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Totem

 

Review

Totem, with its focus on trance-dance, broke new ground by bringing drumming out of the ethnic bins and into new age. "Zone VI" begins the album with a hypnotic balance of bass toms played by Robert Ansell, the fancy drumwork by Gordy Ryan, clicks of woodblocks, and a synthesizer drone. The title cut is a serpentine experience which breathes through its undulating bass beats; layers of Middle Eastern rhythms give the dancer many intoxicating paths for movement. Throughout, the rhythms speak -- stately and zenlike to tumbling and swirling -- enticing movement The album ends with the melodically hip "Eliana" and (lest you forget you can dance with a partner) the cha-cha flavored "La Cancion de Manuel," both propelled by the funky bass of Alex Blake. ~ Carol Wright, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Zone VI Gabrielle Roth Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors (6:26)
Totem Gabrielle Roth, Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors (6:48)
Red Wind Gabrielle Roth, Jan Garbarek, Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors (3:32)
Eternal Dance Robert Ansell, Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors, Otto Richter Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors (9:35)
Ritual Gabrielle Roth Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors (9:34)
Eliana Gabrielle Roth Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors (4:54)
La Canción de Manuel Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors (12:03)

Credits

Sammy Figueroa (Conga), TC James (Synthesizer), Jamie Schlachter (Engineer), Robert Ansell (Photography), Gordon Ryan (Log Drums), Greg Wittrock (Cover Design), Gabrielle Roth (Rhythm), Otto Richter (Tone Box), Gordon Ryan (Asheiko), Martínez, José (Cymbals), Manuel Martinez (Wood Block), Otto Richter (Cowbell), Michael Mandel (Synthesizer), Alex Blake (Guitar (Bass)), Gene Heimlich (Producer), Gordon Ryan (Djun-Djun), Robert Ansell (Finger Drum), Robert Ansell (Mixing), David Stone (Engineer), Martínez, José (Drums (Snare)), Martínez, José (Wood Block), Kevin Ansell (Guitar (Electric)), Steve Casper (Engineer), Gene Heimlich (Harmonica), Gordon Ryan (Djembe), Alex Blake (Vocals), Robert Ansell (?), Robert Ansell (Triangle), Robert Ansell (Engineer), Manuel Martinez (Tone Box), Serpentine (Vocals), Robert Ansell (Taos Drum), Robert Ansell (Executive Producer), Otto Richter (Wood Block), Steve Scales (Concert Toms), Martínez, José (Hi Hat), Robert Ansell (Tone Blocks), Manuel Martinez (Bells), Manuel Martinez (Cowbell), Robert Ansell (Shaker), Gabrielle Roth (Executive Producer), Robert Ansell (Tom-Tom), Gordon Ryan (?)
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Wikipedia: Totem (media player)
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Totem
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Screenshot of Totem 2.26.1
Developer(s) Totem Team
Initial release ?
Stable release 2.26.3  (2009-06-30; 38 days ago) [+/−]
Preview release 2.27.2  (2009-07-24; 14 days ago) [+/−]
Written in C
Operating system Unix-like
Platform GNOME
Available in multilingual
Type Media player
License GNU General Public License
Website http://gnome.org/projects/totem/

Totem is a media player (audio and video) for the GNOME computer desktop environment which runs on GNU, Linux, Solaris, BSD and other Unix and Unix-like systems. It is officially included in GNOME starting from version 2.10 (released in March 2005), but de facto it was already included in most GNOME environments. Totem utilizes the GStreamer framework for playback, though until version 2.27.1, it could instead use xine libraries.

Totem is included as the default media player in many GNU/Linux operating systems, including Ubuntu, Mandriva and others. Released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, Totem is free software.

Contents

Features

There are two distinct versions of Totem, though the difference is not visible at the user interface level. One of them is based on GStreamer, which is a plugin-based multimedia framework. This version has superior extensibility and supports a larger variety of media formats. The other one is based on xine, which is a regular multimedia library. Currently it has better encrypted DVD playback support and can play some files the GStreamer version can't handle. An outstanding feature of Totem is its close integration with the GNOME desktop environment and its file manager, Nautilus. This includes generating thumbnails of video files when browsing in Nautilus and a video plugin for Netscape-compatible browsers (e.g. Firefox).

Thanks to a large number of plugins developed for GStreamer, Totem is able to play all mainstream media formats, both open and proprietary ones. It also understands numerous playlist formats, including SHOUTcast, M3U, XML Shareable Playlist Format (XSPF), SMIL, Windows Media Player playlists and RealAudio playlists. Playlists are easily manageable using drag-and-drop features.

Full-screen video playback is supported on nearly all X configurations, including multi-head Xinerama setups, and on displays connected to the TV-Out. Brightness, contrast and saturation of the video can be dynamically adjusted during playback. 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 5.1 and stereo sound is supported. On computers with an infrared port, Totem can be remotely controlled via LIRC. Stills can be easily captured without resorting to external programs. There is also a plugin for telestrator-like functionality using Gromit.[1] The loading of external SubRip subtitles, both automatic and manual (via the command-line), is also supported.

See also

References

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Totem (media player)" Read more