi found herself awakned abruptly, yanked out of sleep mode by some unseen force. She was groogy, the drone equivalent of a hangover due to loosing so much oil so suddenly and the disappearance of the adrenaline running through her.

After a few moments of dazed blinking, she realized what had woken her up, Tera made a rather loud gurgle from her crib, and the rolled herself into the bars of it, making a metallic rattle ring out into their room.

“I'm coming.” She mumbled, attempting to sit up but finding her self held down by metallic ropes.

They weren't ropes, rather N's arms wrapped tightly around her from behind, at her movement, he held her tighter, nuzzling into the back of her neck. A shiver went down her back, okay her neck was sensitive she knew that now.

“N, come on, Tera needs me.” Her voice was low and sleepy, and her limbs and body hadn't fully woken up yet, leaving her feeling weak and heavy.

“Mmm…” Came a very-much-not-awake reply, his tail came to lock her in place, and from his core came a deep rumbling purr, both trying their best to put her right back into sleep mode. And she would have, had Tera not made another noise;

A beep. A beep that sounded too much like the same noise that came from her systems when she was about to start overheating.

She snapped entirely awake.

“N! Let me go, Tera's overheating!”

Instantly, he uncoiled from around her and sprung to life, eyes coming on his screen as he jolted up.

“W-what?” His voice was husky, filled with sleep, he blinked as Uzi rocketed toward the crib, placing a hand on Tera.

For once, she had a small frown displayed on her face, looking uncomfortable. A little red light displayed on the top right corner of her visor, her silicone was warm to to touch, nearly the same temperature as N on a good day.

She rushed to fill a bottle, trying to comfort the uncomfortable infant, N shook his head rapidly, trying to shake off his drowsiness as he sat on the side of the bed, watching her pace around the room in worry.

She was so occupied with feeling terrible about not feeding Tera, that she didn't even notice the sparks of pain the siphon caused in her panel, it was only after the bottle was safely in Tera's port and the baby was calmed by the feed that the input went through her.

She sighed, the day was so hectic that they'd both entirely forgotten that Tera could overheat if not monitored closely, Uzi was already beating herself up over it. She left her alone, the exact opposite of what she ever wanted to do to her, she was just like her dad she was-

N’s arms came to pull her into his lap, taking care to keep her hand and Tera steady as he nuzzled into her shoulder, she could feel the gentle hum of his core on her back.

Tera finished the bottle, red light disappearing and a smile right back on her face, she giggled up at Uzi, cooing softly at the sight of her parents.

“M’sorry Jellybean, it won't happen again, I swear.” She whispered, even though she was 80% sure Tera didn't understand her, she tickled the babies chassis, making a peel of happy laugher erupt from her speakers.

“She okay?” N asked, voice still sleepy and pressed right up against her audio receptors, his arms wrapped around her stomach and his legs underneath her.

“She's okay, it didn't seem to effect her any, just made her upset.” She leaned back a little into her boyfriends chest, causing another bout of purrs to escape him, he moved farther into her neck, causing her to shiver again.

“I can't believe we forgot…” She glanced to the shoulder he was buried in, and found that he was now looking down at the baby in her arms, one of his hands came to stroke Tera's head, and she giggled in response.

“Today was insane, you shouldn't worry too much.” His voice so close to her ear sending pleasant streams of data directly to her core, and at this point she wasn't sure if he was doing it on purpose or not.

“Still, it's my job to remember.” She replied, looked back down at Tera, who seemed to be fully charged and raring to go despite the fact it was the middle of the night

“It's our job to remember, I forgot too.” He kissed her cheek, sending another fluster onto her visor, although a muted one, she was slowly beginning to get used to it.

“Mmm” Was all she hummed out, giving into the urge to nuzzle into his neck just as he had done to her, she felt her core give a rattle before she heard herself purr, the rumble being hardly noticeable to anyone that wasn't N.

“Awww,” He hummed back; sounding amused and a little touched, his tail wagging rapidly behind him.

She could fall asleep again, tucked into her boyfriends arms like this, feeling like the safest thing in the universe, or the luckiest, having him to hold her so tight.

