Talk:The Partly Cloudy Patriot

2-JAN-2004 Ok. Here's the info on The Partly Cloudy Patriot. It's 5 CDs, and The Giants said they contributed "bumper music" between chapters. So I've identified the bumper music, but none of it is named, except those we already knew about, like Pop-A-Shot, Anqui and Canada Haunts Me. The Pop-A-Shot song appears at the end of the Pop-A-Shot chapter, so using Pop-A-Shot as my guide, I decided (arbitrarily) that the bumpers are named after the chapters they follow, and have used the chapter names of the book.

That works, except for the 4 Introduction songs, which precede discs 2-5. In that case, I've given them the terrible name of "Disc 4 Intro" etc. So that's how I came up with the listing of tracks. They are certainly not named by the Giants, but I didn't know how else to represent them. Before I create the new pages, though, I wanted to see if this was an acceptable way to go about it. BigJohn

3-JAN-2004

I just recieved the CDs and was wondering how I would solve the problem, myself. My idea was the same as yours. And i stilI think that's the way to go. There are also those little three-note filigrees that are interjected here and there, but I suppose those are best ignored. Thank you for doing this. - User:Tisher

20-JAN-2004

Well, it took me a while, but it's all in there. Hope you guys enjoy it! Turns out the "intros" I had referred to earlier were actually rehashed Partly Cloudy Patriot Theme snippets. I have so indicated now in the main Albums listing. I think I've back-linked all the instrumentals, but I'm reluctant to include the songs in the regular Song List, since they're so small and insignificant. If anyone wants me to, I can add them. I just thought it might be better if they had maybe a separate section, like bumpers or something like that. I also have not included them in any of the other Song Themes, because the categories are usually inferred form lyrics or song titles, and since these are my own titles, I'm not sure it's appropriate. Anyway, any feedback is appreciated. I'll be happy to touch up anything that needs it. Have a tmbg day! - BigJohn (sorry I can't figure out this indenting thing...)

Warning about Buying The Partly Cloudy Patriot from iTunes/Audible.com

Hey, I know TMBW.Net gets money from referring customers to iTunes, Amazon.com, etc., so I hope no one gets upset with me for posting this, but I think prospective purchasers of The Partly Cloudy Patriot from iTunes and Audible.com should know that what they'll be getting is a 32 kbps mono protected AAC file (or a 32 kbps mono protected MP3 from Audible.com--and that's if you get the highest quality file, though they have lower quality files available too!), as opposed the usual 128 kbps stereo file you get when you purchase music from iTunes. In fact, I really think the bit rate and the fact that the file is protected and in mono should somehow be put somewhere here on the album's (audiobook's) page if someone can think of a good place to put it.

So why is this such a big deal? Well, if you buy the book on CD, I assume that it's in stereo, and I'm sure it's in a much better bit rate than 32 kbps (or even 128 kbps), so the sound quality of the music will be much better than what you get through iTunes. Also, if you buy the audiobook from iTunes or Audible, since the file is protected, in order to "separate" the individual TMBG songs from the audiobook so you can listen to them by themselves, you have to:

1. Burn the whole audiobook to CD (since you can't convert protected iTunes or Audible files or portions of them into other formats using iTunes like you can with unprotected files), which takes what, five discs?
2. Re-rip the CDs of the whole audiobook back onto your computer as WAV files (which would take up a lot of space!) or MP3 files (which would lose even more sound quality!).
3. Re-rip/convert each individual song out of the WAVs/MP3s you just ripped, again choosing between making WAVs and MP3s (and possibly more losing quality if you choose MP3s?).
4. Re-burn all of the individual songs onto a CD (assuming you want a CD of the songs so you can play them on something other than your computer or digital audio player).

Does that sound like fun? It doesn't to me. Now, I know that this is only one more step than would be required if you bought the CDs (since you'd still have to do steps 2 through 4 with the CDs), but at least with the CDs you'd start out with much higher quality media. And it seems to me that if people are big enough fan of TMBG to buy TPCP just or mostly for the TMBG songs, they'll at least want decent quality songs. So, there's my two cents/warning. Now can anyone think of a way to include this info on the audiobook's page so as to help make people aware of the pros and cons of their buying options? ~Drew

Nobody has any thoughts or opinions on this? What if I put "(Protected 32 kbps audiobook, which does have TMBG)" where it now say "(Audiobook, which does have TMBG)." Would anyone be opposed to that? Let me know. ~Drew

Sounds reasonable, though I think you would want to mention the fact that is is mono as well. Note that with iTunes you can set it to begin ripping/encoding from specified time signatures, so that may cut down on the amount of space you have to use when doing so. All the time signatures are provided on the detail page of each song. I hope they match up with the audiobook. -BigJohn

Audible quality is better, but now also available unprotected from eMusic

I recently (May 2011) downloaded this audiobook from both Audible and eMusic. The highest-quality version from Audible is better than previously available, but still not great: it's a single DRM-protected .aax file, encoded at 64kbps in stereo, with a 22kHz sample rate. As noted above, the Audible file must be burned to disc in its entirety (5 CDs) using iTunes and then re-ripped, in order to do any editing. It can be played in Windows Media Player with the Audible plugin, but not burned. Better news: this audiobook is available from eMusic in unprotected MP3 format. Each of the 5 CDs is a separate file. It's at 64kbps and stereo like the Audible file, but with a 44kHz sample rate. This appears to be the best option for anyone wanting to rip the TMBG music, short of spending a lot more on the actual CDs.