Music on the XO

Sat Oct 27 16:23:24 EDT 2007

Jean,

Free music, like free culture, is not simply a great concept -- it is a 
reminder and affirmation of the inherent right to cultivate and share 
cultural artefacts.

If as you say choice of music is of fundamental importance in the 
education and socialisation of a child, I hope you will agree that the 
right to educate and socialize a child 'properly' should not be owned
by a small group of individuals who can choose whether or not to
license said music to you.

It should go without saying that old yet beautiful recordings of
canonical works which have been enjoyed and revisited for centuries
should be available for anyone (such as OLPC) to share with millions
of children throughout the world.  That there is a legal sense in
which this is not possible is a testament to deep failings in our
conception of how and where culture is created.

To your implied criticism of the Jamendo collections: If there are 
particular pieces you find of poor quality, not merely distasteful,
please let me know which they are. The collections posted were selected
with care, and none would suggest that low quality works have a place
there. If you link to the Jamendo collection, your comments will appear
directly on that page[1].

I would like nothing better than to see those collections become better 
rounded. While we must start somewhere, that is not because we 
philosophically privilege the first entries over others. I would likewise 
love to see our collection of sounds grow to include samples from every 
family of the animal kingdom.

You are in a position to help ensure this. Your input, and suggestions of 
specific works and collections, is most welcome.  While we are careful 
about the licensing of collections we distribute, we can be more flexible 
about the collections we link to.

Thank you for the upate on the audio response; I do not know the hardware 
details, but often feel I don't have very subtle control of the audio 
environment.  Perhaps there is some way to offer more than linear volume 
control?

SJ

[1] the top post right now: http://conley.toejammer.net/blog/?p=201

On Sat, 27 Oct 2007, Jean Piché wrote:

> SJ,
>
> Two things.
>
> More important:
>
> Free music is a great concept... for people who have global access to 
> ineternet-based music pools. Given enough "community mass" and discernment on 
> the part of the listener, one can get to the subjective and elusive concepts 
> of  "quality"  and "exemplariness".  The problem here is that OLPC, by the 
> very fact it will include collections of music by "curated" artists out of 
> the free music ethos, gives a value imprimatur where perhaps none is 
> warranted. We dont need a discussion about music's influence on culture but I 
> think everyone will agree its serious business in the education and 
> socialising of a child, increasing manyfold in adolescence. Alas, much of the 
> music that is presently included in the Jamendo collection is, to be honest, 
> dreadful in style and of rather poor quality in production.  I am perhaps not 
> in a position to be an arbitrer any more than the undoutedly generous and 
> sharp young minds at Jamendo but I suggest OLPC thread VERY carefully here. 
> Even when there is quality, I am not certain what to think of Nigerian 
> children being fed a diet of DJ Spooky, no matter how much I personally enjoy 
> his work...
>
> We should be discerning about what we wish for. "Open System" ia not  "Open 
> Culture".
>
>
>
> Less important:
>
> A head's up on the XO audio subsystem: The speakers have a severely biased 
> frequency response. We have recently performed a thorough analysis of the 
> audio response curve of the machine and there is a spectacular 12dB peak 
> between 3000 and 4500 Hz, this on all models.  I suspect these are mobile 
> phone speakers designed for voice clarity. What this means is kids will 
> likely crank up the volume so that they can hear some of the lower 
> frequencies. Since the physical size of the speakers prohibits any 
> frequencies below 350 HZ,  as they try to get a decent bandwidth,  they will 
> get the "membrane-against-the-casing"  distortion (which has the merit of 
> making the kids lower the volume but  risks killing the speakers if done 
> routinely). Someone on the hardware side really should look at the long term 
> prospects for audio hardware failure and see what correction we can bring, by 
> limiting signal output and/or equalising the output of the AD1888 (we dont 
> know what can be done on chip...)
>
> The solution we have implemented in TamTam  is to simply apply a reverse 
> notch filter on the audio signals we send to the speakers. This works well 
> and provides a more pleasant listening experience, but inevitably reduces the 
> dynamic range. It does nothing per se to protect the speakers becasue you can 
> still crank up the volume to casing distortion. Furthermore, our solution 
> only works with the speakers of course, since the line out/headphone output 
> produces an acceptably neutral signal. Thus, to make it sound good in the 
> speakers, we make it sound bad in the earphones. Unless there is a signal we 
> can access that tells us when the line out jack is connected....  Anyone 
> know?
>
>
> jp (ethrop)
>
>
>
> _________________________________
> http://jeanpiche.com
>
> On 26-Oct-07, at 9:33 PM, Samuel Klein wrote:
>
>> 
>> Jamendo has been hard at work compiling albums of music and confirmations
>> from their artists, coordinating the work of dozens of curators and
>> smaller partner sites.  You can see some of the results of their work
>> here:
>> 
>> http://www.jamendo.com/fr/olpc
>> 
>> There will be a "contribute music" interface soon; for now, you can send
>> albums and interested artists to Romain directly (cc:ed here).  And there
>> will be more information put up about the artists involved.
>> 
>> This has come together thanks to many people, but especially the crews at
>> Jamendo, Free Culture, and the Antenna Alliance.  You all rock.
>> 
>> If you have contributed music in other formats that doesn't currently show
>> up on the page listed above, let us know; and make sure that you have
>> confirmed the license of your works.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> SJ
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>