“M-ma?” Both drones froze, looking back down at the droneling, who was looking like she was trying to figure out something.

“Mama!” Maybe it was cliche, Maybe it was dumb, but Uzi immediately felt tears spring into her eyes, getting choked up over Tera’s word, Tera herself was rocking herself happily, smiling from eyelight to eyelight.

“Oh… Is that me?” She lifted the droneling up to her face, smile so wide to threatened to be permanent.

“Mama!”

“Yeah it is.” N confirmed, chuckling as he took in his girlfriends face, smiling and yet on the verge of tears. “Looks like she's not mad at you.”

He lifted the both of them off his lap, setting them on the bed next to him, his smile was stuck on his face as well, and Uzi let Tera roll across the bed, laughing as the droneling launched herself into a pillow.

“You're next, “Dada”.” She laughed at his blush, and at his tail sticking up stiff, but in the next moment he was touching her face, shutting her up.

His eyes were so soft, absent of the worry from earlier today, she couldn't help but smile and lean into it, which only made N's smile grow wider.

“You're so pretty.” He said, low and breathless, a slight blush on his face, but it seemed he was getting used to it too, Uzi looked down at herself, in her black, skull printed pajamas and her bedhead.

“I think you need glasses.” She replied, although the compliment did get to her, and she found herself watching Tera to avoid his gaze.

“Nah… I'm right.” He said with faux confidence, before pulling her in to pepper tiny kisses all over her, her forehead, her cheeks, her visor, anywhere he could reach which was everywhere.

“N!, Hey! Haha!” A stream of impulsive, bubbly giggles left her throat, blushing so much she thought she might overheat, she kicked at him instinctively.

It only lasted a couple of seconds before he pulled away, holding her close to his chest and letting out a content sigh, their eyes locked, causing Uzi to let out a very girly giggle.

“Okay! Okay! Fine! Whatever you say!” N laughed along with her, before Tera rolled and bumped into his leg, he lifted her gently into his lap, causing her to gurgle up at him.

“En!” She belted, seeming to vibrate in his arms, he nuzzled her silicone, causing her to squeal and try to roll away.

“I guess we better start the day, there's no way she's going to let us sleep anymore.” Uzi said, still recovering from his attack on her face, she stood up and stretched, feeling the pressure release from between her joints.

“Yeah…”

They both got dressed, And began a tentative morning routine, N making himself some cold gasoline, while Uzi made a plan for the day (and V peaced out the moment she woke up.)

“Hey uh, did we ever explain to Thad where we went?” She asked as N took a sip out of his mug, and he smiled warily.

“Eh… no? I never did, did you text him?” He asked, holding Tera in one arm as she cooed up at him.

“No…” She laughed nervously, rubbing her arm. “I hope he's not too mad…”

“Don't you need to pick up more oil anyway? We can go together, if you feel up to it… yesterday was crazy, so if you wanna stay home we can-” He suggested, standing, Tera curled in one arm as he walked towards her, almost tempting her to curl up in the other.

“Nope! I'm good!” Which she refused! She could do more than cuddle all day, she wasn't fragile no! She'd almost died plenty of times now.

“Uh- are you sure? You almost died…” He pointed out, sounding worried and maybe a little dissapointed, likely wanting to continue to drown her in affection forever.

“I actively avoid thinking about the times I almost die.” She quotes him, giving him a smirk and eyelights that told him that she was fine now, a good bounce-back after a night of being taken care of.

That was something she wasn't used to, someone taking care of her that… tenderly, and unlike before her near death experience didn't weigh nearly as heavy on her as the others. She felt… good. Not 100% but good.

“That- I uh- you know that sounds way worse when I'm not the one saying it.” He laughed lightly, grabbing the baby bag that was hung over a chair and without much warning, wrapped it around her, pulling her close once more.

“Yeah well, now you know how I feel.” She said as if she was trying to be sarcastic, but failed as all she managed to sound was amused, she hugged him back lightly, both seemingly taking advantage of being able to touch the other freely.

She took Tera and swaddled her into the bag, even while knowing the little gremlin would somehow find a way to undo it without limbs.

“Come on.”

