**** Warning to all whom buy Music CD's **** Some are Mp3's!!!!!

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › **** Warning to all whom buy Music CD's **** Some are Mp3's!!!!!

paradoxsm

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#6122 28-Dec-2005 23:15

we all admit it, I've been downloading for years, probaly have 30-odd downloaded songs in my current collection as I download and delete and buy them, always on CD due to the almost flawless quality.............

Things have changed..... CDs, bought from stores, are now just mp3's or even worse, WMAs, burnt onto a masterdisc and then mass pressed. especially the track 13 on the blow example has the noticeable ringing tinging mechanical WMA sound and it quite horrible., the other tracks just sound very flat. All Except the track 9 on R&B are quite unlistenable on any surround sound setup.

Two examples of recent come to mind.....
R&B Vol III
Track 09 (mp3 but the quality is very good 192KBPS+) *** UPDATE***
Track 13 (WMA, terrible quality, mybe 96Kbps?) and 14 (mp3 128 or 160 KBPS)
Mastered by Arch Hill Recordings, luckily they were the only 3 songs which are "intenet" audio, the rest are compressed, but in a different way (98DB) (and most sound rather distored)

Mario - Let me love you
track 2. (mp3)

if anyone wants to hear audible proof I can load the songs of for all to listen to.

I am sold on the concept of Limewire and Soulseek now. I can download high quality, restriction free audio, i'd pay for the same thing but now i Can't,

maybe i should mail the artists a cheque directly? hmmm...

LISTEN TO THE HORROR BELOW...
These were made using the L-R= fake surround. so basically only shows the variations beween the basic mono signal, where most compressed music falls over.

Note these ARE now mp3's but they are only mono and coded at 160Kbps so are practically transparent.

Jamelia Track13, the worst one of the lot.

camron Track14, the so so MP3 one., the worst one of the lot.

EVE, who's that girl, this is the control on the test, how it should REALLY sound.

sbiddle

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#25435 29-Dec-2005 08:33

Have you tried playing this on a CD player as well as a computer? I suspect you will find the audio quality is far better played through a CD player.

Playing many modern CD's in your computer (or some DVD players) will give you a mp3 or WMA file to play rather than the actual CD audio. The music companies have done this so they can copy protect the CD to stop you ripping the actual CD audio but still allow you to play the file on your computer.

cokemaster

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#25437 29-Dec-2005 08:36

I have noticed a lot of music that is now being sold at work (I'm on leave for my China trip) have lost the 'CD' logo. Instead they have little small text saying that the CD is copy protected and that it might not work in all computers. And it has system requirements too - Windows and WMP.

Its a bit misleading as the customer doesn't always understand what that means and assume that he'll be able to copy the CD onto his iPod.

I wonder if any of the CD's sold here have the Sony Rootkit on?

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sbiddle

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#25446 29-Dec-2005 10:17

Sony NZ/Australia haven't released CD's here with XCP copy peotection. I believe Real Groovy however did have some which were stock they had imported or 2nd hand stock people had traded in.

Hopefully the current problems with SonyBMG might be a wake up call for the whole music industry, especially with some of the class actions being taken against them. I wouldn't want to hold my breath waiting however - an industry that's still stuck with a 40 yr old distribution methods who completely refuse to embrace modern technology don't deserve to be doing well but they have enough politications in the US who will support them to ensure they get what they want..:-(

miss_louie

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#25456 29-Dec-2005 11:23

i so agree with you especially about R&B Vol 3. I just bought the CD and sooooo unimpressed with the quality. Some of them sound like they've recorded them off the friggin tv or something.

paradoxsm

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#25467 29-Dec-2005 14:07

Exactly, Th Usher song is beautifully clear, the rest are so bloody compressed and they are all of varying volumes. I'm recompiling the CD using downloaded higher quality music as we speak.

to Sbiddle: It's redbook audio I'm playing but some tracks have been created using WMA source. I'm playing it back as redbook, I first played it in my car and was rather unimpressed.

some of the music on it is of good quality so i'm unsure what's happened, Copy protections are avoidable and I simply download those as i'm able to do more with the music illegally than legally.. go figure!

freitasm

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#26771 19-Jan-2006 22:59

paradoxsm: Jamelia Track13, the worst one of the lot.

camron Track14, the so so MP3 one., the worst one of the lot.

EVE, who's that girl, this is the control on the test, how it should REALLY sound.

Are these just snippets of the songs, to illustrate the comments, or the entire track?

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cokemaster

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#26772 19-Jan-2006 23:13

They appear to be examples (snippets) and there is a huge difference in quality. Shocking.

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geekiegeek

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#26777 20-Jan-2006 05:35

After seeing an add on TV last night for half a dozen CD's that are at least 10-15 years old at the "low, low price of just $20 each" stuff the music industry. This is the problem in my view that they are ripping us off. These old albums would have paid for themselves along with a tidy profit when they were first released so wy 15 years later are we still paying the $20 for them.

I download all of my music and have done since the napster days with one rule - I will not download local artists.

As far as the international music industry is concerned, they have been pushing crap bands with more and more one hit wonders since the early 90's - charts are no longer based on record sales but on marketing and the price of a CD is still the same as it was 15 years ago even thougth I am sure the production cost of those CD's has come down in that time.

Just my opinion (rant).

alasta

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#26779 20-Jan-2006 07:11

Morbid1: As far as the international music industry is concerned, they have been pushing crap bands with more and more one hit wonders since the early 90's - charts are no longer based on record sales but on marketing and the price of a CD is still the same as it was 15 years ago even thougth I am sure the production cost of those CD's has come down in that time.

Tastes vary, of course, but I am of the opinion that the rock genre is still producing some good material, but the pop genre has gone to the dogs as it has become increasingly sexualised.

I am currently getting all my music through the Australian iTunes Music Store (yeah, I know we're not supposed to be using it, but it's hardly 'theft'). In my experience, the AAC compression format is pretty good, and the tracks downloaded from iTunes seem to do it justice. My only reservation is the implications of the DRM, as discussed in another recent thread here.