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Dec. 6th, 2009 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickMy mom walks to music. It's an exercise thing, it is. She relies upon cd mixes (audio cds) that I generate from my music library. I have a decent sized musical library and I can burn audio cds, which covers my qualifications for generating the cd mixes. I don't actually have any skill at selecting music for mixes but she's not particularly picky and tolerates a wide range of stuff.
Thing is, the current music, which has served for better than a year now, is too slow. Mom has now gotten to where she can walk too quickly for the current music and so it isn't very workout-ish anymore. The current mix is a selection of eighties-ish dance tunes, included below for your reading pleasure.
Mom would like new music. New, faster music. New, better, faster music that is not too fast. It should be just fast enough. Music with a solid backbeat is helpful. Listen-to-ability is also helpful but almost anything non-hateful will grow on her given enough time.
The old list:
Whip It
Video Killed Radio Star
Celebration
Let My Love Open the Door
Turning Japanese
I Want Candy
Come On Eileen (okay for speed)
Mickey
You Spin Me Round
Walking on Sunshine
Dancing With Myself
Centerfold
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Our House ( way too slow)
Mr. Roboto
Let's Hear It For the Boys
Foot Loose ( not too bad, slow down perhaps?)
Walk Like an Egyptian ( slow down?)
La Bamba
867-5309
I generated the current music list by hand. As a result, it has things of varying bpm. The variation is OK but I'd like a concrete number for each track instead of having to play songs back to back on my computer and earball them for appropriate fastness -- my sense of rhythm is totally white-girl-can't-dance and I suck at doing it manually. There's got to be something that can slurp one's music directories and return a list of bpms. Somehow. Some kind of computerized listening analysis thing. My mp3 application (usually Banshee, sometimes Rhythmbox) does not rank my stuff via bpm or offer that as a thing in the mp3 tags. I think iTunes has some sort of rec engine that is probably bpm-based in part, but I don't use iTunes.
Google suggests some things on the bpm detection front. All of them (for my operating system) track back to one software, which is bpmdj, written by some german dude. I'm working on that to see if I can get it to work. There does not seem to be a ready-to-use thing -- the ready-to-use things that I could find just failed and they're built on this backend anyway. The available thing is "some assembly required", but of course it's not assembly or I'd really be fucked. It's makefiles and conf files and dependencies. Looks like C to me, really. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.
Bugger it, I've managed to kill synaptic (again). It gets cranky if I clicky too much without waiting for it to be done. If I do some additional waiting, it comes back. I'm not good at waiting. Synaptic is a package manager, helps you located approved software so that you have all the stuff you need to install new stuff.
The actual software I want isn't in Synaptic, which means it is more bleeding-edge or possibly hailing from a world of Linux *other* than Ubuntu. (There's like Debian and Slackware and Suse and so forth. Ubuntu is pretty and has a nice logo, which is why I use it.) You can use other, non-ubuntu software on your ubuntu, but it's slightly more difficult. In this case, there's a makefile and a readme and you have to be able to read and follow directions.
Oh, progress! We have the following:
It needs. Something. (google, google, read read swear) Looks like it needs libasound2-dev. Added that. It's for alsa sound stuff. And we go onward.
Oh HAI! Needs fft. Gosh, that looks familiar. Sound. FFT.
Fuck me.
The Lfftw3 thing is software for Fast Fourier Transforms. I know what these are. [Audio lab at Aberdeen used 'em, way back in the day. It was a big deal, back then. They had a black-box solution (from tucker-davis technologies) that did FFTs.] I can fucking download that and have it on my laptop? In under five minutes? I can use high-end digital signal math-y stuff for making better mix CD's? Fuck me, we're living in the future. R0xx0r. Synaptic has the FFT stuff.
And now it's got another error.
Okay, will go get gawk. It's like a language, I think. Like awk, only more graphicaler, which is why the g in front. In my world, awk is the language spoken by the cube that Methodia Rascal was owned by while he painted the Battle of Koom Valley. :)
Right. And onward we go. Now we have...
Google suggests that qtplaintextedit.h is a header file that comes with some of the other shit surrounding qt, which is a thing to help people provide a pretty front end to programs. (I was just curious which is why I googled. Actually knowing what the fuck it is that you are missing is not a requirement for progress on this sort of thing.)
I'm getting another error.
Bugger. This error took me some time to track down. I have qt4. I installed it. I don't have qtplaintextedit.h in the directory where it says I should have it. Wtf? Fuck. Turns out that qtplaintextedit.h is a *new* class of things for qt, appearing in Qt4.4. What qt do I have? Uhm.
