thomas Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 So I just bought my first digital release, the E For Explosion EP off snocap. I paid $6.93 for 7 songs that are very very poorly encoded, and not even tagged well. If I pay for a release I want atleast Lame 3.97 encodes with the V2 command line, not crappy out dated FhG 192kbps CBR. Also have the tracks are 44.1khz, and the other are 48khz. Well hopefully I feel well enough on Thursday to make it to the show in Kent to pick up a physical copy of this EP. Never again will I tread the waters of digital releases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robotnerd Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 man, i know a lot about a lot of nerdy crap but i still have pretty much no idea what you're talking about... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgoodcore Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 SNOCAP is not a good barometer for digital releases I would say then. I've been happy with the quality of my iTunes downloads and more recently, my eMusic downloads. Try either one of those before giving it up all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas Posted October 3, 2007 Author Share Posted October 3, 2007 Well I know a lot and do a lot of encoding and ripping audio into lossy and lossless formats. I will never buy from itunes since I don't like AAC, and eMusic uses a really low preset (V4) so I won't buy from them. I think I'll stick to only buying CDs and Vinyl. Though there are some random good digital only releases (PTM - Devil Say I...), but maybe I'll be lucky enough to come across the promo cds for them. The only reason I used SNOCAP was because it is the only place this was available , and they take paypal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgoodcore Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 If you're that particular about how things are encoded you're most definitely going to need to do your own ripping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas Posted October 3, 2007 Author Share Posted October 3, 2007 If you're that particular about how things are encoded you're most definitely going to need to do your own ripping. Which I do, but as I said this EP is only available if you see him on tour and with me being sick I didn't know if I'd be able to go. I am going to make an effort to make it over there on Thursday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xfedaykinx Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 i know exactly what you mean man V0 is the way to go. ive always wondered what digital downloads are encoded at. now i know not to even bother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas Posted October 3, 2007 Author Share Posted October 3, 2007 V0 is good too, but I only like V2 a bit more since it has a better size/quality ratio and right now I have low HDD space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xfedaykinx Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 yeah, i hear you. id use 320 CBR if i had all the disk space in the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattisr1984 Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 this is why i dont pay money for anything that isnt a tangible product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrc Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 man, i know a lot about a lot of nerdy crap but i still have pretty much no idea what you're talking about... HA! good one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronniethebear Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 I thought this was a vinyl message board? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirbypuckett Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 If you're purchasing music online and complaining about the technical aspects of the file then you're the wrong person downloading the music. The companies do not care about us tech geeks who nitpick at every little detail. Also, you really can't tell the difference between the files. Trust me. Maximum PC did an excellent test a year or so ago between different music encodes and nearly everyone failed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest scriptedrain Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 I thought this was a vinyl message board? A lot of records come with download coupons so you can put the songs on your computer and then, subsequently, your MP3 player, a CD, etc. I know you're just joking, but it's still a good topic just because of the growing trend with labels that press albums on vinyl. On that note, the only place I'll pay to download tracks is Bleep.com for Morr Music releases. They offer them for a good price in 320 kbps MP3s, which is what I rip at. - Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronniethebear Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 I thought this was a vinyl message board? A lot of records come with download coupons so you can put the songs on your computer and then, subsequently, your MP3 player, a CD, etc. I know you're just joking, but it's still a good topic just because of the growing trend with labels that press albums on vinyl. On that note, the only place I'll pay to download tracks is Bleep.com for Morr Music releases. They offer them for a good price in 320 kbps MP3s, which is what I rip at. - Jeff Yeah, I just don't like buying digital downloads because I like to have a hard copy if I'm paying for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirbypuckett Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 If anyone wants a digital download of the new Matt Pond PA album, I have a coupon that came with the record that I bought at his show last night. Let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgoodcore Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 The way I understood the mp3 compression algorithms was they aimed to eliminate the parts of the spectrum that are inaudible. Anyone have a different understanding? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xfedaykinx Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 While removing or reducing these 'unhearable' sounds may account for a small percentage of bits saved in lossy compression, the real savings comes from a complementary phenomenon - noise shaping. Reducing the number of bits used to code a signal increases the amount of noise in that signal. In psychoacoustics based lossy compression, the real key is to 'hide' the noise generated by the bit savings in areas of the audio stream that cannot be perceived. This is done by, for instance, using very small numbers of bits to code the high frequencies of most signals - not because the signal has little high frequency information (though this is also often true as well), but rather because the human ear can only perceive very loud signals in this region, so that softer (noise) sounds 'hidden' there simply aren't heard. If reducing perceptual redundancy does not achieve sufficient compression for a particular application, it may require further lossy compression. Depending on the audio source, this still may not produce perceptible differences. Speech for example can be compressed far more than music. Most lossy compression schemes allow compression parameters to be adjusted to achieve a target rate of data, usually expressed as a bit rate. Again, the data reduction will be guided by some model of how important the sound is as perceived by the human ear, with the goal of efficiency and optimized quality for the target data rate. (There are many different models used for this perceptual analysis, some better suited to different types of audio than others.) Hence, depending on the bandwidth and storage requirements, the use of lossy compression may result in a perceived reduction of the audio quality that ranges from none to severe, but generally an obviously audible reduction in quality is unacceptable to listeners. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_compression_%28data%29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadetapplesauce Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 i've only bought a couple 7"-only tracks and that bonus larry arms track that came out with oh calcutta. well, those were free because i bought tickets on ticketmaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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