dee3 | blog

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Guest set on Teknology 15/01/11: Tracklist

For all of you trainspottters that listened to the show yesterday
(and for those of you that accidentally pressed "Record"), here's
the set list:

01. Helical Scan - Index 1 (Monolake/Imbalance Computer Music)
02. Function - Ghost Echoes (Sandwell District)
03. Martyn - Miniluv (Ostgut Ton)
04. The Black Dog - CCTV-Nation 'Slam Mix' (Soma)
05. Rktic - Midnight Glare (Thinner)
06. Rktic - The Opposite (Thinner)
07. Traversable Wormhole - When 2D Meets 3D 'Peter Van Hoesen Remix' (CLR)
08. Traversable Wormhole - Closed Timelike Curve 'Marcel Dettmann Remix' (CLR)
09. RaÌz/Silent Servant - Raíz 'Ciencia Ficción Edición' (Historia y Violencia)
10. Substance Vainqueur - Emerge 1 'British Murder Boys Remix 1' (Scion Versions)
11. Portion Reform - Shift Worker (Downwards)
12. BT - Fibonacci Sequence (Headspace)
13. SGNL_FLTR - Thrust 4 (Stadtgruen)
14. SGNL_FLTR - Thrust 7 (Stadtgruen)
15. Sub - Black Sun 'Version (Motorlab)
16. Miss Kittin & The Hacker - PPPO 'Function's Sandwell Mix' (Nobody's Bizzness)

4-Teknology By Dee3 by Wildtek on Mixcloud

Thanks for listening - and reading this...
d.

Monday, January 3, 2011

iPad-/iPhone-fallback for Soundcloud's embedded player (using HTML5)

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS NOW TECHNICALLY OBSOLETE!
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE UPDATED VERSION!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This posting falls under the more geeky categories of things, but nevertheless
might be of some interest for all of Soundcloud-submitters/-users out there!

As we all know, Soundcloud offers it's users the ability to share it's players
in various places in various ways; furthermore, Soundcloud also offers some
code so that one can also embed and use Soundcloud's player on one's own
website, blog, whatever!

The embed-code, which one can paste into the HTML-code of one's website,
blog etc., will then generate something like the player shown below:

595 SESSION 01 - Introduction To 595 by wildtek

However, this otherwise excellent player (which does it's job quite nicely too, BTW)
is SWF-based; well knowing that Soundcloud's players (on their site) work perfectly
well on iPads, their SWF-based players intended for embedding on webpages outside
of Soundcloud obviously won't work, if rendered on iPads and/or iPhones...!

Something which also has been mentioned on Soundcloud's own support-pages - for
example here and here

Therefore, I been trying to work out a simple HTML5-based fallback mechanism for
Soundcloud's embedded players, so that if an iPad or iPhone comes across a webiste
with the SWF-embedded player, instead of showing zilch would then show something
more functional (and musically playable) as the native-player depicted below:

But "How...?" could one ask - and here's - IMHO - the answer regarding how to go about this;
in the following below are two code examples with Soundcloud's original embed-code with the
HTML5 audio-tag embedded for the "iWhatever"-fallback and a slimmed and trimmed down code,
based on Drew McLellan's Satay-method and also with the with the HTML5 audio-tag fallback
mechanism, followed by the "how-to-do"-instructions for the implementation side of things.

Soundcloud's original embed-code with the audio-tag embedded (The "quick & dirty"-way):

The modified, slimmed-down embed-code with the audio-tag embedded:

How-to-do:

Copy and paste Soundcloud's embedded player onto the webpage, where you want it to appear, with supplied embed-code from your artist-page on Soundcloud
Flush your browser's cache, reload your webpage with the now embedded player, and press "Play" on the player
Refresh your browser's cache window, and look for a cache-list entry that looks something like this "http://media.soundcloud.com/stream..."
Copy the above-mentioned URI, but only the first part of the string - as in the following: http://media.soundcloud.com/stream/XXXXXXXXXXXX?url=http%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/YYYYYY
(note: "XXXXXXXXXXXX" is a 12 character alphanumerical string, where the "YYYYYYY" is a seven digit string; see the bolded code-strings in the code-examples above)
If using Soundcloud's unaltered embed-code, then insert between the closing embed- and object-tags the html5 audio-tags with the necessary URI- and values, then paste the aforementioned URI from Soundcloud in as the "src"-value in the HTML5-code; but the second slimmed-down embed-code with the audio-tag embedded is the one you should use - just stick the HTML5 audio-tags and values in between the last "param"-tag and the object-end tag, then you should be good to go...
(again: see the bolded code-strings in the code-examples above)...
Save your endeavors/publish/whatever - and that's it

Here's a working example that you can check out on your "iWhatever":

As for now, this solution works, and I'd like to say thanks a lot to Vergel Evans (http://www.humanjava.com/) plus some of my students (to remain unnamed, so they won't get hung out by their peers for being a "teacher's pet") for volunteering to test this solution (or: workaround) out!

Also please note that this solution works for now; I can't nor won't guarantee it'll work after the next major girlie-name technical overhaul Soundcloud puts it's site through; but one can hope that they'll re-jig the code for their embedded player, so any forthcoming player has a similar fallback mechanism!

(And to Soundcloud: go ahead and use the code in this post, but remember to send a check to me...) ;-)

Thanks for reading this...
d.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Coming guest-slot on Dimitri Pike's Teknology-show...

Apart from saying: "Spread the word and BE THERE", I'll hand the rest
of this post's info to the picture and let it do rest of the talking!

Thanks for reading (and viewing) this...
d.

P.S. Check out the Teknology-show every Saturday-evening at 20:00hrs (CET)...!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

"Famous last words..." - for now!

After 23 mixes and over 1.5 Million downloads of the sets (combined),
I have decided to cease creating - and uploading - any new mixes...

At least for a undetermined future, anyway...

For the record (and before any rumours run rampant), there aren't any
legal-reasons nor any form of "behind-the-scenes"-B.S. behind my decision.

Finally, to all of the contributing artists and/or labels that have allowed
me to use their respective material on any and all of the mixes, I would like
to (still) express my eternal gratitude for allowing me to use your material
on these mixes.

You all know, who you are...

Thanks for reading this...

d.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

10 mix-CD's I'd want on my iPod for that stay on a desert island...

Here are 10 mix-CD's, which I'd definitely like to have on my (solar-powered?) iPod
for that stay on a desert island!

I'm not going write page up and down singing these mix-CD's praises, nor any of
the other reasons w-h-y I'd get these CD's on my iPod and packed along with the
other survival-gear, I'd pack along!

But read on - and either nod or shake your head regarding the selections, and do feel
welcome to drop a comment regarding which mix-CD's that YOU'D bring along to
that stay on some desert island.

(BTW, mix sets that are released as mp3-files will probably get mentioned in a later post)

And now to the ten selected CD's (in alphabetical order):

Carl Cox - F.A.C.T. [React]

The Chemical Brothers - Brothers Gonna Work It Out [Freestyle Dust/Virgin]

Dave Clarke - Fuse Presents Dave Clarke [Music Man Records]

Richie Hawtin - Decks, EFX & 909 [M_nus]

Jeff Mills - Live At The Liquid Room [React]

The Prodigy - The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One [XL Recordings]

Scion - Arrange And Process Basic Channel Tracks [Tresor]

Luke Slater - Fear And Loathing 1 [React]

Luke Slater - Fear And Loathing 2 [Resist Music]

Surgeon - This Is For You Shits [Warp Records]

(BTW, my copy is numbered "0068"...)

Thanks for reading this...
d.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Google's mp3-player with HTML5-fallback for your blogspot-site...

There are already a "dump truck"-load of snazzy mp3-players out there, with all of
the graphical bells-and-whistles plus the necessary (IMO, bloated) HTML-code
needed to copy-and-paste and embed a player on your website - I'm already well
aware of this fact!