For the first time since they'd brought her home, Uzi and N were walking together with Tera in tow, the droneling not quite happy being contained in cloth and already rolling as much as she could to get out of it.

For the two parents, it was a strange experience.

N normally got stares regardless, he was several heads taller than any other drone and was, well, a disassembly drone. The gut instinct of most was to flee, at least until they realized who it was.

Now they were both getting looked at with a different kind of look, one accompanied by either whispers or smiles or both. Uzi had the distinct impression that this would be the new gossip of the colony for awhile.

But she found herself not minding too much. That was… okay, she looked up at N, who looked bashful at all the looks they were getting, and just smiled, it was okay, they'd be fine.

“Oh my robo-god, it's true…”

“How did that even happen…?”

“That's a lot of drone for him to handle…”

She almost laughed when her receptors caught the last one, yes, the tiny rebellious worker drone was a lot for the very large, armed to the teeth warmachine that was specially designed to murder her kind, yes. She was too much for him.

They walked into the nursery together, Mrs. Rayn propping her feet up on the desk while reading a magazine, she looked over her pair of glasses when they walked in, a beaming smile on her face.

“Why hello, Doorman Family, how can I help you three?” With the smirk on her face and the slight blushes on both parents faces, she knew what she did, she definitely knew.

“Hi Mrs. Rayn!” N replied cheerily, tail slightly wagging at the sight of her, Uzi gave her a small wave, and Tera squealed from her bag, already somehow out of her swaddle.

“Just picking up my oil, had an uh, “accident” yesterday and had to use a whole container.” Uzi explained, holding a hand over the baby bag to prevent the excitable infant from rolling onto the floor.

“I was about to say, you're a couple of days early.” Rayn grinned, putting down her magazine and stretching her fingers before typing some things on her computer.

“Hmm, Tera is due for her toddler body soon. Would you like me to start work on building her one? She's got a lot of energy and nowhere for it to go.” She asked, looking at the wildly rocking baby back attached to Uzi's side.

“Yes! I was going to bring that up soon. I know it's really early for her to have one, but… it would be best for her to be able to start learning limbs, she's already-”

“Mama! Mama! Mama!” Tera screamed, filling the entire room with her voice, Uzi blushed heavily, Rayn looked amused, and like her core had melted.

“How's that feel?” She asked the purple drone, getting a soft smile in return.

“Really good…” She admitted, a tone so soft you could sleep on it.

“I'll get the printers working, it'll be a couple days. In the meantime, let me go get you your oil.” She disappeared into the back, and left the young couple alone.

“So uh, we're going to have a very energetic toddler in a couple days.” N began, sounding a little nervous.

“Yeah.”

“How's that going to be?”

“Uh. Well it usually takes a few years for toddlers to get full control over their limbs, so… a lot of hitting if she's anything like me.” Uzi replied, looking a little amused, Tera probably wouldn't be as… violent of a toddler as Uzi was, but she didn't deny the possibility.

“Ah…” That did not seem to calm his nerves.

“Relax, we got this.” She smiled back at him, booping her little rolling gremlin and making her laugh.

N only smiled back, interlocking their hands.

“Yeah, we got this.”

Next ->

[jcmarchi]

NVIDIA’s GTC in Four Headlines

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/nvidias-gtc-in-four-headlines/

NVIDIA’s GTC in Four Headlines

Impressive AI hardware innovations and interesting software moves.

Created Using DALL-E

Next Week in The Sequence:

Edge 381: We start a new series about autonomous agents! We introdice the main concepts in agents and review the AGENTS framework from ETH Zurich. Additionally, we provide an overview of BabyAGI.

Edge 382: We review PromptBreeder, Google Deemind’s self-improving prompt technique.

You can subscribe below:

heSequence is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

📝 Editorial: NVIDIA’s GTC in Four Headlines

I tried to resist making this weekend’s editorial about NVIDIA because I think you might have been inundated with headlines from the GTC conference. Unable to resist, I instead decided to present the four most impactful announcements in terms of ambition and market impact. If I have to summarize two key takeaways from NVIDIA’s AI announcements this week, they would be these:

NVIDIA is not only outgrowing but also out-innovating everyone else in AI compute hardware by a large margin.

