How To: Make A Paper CD Sleve

Top 5 plus honorable mentions, here.

How To: Legally Download Free Music

My fellow Salmagundiis, if you do one thing this week Salmagundi-related, be sure it's reading this article at Lifehacker. If you didn't know this stuff before, it'll change your life and make Salmagundi so easy you'll want to make a mix every week! Heck, tunestor alone will save me hours. Not to mention all the linky goodness for free musics. Yay!

Amazon: An Alternative To Apple

Salmagundi just got a whole lot easier and cheaper. Because now Amazon sells DRM-free MP3s for less than or equal to the Apple iTunes store. Heck yeah! { k }

How To: Make All Your MP3s The Same Volume

If you're like me, you've been collecting digital music for what seems like three lifetimes now. Originally, it was digitized cassettes and CDs ripped with shareware. Then it was peer-to-peer "sharing" programs where I "traded" for music. Then it was the many iterations of iTunes, all those audio blogs, and, of course, all y'all's awesome Salmagundi discs.

Of course, the MP3 files from each of those sources were digitally converted at different bit rates and volumes. What that means, unfortunately, is that my MP3s have very inconsistent levels, and every time I make a mix CD the listener has to watch out for massive volume shifts between songs. Sure, iTunes rectifies this problem (by tagging added information onto my files) when I'm listening through iTunes on my computer or my iPod, but that does jack-all for you guys listening those tangible CDs I send you every few months.

Enter the freeware program MP3 Gain (H/T Lifehacker). From the site: "MP3Gain is a freeware program that analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they actually have the same raw volume. MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear. Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding."

How To: Get Your Resource On

If you scroll to the end of the sidebar on your right, you will see three two links listed in an area entitled "Resources". The first link will show you all of the Salmagundi "How To" posts. Nothing really new or exciting about that, but in the future it may be helpful to have them all readily available.

The second link will download a Word Document of all of the relevant addresses and CD labels you will need for the most recent Salmagundi. Obviously, you don't have to use this exact template, and you should make sure that the information is appropriate for YOUR Salmagundi mix, but this should save you some time in formatting and whatnot. If you do choose to use this particular template, you should be aware that it prints out on Avery White Maling Labels #5160, available for quite a steal at your local Staples.

The third link will download a PDF of a cover template for the most recent Salmagundi. Again, you don't have to use this template, but for those of you who want the look of an artistic cover without, you know, doing anything, I thought I'd make it easy for you. All you have to do is download the PDF, and then tab through to each text field, fill out the form, and print up your cover. Not that you need to have an artistic cover, really! It's all about the music, after all.

How To: Submit New Cover Artwork For The Blog

So, Mike R. graciously offered to send me his beautiful cover artwork while I was finalizing this website. Of course, at the time I declined, because at that point I had already scanned in everything I needed. However, I realize that scans don't come out as nicely as JPEGs, and, also, that I don't want to give myself any extra work. So, without further ado, here's a quick tutorial on what I am looking for if you are kind enough to email your artwork as an attachment.

1. I'm only looking for the front cover. I know, a few of us put a lot of effort into the whole package, but, really, Salmagundi is about the music, not our Photoshop skillz. Deal with it.
2. The image should be approximately 450 x 450 pixels (that's about 72 ppi) and 256 color.
3. Save the file as "[##]-[Your Name].[File Type]"
4. GIF or JPEG doesn't matter to me as long as it doesn't matter to blogger.com.

You can email me your artwork for all new mixes and even the old stuff, if you want it cleaned up. I'll try and get it up as soon as possible. Also, please remember to email me your newest track listings if you wouldn't mind, so that I never have to hand type them again.

How To: Use RSS Feeds WIth This Site

For those of you who use an RSS reader*, the following steps are useful for getting the posts (recommended) or the comments (optional) from this blog (or both!) onto Google's Feed Reader (there are, obviously, tons of RSS and ATOM readers out there, but this is the easiest one to use in my opinion).

1. Click the RSS "Add Subscription"
2. For a feed of the posts, type: "http://salmagundiis.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default";
3. Press "Enter";
4. OPTIONAL Go to Step 2;
5. OPTIONAL For a feed of the comments, type: "http://salmagundiis.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/full";
6. Press "Enter".
7. Click on the handy links in the sidebar, and follow the instructions.

Now, depending on your subscriptions, every time I post something or someone comments on a post, it'll show up automatically in your Feed Reader. This way you won't have to constantly check the website every five minutes in order to see if there is any new content. FYI, it is looking like it takes about 30 minutes for the feed to refresh, so don't expect instant gratification if you comment on a post.

* You should be using a Feed Reader. Srsly. I recommend Google Reader, myself.

How To: Use iTunes & CDDB

It looks like the process Mike R. describes below will save each of us a bunch of time down the road. There's a minor bit of work you'll need to do up front, and you'll need to use iTunes if you don't already, but if everyone does it then it saves time for everyone else!

1. Burn your Salmagundi CD copies as usual through iTunes;
2. Before ejecting the last copy of your disc (which should have all of the track information listed) go to the "Advanced Menu" and click on "Submit CD Track Names";
3. In the dialogue box that pops up, enter "Various Artists" as the artist, fill in the Genres (optional) and list the album name as "Salmagundi [##] - [Your Name]";
4. Make sure you select "Compilation CD", otherwise all of your artist names will be replaced by "Various Artists";
5. Click "OK"

This will upload your CD information to the Gracenote CD database. Thus, when the rest of us load your CD, we'll be treated to all of your disc's artist and song infomation without having to re-type it! To some extent, this will also save me a lot of time re-typing in each person's track listings for this here blog.