How do you discover MP3 music and listen online?
Discover MP3 Music here
This page is by way of a bit of reflection on what we are trying to achieve with this site with some illustrations from the collection - we enable visitors to discover mp3 music online before they make any purchases. We offer several ways to find the pieces with pages for each composer or the full listing where you can discover MP3 titles for yourself and click trough to them directly. We'll now describe the considerations that go into their production and presentation so that you can discover MP3 pleasure with your ears.
Steel Drums and Vibraphone :
Recording |
Length |
Price |
Order Online |
Faure's Dolly Suite Kitty Valse
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2:57min |
0.99 US($) |
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Easy Listening music Streams
We got into the whole business of listening to music online by accident. After we launched with LoFi MP3 samples of our recordings we discovered that they were being collected for their own sake - presumably for use as ring tones on the latest mobile phones. So we sorted out the streaming samples which are less susceptible to borrowing. Not only are they LoFi but the process of streaming can introduce noise on narrower band connections. Mind you even HiFi MP3s can be subject to interference if other activities on the PC interrupt their processing. By the nature of things they are usually heard on computer sound systems. Sometimes looking at the logs it seems we have become a way to dicover MP3 music in easy listening streams.
Steel Drums and Marimba :
JS Bach's Toccata No6 in
G Minor BWV 915 |
8:32min |
0.99 US($) |
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| Scott Joplin's Stop-time Rag |
3:01min |
0.99 US($) |
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Composing for Listening Locations
When the music we work with was produced the composers could be pretty sure of the environment where it would be heard and the ambient listening conditions. Depending on their orchestration it could go from the parlor, through a larger chamber to a concert hall or a particular theatre such as Offenbach's Barcarole which was written as the introduction to his Tales of Hoffmann. In the case of some of the French organ works they probably knew which church it would be. There are famous occasions where they got it wrong such as Handel's Water music where the band's boat was too far away from the King to be heard properly. On the other hand Bach's Toccatas were intended to be played as the congregation were entering or leaving church - entertaining, even uplifting but not too challenging or emotional.
Steel Drums, Vibraphone and Flying Sine Synthesizer:
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4:48min |
0.99 US($) |
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Liszt' Hungarian Rhapsody No 12 |
9:03min |
0.99 US($) |
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Recording and Listening to Music
As the recording industry got underway the reproduction equipment was pretty well defined at each stage from wind up gramophones (parlor-phone) to sophisticated vinyl HiFi systems. At that time recording engineers sought to reproduce the concert hall environment as far as possible. But as pop groups came in the recording engineer's imagination and skill came to the fore. This trend has accelerated as digital recording and synthesis techniques have become available. In some cases the target listening environment is well defined - for example a night club with the gain cranked right up. But digital recordings can turn up in all sorts of environments on all sorts of equipment - from leaky head phones on a crowded computer train to a db perfect home entertainment system in a quiet residence. Perhaps not a concert hall yet unless Kraftwerk are on the bill.
Steel Drums, Bells and Hammond Organ
Stereo Image
Our response is to try to produce an interesting but sensible stereo image. The instruments we use do not have 'natural' positions relative to each other but separation can sometimes bring out contrasting themes and conversations going on in the music. Part of that stereo image is contributed by reverberation which we can control to a substantial extent and we have generally settled on a 'large hall' simulation because it seems to bring out the best in the steel drums online. We find that we are usually able to manage the balance between instruments on the mixer board but just like the analogue world doubling can play a valuable part sometimes. On occasion we simplify by say putting all the brass and wood wind on ocarinas because that gives the effect we are looking for. After developing it on a reasonably clean amplifier, we check it out on a computer sound system which tends to over emphasize the bass as well as by eye on the spectrum analyzer. Why not listen to some free music of the HiFi streaming kind now.
Easy Listening Instrumental Music
We aim to amuse and entertain - in short easy listening, good company while your traveling, a mildly diverting background to other activities. There should be something there to catch your attention but not to distract you from a more pressing task. All this goes to make our 'Feel Good' Electronica - a well crafted sound that will make you smile, building on the skill and creativity of the original composers but abstracted from the formal orchestral setting, such as our arrangement of Widor's famous Toccata. We are not aiming for the refined student of music appreciation but we do think that they would benefit from hearing our point of view from time to time.
If you can't find what you want on this site we now offer a specialist search engine to enable you to discover mp3 music that matches your taste.
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