A quick recap of the history of Chinese Democracy by Guns N' Roses ... it's been 10 years since it was started. It will come out November 23, 2008. It's like when a movie is slated for a summer release, then moved to February when all the really bad movies come out. No rock album I've ever heard is worth 10 years of work. At some point I think Axl should have just given the album a new name.
Anyway, listen to the title track for yourself.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Switch Audio File Conversion Software
I've run across a couple of albums recently that came to me in WMA format -- a format that has no good uses in my book. Who encodes in WMA these days? Can't be played in iTunes or on an iPod. WMA files are dead to me.
Or were. Thanks to Switch Audio File Conversion Software (available for Windows and Mac), I was able to convert those files to MP3. I tried the free version; a paid version is also available, though I don't know why you'd need it. The free version did exactly what I needed it to do: turned WMA files into MP3 files. You can set the encoding bit rate to your liking. I chose VBR with a max bit rate of 320. Converted files showed no artifacts, blips, or blurps.
It was fairly easy to use: in most cases you can drag and drop files that you want converted. For some files I had to use the manual Add Files dialogue box (reason unknown). File conversions weren't quick, but I turned about 20 WMA files into MP3s in about 30 minutes.
In addition to MP3, you can convert to OGG, WAV, and other formats. And you don't just have to start with a WMA file; for example, you can start with MP3 and go to WMA. Which would be awesome if you lived in 1999, I guess.
Verdict: Highly recommended.