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Hallo everybody, it had amazed me everytime I visit the singers showcase to see some members making comments on member's submissions with eagerness to judge and to rank as if they are qualified officials. I'm also wide-eyed to see how many members actually spend hours on end to listen to as many subs as possible. I have monitored some of these enthousiasts, and have found that some of them viewed and "listened and commented" more than 26 subs. I calculated this: A sub is average 3 min. long, a fast typer can have his comment typed and posted in 1 min. Total = 4 minutes. 26 x 4 min. = 104 minutes = 1 hr. and 44 min. For me that is a long long time to spend non stop on Singers Show Case. Than, there is the courtesy to answer to comments given to you on your own song submission. I just can not see myself doing 2 hours dayly scrolling Singer's Showcase.

Question: How do most of you scroll the Singer's Showcase?
              Do you have priorities that you select for listening?
              Do you belong to a secret fanclub?
              How much time do you spend on listening and commenting in
              an evening or day?
              Do most of you have high speed internet access?
              Do you listen with a headphone?
and lastly: Do you listen to a song selected from beginning to end?

I'm honest enough to tell you that all my comments and answers I give to comments received are honest. I listen to a song from beginning to the very end.
I have High Speed Internet Access and still have to wait before the song is completely in your RAM. I do select the songs that I want to hear. I do have a favorite group of talented people who's songs I like to listen to. Some song titles pop up before your eyes and I recognize them rightaway and want to listen to them.
I used headphones to listen to submissions. It gives a better sound reproduction. Very clear and very private. You do not interfere with the privacy of people you share living space with. Like my wife and I.

Thank you for reading this and I hope that we can create a good discussion on this. I'll get back on this tomorrow. It is 11.00PM here on the west coast. Have to go to bed. My wife is waiting.
Good Night. John.

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KEEP EXPECTATIONS REASONABLE.

if you have ears, you are a QUALIFIED person to judge others that submit their works to be listened to and commented on.

Some people's connections give them far easier access to the songs. I'm on high speed, and it takes a bit for the songs to start. Tig, my buddy, gets it going right away! Same kinda connection! Go figure!

I listen to the songs that I know personally, and then I'll go listen to those I don't know...

At the most  I can listen to the max of 10 songs in one sitting;and that is rare. My normal number is 5 or 6 songs. Those are subs that are from people that I know or songs that I like to listen to. Once in a while I will listen to something new by people that I don't normally listen to.
I come to SS not once but 2 to 3 times in a day. there are days where I may just listen and not comment and if I do I will only comment on a few. Some time I will listen to just old subs from a particular member and this is more for saving to my SS collection of songs.
There are times where I just do not have the mood to even listen and this may runs for days. And as for how much time I spend here; 1 to 3 hrs a day on and off.


Hey, the spellcheck now works

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

Hey John!!!

Well.. I've basically been averaging 3-4 hrs of sleep for the past couple of months and am on 2 karaoke sites... so when I'm awake at 4am and there's nothing else to do.. I get up and listen to people singing.. So for quite awhile I've been able to get a good 2 hrs of listening in cuz nothing else to do at that time of the day and talk to anyone who may also be awake on MSN ..

I usually pick people I talk to first....
then I go through people that listen to me...
then I go through to find songs I know... or people I've heard before ..
then if there are songs left over.. I will usually listen to those..  

throughout my work day I will periodically pop in for a listen or two to get through the day.. plus will take some time to reply to my comments if I have time to give..

At work we have T1... so listening is easy there.. would be a lot simpler if I could select what songs I want to listen and just let them play.. but I can at my other place.. so that's when I can usually get that listening done.

At home I have 768 DSL... Songs start pretty much immediately when I hit listen. Some songs I will listen to about 75% of the way through.. I start commenting almost right away.. Most songs I will listen to all the way through and type while I'm listening.. or go back and edit my comment after I've heard the song the rest of the way through.

I was primarily using my laptop to listen so I was listening a lot with headphones until the past week or so.. Now I have a new desktop so it's about 1/2 headphones and 1/2 speakers.

I am not one of the "eager judges" that you mentioned.  I never rank and I never critique (and I mention this quite frequently it seems when a post like this appears.)  I'm here for enjoyment ONLY and I am not interested in damaging someone's ego with my "unqualified" critique.  But like knightshow said, if you've got ears, then you're just as much capable of critiquing what you hear as the next person.  Do you go to karaoke?  Do you listen to CDs or the radio?  I'm certain you've developed your own tastes in what sounds good to you and what does not.  There are quite a few artists with recording contracts out there that have songs climbing the charts right now as I type this... and I CANNOT STAND their voices.  But someone somewhere thought they were good enough, apparently.  So I guess it's all just a matter of preference.

