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Music Media

Muzak Encoding at Home? 77

Posted by Cliff from the better-elevator...music dept.
zonker asks: "I work for a company that requires Muzak to be played over the speaker system all day long. However, I work into the night, well passed closing time, and often just crank up my own tunes on a computer with a nice set of speakers. I've been curious if anyone has developed any software that allows you to encode and burn to whatever format Muzak is using to make their discs. I've scraped around the net and haven't seen anything like it other than other people in similar environments that would like to make their own Muzak discs for their own after hours enjoyment. That thread has some interesting informational tidbits for starters. Does anyone on Slashdot know anything more about this?"
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Muzak Encoding at Home? More

Muzak Encoding at Home?

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  • I could tell you how (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11, 2005 @07:33PM (#13769714)
    But that would violate the DMCA.

    Sorry :(

  • your problem (Score:5, Funny)

    by chris_mahan ( 256577 ) <chris.mahan@gmail.com> on Tuesday October 11, 2005 @07:33PM (#13769717) Homepage
    "I work for a company that requires Muzak to be played over the speaker system all day long"

    There's your problem right there.
    • That was my first thought too. War on required Muzak/Music playing!
    • I have become a perverse enjoyer of Muzak - especially the traditional Montivani/1001 Strings variety!

      I really did when they get a Dylan tune going in soft, tinkly piano and have the whole sound compressed like helium.

    • no kidding. first, what "is" Muzak, some sort of trademark?

      second of all, what sort of draconian homage to Ford requires Muzak be 'piped in' to pacify the workers? i really want to avoid ever having anything to do with such places, if i can, and that includes eschewing buying whatever they're pimping. as a consumer, i demand to know what corporation is a proponent of such misbehaviour on the part of the humanity in its midst ..
      • no kidding. first, what "is" Muzak, some sort of trademark?

        I take it you didn't follow the link [muzak.com].

        It's the audio you hear in the mall, in restaurants, everywhere and nowhere.

        • Re:your problem (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Hakubi_Washu ( 594267 )
          It's not as if the link actually explains that, though... Instead it's a good example of why "designer" should not necessarily be the most important part of a webdesigners work.
          So, for us unenlightened people: Is Muzak a company, a general term for "elevator music", a specific electronic application or any of the above combined?

          • Re:your problem (Score:3, Informative)

            by MrResistor ( 120588 )
            It is a company, but the term has also become synonymous with "elevator music". Basically they offer background music -- guaranteed to be prescreened, scrubbed of any hint of offensiveness, and utterly bland -- for "public" spaces such as elevators, department stores, lobbies, etc.
            • And this company uses strange technology to deliver that music? AFAIK the german equivalents are delivered on standard redbook CDs, which seems a whole lot more sensible :-)
        • I take it you didn't follow the link.

          You mean the one that goes to a flash-only website?

          Yeah, followed it. Saw no "click here to see our site annoyance-free" link. Closed the page.

          Then again, as I already know about Muzak (though never tried visiting their website), I suppose it seems perfectly fitting that they make their website impossible to experience without annoyance.
    • I worked for a company that played country/western during the day. I'd have loved to have had just plain Muzak instead.
      • My first computer job was as an operator at a middlin' sized company. In the computer room, we had two 6 foot tall speaker stacks (one of the other operators was in a band, and had these as extras), a 100 watt amplifier (that was a lot of power back in the day), and a reel to reel tape decked well stocked with rock & roll. We let 'em play, I'm tellin' ya. NO countr and western music allowed! To add to the atmosphere, the computer room was also a photographic darkroom (some of the computer output gear

  • easy fix (Score:5, Informative)

    by jacumba ( 692476 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2005 @07:40PM (#13769766)
    years ago i had the same problem. here's how i solved the problem: the muzak system plugged into the overhead speakers w/ a standard headphone size connection. i created a male-to-male 1/8" headphone jack and plugged my portable cd player into it.

  • Three sites that might help: (Score:5, Informative)

    by Marxist Hacker 42 ( 638312 ) * <seebert42@gmail.com> on Tuesday October 11, 2005 @07:44PM (#13769786) Homepage Journal
    Another discussion on this very topic- includes the potential dip switch settings to get MUZAK equipment to play Red Book CDs. [cdfreaks.com]

    The previous link led me to suspect Green Book as the format for Muzak. CD-Interactive Spec [philips.com]

    CD-I Bridge: A program that reads Green Book Formats [disctronics.co.uk]

    So it looks to me like you have two options- fiddle with the dip switches to find a setting that will allow you to play Red Book CDs, or find a program that allows you to write CD-Interactive Green Book Format discs.

    • Re:Three sites that might help: (Score:5, Informative)

      by Myself ( 57572 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2005 @08:11PM (#13769979) Journal
      Here's another CDFreaks thread [cdfreaks.com] that goes into a little more depth. The format is almost certainly CD-BGM, but all the authoring software is years old.

      Anyone who makes progress getting this stuff to run, let me know, it'd be great to carry a few "muzak that doesn't suck" CDs in the car at all times, and offer them to repressed workers in such environments. :)
    • and the reason you won't find many tools to help you author them, is basically this:

      every CD-BGM disc also needs to include a CD-i application to allow for playback on a CD-i player. [hitsquad.com]

      If you read the CD-i spec, you'll see that it's basically just a generic "autoplay" type of disc. In fact, it may not even be that generic. Apparently, the CD-i machine either runs the OS-9 [rtsi.com] realtime operating system (made by these guys [radisys.com]) or it's loaded from the disc itself.

      So, to make your own discs, you need to add a software
      • OS-9.. OS-9... hmmm...

