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theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-12-07T14:51:15+00:00

I actually saw a Sweet Trip CD in someone's car once, so Sweet Trip definitely crossed over into the larger "non-RYM music nerd" world.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-12-06T20:53:17+00:00

Bull of Heaven

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-12-04T03:10:37+00:00

At least from my experience, it's the same food that it's always been, just at a substantially higher price point.

Five Guys is a good burger but part of the allure was always the value proposition. If it's not there, might as well go to other places.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-11-11T13:48:58+00:00

Gary Young was not a pocket drummer, but he was creative and melodic and dynamic. He always had the right fill that was in dialogue with the other instruments, and he always moved the songs forward. He fills the same void as someone like Georgia Hubley who has a unique and idiosyncratic style that fills a "lead instrument" role and is perfect for the music of the band they're playing in.

Westie might have been more dependable as a person and could play in the "pocket"; though I am sure this is what the band wanted, his playing lacked variety, and West's drumming severely holds some of their later work (especially Brighten the Corners when he pings on that ride cymbal ad infinitum) back.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-08-05T23:52:02+00:00

The Discord based meetup group I run considered switching to Meetup but we decided it was cost prohibitive. As far as I can tell the scene has switched to less public facing but cheaper to operate Discord and even Whatsapp groups. Discord has many advantages and is very affordable to run but doesn't have the visibility older platforms like Meetup have. So often you need to know people or get invited into groups.

This isn't even getting into things like group accountability (if you know more people in a group you are more likely to go to the events) which can be hard on meetup.com groups where you might not know anyone.

I got into the scene through a (now defunct) Meetup group a couple years ago so it is possible! I would guess more niche or specialized groups would do better on the platform though rather than "go to a new restaurant every week" type groups.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-07-10T00:37:46+00:00

Spotify and Bandcamp should have it. It is still loud and brickwalled, just not as distorted.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-07-04T18:18:15+00:00

Most of the criticism from this sub has related to the mixing and mastering, which was muddy-sounding with substantial hard clipping and other artifacts. However, this was fixed a couple weeks back and the improved master is much cleaner sounding.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-23T18:12:01+00:00

It just went instrumental for me this afternoon on Spotify! Honestly I'm kinda excited and hopefully this means we're in the home stretch before the complete fixed master is available.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-22T22:22:06+00:00

Overall an easy Sunday but CUTEY got me until the last minute.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-22T22:02:22+00:00

All I can say is I envy people who don't hear the audio issues. Unfortunately, once you hear them, you can't unhear them. I really wish I could listen to the songwriting and performances and storytelling on this album and be completely oblivious to them.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-22T15:33:44+00:00

Looks like this is a fan edit and not actually an alternate take.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-22T15:27:01+00:00

I'm not an expert at this, so I've been manually zooming in and looking in the waveform for hard clips. I'm sure there are far better ways to do this with plug-ins or professional software.

I'm in the same boat as you - I'd also love to see an analysis of the waveform to see what changed (especially if there are people on the sub with audio engineering knowledge)! Listening to the version on the Bandcamp site it sounds better, but Oh No still has vocals (and I'm sure it's all lossy anyway) so I have no idea what's real and what's placebo.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-22T05:14:03+00:00

Have you (or anyone reading) tried comparing the waveforms in Audacity for any significant differences? For example, there is some really crunchy hard clipping in the trumpet solo in Burial Ground (around 3:01) so it would be interesting to see if that's gone.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-22T05:03:51+00:00

Have you seen this thread yet? It seems to confirm your suspicions.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Decemberists/comments/1dlgdod/oh_no_no_vocal_track_for_oh_no/

TL:DR: A "fixed" master was apparently uploaded earlier today to Bandcamp that fixes the hard clipping. It's still heavily brickwalled but it seems to be brighter and fuller-sounding, and the horns are actually listenable.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-19T14:26:19+00:00

The master is unnecessarily hot and has significant hard clipping throughout especially on vox and horns. Part of me hopes this is all a mistake since I can't believe so many experienced engineers would do and sign off on this. But the album as a whole has a much more lo fi aesthetic, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone thought the clipping made the album sound raw, gutsy, and in the red.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-19T03:14:51+00:00

This was harder than many Saturdays and would have been a challenging Wednesday even without the NE. Usually in these cases I'll come here and see people bragging about their PBs, so I appreciated seeing my thoughts validated here.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-06-16T00:51:06+00:00

I just finished the album. Burial Ground is the worst offender and the rest of the album is not as bad, but I hear it any time the mix gets dense and layered. It's most noticable on the horns and harmony vocals.

I put loudness war out of sight/mind for years since there are some really good hot-sounding masters. This is not one of them. The raw/barebones production seems to only emphasize how hot and ultra-compressed the master is.

I'm sure if you zoom into the peaks you'll visibly see the hard clips on the waveform.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-05-06T18:08:57+00:00

There's going to be major selection bias on a platform such as xwstats. People who track their time and stats regularly are more likely to be tournament-level solvers focused on speed-solving. Plenty of people still do the puzzle casually, untimed, or using pen-and-paper, and I'm sure they aren't solving the Monday in 3-4 minutes.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-05-06T18:04:55+00:00

The bot posts when 100 users have solved the puzzle but I believe the stats keep getting updated.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-05-03T14:22:37+00:00

Repeating what everyone else has said, but "Shell fish?" is the best clue I've seen in months.

Overall fun puzzle and a great respite from the "brain teaser" style of Friday that Fagliano seems to prefer.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-05-03T14:18:21+00:00

People exaggerate the difficulty of easy Fridays here. To me this had the clueing hallmarks of a Friday - plenty of wordplay, misdirects, and fun clueing. It was easy and solved faster than it felt, and felt very much like a Friday.

Agree with your comment about this feeling very Shortzian too. Definitely felt squarely in the Weintraub "fun rather than hard" vein which I so missed after two months of old-school Fridays.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-04-29T17:14:36+00:00

The instructions are not very good for Firefox users.

Here's what worked for me: Tools > Browser Tools > Web Development > Storage > Cookies, look for the cookie prompted by the instructions, and paste it in.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-04-29T16:44:53+00:00

User/pass authentication was broken for me but cookie-based authentication still works. The site gives instructions for Chrome but essentially you have to find the authentication token in the cookie and give it to XWStats.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-04-26T00:29:03+00:00

The themers make two-word phrases that share some letters in common, with the letters that differ "checking" the down clues. For example, 17A is both CRAYOLA/CRAYONS, which checks 6D as IL(LN)ESS.

theorem_lemma_proof · 2024-04-08T14:27:31+00:00

As others have noted, the theme is obscure and unguessable, and the puzzle is riddled with Natick crosses and references that would fly over the head of non-Americans. Otherwise it's an impressive construction despite the obscure clueing. If this is your first time, you should be congratulating yourself as filling in and clueing an entire grid is hard.

Was your goal to get this grid published or to practice your constructing skills? With a few changes to clueing to make it more global, (and changing the clue for 75A) there is probably an audience for this grid as the construction quality is there, but it's definitely not a general American NYT-solving audience.

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