As for my time spent on the SS listening and commenting, it widely varies.  Some days I don't listen at all.  Some days I don't even visit the Showcase (although that is rare.)  Generally though, I would say I spend no more than 30 minutes to an hour a day (added together throughout several intermittent visits) listening and/or commenting.  This is different if I have posted a sub and am reading/responding to comments.

Per your questions, some of them have been addressed recently in a couple of similar post.  See these posts if you're interested:  How do you pick which songs to listen to and comment on? and How do you listen? and Headphones or speakers.

But to answer your questions here:
 
Question: How do most of you scroll the Singer's Showcase?
              Do you have priorities that you select for listening? Not really.  I do have  my favorite people I like to hear, and will listen to them most of the time.  I will also listen to someone new or a song title that piques my curiosity.
              Do you belong to a secret fanclub?
              How much time do you spend on listening and commenting in
              an evening or day? Depends on what I am doing that day.  Generally no more than 2 hours total.  Some days I neither listen nor comment.
              Do most of you have high speed internet access?  Yes.  I can't imagine trying to listen to subs on dial-up.  I'd have given up a long time ago.
              Do you listen with a headphone?  Not usually although I do on occasion. I really don't have to worry about interrupting anyone.
and lastly: Do you listen to a song selected from beginning to end?  Not always.  I'm guilty of hitting the 'X' button at times if I really don't want to listen to the whole song.  Or if it's just not hitting my ears the right way.  Not always though.

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Hi Big John!

I never rank or critique either. I come here to unwind and relax. If listening and commenting start to feel like a chore I take a break. Also.. real life does tend to get busy from time to time.. so I have been sporadic with my listening lately. I haven't been recording much as of late either. I think it's a full time job to listen and comment.... find new songs, learn them and record them, submit them... reply to comments and make the rounds of listening and commenting again.. it can be somewhat overwhelming at times. Mostly I do enjoy the interaction and getting to know people over time... but.. I have learned to be a bit of a picky listener.

How do most of you scroll the Singer's Showcase?

It depends on my mood I guess.. sometimes a song will catch my eye. I definitely have favorites that I visit. I do try to listen to people who have been nice enough to listen and comment on my songs.


Do you have priorities that you select for listening?

Same answer as above.              

Do you belong to a secret fanclub?

Yup.. my Mom, my sister, some friends... OH.. and my secret crush!LOL
             
How much time do you spend on listening and commenting in an evening or day?

As I stated above... my listening time has been limited lately. And it varies each day. I usually listen late at night or early morning with a cup of coffee. I wish we had a jukebox here as Foxe mentioned.. that would make it more convenient to listen while I'm doing other things.            

Do most of you have high speed internet access?  YUP!!!            

Do you listen with a headphone?

As a rule YES. But on occasion I crank up the speakers and listen. I have some kick (@$%&#!) speakers... and some people deserve to be cranked in order to get the full listening pleasure! Of course... this would not be good late at night!

and lastly: Do you listen to a song selected from beginning to end?

Yes... I usually do. It's rare that I don't... it would have to be really bad. It usually takes me at least the length of the song to comment.. OR (being the nosy person I am) READ the other comments! Yet... if the song is really bad... I will cut it short and not leave a comment.

How do most of you scroll the Singer's Showcase?

 Usually from where I left off before and work my way to the beginning. This can be a page and sometimes 2 pages.

 Do you have priorities that you select for listening?

    Sure...I have favorite singers, and anything from anyone rock/alternative/blues
 
    Do you belong to a secret fanclub?

          I don't get this question?????

   How much time do you spend on listening and commenting in   an evening or day?
           
        I must average at least an hour or two a day, sometimes more. I work from home, and "commute" to work via "gotomypc" to the computer I actually work on. So for me I use SS as  a music jukebox. Like, I'll select a song, then switch to the "work window" while its playing, so I"m not sitting and just listening all the time. Often enough I'll switch back and play the song again if I like it, cause I'm doing something and don't have time to comment....

             Do most of you have high speed internet access?

                  I have broadband access

             Do you listen with a headphone?

 Hardly ever use headphones...like just to test a song I'm subbing. Headphones are absolutely deadly to your hearing...ask any hearing specialist so I avoid them like the plague. I use them when I record but they are 95% off my ears.

