About this website...
Hi, I am Xavier. The Noodlin' Studio is a home-based digital music recording studio I created because of my love for music and my need to record music that I write. I record instruments directly to computer through multiple track digitizing hardware and later mix the music in software on the computer. The Noodlin' Studio has been running for over 3 years and has gone through a number of changes and upgrades, as has my mixing abilities.
All styles of music are cherished here and only original music is posted on this site: uncut and for free. The only alteration I may do to the music is to use low resolution (much lower than CD quality) if the pieces are to be for sale.
Creativity is at the heart of the Noodlin' Studio -- I set things up to be as quick and easy to record as possible, so that when inspiration hits the moment isn't lost. I encourage my fellow musicians to openly noodle with different musical ideas by letting the melodies and rhythms take us were they may. I believe that being open-minded with the direction music can take is essential for finding fresh musical ideas.
So, now that you understand what the Noodlin' Studio is all about, please listen to some of the music that has been mixed, and partially or fully recorded in the Noodlin' Studio.
How do I contact you?
I'm trying to figure that out. No, really. Not being a smartass. The problem is that other people are being ASSES! I'm talking about spammers. They create software that get email's off of webpages and out of webpage program code. Then they SPAM. So many people, including me, would spell out the special characters in the email address such as "someone [at] site [dot] com". Well, I started getting SPAM, so the ASSES are on to that one.
So, I did a little research to find that website creators started using email forms people have to fill in on the website. Spammers figured out how to fill those forms out automatically with software. So website creators started using CAPTCHA's, which are pictures of text instead of plain text. The idea is that only people can read the pictures of text. The ASSES figured out how to automatically read them with OCR software, even when the picture is distorted or obscured in some way. So now website creators are starting to use pictures of 'things' that people have to spell out what they are. A little pictionary, if you will...
This stupid cat and mouse game will continue until we can eliminate spammers from the gene pool. I just don't want to play.
So, for now there is no contact information on my website. Sorry. Blame the ASSES!
Noodle:
as defined by Webster's New World College Dictionary, means:
"1) ...to improvise on a musical instrument, 2) to explore an idea."
My definition:
"to be creative."
About .OGG and .MP3 audio files (plus Flac and Monkeys Audio):
These are audio codecs, or encoding algorithms for creating compressed audio files. They were created to minimize the size of audio files and therefore allow us to store more music in the same amount of computer space and media (and now portable music players, and other consumer electronic devices).
I perfer using the Ogg Vorbis codec for high compression applications because it is a "...completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source." Also, for the same relative file size in comparison to the MP3 file format OGG is generally accepted as better sounding. Of course this is a subjective comparison. Check out the OGG Vorbis FAQ page for more info and to take your own comparison test on the dare to compare page.
As for the MP3 codec, it is not royalty free so there are licensing fees to anyone who creates a product that uses the MP3 codec (for every unit distributed). I believe that everyone should be paid for work done and product sold, but I also believe that standards and specifications like audio codecs should be public domain. To collect fees on a standard that will be in virtually every home that subscribes to any relative use of that standard seems like very monopolistic behavior to me. That said, there are quite a few free MP3 players out there, so the patent owners can't be all that bad. Visit this site for more information about the licensing and technology behind the MP3. I will continue to put MP3's on this site until I run out of space, then the MP3's will slowly dissapear. By the way, there is a newer higher quality and more feature rich MP4 now.
The problem with both MP3 and OGG is that they are LOSSY compression formats. In other words, some of the audio content is actually removed to help reduce the size of the audio file. The compression algorithm, based on psychoacoustic tricks, removes content that is supposed to be unimportant for the aural experience. However, the better the quality of an audio system the more obvious the flaws in the audio content will be. Especially in comparison to a full quality audio file. And if you had a 24Bit 96KHz version of the audio file (Cd's are 16Bit 44.1KHz) then the differences should be quite obvious. The differences are blaring-ly obvious to audio professionals.
There are LOSSLESS compression formats out there such as Flac and Monkey's Audio which are both open and patent-free codecs. The compression ratio can be as high as 4:1 but generally 2:1 with these codecs, where OGG and MP3 is generally around 10:1 on a Med-High quality setting.
What's the point? Well, it's all a delicate balance between being able to store a lot of music and being able to listen to the music without scrunching our faces in annoyance. I can listen to OGG's for background music without much problem. It is acceptable for computing, working around the house, or taking a jog in the park. However, when I want to put a quality set of headphones on and close my eyes, even a CD lacks the ability to be a true portal to a blissful music experience. There isn't the much higher quality digital audio formats for nothing! Check out DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD's.
Why do your dates start with the year?
Some time ago, I found some references on the internet to a movement attempting to make a new world-wide standardization of the date-time layout. They listed many reasons why for the change, but the reason that made the most sense to me was having the layout in order from largest increment to smallest. Year being the largest increment and seconds being the smallest.
I didn't start using this format until I was having problems finding all the different studio recordings on my computer. After much frustration and contemplation, I found that putting the dates with this format at the beginning of filenames made sorting logical and files easy to find. I've been using this format for everything ever since...
This date format is called the International Date Format. Also known as ISO 8601 from the International Organization for Standardization.
Why did you put this studio together?
I have had a passion for all music for as long as I can remember. I have dabbled on as many instruments as I could easily get my hands on. Also being interested in electronics and the sound qualities and nuances in recorded music, I decided to combine the three. So, I got a degree in electronics and directed myself into music related electronics. I worked in musical equipment repair and live sound production. To make a long story short, after several years in my local music scene I found that between lack of time and lack of money, my desires for musical creativity weren't being fulfilled. The cure became a new job in the computer industry, a deep personal education in computers, a house purchase, and much new studio equipment. Result: The Noodlin' Studio.
I have no visions of grandeur or big money where music is related. I don't want to be in a situation again where music is controlled by money. I want music to be the results of passions, experiences, emotions, and living life.
My concept for the Noodlin' Studio was to record during the creative process. Even though the recordings can be rough and unpracticed sounding, the recordings capture the pure emotion and groove, whatever it was. Music is an emotion, and that is difficult to put down on paper...
Once the creative thoughts are recorded, one can just sit back and enjoy the artistic piece, or one could see many possible destinations for the piece. Is it a jingle for a commercial, a mood meant for the next big movie, a theme for drama show, or a new musical style for a full CD of songs? Of course there are always those recordings where one looks for the delete key. :-)
I like to let the raw musical pieces, or as I call them creative notebook recordings, sit unfinished to brew for a while. I just keep capturing new musical expressions of living and experiencing life while the previous pieces mutate "on their own."
Then I spend time finishing the musical pieces into a final product for whatever end result they are meant for. At least that is the concept. We'll see what happens. The beauty of it all is that I simply love the process!
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