Eight for me, ten for my wife I think I have perfected by Guvera Method. Using eMusic, I search for Fantasy Records, since Guvera has a decent selection of Fantasy Jazz. I then sorted by number of tracks (2, 3, etc.) This yielded some good results.
Plong: thanks for the short-track jazz album recs. I added them to my guvera playlist.
With the eight credits I got today, I finished off LCD Soundsystem's "The London Sessions" and started Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears' "Tell 'Em What Your Name Is!" If you're a James Brown fan (and really, who isn't?), download "Sugarfoot" from that album right now.
Just in case anyone is not pillaging the jazz but looking for some post-rock, I see Guvera has The Metamorphosis Project by The Seven Mile Journey, which I already have but it's excellent. Also Kollaps Tradixionales by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (working on that with the latest credits).
If anyone else is searching for other genres and finding interesting things, let me know - I am still struggling with the lack of small labels on Guvera.
Oh, and dddanmar, if you're still tracking this thread, the Guvera site stopped working in the Opera web browser a month or two back (probably after an Opera update). No search results display.
Let me know what you think of it, Craig. It's my favorite album of the year (so far). I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's definitely mine. Just enough Bon Iver, just enough piano, just enough space.
Excellent monthly surprise. My wife - who suddenly has been into ECM unconsciously - and I pulled in 20 credits. While missing a few smaller tracks, I got Anourar Brahem's latest, Jon Hassell's Rumi album, Nick Bartsh's Holon, and Stephan Micus's Music of Stones. I mean we got.
@Kenny - Thanks a lot. I was just sitting here looking at the $5 sale on the James Blake at 7Digital and wondering if I should pull the plug. Can't believe all these new releases are on Guvera. Now if only my in-laws would wake up so that I could get their wireless password and stop mooching a weak signal from someone else.
Question - I got a new MacBook Pro late last week, and I've shared my iTunes Library from my old computer so I can listen to music on the new laptop while I work on moving all my files over. However, nothing I have downloaded from Guvera will stream over the network. Anyone ever encounter this issue, or know what might be different about the files from Guvera that would prevent them from playing? The playback progress bar just sits at 0:00.
The Guvera files should just be mp3s, so it's probably not the files themselves. However, Macs do assign read/write permissions to every file (as do other platforms), so it may be that you need to change those. Highlight the folder that the mp3s are in, do a "get info" (command + i) and check that the user you're logged in as has read/write permissions. If not you need to change these settings.
The other likely possibility is that the files somehow got corrupted when you transferred them over or that shortcuts got made instead of the files actually getting transferred. Check the file sizes against those on the original mac, they should be the same size. If not, you have a problem.
Rereading your post, it sounds like the mp3s are still on your old computer but you're streaming them through your new computer via sharing, is that right?
If that's the case, I would say it's definitely a permissions problem.
@elwoodicious
Thanks for the recommendation. I saw Home Sharing, but wasn't sure what it is or does. I'll look into it more.
@frogkopf
Thanks for the tips and ideas. I haven't actually copied the music library over to the new MacBook Pro yet. I was just streaming the music from my old Mac using the Shared Library feature. I discovered the problem when I tried listening to the new tracks I downloaded from Guvera yesterday. I looked into it more, and the only files that won't stream are downloaded from Guvera. I just checked some Guvera mp3 files with an MP3 Validator app (MP3 Scan+Repair), and it reports an "MPEG Stream error". The app repaired the file, and it plays back fine now via the Shared Library streaming. So it's definitely something in the way the files are encoded.
I was trying to hold off migrating all of my music and see if I could live with the Shared Library feature, but I guess I'll have to. I don't want to go through and repair all of the files I have downloaded from Guvera.
Woah - float something out there and receive! iTunes update 10.2 released this afternoon fixed the issue. I guess it was an iTunes bug or incompatibility that is now fixed.
I really wish I had the money for a new iPad or two... just sayin'
You are right, there are some small errors in the MP3 headers - 9 times out of 10 it doesn't cause any errors, except when the something is trying to read extended data about the MP3. I guess Shared Library is trying to stream the header first and getting caught on the error.
My fix normally is to repair the MP3 files with some header tool like you have.
This doesn't apply to all tracks, just a select few that we are in the process of resolving. It's better now then it was a few months ago when most tracks I downloaded ID3's messed up. You can just run the repair tool over any of the Guvera MP3s to restore the functionality properly.
Anyway, you all reminded me to check what credits I had available, found I had 10 as of last night, went and downloaded some Five Iron Frenzy which I didn't even know was in the catalogue. Days like this make me happy ;)
Thanks for the clarification. iTunes seems to be more compatible with today's update. But at least I'll know for next time if the issue crops up again.
Thanks Germanprof for the heads up on Opera - I've just tested it then and can really see some issues - the most glaring is when you try to search for anything, it will show the multiple pages available but there are actually no songs in the list. Weird. We have made some major changes to the back end in the last month that are in preperation for some really exciting features that are going to be made available in the coming months. While they have been tested in supported browsers I guess something there broke Opera. I'll forward it on to the support guys.