Uhm. Guess that means that stuff introduced in 4.4.x won't exist in 4.3.x, will it? Bugger. Okay, so Synaptic does not have the more recent version listed. (Synaptic kind of helps keep you from being a complete twat with your shiny Ubuntu linux system. It only gives you stable and pre-vetted stuff. The stuff found in Synaptic is supposed to work fairly well with your system. If you go outside Synaptic to get shit, you can fuck up more. More fucking. Coolio!) The more recent version can be downloaded (444 meg) from the builder's website, so I'm doing that.
Now I'm vested, here. This had better fucking work. :P Natch, when I get the damn thing downloaded, I will have to compile and install it, a thought which does not particularly engender in me a stiffy. :(
Note that linux doesn't really *always work* any more than Windows will *always work*. What it *does* do is provide you with a system that can usually (but not always) be MADE TO WORK if you have the clue, the determination, and the troubleshooting ability to find what's required. All the parts inside are user-service-able, for a sufficiently clueful user. For example, if I knew fuck one about using Qt for generating nice graphical interfaces, I could probably fix the ui-about.ui file so that it would go through on Qt4.3.x instead of having to go get Qt4.4.x and compile it. However, I don't and I'm not willing to learn -- that's more than I want for this project. But, y'know, I could. I might, if getting the newer version doesn't fly. Right now, though, downloading. Thirty-eight percent complete, actually. I'll keep you posted with my eventual fail on the bpm-software-front. (Or not fail. Might actually work. I'm having fun, anyway, and that's what really matters.)
Also included with the request for new music was the following note: On the fast track I would like Captain Jack since you gave it to me on another mix, and it is wonderful walking music. I sing along when Rod isn't nearby. -- that'd be the eponymous song Captain Jack. So, we want about an hour's worth of things that go about that fast. (Mom is going to wind up with a damn lot of DDR music if she's not careful.)
So, now, with that much laid before you, I trust that I don't have to finish this post. Ya'll know what I want, right? :) Give it to me.
Thing is, the current music, which has served for better than a year now, is too slow. Mom has now gotten to where she can walk too quickly for the current music and so it isn't very workout-ish anymore. The current mix is a selection of eighties-ish dance tunes, included below for your reading pleasure.
Mom would like new music. New, faster music. New, better, faster music that is not too fast. It should be just fast enough. Music with a solid backbeat is helpful. Listen-to-ability is also helpful but almost anything non-hateful will grow on her given enough time.
The old list:
Whip It
Video Killed Radio Star
Celebration
Let My Love Open the Door
Turning Japanese
I Want Candy
Come On Eileen (okay for speed)
Mickey
You Spin Me Round
Walking on Sunshine
Dancing With Myself
Centerfold
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Our House ( way too slow)
Mr. Roboto
Let's Hear It For the Boys
Foot Loose ( not too bad, slow down perhaps?)
Walk Like an Egyptian ( slow down?)
La Bamba
867-5309
I generated the current music list by hand. As a result, it has things of varying bpm. The variation is OK but I'd like a concrete number for each track instead of having to play songs back to back on my computer and earball them for appropriate fastness -- my sense of rhythm is totally white-girl-can't-dance and I suck at doing it manually. There's got to be something that can slurp one's music directories and return a list of bpms. Somehow. Some kind of computerized listening analysis thing. My mp3 application (usually Banshee, sometimes Rhythmbox) does not rank my stuff via bpm or offer that as a thing in the mp3 tags. I think iTunes has some sort of rec engine that is probably bpm-based in part, but I don't use iTunes.
Google suggests some things on the bpm detection front. All of them (for my operating system) track back to one software, which is bpmdj, written by some german dude. I'm working on that to see if I can get it to work. There does not seem to be a ready-to-use thing -- the ready-to-use things that I could find just failed and they're built on this backend anyway. The available thing is "some assembly required", but of course it's not assembly or I'd really be fucked. It's makefiles and conf files and dependencies. Looks like C to me, really. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.
Bugger it, I've managed to kill synaptic (again). It gets cranky if I clicky too much without waiting for it to be done. If I do some additional waiting, it comes back. I'm not good at waiting. Synaptic is a package manager, helps you located approved software so that you have all the stuff you need to install new stuff.
The actual software I want isn't in Synaptic, which means it is more bleeding-edge or possibly hailing from a world of Linux *other* than Ubuntu. (There's like Debian and Slackware and Suse and so forth. Ubuntu is pretty and has a nice logo, which is why I use it.) You can use other, non-ubuntu software on your ubuntu, but it's slightly more difficult. In this case, there's a makefile and a readme and you have to be able to read and follow directions.
