Some Call It Progress

Skate the Razor,
Both Friend and Foe,
Greetings.

I finally broke down and added a laptop to my collection of ultra-tech gadgetry. I’m still learning how to make it pop and sizzle without getting burned…(see manual).

I am beginning to narrow down the timeline for the Razor releases. We are probably looking at October for the release of Artifact, and March or April of 2007 for the re-release of Trance Factor, as I want to allow every opportunity for the others to fully participate in the recording of Automata. In fact, I will probably do most of the tracking in New York next summer. I want to breath a little life into the new tunes before committing them to vinyl, so to speak.

In the meantime, check out the mp3 of Away that Nick added.(below) You might also want to check out some of the odds and ends Ryan and I posted at Garageband.com

Oh, and hey….
Go check out my other blogs.

http://theinfiniteecho.blogspot.com/
http://destinationarizona.blogspot.com/

And don’t worry,
I’ll be back soon enough.

Brad
Skate the Razor 2006

The Slick and Dirty, Part 2

Skate the Razor,
Both Friend and Foe,
Greetings.

And now for the long anticipated:
The Skick and the Dirty, Pt. 2 (the sequel)

Where was I… oh yeah… this stupid microphone… well it’s a Sennheiser what do I expect.

Well what all this means is that everyone has their little stubby index finger deep into the Mpeg pie in one way or another. So, Microsoft and Apple are media transfer compatible through Mpeg.

If someone where to download a QuickTime movie on a Macintosh, burn it to disc, then pop it into a Windows based PC, it might not have the same Codec (COmpressor/DECompressor or COder/DECoder) installed. Resulting in a file that won’t play. That’s not a problem since the Mpeg format has the Codec built into it.

Mpeg is everywhere, from the DVD’s you buy (or rent -n- rip) to the TV signals you watch. You can’t fight it. Well you could but the ATSC would probability have you beaten up. So, society has chosen for us what formats to use.

So in trying to provide options not provided by the big labels, we want to deliver “Disc and PMP Ready” media. PMP’s being Portable Media Players. This will include:

Headphone mixes in stereo and 5.1
Mp3’s in stereo and 5.1 @ around 112-128kbps (also for streaming)
Mpeg2/4 - A.A.C. in 5.1 @ around 128-256+kbps
AC-3 in 5.1 @ around 256+kbps

Well have more on how we plan to achieve those headphone mixes in either part 3 or 4. So for now we still have plenty of work to do.

Nick Du Jour

Note: all specs are subject to change. If you have any comments, corrections or suggestions, please let us know.

Oh, and thanks, Nick.

Chow for now,
Brad
Skate the Razor 2006

Artifactual Data Collection

Skate the Razor,
Both Friend and Foe,
Greetings.

Compiling the song list for ARTIFACT has proven much easer than expected. This is the first draft of the song list, as I will be presenting to Ryan, although not in any particular order at this time.

Stranger (original recording )
Lost In The Homeland
The Search
Love Changed
Last Time (original recording )
Change My Mind
Soul Gigolo
Still I Run
Firing Line
She Loves Jesus
Judgment Day
One Little Drop (Live)
Away
These Clever Lies
Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish

Now then, some of theses songs may ultimately miss the cut, but we aren’t anywhere near making that kind of a decision at this juncture.

Meanwhile, Nick is still compiling data for the Slick and Dirty, Pt. Two. I’ll be sure to get the info up for you just as soon as it becomes available.

It’s time for some breakfast,
so chow, for now.


Brad
Skate the Razor 2006

Do Not Go Gently…

Skate the Razor,
Both Friend and Foe,
Greetings.

Ryan called this afternoon, and we spoke at some length about the issues involving Trance Factor. Ryan, of course, is on board for whatever we may decide to pursue, as I would have expected. He says he spoke with Michael and David about it last summer, but they were less than enthusiastic. As soon as I know a little more, I will contact them as well.

I listened to STR material for about two hours today, choosing tunes for inclusion on ARTIFACT. It all sounds better than I remember, which is certainly a plus.

Again I am delighted by the amount of attention this blog is receiving. Thanks for dropping by. With any luck, Nick will be ready to post more on the slick and the dirty by evening’s end.

Oh, and if you remind me, sometime soon I’ll tell you the story about the “Candledefogger“, and maybe even the one about the “Stalking Gourmet”.

Until next time,

Brad
Skate the Razor 2006

The Slick and Dirty, Part 1

Skate the Razor,
Both Friend and Foe,
Greetings.

As of last you may recall, Nick and I were attempting to hammer out the technical aspect of everything…
The slick and dirty, so to speak. Well, we have arrived at a few conclusions, from which we will base our product development, but of course, things are moving pretty quickly, and may change from day to day.
Anyone with an idea is welcome to submit it to us. We are only concerned about providing some flexibility.

In fact, I’m going to turn this post over to Nick now, and he is going to attempt to explain just what the slick and dirty entails:

Ahem, … thump, thump…. Is this thing on?

Ah yes, the “Slick and Dirty”.
Well basically I’ll be stopping in now and again, to give the results of our research and development.
See, for our parent project, Sound Foundation Entertainment, we had developed our standards for production. Even for the SFE website (which shall return) we had our formats all worked out, which is still Mpeg based.

Since then, Apple Computers released the iPod and iTunes, unleashing a whole new wave of entertainment exchange. Apple’s iPod and iTunes use the Mpeg-4 format, which is not Mp4. The people whom created the Mpeg standards, used the functionality of Apple’s QuickTime as Mpeg-4’s interactive multimedia authoring architecture. Whew!

In fact, Microsoft went the other way and took Mpeg-4’s compression architecture, they changed it to be integrated to Windows (as it’s slave) and renamed it “Windows Media Video Codec”. This is how Windows Media Player plays High Definition video. Since Mpeg-4 supports HD.

I see…
(it’s me again… Brad)
So Nick, where are we going with this? What do all of these really cool words mean to a layman like myself? You know… will I be able to download stuff straight from the website, or will have to order it online? Are we going to offer DVD extras, and stuff like that?

And just why does everyone mess with Lindsay Lohan?

The answers when we post again tomorrow.

Until then,
my friends.

Bradley Cooper
Skate the Razor 2006

STR06

Skate the Razor
Both Friend and Foe,
Greetings,

I am quite surprised by the early reaction to this blog. I really didn't expect anyone with a life to have a reason to follow along. God bless... it's apt to be an up-hill climb.

Funny you should ask...

Nick and I plan to handle most of the studio drumming chores ourselves. Out styles are very different, but I think that will be a plus. Because everything is being recorded digitally, we can (and will) cut and paste as we see fit. We will probably cut the drums at either Dave or Thads place (more on those two, later). The rest will be recorded in-house.

I was always wondering who was buying the Skate the Razor CDs over-seas. I am beginning to develop a clearer picture. We will be going online with the Sound Foundation Entertainment site again in the next week or so.

If you haven't done so already, go check out garageband. We've got some odds and ends available on Garageband that you almost certainly won't find elsewhere.

Michael Bruce approached me last night about appearing with him and the guys for a few choice gigs later this year. He also suggested I produce a few new tunes he's working on. Some big names were dropped along the way, and it sounds like it could be interesting, but time will tell. If I believe it'll help get this show on the road, I'll jump at it.

We shall see.

For now, I have plenty on my my plate. My wife, Gloria, and I will be departing for San Diego in the a.m. It will be the first time Gloria has been to San Diego. It will be my first visit since I came through on tour during the very early nineties.
That was prior to Skate the Razor, which never toured the west coast. Perhaps in 2007, we can change that.

Brad
Skate the Razor 2006