Do you listen to a song selected from beginning to end?
 
100% of the time when I like the song and I'm going to comment. If I don't like it I stop it and don't comment. Anyones song I commented on they can be sure I've heard the entire song, and often times twice. I always comment on a song a like.

I've made comments on subs where they are asking for an opinion, and usually the respones is "I don't think you're right" or "it sounds good to me what do you mean" so I don't get it. Why ask?.  One subber is a fav singer of mine, and I keep saying I like the sub but the volume is way low and can barely hear, and this person probably hates my guts by now yet keeps subbing songs I can barely hear.   Another person responded that I always say good things, and would I please make more criticism cause they want to improve so hinting I'm just a fluff factory.  I sub for fun and someone made a critic anyway...and that's ok...I just say thanx for listening and accept or reject the criticism in private. I don't shoot back with defensive comments about my subs in the reply anymore. Gave up on asking for criticism cause I like my songs pretty much the way they are, and are the best I can do when I sub, and if others like them fine, and if not well its the best I can do for who I am. Besides its my opinion that when your song is a bomb you won't have many comments anyway.  Worse, you'll have lots of listens and very few comments...that tells me right there if the song sucks or not.  

For me SS is a gold mine of info about how to sing, make music. There' s such diversity here and 99% of the people are just great. For me this site is much fun!!! (ohoh...there I go fluffing again).

Russ

There are some days that i listen for an hour....and some days for about 10 minutes or less...it all depends...lately i havent had much free time...not even to record my own music...but oh well....

My priorities are pretty much i listen to the people that ´´I know¨ will sound good...or at least give a fun performance...might sound mean but when theres no time thats how it is....if i have a little bit more time i´ll start listening by genre...of course r&b is gonna catch my eye so ill give that a listen....then on the days that im really really really bored...i just go down the list....

have high speed...yup yup...even though sometimes it becomes rebelious and starts being slower than a ´´Cow´´ with ankle weights on...and the last question i try try try my hardest to listen from beggining to end...because even if its really really bad....maybe it will get better?...or maybe not....ohh and yes im qualified to critique...and be a judge and do whatever i want...because well...im jOsE.....haha...ok not really but when necessary i can give some critiques....

OHhHhh SherEe, am i your secret Crush? say yes, say yes, say yes....?

I had to highlight that last thing you said Jose... my eyes can't read that color! Man... it's like in invisable ink! But was I ever surprised to see it was a secret message to ME!!!

Can you keep a secret? Me too heheheh..

Quoting Sheree here...I can't help it,  we think alike and she says it much better than I!  :worship:  ...'I come here to unwind and relax. If listening and commenting start to feel like a chore I take a break. Also.. real life does tend to get busy from time to time.. so I have been sporadic with my listening lately. I haven't been recording much as of late either. I think it's a full time job to listen and comment.... find new songs, learn them and record them, submit them... reply to comments and make the rounds of listening and commenting again.. it can be somewhat overwhelming at times. Mostly I do enjoy the interaction and getting to know people over time... but.. I have learned to be a bit of a picky listener.'

OK, back to me....  

How do most of you scroll the Singer's Showcase?

I have a few that when I see their name, I automatically click right away.  I always listen to those who are nice enough to listen to me too.

Do you belong to a secret fanclub?

sure do!  that's the same thing as a clique, right?  And hey!  My secret crush belongs too!        
         
How much time do you spend on listening and commenting in an evening or day?

It varies...I usually try to find a chunk of time to listen and comment when I submit a song, which isn't often.  At other times, it's sometimes 1 or 2 a day, sometimes I don't get to listen at all....            

Do most of you have high speed internet access? Oh, yeah...I would never have the patience to wait otherwise.

Do you listen with a headphone?

Nope, that's really bad for your ears people!  Mine really ring and hurt if I do for an extended period.

Do you listen to a song selected from beginning to end?

If it's a great song, always and usually more than once.  If it's really awful, no, 'cos I won't comment.  And of course, I'm nosy too and have to read all the comments...you really can get to know people that way don't cha think?!   :hug:

Btw Jeanne,  You were correct about Karen Carpenter hitting the E below middle-C.
She actually hit's that quite abit..... For some reason I thought Solitaire was in G, yet she does it in E... Vocalist must've transposed it up after-all.

I always end up needing space from venues I become a regular in.  It's always best to take space before things get overwhelmingly negative..Internet areas can get that way.  

