hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1831.txt

Episode: 1831
Title: HPR1831: Are speed listening and slow background music compatible?
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1831/hpr1831.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 09:52:11

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This is HPR episode 1,831 entitled R speed listening and slow background music compatible.
It is posted by first time post a shadowy figure and is about 7 minutes long.
The summary is in their room for background music and podcasts for speed listening.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by Ananasthhost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15, that's HPR15.
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This is a shadowy figure speaking to you from Southwest Florida on Hacker Public
Radio, brought to you by Ananasthhost.com, where you get 15% discount on all shared hosting
with the offer code HPR15, that's HPR15, better hosting that's honest and fair at Ananasthhost.com.
Not only did I mention Ananasthhost.com out of commitment, but also out of respect.
I've listened to the interview by Ken Palin of the man behind Ananasthhost.com, Josh
Nab, not long ago, and came away with a certain amount of appreciation for what Josh does,
which is basically keeping Hacker Public Radio live, along with many other things he does.
Thanks Josh, your generosity does not go unnoticed.
I've been listening to HPR for about a year now, and recently purchased a blue-yetting
microphone off eBay, which turned out to be misrepresented, and not in the condition
it was claimed.
As a side note, the day I received the blue-yetting in the mail, I found the same microphone,
brand-spanking new on Amazon, for the same price as the one I purchased on eBay.
At one time I would have been disappointed by such a situation, but if there's anything
I've learned from experience, no matter how hard you punched the wall, the train still
left at four o'clock.
Forwarded voting in motion to every real or perceived injustice I came across, I wouldn't
have time to vote any emotions to the things I enjoy.
Anyway, my computing background goes all the way back to the original TRS-80.
The experience of writing basic for four hours to create a pathetic facsimile of the game
Pong, turned me away from computing until the graphical user interface of Windows 3.11
came along.
It was alright with the direction of where computing was moving along once Windows matured,
but I never had any love for Microsoft products.
Macs are prettier, but a lot more expensive, and had great hardware to boot.
But I never caught the Mac addiction either.
Slackware caught my interest, but wasn't ready for prime time, and Red Hat was a bit more
complicated than I was comfortable with in the mid-90s.
Since 2006 I've been using debut and bass pop premium systems exclusively, but still
keep a MacBook Pro, and Windows 8.1 laptop nearby for specific tasks I'd want to take
my Linux box with.
DDE Plasma has been my desktop of Joyce since 2010, and I don't use Google, Facebook,
Twitter, or any other corporate tracking devices including cell phones.
Smoke signals and emails are about the best way to get a hold of me, and smoke signals
have been notoriously ineffective in the past.
So moving along, my day job includes leadership training, which was a big step up for my
old job in one of the most reviled professions known to man.
Yes, that's right, I used to be a used car salesman.
You thought I was going to say lawyer, didn't you?
No, but a data lawyer, but I try to keep that a secret.
So now that I've tainted my reputation for good with the hacker public radio audience,
I may as well plow forward and see what other damage to my reputation I can do.
You can think of my handle, as Shatterway Figure, as damage control for all the stupid things
I end up doing by mistake.
Like buying things off eBay.
Anyway, I thought I'd share with the HPR audience my experience as a listener, and what
I feel I can do to contribute.
I love the mission statement behind HPR, and feel the need to do my part to see, too,
at HPR continues to offer something of value to the hacker community.
Like many listeners and contributors to HPR, I listen to dozens of podcasts each week,
many of which belong in their spot of the most downloaded podcast.
But I find a certain amount of charm in the grassroots nature of HPR.
Much like the Norwegian trend of engaging in slow media content, as mentioned in a recent
HPR episode, I actually find myself hypnotically engaged to 5150s, once in my pickup toolbox
episode.
I found myself cheering on 5150 to come up with a pair of lug nuts to an unknown vehicle.
I was looking for solidarity there.
Being as for some reason, my prior toolbox always seemed to have a couple of unknown parts,
or even broken tools that should have been thrown out years ago, like 5150s wire strippers.
I have to admit, Ken Falun's amazing life hack episode of how to tell your left earbud
from your right, lived up to its claim of setting a low bar.
Ken has given some terrific episodes in the past, but this one fell short of his standard
of excellence.
But I must admit, his goal was achieved.
As I listen, I said to myself, even I can top that, and thus, Ken inspired me to step
over that low bar of quality he set, and record my own episode.
After reading up on the procedures for contributing the show, I came across the advice to not
using betting or background music due to the diverse listening style of many HPR listeners.
One of those listening styles I'm vaguely familiar with was listening to podcasts
speed it up.
Some were I read about some people really, really speeding up their recordings to the point
most people can only hear a rapid fire series of blips and clicks.
I don't know if that is typical, but I'm inclined to think that is something found on
the fringe, and that most speed listeners fall in the range of two to three times normal
rate.
I'm also aware of a trend of some people to listen to music slowed down to the point
of being one long drone that changes pitches every now and then.
Perhaps in the future, depending on what sort of feedback I receive, I like to experiment
with combining or two.
Basically, recording normally recorded vocal content with an ultra slow music soundtrack
that would balance out with speed listening.
In essence, hacking the audio to provide speed listeners with a soundtrack.
On the flip side, one can hack the audio to appeal to slow listeners, speeding up the
soundtrack and changing the pitch of the vocals to account for slow listening.
But that would probably kill some speed listeners with weak cards.
So I'll steer away from that unless there's enough demand to justify it.
It seems like a concept is destined to fail, but it's something I was pondering would
try if there were an audience for it.
If there were any interest, what I'd need to know is how fast a speed listeners listen
to their audio, which is probably all over the map making any effort futile.
But it's just a thought I thought I'd throw out there, along with introducing myself
to the HPR audience, and saying thanks to all the people who make HPR possible.
This is a shadowy figure signing out.