For the record, the supported browsers that are tested before each release are: Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome
thom - leave the channel window open for the track you started to download - that way if it fails you can click the 'download now' button again and restart the download without taking away from your credits.
Opera is broken (or not playing well with certain sites) in a few areas as of the last couple of releases, so it's not just your site - it's leaning me to maybe switching back to Firefox (from which I switched to Opera a little while back when Firefox was having issues...). I am seeing exactly what you see - no tracks listed after searches.
By the way, my last set of Guvera downloads all had no ID3 tags at all. Doesn't bother me because I retag all my music on download anyway to achieve some standard formats, but I wonder if less tag-savvy users are going to be wondering why files don;t show up in their playlists? And the file name does not include all the info, so anyone who does not tag right away while they remember what they downloaded might be struggling later to know what artist/album it's from. The albums were Oceanless by landing and Kollaps Tradixionales by Silver Mt. Zion.
It's related to certain distributors and how the ID3 tags need to be filled. It's been a known issue for some time now, drives me nuts with my iPod and iTunes.
However, for example the Five Iron Frenzy stuff I downloaded this morning has perfect ID3 tags across all players.
Not that it will be resolved tomorrow but we are closing in on the root cause and solution.
Comments
Charles Mingus - Right Now: Live at the Jazz Workshop, two long tracks (20+ minutes).
Sonny Rollins - The Solo Album, two long tracks, nearly 30 minutes each.
The Count Basie Jam Session Montreaux 1975, three long tracks.
Dexter Gordon - XXL: Live at the Left Bank, three long tracks
With the eight credits I got today, I finished off LCD Soundsystem's "The London Sessions" and started Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears' "Tell 'Em What Your Name Is!" If you're a James Brown fan (and really, who isn't?), download "Sugarfoot" from that album right now.
Jenkins, Jordan, and Timmons
Paul Chambers, We Three
Old and New Dreams, Playing
One "long-track" Blue Note recc: Night of the Cookers by Freddie Hubbard.
If anyone else is searching for other genres and finding interesting things, let me know - I am still struggling with the lack of small labels on Guvera.
Oh, and dddanmar, if you're still tracking this thread, the Guvera site stopped working in the Opera web browser a month or two back (probably after an Opera update). No search results display.
Craig
Yup.
Now I'm downloading Lucinda Williams' Blessed.
The Guvera files should just be mp3s, so it's probably not the files themselves. However, Macs do assign read/write permissions to every file (as do other platforms), so it may be that you need to change those. Highlight the folder that the mp3s are in, do a "get info" (command + i) and check that the user you're logged in as has read/write permissions. If not you need to change these settings.
The other likely possibility is that the files somehow got corrupted when you transferred them over or that shortcuts got made instead of the files actually getting transferred. Check the file sizes against those on the original mac, they should be the same size. If not, you have a problem.
If that's the case, I would say it's definitely a permissions problem.
Thanks for the recommendation. I saw Home Sharing, but wasn't sure what it is or does. I'll look into it more.
@frogkopf
Thanks for the tips and ideas. I haven't actually copied the music library over to the new MacBook Pro yet. I was just streaming the music from my old Mac using the Shared Library feature. I discovered the problem when I tried listening to the new tracks I downloaded from Guvera yesterday. I looked into it more, and the only files that won't stream are downloaded from Guvera. I just checked some Guvera mp3 files with an MP3 Validator app (MP3 Scan+Repair), and it reports an "MPEG Stream error". The app repaired the file, and it plays back fine now via the Shared Library streaming. So it's definitely something in the way the files are encoded.
I was trying to hold off migrating all of my music and see if I could live with the Shared Library feature, but I guess I'll have to. I don't want to go through and repair all of the files I have downloaded from Guvera.
I really wish I had the money for a new iPad or two... just sayin'
My fix normally is to repair the MP3 files with some header tool like you have.
This doesn't apply to all tracks, just a select few that we are in the process of resolving. It's better now then it was a few months ago when most tracks I downloaded ID3's messed up. You can just run the repair tool over any of the Guvera MP3s to restore the functionality properly.
Anyway, you all reminded me to check what credits I had available, found I had 10 as of last night, went and downloaded some Five Iron Frenzy which I didn't even know was in the catalogue. Days like this make me happy ;)
For the record, the supported browsers that are tested before each release are:
Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome
thom - leave the channel window open for the track you started to download - that way if it fails you can click the 'download now' button again and restart the download without taking away from your credits.
By the way, my last set of Guvera downloads all had no ID3 tags at all. Doesn't bother me because I retag all my music on download anyway to achieve some standard formats, but I wonder if less tag-savvy users are going to be wondering why files don;t show up in their playlists? And the file name does not include all the info, so anyone who does not tag right away while they remember what they downloaded might be struggling later to know what artist/album it's from. The albums were Oceanless by landing and Kollaps Tradixionales by Silver Mt. Zion.
Agreed that this is likely to cause confusion and heartbreak among non-music-obsessives, down the road.
However, for example the Five Iron Frenzy stuff I downloaded this morning has perfect ID3 tags across all players.
Not that it will be resolved tomorrow but we are closing in on the root cause and solution.