NVIDIA’s software ambitions should be taken seriously.

To put that in context, here are four key announcements from this week’s GTC:

Blackwell GPU Series: NVIDIA unveiled the Blackwell B200 GPU, optimized for trillion-parameter models. The chip can improve LLM inference by up to 30x, which is quite remarkable.

NIM Microservices: My favorite announcement of GTC was the NIM platform, which delivers models optimized for inference and packaged as containers. NIM speeds up inference by using the Triton Inference Server, TensorRT, and TensorRT-LLM.

Project GR00T: I think the coolest and most ambitious announcement was Project GR00T, which focuses on developing foundation models for humanoid robots. The stack is based on multimodal models for video, audio, and language.

Distribution: An overlooked announcement during GTC was the impressive list of strategic alliances with top software companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Dell, Oracle, and many others. NVIDIA is simply everywhere.

There were many additional announcements at GTC, but the aforementioned four are incredibly impactful. NVIDIA’s AI hardware dominance is unquestionable, but it’s quickly making inroads in the software space.

🔎 ML Research

Chronos

Amazon Science published a paper introducing Chronos, a family of pretrained foundation models for time series forecasting. Chronos models time-series data using the same techniques used by LLMs —> Read more.

Moirai

Salesforce Research also got into time series forecasting with foundation models with the publication of a paper detailing Moirai. The new model follows the paradigm of a universal forecasting model that can issues predictions across many domains and time scales —> Read more.

TacticAI

Google DeepMind published a paper detailing TacticAI, a model that can provide technical insights in football( soccer) plays, particularly corner kicks. The model uses geometric deep learning by generating possible reflections of a game situation including the player’s relationships —> Read more.

RAFT

Researcers from UC Berkely published a paper introducing retrieval-augmented fine-tuning(RAFT), a training technique that improves the ability of models to answer questions based on external data. Given a question, RAFT ignores the documents that are not relevant to formulagte the answer leading to more accurate outputs —> Read more.

Evolutionary Optimization and FM Model Merging

Researchers from Sakana AI published a paper that uses evolutionary optimization to merge foundation models. The technique attempts to harness the collective intelligence of different models to create more powerful foundation models —> Read more.

SceneScript

Meta AI Research published a paper detailing SceneScript, a method for reconstructing layouts of physical spaces. The technique can have profound implications in augmented reality scenarios that merge physical and virtual spaces —> Read more.

🤖 Cool AI Tech Releases

NVIDIA NIM

NVIDIA announced NIM, its cloud microservices endpoints for pretrained foundation models —> Read more.

Grok

Elon Musk’s xAI open sourced a version of its marque model Grok —> Read more.

Stable Video 3D

Stability AI released Stable Video 3D, an improved model that can generate 3D objects from text descriptions —> Read more.

🛠 Real World ML

AI Training Logging at Meta

Meta discusses Logarithm, their solution for AI training logging —> Read more.

GNNs at Pinterest

Pinterest details their use of graph neural networks(GNNs) for content understanding —> Read more.

RL at Lyft

Lyft discusses the architecture powering their internal reinforcement learning workloads —> Read more.

Cloud Monitoring at Microsoft

Microsoft discusses the AI used to monitor its Azure cloud services —> Read more.

📡AI Radar

NVIDIA unveiled plenty of AI hardware and software innovations at its GTC conference.

Reddit had a strong IPO debut fueled by AI data demands.

Apple is reportedly in conversations with Google to power IPhone AI features using Gemini.

On a surprising move, Microsoft hired Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and part of his team to lead its Copilot efforts.

After loosing several key people, Inflection announced a pivot into AI for business.

NVIDIA announced a series of AI partnerships with the world’s largest tech companies.

Databricks announced the acquisition of Lilac to improves its unstructure data preparation and analysis capabilities.

Astera Labs shares popped 70% in its IPO pushed by the demand of its AI data transfer features.

Roblox introduced new AI features for Avatar creation and texturing.

Anthropic, AWS and Accenture announced a strategic alliance to bring generative AI to enterprises.

ServiceNow released a new version of its Now platform for AI workflow automation.

Amazon and Snowflake announced a partnership to modernize data streaming pipelines.

TheSequence is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

[peggy-uwu]

Black Butler Drive Link

Compiled pretty much all of black butler into a handy little drive file for u all.

Contained within:

ANIME:

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3 (book of circus)

Book of Murder (parts 1 & 2)

Book of the Atlantic

Ova's

MANGA:

Chapters 1-204

LINK:

I would add the musicals but they take up too much space,, google drive only lets you have 15GB of data stored for free at any one time, however they can be found here:

(regarding the anime: All seasons are available in both English and Japanese Dub, with english subtitles available. These cannot be streamed through google drive, you have to download them and watch with VLC media player. To switch through the audio tracks or toggle subtitles, click on subtitle/audio and subtitle track/audio track respectively at the top of the vlc player screen)

If any of you narc i swear to god

[sirfrogsworth]

A few people took exception to calling my car's CD player useless.

I actually think it is great there are a few holdouts still using CDs.

CDs are truly one of the most perfect media ever created.

And I can prove that mathematically.

Some will say vinyl is superior. And as much as I love records, the audio quality is preferred, not better. People have a *preference* for how vinyl sounds, but it still leaves out audio information and has noise and artifacts caused by the mechanics of the turntable and an imperfect manufacturing process.

In fact, the lesser audio quality is exactly what people enjoy. It has a warmth and comfortably compressed dynamic range that is not fatiguing over long listening sessions. It's like choosing a nice fire over a 100% efficient space heater.

But if you want perfect audio quality that does not exceed the limits of human hearing, compact discs are where it's at.

It all has to do with Dr. Harry Nyquist and his Nyquist-Shannon Theorem. (Sometimes Shannon gets left out and it is just called the Nyquist Theorem.)

The simple version is he figured out how much something needs to be sampled in order to not lose any information. As long as you sample something at a frequency greater than or equal to twice per cycle, you will have a lossless... whatever.

In this case, a lossless audio recording.

So the range of human hearing is about 20 Hz to 20 kHz. That's the lowest and highest frequencies we can perceive. The scientists creating CD audio figured they'd do 22 kHz for some overhead and then you double that to get 44 kHz. (Technically it was 44.1 kHz.)

You can imagine the smooth curvy line as an analog recording. No gaps. No information loss.

The black squares are digital samples recorded over a period of time. You can see there are gaps between those black squares. A tiny bit of time passes between the squares where nothing is sampled. INFORMATION LOSS! NOOOOO!

Clearly the vinyl nerds are correct and digital is inferior, right? You are going to get the dreaded... STAIR STEPS!

Not so fast, bucko!

By getting enough samples over a period of time, you can use math to infer that smooth sloping line connecting those individual samples. So the digital recording also has no information lost once it is converted back to analog and played through your speakers.

This connecting of dots is called "interpolation."

You could take the curvy analog, convert it to digital, get the same black squares, and then interpolate the black squares back into analog and get the same curvy line. It goes back and forth perfectly. And this is all verifiable with an oscilloscope.

NEAT!

Then of course you need a good dynamic range--the spectrum of quiet to loud. Anything above 85 decibels will damage your hearing, so they went with a 16-bit depth which covers roughly 100 dB. Again, giving them a little overhead for death metal and overzealous trumpet players.

And the final component is data bandwidth or "bitrate" usually measured in kilobits per second. This is how much data is read every second. The 1s and 0s of it all. The bitrate of a CD is calculated by multiplying 44,100 samples per second per channel by 16 bits per sample and then multiplying by 2 channels. After all that mathing is math'd, you get a perfectly uncompressed 1,411 kbps.

So you've got all the frequencies you could ever hear combined with as much volume as your ears can stand with a bit rate that will give you no loss of data.

The *perfect* audio quality all encoded into little microscopic pits.

Now you may be asking, "Why do I see "24/96" or "24/192" advertised on fancy audio equipment and high quality streaming platforms like Tidal? Aren't 24 bits better? Isn't 96 kHz MORE than 44.1 kHz?"

Dr. Nyquist might say... this is some bullshit.

