Posted Friday, June 17, 2005

Surf This: Freeware Digital Audio Disk Space Calculator and a Spectacular QuickTime VR Panorama

Store it. How much disk space will that digital audio project use up? And how many CDs or DVDs will it take to back it up? Get the answers to these and other questions with Silentway's Digital Audio Disk Space Calculator.

It's an Excel spreadsheet, and here's what Silentway has to say about it: "Here is a very useful freeware calculator which allows you to enter the running time of digital audio (uncompressed), and it will give you the resultant hard drive storage requirements in all of the following bit/sample rate combinations: 16bit/44.1k, 16bit/48k, 24bit/44.1k, 24bit/48k. It also calculates the number of CD-Rs or DVD-Rs it will take to back it all up. You can enter three things: the running time, how many tracks (enter 2 for stereo tracks), and how many takes. Then it spits out totals for each song and for the whole project."

Tour it. I've loved Apple's QuickTime VR technology since it came out back in 1994. I have fond memories of an afternoon spent in Cupertino at Apple's Advanced Technology Group, interviewing Eric Chen, one of QTVR's creators, and Ted Casey, a talented photographer who was a member of the QTVR team.

I've shot many QTVR panoramas over the years, and yesterday, I came across a spectacular panorama that I want to share with you. It's of a place called the St. Rose Tavern, in St. Rose, Louisiana.

Check it out (2.4MB movie).

I've stared at this panorama for far too long. The artistic and technical production values are flawless, and the tavern—oh, man, what a place. The hand-scrawled sign next to the ancient refrigerator advertises "Crawfish and potato salad." Another sign lists the financial rules: "We are sorry, no checks, no credit cards, only American cash." A set of shelves holds stacks of vinyl records. A canoe paddle leans next to a weathered door that bears a Ducks Unlimited poster.

I want to eat and drink myself silly in this place.

Kudos to Alfonso Bresciani of New Orleans-based Pompo Multimedia for a beautiful tour.