Captain Cloud's Music Lists
and Rules of the Road
Last Revised: 5/1/09

I am a collector of music that interests me. I purchase a lot of it, and trade for copies of whatever I don't buy (usually live recordings). I maintain these lists as a complete database of my collection. I have been known to trade copies of some of these recordings, which is how I originally came to possess many of these items.

I am often willing to trade audio CDRs, SHN/FLAC/APE files, or DVDs in VOB format. I no longer trade cassette tapes, VHS tapes, or MP3s. All trades are reciprocal, meaning that I send someone the same number/type/length of recordings as they are expected to send to me. None of my collection is available for sale in any way. If you have CDs (not CDRs) for sale by the bands I collect here, you can email me.

My index of recordings is organized into several lists, organized mostly based on type of music -- using my own subjective definitions! I have also singled out a few bands who deserve their own separate lists due to the sheer number of recordings I have collected by them.

Within each list, the bands and recordings are sorted alphabetically and chronologically. Refer to this Key for a guide to the codes used here.

Most Recent UPDATES - music that "Just Arrived"

Space Rock     "Classic Rock"     Trance/Techno     VHS/DVD    
Porcupine Tree     Hawkwind (and solo)     Pink Floyd (and solo)    
Ozric Tentacles     Monster Magnet     Bardo Pond     King Crimson     Gong    

My Rules of the Road for music trading
My Tastes and rants about music
The Eternal Internet Palace of the Evil Clown

Contact information:

Chuck Johnson
228 Ainsley Street SE
Palm Bay, FL 32909-8587
U.S.A.
(321) 952-6973 (but try to email me first...)

My Email Address: capcloud AT hawklord DOT com

My Trading Rules and Guidelines

Sigh.

I regret to say that my trading habit has dropped off to almost nothing. In 2008 I probably did no more than 4-5 trades for the entire year, and none at all for the last few months.

You are welcome to send emails inquiring to trade, however I may take weeks (or months!) to respond to your trade request. Do not take offense at this, it simply reflects that I do not often put the effort into a trade these days. Sorry, mea culpa. But I still appreciate the emails.

That being said, the closer your interests match my own, the more likely that you will inspire me to respond. :-)



CDR trading rules:

NOTE: Most of my trades are now via online transfer (BitTorrent, FTP, HTML). When I occasionally go to the trouble of actually burning something and mailing it, I prefer to use FLAC and DVDR. I can encode 8-12 CDs as FLAC files using tools like EAC and Traders Little Helper, and then burn them all to a single DVD-R for mailing or archival storage. This is so easy that all other trading methods are a burden in comparison!

NOTE: I am No Longer doing cassette tape trades! It has become very difficult to find a local store that supplies blank Maxell XL-II C90 and C100 cassettes. Apparently the world has become a digital place...

NOTE: at this time, I have stopped doing all analog video trades.  My duplicating equipment is not up to my standards, and many of my VHS tapes are now 10+ years old.  So, to avoid upsetting any traders who end up unhappy with any videos that I would send them, I am choosing to stop trading videos completely at this time. In fact, I no longer even own two HiFi VCRs so I cannot dub analog copies anyway!


                               RATING CODES
Information on each recording is listed in separate columns, as follows:

* Quality Rating
   * Date of Recording
            * Total Time
                 * Media (of My source)
                    * Source Info (optional)(missing on older tapes)
                        * Identifying Information: where, what, who


QUALITY RATING  (all ratings are subjective, and subject to change):
  A+ Best, studio CD, excellent FM broadcast
  A  High quality, a good vinyl LP, excellent audience source, first generation cassette dub, quality MP3
  A- Great (for a boot), vinyl LP may have some scratches, tape of vinyl LP, typical MP3
  B+ Good, some uneveness, lower sound levels or multiple generations hiss
  B  Listenable audience, typical of most mid-seventies audience recordings
  B- Much Hiss, loud audience, too many generations
  C  For the Really Dedicated (Worst quality!)
  *  I do not have recording yet, but expect it in soon

(where rating is missing, the tape is too new for me to have rated it yet -- beware...)


DATE OF RECORDING:
The date is always presented as "month/day/year".  Occasionally the exact date will not be known, and "xx" are used as place-holders.


TOTAL TIME:
The time is measured in minutes.  A question mark implies an approximate time where I have not yet confirmed the exact time.  All cassette timings are generated on my Technics RS-TR575 home tape deck.