But...
Less HTML-code on a site (in general) is always preferable, especially if one wants
to speed up the time it takes for her/his site's to load! Furthermore, Google now also
a site's loading speed as one of the factors in their search ranking algorithms:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html

Based on my "meager knowledge" of these things and from what I can gather looking
around out on the net, the majority of the embeddable mp3-players out there are
SWF-based; but what if you want - say - iPad-users to listen to your musical output, too?

In this post, I'll show you, how to take an already online mp3-player that requires a
minimum of HTML to work AND add a HTML5-fallback for the iPad-/iPhone-users
out there - in two minutes flat...!

Regarding the mp3-player, we'll be using for this solution, has previously been offline
for some odd reason, but now it's BACK - Google actually has an online mp3-player,
which you can use for your blogspot-page etc., and requires a bare-ass minimum of
code to work - compared with some of the other mp3-player solutions out there, mind.

I'm not going to dissect the code below and write page up and down about it, but trust me:
all of the necessary code you'll be needing - and which you can copy-and-paste into your
own sites HTML-code - looks something like this:
<div>
<object data="http://reader.googleusercontent.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="380" height="27">
<param name="src" value="http://reader.googleusercontent.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf" />
<param name="FlashVars" value="audioUrl=URL_PATH_TO_THE_MP3_FILE" />
<audio src=" URL_PATH_TO_THE_MP3_FILE " controls preload="none" style="width:380px;"></audio>
</object>
</div>

Which should generate something like this AFTER you've replaced the string
"PATH_TO_THE_MP3_FILE" with the full URL-address to your mp3-file:

And that's all that is need to embed a mp3-player on your page with a HTML5
fallback for iPad-/iPhone-users out there.

Thanks for reading this...
d.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

How to make a podcast-feed (the fast and easy way...!) - Pt. 2

In this blog's previous posting you've now - courtesy of delicious - made
the necessary XML-file, which you (now) can use for your totally-cool podcast!

YAY!

But the feed-title: "Delicious/(your user-name)" and the sub-title:
"bookmarks posted by (your user-name)" might NOT be the coolest thing to
have showing on your (current) feed - let alone having y-o-u-r podcast known
out there as: "Delicious/(your user-name)"

So why not make it a bit more "personal" with Google's Feedburner?
If you've already got an account with Google, then you can use this
account to log in; if not then (just) create your Feedburner-account
and get it over with!

When you're all logged in at Feedburner then look for the following:
"Burn a feed right this instant. Type your blog or feed address here",
and then tap in (or copy-and-paste) the address from the RSS-page
you've just made at delicious, remember to check the box "I am a podcaster!"
and now click on the "Next"-button!

You are now going to give your feed it's (proper) name AND the URL-address,
which from now on will be the URLaddresss, you'll be using for your RSS and/or
podcast-feed!

Now, as Feedburner says on the following page, it's time to dress up your feed
a little bit, and make more personal, by clicking on the next "Next"-button!
On the next page, you'll now be configuring your podcast and telling iTunes how
to show things regarding your feed.

Set the "Create podcast enclosures from links to"-option to "any rich media file"
Check the box next to "Include iTunes podcasting elements"
Choose "Music" under the "Category:"-option
Fill out the the form-fields the best you can
Check the box next to "Include "Media RSS" information and add podcast to Yahoo! Search"

After you've done all of the above, click the "Next"-button on the page, and on
the following page check all three check-boxes on this page, and click again on
this page's "Next"-button.

On the following page, click on the "Optimize"-tab and then find and click on
the: "Title/Description Burner"-link; on this page, type in the "New Title:"-field
the desired name for your podcast followed by clicking on "Activate"-button -
and you should now be all set with y-o-u-r new podcast...!

Finally, just to illustrate things - here's a final working example made from the
feed-example shown in the previous posting, and after I've used Feedburner's
"Title/Description Burner"-option: http://feeds.feedburner.com/dee3-exp

After following the instructions in both the previous and this posting, you should
now have a more personalized podcast-feed ready to unleash on the unsuspecting
masses out there!

