The Mandelbrot Set: Let’s Get Rolling!

[Bry]

(New thread for a new attempt at moving this forward.)

This thread is for discussion — let’s not say discussion. This thread is for progress on the longest-lasting, most inert forum project ever, the Jonathan Coulton Internet cover band, The Mandelbrot Set.

Previously, we decided that our first cover would be “Re Your Brains.” Then everyone kinda stalled there waiting for someone to tell us what to do. So here’s what to do:

• If you’re not a member of the Mandelbrot Set Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/JoCoCoGro/), join!
• Record yourself playing the entire track through in a normal way, suitable for accompaniment. Keep it fairly simple. Use the karaoke track, available from the Google Group, to guide you.
• Then record yourself playing one verse and/or chorus “in a style of your choosing” (still using the karaoke track for guidance). Don’t change the chords, but go ahead and get a little creative, if you can. Check out Borba and MaW’s “Repent Your Brains” recording, also available from the Google Group, for an idea of what I mean. (And feel free to piggyback off of one another’s recordings and ideas.)
• (Vocalists may do the same, but don’t sing the “All we want to do is eat your brains” lines of the chorus.)
• If you’re recording yourself on multiple instruments, e.g. guitar and voice, submit each as a different track.
• Please leave a comment here to say you’re planning to participate!

Let’s try and get as many recordings in by June 30 as possible. (The earlier you get it in, though, the sooner other people can play with it!) We’ll evaluate where we are at the start of July.

Okay, GO!

[Colleenky]

I still have not acquired a microphone. My budget won’t allow it right now, so I may have to bow out this time and participate in some other cover project instead. (Yes, I could get a cheap mic just for this one project, but I would rather invest in one good mic so that I can use it for more recording in the future. Best use of limited resources and all that.)

[dantes]

I’ve applied to join the group.

I play the electric guitar (still waiting to get an accoustic one) and bass guitar, and I sing. Unfortunately I only have a PC microphone, and so the quality isn’t very good… But i’ll try my best. 🙂

(also I’m not good at recording/editing overall)

[Bry]

Colleen: Could you video-record your vocals? If you can get it on YouTube, even, we can pull the audio from there.

[Colleenky]

Hmmm. I’ll see if I can borrow my friend’s camera again. I’ll know after this weekend.

What software pulls the audio from video? I have Windows Movie Maker and Audacity. Will either of those do?

[BenS]

Itunes does it, that is the easiest piece of software that i know does it. All you have to do is put the video and another song in a playlist. Select both, right click on them and click convert to [your preferred audio codec] and it will do it simple as. However it will also convert the audio file so best to use your shortest audio file. I use a 3 second audio file i have in iTunes when i do it.

[Bry]

There’s this webapp, which I’ve linked before in passing; that’s the easiest process for files already on YouTube. For files that you’ve got on your computer, Ben’s trick will work, I believe. Haven’t played around with Windows Movie Maker, but there might be a solution there as well.

ETA: I haven’t tried this, but someone random suggests here:

…drag the video from the “Video” part of the timeline to the “Music” part of the Audio timeline. If you export your project as a movie, it will save as a wma file!

[Colleenky]

Thanks, Ben. I’m not so proficient with the iTunes, but I’ll give it a whirl. And thank you, Mr. Bry. I’m sorry that you did web research for me. I thought someone might just know off the top of their head.

[CoolJammer00]

uh, you guys could just use Vixy.net

[Bry]

Uh, which would involve uploading to YouTube or a similar site and converting to FLV first, then processing it via webapp. (Uh, which is also no more powerful than the equivalent webapp I linked in my previous post.) The iTunes and Win Movie Maker solutions, on the other hand, could be run on Colleen’s computer, saving her the trouble (and the bandwidth) of uploading an entire video.

[To note for the future: One of my many pet peeves (I should start a Jon Who-style list) is corrections or explanations that begin with “uh” or “um,” as though one is addressing the dimwitted. I tell myself I should not take pleasure when such corrections or explanations prove totally misguided or uninformed.]

ETA: @Colleen: No need to apologize! Really wasn’t much work — just shuffled Google search terms around until I saw something promising. Has anyone ever tried MediaCoder (freeware, for Windows)? It appears to include functionality to extract audio in most formats from video in most formats, though again I haven’t tried it. (mtgordon, you mentioned somewhere westa Woostah that you were extracting audio from YouTube files using some utility whose name I’ve forgotten — is it Linux-only?)

[Colleenky]

Hee-hee! Windfall money = Handy Recorder H2.

(I can use it for this project and also use it for my kids’ chorus, recording rehearsals and practice files. :-D)

[mtgordon]

@Bry: One can theoretically save .flv files using a Firefox plugin such as DownloadHelper, and one can theoretically extract the audio track using ffmpeg, which is theoretically available (though dubiously legal, due to patent issues) under Linux, Windows, and OS X, but it’s probably easiest to get it running under Linux. Bear in mind, in addition to the patent issues, this practice runs contrary to the YouTube terms of service, so if you actually do something like this, you’re probably best off not saying that you’ve done it but rather saying that it’s theoretically possible, if you know what I mean.

[Bry]

Two things I should’ve said in the first place:
1. If you’re planning to record on multiple different instruments, e.g. guitar and voice, submit each as a different track.
2. Will everyone planning on recording something please post a comment here to say so?

[mtgordon]

I plan to submit a voice track. If I submit an acoustic guitar track, I’ll be surprised, but we’ll see what happens.

[Colleenky]

Voice track here.

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