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LPU 11 Launched!


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Am I the only one disappointed at the 192kbps quality for the digital download? I thought having a lossless digital download was enough... but even A Decade Underground was 320kbps!

I actually emailed customer support about that, so we'll see if we can get a higher encode out of them.
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Am I the only one disappointed at the 192kbps quality for the digital download? I thought having a lossless digital download was enough... but even A Decade Underground was 320kbps!

You're expecting 320kbps for a song that was initially recorded with less?

Edited by Skr1tch
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How could they not have a copy of the raw files used for recording? Besides, the mere fact that they have a physical CD release would mean (hopefully) that the initial files were lossless before burned...

Because the raw files themselves are still from a time when 320kbps wasn't really a convenience. Converting them to 320kbps does nothing. It would be like running a 480p movie through a 1080p monitor. It does nothing to improve the initial source.

 

Edit: Feel free to complain about the newer songs though.

Edited by Skr1tch
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You say you're not going to fight because no one will fight for you.

'Cause you think there's not enough love and no one to give it to.

And you say that faith is a lie and fear is your only truth.

And you're sure that everyone else is feeling the way you do.

 

You say you've hurt for so long that pain isn't something new.

But don't think the things that they've done predict what you're going to do.

The truth is, if trust is a gift, it's something we all can lose.

So hold on. It's not where it goes. It's where it can lead you to.

 

Hold on. It's not where it goes, it's where it can lead you to.

 

[Robot Boy]

 

 

Writing with a head full of buckets of red

And what I said still stuck in my head

A thoroughbred--thoroughly bled, I led

To the land, that I'll never come back

Smaller than thumbtack, but I never run from that

From planetary size, eyes over the horizon

Smaller than a Floxin

I'm a lyrical lamb, the power of a god

In my cynical hand, with a pen, once again

Swimming in the center of the hit, or a miss

Feeling all my thoughts getting lost in the mist

Realize the one not the size of a fist

With the killing of the killer with a flick of the wrist

 

[fuck it beyond this point]

Edited by Reflectionist
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Because the raw files themselves are still from a time when 320kbps wasn't really a convenience. Converting them to 320kbps does nothing. It would be like running a 480p movie through a 1080p monitor. It does nothing to improve the initial source.

The MTM and ATS demos are not as old as you're making the entire EP out to be, not to mention this is the same band that put MP3s up on their website in the HT era. I'm sure some of these were lossy mastered either way, but adding another generation of audio compression artifacts is quite different from upscaling video information 4-fold. There's no reason that a $9.99 digital release should be 192 kbps, at least not without an option for a higher quality encode.
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You're looking at this the wrong way. Don't think of it in terms of MP3s or lossy files, think of it in terms of the original audio source... Which was most likely tape. Even cassette tapes can be played through a soundboard and losslessly ripped! And, therefore, the lossless rip could be transcoded into a high-quality lossy file, e.g. 320kbps MP3.

The original quality of the audio sources for these demos were not even recorded at such a high rate. That's the point I am trying to get at. Robot Boy is a different story.

 

 

The MTM and ATS demos are not as old as you're making the entire EP out to be, not to mention this is the same band that put MP3s up on their website in the HT era.

I corrected myself with the MTM/ATS era.

 

The MP3's that they uploaded themselves were not 320kbps either. As I said, it wasn't necessarily a convenience during those years.

Edited by Skr1tch
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And yet they still managed to include two HT-era demos on the 320kbps 'A Decade Underground', as well as two songs of that era on the LPU9 CD which was also HQ?

Yeah, to please people like you who think that it actually meant something. :lol:

 

I'm open to being corrected, but I took a few audio engineering classes and have even argued with people on this matter before. The general consensus has always seemed to be that you can't effectively take a 'shit' source and make it sound better by upscaling it.

 

With that said, there are EQ's and all kinds of fancy things that do exist to make things sound better. Personally, that bugs the shit out of me when it comes to demos because I know that it's trickery, but I guess it's all trickery at the end of the day because it's all about what sounds good to the consumers.

Edited by Skr1tch
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The spectrum analysis doesn't seem to correlate with an upscale:

 

http://cl.ly/BrTN

I understand what you're saying, but it all just depends on what the input/output bitrate was. I can see you possibly getting a legitimate 256kbps file at most based on the times, but based on how Mike says 'professional studio' in the .pdf files, that's probably not likely.

 

It's so easy for them to re-save a file as 320kbps.

 

I personally just don't see a possible way to plug a guitar into a mixer, have the sound go straight into editing software with a recording rate of 256 kbps max and then saving the raw file as 320kbps and calling it legitimate. You're right about the newer stuff though, no doubt. You might actually be right about all of this. I'm just telling you what I know from school and possibly saving you from spending your money on stuff that is labeled as '320kbps', but is not actually as it appears.

Edited by Skr1tch
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Think about it this way: wouldn't you rather a download with proper 320kbps of the new songs and upscales of old ones than what's being offered now for the same price? I'm sure with proper remastering the 320kbps rips of older songs could possibly sound better than their lower-bitrate counterparts...

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