Cjed EMO album released

Cjed’s EMO album is now available through CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Play, Spotify and Deezer.

Starwars movies on iTunes

Starwars movies are now available at iTunes (HD resolution, $19 per movie, that is more expensive than BluRay versions from 2011).

There is still to know whether these are the same versions as the remastered ones from 2007 (whose modified colors looked saturated and required gamma change), and whether the HD resolution brings more details compared to the DVD edition.

Also a rumored Starwars Celebration next week could unveil a new/real trailer of Starwars 7, whose release is planned this December.

Katie / Ketevan : search for a nice piece called Katie

Katie Melua’s new Ketevan (her real firstname) album, that was released recently, didn’t indeed impress, while it was intended as a return to the style that made her famous : always same singing mimics, no real musical theme, not convincing at all. Call of the search, Piece by Piece and following concerts two exclusive songs are still the best.

We can however read interesting interviews here and there (in french) where she still is an humble artist besides looking nice.

Emotuned : Stone ship release

New Stone Ship album has been added at Emotuned.

Symphonic Colors release

A new release, Symphonic Colors, has been added at Emotuned. It features songs that use various strings libraries.

Emotuned funding at Rockethub

 

Beside funding project at Indiegogo, a new project has been created at Rockethub.

By supporting the project you will allow more content, faster loading and more space for artists releases.

Emotuned : new Ballades release

 

A new release featuring 12 piano live ballades has been added at Emotuned.

The first song, Guit Bal, was composed/recorded live using Roland FP7-F  Supernatural piano (only one edited note over the 4 min length song). The drums part  is based on Superior Drummer and Studio Drummer sounds. Other songs use Roland Complete Piano card and Symphonic Orchestra.

Katie Melua : Secret Symphony

Next Katie Melua’s album, Secret Symphony, is now planned for March. Following the two latest (and deceptive) ones, this one brings back the initial producer, who will provide some new songs, besides covers of other artists’s songs that content will consist most of.
We can still listen to one, Gold in Them Hills.

Sword & Sworcery : digital album

The soundtrack from Sword & Sworcery is available at download for 8,21$ (27 tracks) in various formats (MP3 320kbit/s, AAC and even FLAC). The songs are also provided through streaming in full length.

iTunes Store : soon 24 bit

The iTunes Music Store may soon provide 24 bit encoded songs (that is the standard for mastering these days, and it had also been used in 90s for some albums/compilations of some famous artists (a 24 bit to 16 bit dithering was used for CD media).
However it still won’t be lossless, and as stated in a comment the better headroom (additional dynamic range left for mixing before clipping) – noise floor not being anymore a problem with converters these last years – is of few use since music editors keep maxing out the level (using a compressor).

I indeed had to use a limiter to rise MJ Style’s album audio level (a compressor would have produced a pumping effect if applied after the original mix’s reverb), in order to ensure it being close to other songs at the iTunes Store. The result was a somewhat mechanical sounding beat for snare (levelled due to the use of a limiter).

Sarah McLachlan : Laws of Illusion

New album of Sarah McLachlan, Laws of Illusion, has been available for close to two weeks. The sound is great (very warm and strong piano, that reminds Galaxy Vintage D or Roland’s Complete Piano), and one song distinguishes from the whole, Love Come, also provided as a solo piano version.
What seems uncommon is that we can listen to the full songs at deezer.

Katie Melua : The House

New album from Katie Melua, The House, has been available for some weeks (we can listen to wav samples here). While we understand the idea for change (as her latest album was deceiving), and we can agree that the new gothic (symphonic metal) way seems an interesting/promising one, there isn’t many songs to remember yet in the new album (that is however based on samples listening and The Flood clip).
Work on sound is nice however, and first reviews seem positive.

We may better listen to Live At the O2 Arena, that provides nice version of previous songs (22 songs at iTunes Store, at a somewhat cheap price).