This confusion comes from the fact that recording quality and playback quality are two different animals. This misunderstanding happens with video and photo quality as well. Recording in 6K will give you a sharper picture even if your final playback quality is 4K. You can get bad pixels and noise and stray photons that do not contribute to the detail in the video. By giving yourself overhead you can ensure you hit the desired quality target.

And recording at 24 bits and 96 or 192 kHz, you get a higher resolution to edit and master with, but it is only advantageous to the computer software... not the human ear.

From a photographer's perspective, I relate to it like this...

If I have more megapixels and more colors and more dynamic range I have more leeway when editing my photos. If you try to push a low quality photo in the edit, it has this tendency to fall apart. You can get ugly color banding and harsh contrast and sharpening artifacts. By capturing more quality than you need in the finished product, you can process the photo much more dramatically before it deteriorates and loses integrity.

Audio and video are the same way.

So let's say you have a metal singer that screams at the microphone as loud as possible from 2 inches away.

At 16 bits they may surpass that 100 decibel dynamic range and distort the recording. But if you record in 24 bits, you get 144 dB to play with. Or you can even do 32 bits and get 1500 dB--a volume that no human voice could ever surpass. It guarantees a clean, distortion free recording, but 32 bits would be pointless for human listening.

The same is true with the sample rate. Having a higher resolution allows you to zoom into waveforms and adjust things to an extremely granular level. You can do precise timings, tiny pitch adjustments, apply loads of digital effects, and just have more room for audio activities without degrading the sound quality.

But outputting 192,000 of those black squares is going to interpolate the exact same smooth curvy line as 44,100 when it is played through speakers.

The oscilloscope knows what I'm talking about.

Now I am about to reveal a secret that no audiophile who has invested in a $115,000 high resolution 32 bit/3,072 kHz DAC wants to acknowledge...

The master recording is always more important than the playback quality.

If you have a high quality source it will sound great even in a highly compressed MP3. Just like the 6K video is sharper on the 4K TV. And the high megapixel photo looks better in an Instagram post.

If the source is good, the media will be good.

And since high resolution audio services often seek out the best masters available before encoding their playback files, it gives many people the illusion they are getting better sound quality due to the boosted specs.

When in reality, it was just a better copy of the original recording.

According to Nyquist, your human ears are not computers and all you need is double the frequency to hear perfect sound with no loss of information. So anything above 16 bit/44.1 kHz/1411 kbps and you are just wasting bandwidth on a server.

And I don't want to hear anything about "stair stepping."

IT'S MATH.

Your ears aren't better than math, okay?

If you don't believe in math, then you and Jack White can sit in the naughty math corner with his bespoke overpriced vinyl pressings.

I will say, there is a gap between your standard music streaming service like Spotify and your bullshit audiophile service like Tidal.

Free Spotify uses heavily compressed files. Which means the bitrate is quite low and there can be information loss. Or "lossy" compression. Modern compression is actually pretty amazing, but I'm afraid anything below 320 kbps may cause some songs to not sound as intended.

Depending on the content, some songs are more suited to compression than others. And even with premium Spotify, they cap songs at 320 kbps which still may not be enough for busier, harder-to-compress songs.

Also, I don't know if Spotify cares about getting the best quality master for a given song. Which, again, is the most important aspect of sound quality.

But services like Tidal waste bandwidth with their super specs and that isn't great for the environment. What I'd love to see is a company that makes their best effort to seek out high quality masters, and encodes their files at 16 bit/44 kHz with a lossless variable bit rate compression. Variable bit rate or "VBR" will do more compression during simpler parts of the audio and less compression during more complex parts. It's smart compression, basically. And as long as you use a high enough bitrate to achieve lossless compression, the sound quality will be the same as if there is no compression at all. So you still get smaller file sizes that use less bandwidth and have a smaller environmental impact.

That would be a streaming service I would consider paying for. Especially if they put great effort into getting high quality original recordings for their content.

In conclusion... if you are still using CDs you don't need to worry about audio quality. You're all set. There is a sort of beauty in what the audio scientists who created compact discs did. They figured out the limits of human audio perception and created a format that just slightly exceeded that. No "bigger number is better" marketing. No audiophile bullshit.

They said, "Here is what you need and nothing more."

They made a perfect thing and they should be proud of that.