I browse SS for song titles, and in a few cases performer. I look for my genre of interest.  As I've stated in the past, I won't bother taking the time to listen to a person performing a song that I wouldn't normally listen to, if I don't think the person cares whether or not I listen.

Headphones are bad for you.  They can mess up your hair !

Hallo there everybody, waaoow, thank you for the responds. I did not expect such a detailed responds from all respondents. First of all I did read all of your answers and I thank : Knightshow, Badsinger, FoxeRoxy, Debauchery, Sheree, AuctionMusic, Xjose9x and Milo  for your honest and complete answers. It was very satifactory to me to see that you all took time to answer and or respond to my questions. The answers are very consistent, with little variations. In the broad sense I came to the conclusion that the average time spent at each visit to SS is about 2 hours a day. Very interesting to see the participating spirit in this "Singing Club" There is one very good thing that I learned  from your reactions; we are indeed as one big family in here. We have the betterment of all of us in mind. It's good to know too that most of you listen to songs from beginning to end and than comment or if it is really boring or bad you just quit and not comment. Personally I like the interaction with fellow members. To Debauchery I apologize for not knowing that some parts of my thread have already been covered by others. Thank you for giving me the links.
Again thank you all for your input. I appreciate that very much!!
I like to close this thread. Continueing will only lead to duplications.
Oh one more thing I like to thank you all for is the fact that all of you really stayed concentrated on the subject at hand. Thank you and goodnoght!! John.

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KEEP EXPECTATIONS REASONABLE.

Also thank you Steven Kaplan for your input and participation. I must have missed your input while typing my answer to the others. I agree with you: headphones are really bad for your hairdo!!
My honest opinion about headphones is that it gives you clear sound reproduction if you only listen with it at a moderate volume. Ofcourse if you crank up the volume it will do what you are afraid of: Make you deaf.
Thank you Steven and best regards, John.

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KEEP EXPECTATIONS REASONABLE.

John,  I took this off've a site on the internet called "headroom".  It pretty much shares my thoughts on the differences between the binaural aspects of headphone listening, and the differences we percieve between speaker and headphone listening.
Personally,  I can't stand having speakers right on top of my ears, and have always noticed a certain type of dampering with headphone listening because of the way sound is (or in this case is not) distributed when the speakers sit on your ears.



If you’ve ever listened to headphones critically, or for an extended period of time, you’ve probably found that there are some things very wrong with the sound. Most people perceive the audio image produced by headphones to be a blob on the left, a blob on the right, and a blob in the middle. In addition, after an hour or two of listening, you may have felt that the headphones became annoying and that you were tired of listening.

These problems are very real and can be explained technically. Imagine again, as in the “How We Hear” section, that you are listening to a pair of speakers. If you turn off the left speaker, both ears continue to hear the right speaker, but the left ear hears the sound after a short time delay (ITD) and with an equalization difference (IAD). Now think about listening to a pair of headphones. If you turn off the left channel, only the right ear hears the sound. This is unnatural; in a speaker-based listening environment both ears hear both speakers. In everyday life, sounds are generally heard by both ears. Your mind doesn’t really know what to do with sound that it only hears in one ear so, for most people, the sound ends up being localized at the ear.

There are some types of recordings (called binaural recordings) that are designed specifically for headphone listening and do not have these problems. Special microphone setups that look like a human head with microphone elements in the ears are used for these recordings. Unfortunately, since binaural recordings are best heard on headphones, they are not as desirable for speaker listening, so few companies actually produce them. There are also a few other types of microphone techniques that can be used with both headphones and speakers, but don’t do either particularly well.

The bottom line is that when the recording engineer placed the microphones and mixed the sound, he or she was listening to two speakers. Thus, it is in a speaker-based acoustic environment that the desired audio image is recreated. Because headphones are a significantly different acoustic configuration, audio designed for speaker listening just doesn’t sound right when played back on headphones.

I asked that question about reduced vol and waz it ok, the answer was the sound is  a "direct shot" into your ear(s), and that's the problem with headphones...hearing problems will occur with extended use over time, but occassional use at low vol is ok.  They also condem walkmans and the like....

Russ

hahah Hello, John. Why be amazed? How qualified does one have to be to 'judge' their fellow singer? In fact, a person doesn't even have to sing well, or even be able to speak for that matter, to know what sounds good and what doesn't. Now, we often have different reasons for feeling the way we do about a particular sub, whether we like it or not for whatever reasons. Some of us try to be more 'technical' and specify what exactly needs improvement, while others simply say they liked a sub, or give very broad reasons for why they did not.