Thanks for reading this...

d.

How to make a podcast-feed (the fast and easy way...!) - Pt. 1

O.K. - for whatever reason, you (the reader) want to share
your tunes, mixes, radio-shows etc. as a podcast with
the (at the moment) unaware masses out there on the 'net, but
either you:
A. don't know how to put together the necessary XML-file
B. don't know anyone who can - or will - do it for you

...then read on, as I'll give the instructions to how you
can put together podcast without all of the coding-fuss!

First of all, before we can on, where and how you get your
audio-files hosted is your headache, but after that's been said
you'll be needing (to make) two user-accounts at:
1. delicious.com
2. feedburner.com

Alrighty, as you probably already know, Yahoo!'s delicious is
one of the net's leading social bookmarking services, and it'll be
delicious that we'll be using to generate the XML-file, which
you'll be needing for getting y-o-u-r podcast on the road!

After you have logged on to delicious, the first thing you have to
do is click on the "Save a new bookmark-link located up in the
upper right-hand corner of the page.

Then, in the appearing popup-window, write in the full URL-address
to the audio-file that you want on the podcast, click on the "Next"-button,
and write in the title of your file/tune/mix/show (and optionally add any
additional details in the "Notes"-field), and click on the "Save"-button.

Repeat the operation as described in the above, if you should have more
than one file that needs to be added to the what will soon be your
podcast feed. Here's an example of what things should look like at:
http://www.delicious.com/dee3

Now look on the lower left hand side of the delicious-page for the
orange RSS-feed logo where it says: "RSS feed for these Bookmarks",
click on the link, and - PRESTO - you'll land on a new page with
your newly made RSS-feed, form which you can already use for both
for your newly-created RSS-feed (obviously) and for your podcast, too!

But bookmark/save the URL-address for your new feed, as you'll need
this later on for the second part of this article series, where you'll make
your new feed a bit more personal, and here's where Google's Feedburner
comes into the picture...

Thanks for reading this...
d.

10 from '10

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

FINALLY: Shamus Coghlan - Technophile

As the title indicates, Shamus Coghlan's sophomore-release on his own label,
(807) Recordings, is now finally and officially out on the street!

And - IMHO - this 12" has been on it's way for quite some time; the first time
I heard the white of this 12" thundering on a PA-system, was back in the late-autumn
of '08 in Tresor's "Batteriraum" (in connection with a DJ-gig Shamus was about to
perform - double-billed along side with Vergel Evans, BTW).

Actually, I was so impressed by the white that one of the tracks made it on to the
ninth installment of the "Compiling a Network" mix series, and - TBH - I've been pestering
Shamus off-and-on ever since, regarding w-h-e-n this white-lable would see a proper release!

But to cut a long story short and in other words: this release has been on it's way for
the last two years, and taking into consideration all that can happen (musically) over
a timespan of two years, one could ask if this 180g worth of 12" vinyl is:
A. still musically interesting - or relevant
B. has been worth the wait, in general

And the two questions above can be answered with one sentence:
HELL YEAH...!!!

To sum it all up: Shamus Coghlan's "Technophile" E.P. is an essential release and is
now a mainstay in my box; I guess the proverb: "All good comes to he who waits" is
more than true, in this case.

But make a jump over to rubadub, listen and grab hold of your copy there...!
And while you're at it - why not also grab yet another slab of 180g of vinyl and get Shamus'
equally ACE "Further EP", while you're at it!

At least, you won't have to wait any longer for Shamus Coghlan's "Technophile" E.P. than it
takes for the mailman to deliver it you, after you've ordered it! ;-)

Thanks for reading this...
d.

P.S. Shamus - if you see this, then remember to leave most of your "Bargeld" at home, the next time
we hook up (you know why...); oh, and gimme the proper directions to where I should go...! :-D