        OS-9 Level II took advantage of dynamic address translation hardware, and allowed a mapped address space of one megabyte on most systems, and up to two megabytes on others, most notably the Tandy Color Computer 3.

        Aaah.. I need to get that one out of the attic someday. Fuzzy memories.
        The only stuff I did with OS-9 was "ex rogue -x" and play Koronis Rift.
        Was there anything else interesting to do?
        • Just to stay on topic, I think the version of OS-9 used in CD-i machines was the 68000 release, and not the 8-bit Level-2 for the 6809. I am not sure if RTSI still sells the 68000 version - I know they discontinued the 8-bit releases a long time ago...

          As far as whether there was anything else interesting you could do with OS-9, the answer is "yes" - if you had an assembler, a C compiler or BASIC-09, plus Multi-Vue (windowing). I mean, look at (just a few) of the CoCo 3 games that were made for OS-9: Koronis

  • Tell us if you've tried the software mentioned in the link, such as IsoBuster, to try to read & duplicate the Muzak CD.

    If you want people to try to work on this, try posting an image.

    If you're not investigating this, have you considered just switching the Muzak player to play regular CDs?

  • Device to override Muzak (Score:3, Funny)

    by RomulusNR ( 29439 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2005 @08:12PM (#13769990) Homepage
    here's some... [amazon.com]

  • note to the "editors" (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    well passed closing time

    The word you want is "past." Just because words sound the same doesn't mean you can switch them.

    • Re:note to the "editors" (Score:5, Funny)

      by blincoln ( 592401 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2005 @12:36AM (#13771107) Homepage Journal
      Just because words sound the same doesn't mean you can switch them.

      While pouring over messageboard posts, you should of come to the conclusion that for all intensive purposes, the battle your fighting... its hopeless.
      • you should of come to the conclusion

        Ahem. "You should have" instead. The "should of" sound you are looking for is the contraction, "should've." Check your own before you check anyone else's.


        ;)
        • you should of come to the conclusion
          Ahem. "You should have" instead. The "should of" sound you are looking for is the contraction, "should've." Check your own before you check anyone else's.

          Someone mod parent funny, quick, before I start two worry that a living, breathing human can actually be as clueless as bibliophage seams to be.

      • for all intensive purposes I'm sorry, I can't stop myself, you're making me giggle.
      • Most of us have given up but for all intents and purposes, we keep hoping.
      • That was the sound of the parent post humor rushing right over your heads.
      • That post will, in its time, kill more Grammar Nazis than all the Slashdot editors together ... well done :)
      • Just because words sound the same doesn't mean you can switch them.

        While pouring over messageboard posts

        Well you are making the dude's point now aren't you? Only way you can pour yourself over the posts is if you are Odo from Deep Space 9. Or Bjork, perhaps; she claims to be able to do this in one of her songs ("come over, and I'll pour myself all over you").

        • My first instinct was to bask in the glory of successfully bad-grammar-trolling someone with a 4-digit UID.

          But then I realized it was a feint, and you were trying to use some kind of ancient nerd-jitsu and reverse the troll against me. Not today, my friend - but I salute you nonetheless!
      • "While pouring over message board posts, you should have come to the conclusion that for all intents and purposes, the battle you are fighting is hopeless."

        And no, it's not hopeless. As long as there are those who still have the drive and the will to correct the errors as they see them, there is still hope. =D

    • Just because words sound the same doesn't mean you can switch them.

      Kind of like you can't just switch your Muzak player to play regular CDs. Just because it's possible to switch it doesn't mean that you're allowed to. Just get some really really good closed-back headphones (www.sennheizer.com) and a ($PREFERED_RELIGIOUS_ICON help all us old farts) portable CD player!

      :)

  • While we're at it, I'll dig the old 8-track out of the garage and hook it up to my pc...
  • Presumably this "player" plugs into an existing speaker system. Why not just plug your iPod/MP3 player of choice into this system and bypass the player all together?
  • Forgive my ignorance, but I thought the point of Muzak was that it came over a satellite or other connection. If all it is is CDs that you put into a player, how is that an advantage over mix CDs in a normal player?
    • The advantage is that it does not require an additional expensive licence for public performance, which regular RIAA music would.
    • I've worked for several companies that use these giant 8-track tapes for muzak. Each one held 4 hours of music. While those are going by the wayside some have upgraded to specially encoded cd's. That way you can't play a regular cd in the player and (god forbid) you can't pirate the muzak.
    • According to their propaganda, Muzak is designed and tested to be non-offensive, and to increase productivity, sales, etc. Try putting on a CD with the latest hip-hop hits and see how long it lasts. Muzak also takes care of all the ASCAP/BMI licensing issues.
  • I used to work for a national drugstore chain (*cough CVS cough*) and we had Muzak - only it was all piped in via satellite - meaning that evenings sucked more when the store actually closed and we were stocking the shelves to.... well, crap.

    Totally closed system, although many attempts were made to get around it, we ended up having to turn it down (at least we could control that much) and setting up someones boom box turned up to 11.
  • I did work for Muzak's satellite division once. Depending on where you work, which really doesn't matter, this is a relatively simple fix. The speakers hook to some type of amplifier, which, in turn, has an 'input'. This 'input' is RCA, SO......Hook up your favorite CD player to the audio amp, (you may need a 1/8" jack to RCA adapter Y cable, Radio Shack, 5 bucks) and viola, the speakers now play your best of Cat Stephens record.
  • In our office the Muzak is coming in over dish network, so not sure that would work so well, unless your building is pulling it in a difrent way.
  • "How do I rip muzak discs to mp3?"

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