Oh, progress! We have the following:
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lasound collect2: ld returned 1 exit status make[1]: *** [profile-clock] Error 1 make: *** [.source-creator] Error 2
It needs. Something. (google, google, read read swear) Looks like it needs libasound2-dev. Added that. It's for alsa sound stuff. And we go onward.
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lfftw3 collect2: ld returned 1 exit status make[1]: *** [profile-clock] Error 1 make: *** [.source-creator] Error 2
Oh HAI! Needs fft. Gosh, that looks familiar. Sound. FFT.
Fuck me.
The Lfftw3 thing is software for Fast Fourier Transforms. I know what these are. [Audio lab at Aberdeen used 'em, way back in the day. It was a big deal, back then. They had a black-box solution (from tucker-davis technologies) that did FFTs.] I can fucking download that and have it on my laptop? In under five minutes? I can use high-end digital signal math-y stuff for making better mix CD's? Fuck me, we're living in the future. R0xx0r. Synaptic has the FFT stuff.
And now it's got another error.
[cpp] authors.cpp /bin/sh: gawk: not found make[1]: *** [authors.cpp] Error 127
Okay, will go get gawk. It's like a language, I think. Like awk, only more graphicaler, which is why the g in front. In my world, awk is the language spoken by the cube that Methodia Rascal was owned by while he painted the Battle of Koom Valley. :)
Right. And onward we go. Now we have...
In file included from about.h++:2,
from about.moc.cpp:10:
ui-about.h:26:28: error: qplaintextedit.h: No such file or directory
Google suggests that qtplaintextedit.h is a header file that comes with some of the other shit surrounding qt, which is a thing to help people provide a pretty front end to programs. (I was just curious which is why I googled. Actually knowing what the fuck it is that you are missing is not a requirement for progress on this sort of thing.)
I'm getting another error.
In file included from ui-about.h:26,
from about.h++:2,
from about.moc.cpp:10:
/usr/include/qt4/QtGui/qplaintextedit.h:60: error: expected constructor, destructor, or type conversion before ‘typedef’
In file included from about.h++:2,
from about.moc.cpp:10:
ui-about.h:28: error: expected constructor, destructor, or type conversion before ‘class’
make[1]: *** [about.moc.o] Error 1
make: *** [.compile] Error 2
Bugger. This error took me some time to track down. I have qt4. I installed it. I don't have qtplaintextedit.h in the directory where it says I should have it. Wtf? Fuck. Turns out that qtplaintextedit.h is a *new* class of things for qt, appearing in Qt4.4. What qt do I have? Uhm.
Qt Meta Object Compiler version 59 (Qt 4.3.4)
Uhm. Guess that means that stuff introduced in 4.4.x won't exist in 4.3.x, will it? Bugger. Okay, so Synaptic does not have the more recent version listed. (Synaptic kind of helps keep you from being a complete twat with your shiny Ubuntu linux system. It only gives you stable and pre-vetted stuff. The stuff found in Synaptic is supposed to work fairly well with your system. If you go outside Synaptic to get shit, you can fuck up more. More fucking. Coolio!) The more recent version can be downloaded (444 meg) from the builder's website, so I'm doing that.
Now I'm vested, here. This had better fucking work. :P Natch, when I get the damn thing downloaded, I will have to compile and install it, a thought which does not particularly engender in me a stiffy. :(
Note that linux doesn't really *always work* any more than Windows will *always work*. What it *does* do is provide you with a system that can usually (but not always) be MADE TO WORK if you have the clue, the determination, and the troubleshooting ability to find what's required. All the parts inside are user-service-able, for a sufficiently clueful user. For example, if I knew fuck one about using Qt for generating nice graphical interfaces, I could probably fix the ui-about.ui file so that it would go through on Qt4.3.x instead of having to go get Qt4.4.x and compile it. However, I don't and I'm not willing to learn -- that's more than I want for this project. But, y'know, I could. I might, if getting the newer version doesn't fly. Right now, though, downloading. Thirty-eight percent complete, actually. I'll keep you posted with my eventual fail on the bpm-software-front. (Or not fail. Might actually work. I'm having fun, anyway, and that's what really matters.)
Also included with the request for new music was the following note: On the fast track I would like Captain Jack since you gave it to me on another mix, and it is wonderful walking music. I sing along when Rod isn't nearby. -- that'd be the eponymous song Captain Jack. So, we want about an hour's worth of things that go about that fast. (Mom is going to wind up with a damn lot of DDR music if she's not careful.)
So, now, with that much laid before you, I trust that I don't have to finish this post. Ya'll know what I want, right? :) Give it to me.