We all have a set of ears, we're all 'qualified' here.



26 subs... wow...

My last count of songs commented on (not counting the many subs I have commented on which were later removed and the many others I have listened to without commenting on) is 142... guess that's a lot of time spent listening, eh?

Not to mention the additional time I have spent posting in the forums and, of course, replying to comments and actually spending the time to CREATE subs in the first place. So... yeah, I spend a LOT of time here (although lately, not as much as I used to).

Question: How do most of you scroll the Singer's Showcase?

I'm not sure I understand the question.. what is meant by 'scrolling the Singers Showcase'? 'Scrolling'? Do you mean 'browsing'? If so, these days, probably as little as an hour or two, as much as 5 hrs. Probably the equivalent of what most people spend watching tv every day.

              Do you have priorities that you select for listening?

Yes, of course. Sometimes, as you've said, it's because I like the song, sometimes it's because I like the singer. Sometimes, I'm just looking for people who want critiques and I try to oblige them.

              Do you belong to a secret fanclub?
Yes... how did you know?

              How much time do you spend on listening and commenting in
              an evening or day?
I dunno... hours...

              Do most of you have high speed internet access?
I don't know if most of us do, I can only answer for hubby (jvj) & myself... yes, we do.

              Do you listen with a headphone?
Yes, I use headphones to listen.


and lastly: Do you listen to a song selected from beginning to end?
Usually I do. The exceptions are if the song is very bad, or if I don't have enough time to listen. If I don't listen all the way through, I will usually say something in my comment about that.

>>
Hallo everybody, it had amazed me everytime I visit the singers showcase to see some members making comments on member's submissions with eagerness to judge and to rank as if they are qualified officials. >>

If someone asks to judged and/or ranked, then people are going to do that...it doesn't matter whether they are qualified or not.  That's the way it works!  I was doing that myself (I am somewhat qualified) but I got tired of it so now I am only saying nice things and if someone wants anything more, they can email me.  It's just too much work and I was always worrying about whether I was hurting people's feelings or not.

>>
I'm also wide-eyed to see how many members actually spend hours on end to listen to as many subs as possible. I have monitored some of these enthousiasts, and have found that some of them viewed and "listened and commented" more than 26 subs. I calculated this: A sub is average 3 min. long, a fast typer can have his comment typed and posted in 1 min. Total = 4 minutes. 26 x 4 min. = 104 minutes = 1 hr. and 44 min. For me that is a long long time to spend non stop on Singers Show Case. Than, there is the courtesy to answer to comments given to you on your own song submission. I just can not see myself doing 2 hours dayly scrolling Singer's Showcase. >>

Well, if you listen when you do other stuff (multi-task) then it's not so bad.  Two hours is nothing.  And you're assuming everyone listens to the ENTIRE song.

>>Question: How do most of you scroll the Singer's Showcase? >>

I had a poll about this a few weeks ago...usually I start at the top of the first page and work my way down, however long it takes or until I get interrupted...but I haven't been on the site at all for two weeks because of "real life" getting in the way, so I have a lot of catching up to do!  :dancin:

>>Do you have priorities that you select for listening?>>

Nope, but there are certain people I skip sometimes.

>>               Do you belong to a secret fanclub?>>

Sure, wanna see my secret handshake? hee hee

>>How much time do you spend on listening and commenting in
              an evening or day?>>

I have no idea...

>>Do most of you have high speed internet access?>>

I have DSL.

>>Do you listen with a headphone?>>

Only if I am out of town and using my laptop (rarely).

>>and lastly: Do you listen to a song selected from beginning to end?>>

Only if it's well-sung and/or one I like.  Otherwise I only listen to it long enough to comment or to determine if I like it or not.  I like most songs, though...so that's probably 90%.

>>I'm honest enough to tell you that all my comments and answers I give to comments received are honest. I listen to a song from beginning to the very end.
I have High Speed Internet Access and still have to wait before the song is completely in your RAM. I do select the songs that I want to hear. I do have a favorite group of talented people who's songs I like to listen to. Some song titles pop up before your eyes and I recognize them rightaway and want to listen to them.
I used headphones to listen to submissions. It gives a better sound reproduction. Very clear and very private. You do not interfere with the privacy of people you share living space with. Like my wife and I.>>


I ignore my husband when he complains or I do it when he's not around.  We have a big house.

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~Suzanne Lanoue~