MEDIA OF MY SOURCE:
  CD = Compact Disc or CDR or FLAC/SHN/APE or other lossless file format
  CT = Cassette Tape
  VD = Video Tape (NTSC)
  DV = DVD
  DA = DVD-A
  LP = Single LP vinyl
  2L = Double LP
  3L = Triple LP
  EP = 12" or 10" Record
  45 = 7" Record
  MP = MP3, often recorded at the highest bitrates possible (320-kbps)
  RA = RealAudio stream, downloaded or captured to my computer


OTHER CODES:

? data not confirmed/exact (watch for future update lists)
AUD noticable audience noise - does Not mean Audience recording
REC released by official record label
FM radio broadcast; may have DJ talking before or even during
PFM Pre-FM radio broadcast - taken from CD/LP provided to radio stations
ALD

recorded by remotely detecting the wireless broadcasts from the stage
?date? date may be questionable
'name' album or movie title
"name" song title
w/... includes song(s) ...
wo/... missing song(s) ...
(x#) # is number of songs on the recording
(inc.) incomplete recording - other songs were played but are not present here

A Typical Music Trade

The typical way these things work is that each party provides a list of the recordings that they are willing to make copies of, and the other party chooses from that list. The trade is negotiated, then both parties purchase blank media and duplicate the recordings requested by the other party. Then both parties mail the requested recording copies to the other party, usually simultaneously or within a few days of each other.

My usual trade is for 5-8 CDRs or tapes.  These days I trade digitally whenever possible, meaning audio CDR, or SHN, or MP3 formats.  I've also become very active on several BitTorrent sites, which allow downloading of digital recordings (usually in SHN or FLAC formats).

I can burn DVDs, but I am not typically trading them at the moment.  I am not currently trading copies of any of my VHS recordings due to my less-than-satisfactory duplicating equipment.

Sorry, No B&P

Some traders will make copies for others without a return trade. These trades are often known as B&P trades - which stands for Blanks & Postage - where the requester sends a list of his requests plus enough blank media, plus return postage, and the trader records onto that same media and sends it back. The trade may include some extra blank tapes as "payment" to the trader for helping out the person who had nothing to trade.

Unfortunately, I do not perform trades for Blanks & Postage. All my trades are for equal return music.

If you have any recordings that I might be interested in, then please send me your list and I'll look through it. You might be able to judge my musical interests from my own lists on this web site. There are many groups for which I will probably request a trade for any recording that I don't already have in my collection. Also, I have a list of Wanted items that I would like to purchase or trade for (or possibly trade for a copy of); this is on my Updates web page (see link at top).

I'm Really Slow on Tape-to-CDR Trades

One more thing...  These days most trade requests are for CDR media, not cassette tapes.  However, most of my kollection is still analogue and has not been digitized yet.  This means that if you request a CDR copy of an item which I have listed as from a tape (the code "CT") or vinyl source, then there is likely to be a delay in my turn-around of your requests due to the extra effort involved.  Be aware that I frequently turn down trades which require me to convert tapes to CDRs.

On the other hand, I am also slowly working my way through my collection, converting my favorite tapes and rarest vinyl into music CDRs, and/or into SHN/FLAC format or perhaps high-quality MP3s (320kbps).  I have not yet marked my list with which items are easily available from me in digital form, but I hope to do so soon.  Until then, request what you want, and we can talk about it.

Tools of the Trade

There are several tools that I expect anyone and everyone to use when duplicating CDRs. The first and most important tool is named Exact Audio Copy, or EAC for short. This program is the ONLY way to produce identical copies of an audio CD when using a Windows computer. If you do not use EAC, then you will not be creating a true duplicate copy of the original disc. And, I do Not care if you always make "good" copies when you use <fill in the blank> application to copy your audio CDs.

EAC is used to read the audio tracks off of the original CD and on to your hard drive. EAC must be properly configured for its offset, which is a specific number associated with each and every CD reader and DVD reader. There is much information about this subject at http://www.exactaudiocopy.de and http://www.etree.org

If you don't use EAC, then please do not ask to trade with me.

(The only exception is MacOS users, who have different hardware requirements. Note also that iTunes is a terribly unreliable application for RIPPING a music CD!)

Another requirement for trading is that you do not leave 2-second gaps between the audio tracks on your music CDRs. The important watchword here is Disc At Once, or DAO as it is called. There are several excellent programs available for burning audio CDRs, such as Nero and Feurio, which support DAO or allow you to control the gaps between music tracks.

The software tools that I use: