#106
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
Some of the customer reviews are not very favorable for the Zoom:
"As a live sound engineer I often record the shows I mix. I normally use a multi-track recorder and record a stereo pair from the console and also take a second set of tracks from a stereo pair (XY) of small condenser mics. I bought the H4 hoping to be able to use it to do just this as it is advertised as a 4-track recorder. I thought I would use the H4's internal mics to capture the room and grab a stereo feed from the console using the mic/line inputs. To my dismay the H4 only records two track at a time. It seems to me that Zoom/Samson really missed the boat with this one! It would be great to be able to eliminate two extra mics and a bulky muti-track recorder from my setup. I'm still looking for an H4-like product with internal mics, that can capture four tracks at once. Zoom H4 - So close, yet so far..." Plus the max capacity to record is a 2 GB SD card, which would be fine for most shows @ 16/44.1, but you wouldn't be able to record 24/96 for very long. "The same 2GB card will record WAV at 44.1kHz/16 bit for 3 hrs, 22 min, 54 sec; and at 96kHz/24bit, 1 hr, 7 min, 38 sec." I guess you could switch cards at setbreak, but if the set lasts longer than 68 min., you lose music. The Microtrack can use compact flash cards up to 16 GB in size. Some the reviews for the Microtrack aren't so favorable, either: "It does include phantom powered mic inputs (as well as a separate input for electret mics), but the phantom power is only 30 volts, rather than the standard 48 volts. My Earthworks QTC40s seem to work OK with this, but Earthworks told me that they would not handle as high levels (i.e., very close miking) as they would with 48 volts. And there is no guarantee that all Earthworks mics (and other brands) will always work with the low voltage." "It cannot accept a normal recording level. Everything that is plugged in is way too hot for the inputs. I even used a 25db pad and even had a few clipped signals. I have tried the 1/8" and the 1/4" and both have the same problem. Even after the firmware update that was supposed to fix the L/M/H switch issue, the only way I could record was send from 2 sub busses so I could control the levels of the soundboard. I should be able to accept any professional out from a soundboard...especially the tape out." I think where the Microtrack 24/96 really shines is being simply a low-cost high-resolution recording device that you can connect a separate preamp/AD converter to via its coaxial digital input. Something like this: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...e410-main.html (MSRP $400) But then you're getting up into the price range where you could buy a Tascam HD-P2 ($1000) http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HDP2/ There have to be some good deals out there for a used Microtrack, used preamp/AD converter w/24/96 output, and a used Tascam HD-P2. No members have liked this post.
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#107
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
M-Audio Firewire 410 (2) XLR preamp/AD converter $250
http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-FireWi.../dp/B0000TP588 M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 $270 http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-MicroT...9591562&sr=1-1 Samsung 8 GB compact flash card $100 http://www.flash-memory-store.com/sa...flash-8gb.html So a decent high resolution digital taping rig (not counting mics and cables) can be had for about $620 brand new. Or I think you can find the better Tascam HD-P2 for about $900 new. I didn't search very hard, there may be even better deals out there. Ebay would be worth checking out for all this stuff. Plus there are payment plans at different websites. No members have liked this post.
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#108
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
hey Tubular, have you checked out taperssection.com for used gear? register for their forum, then head to the Yard Sale subforum--used gear from the taper his/herself...never heard of anyone gettin burned there plus you've got someone with werking knowlege of the piece of equipment...ebay on the other hand can be a crap shoot, sometimes great and sometimes not-so-great
if you want to run a decent A/D pre between yer mics and MicroTrack, there's usually someone there selling a UA5 thats been Digi-modded, a great piece of equipment for the task No members have liked this post.
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#109
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
Personally, I think the document is more important than the format. I respect the idea of setting standards in hopes of maintaining a certain level of quality, but I don't think banning a certain master format will help. An MD atrac recording with properly set recording levels and a good mic will sound better than a DAT with automatic recording levels and crappy mic.
It would be cool if someone with a wav recorder and an newer MD Atrac recorder (type-r and hi-sp) would record the same show line-in using manual recording levels and the same mics/position. I think the results would sound much closer in terms of quality than the samples Five posted. Here is a sample of an MD recording I made last year(atrac-r/Sony MZ-S1 manual recording levles). http://www.unbase.com/n/0353141192 To my ears it sounds as good as any recording that ever came from my WM-D3. No members have liked this post.
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#110
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
yes, that recording is quite good for MD... do you have another track from that show where the drummer's really hitting the cymbals all the time? I think the lack of cymbals is what's really making it sound very close to full quality.
I confessed earlier that my example is a little skewed, because the room used for the atrac recording is really hard to get a good recording in. But it is a true story, that is my last atrac recording side by side with my first Hi-MD WAV recording. But still, I have downloaded some atrac MD shows and they sound really substandard on average (older codecs??). the whole banning of atrac came about from the topic of high bitrate mp3 recordings, how they sound about the same as atrac which is allowed. so it is more logical to have both or none... since this is a lossless site, none is more logical! I found a silver boot for $3.99 at a goodwill (like a permanent garage sale store) and got it home to discover that it was sourced from high bitrate mp3. it sounded 99.9% identical to what I imagine the lossless version would sound like, and also sounded better than 9/10 lossless torrents I have downloaded in the last few years. Another time a Billy Joel set showed up that was lossy-sourced at an average bitrate and got pulled, but it sounded much better than the fully lossless 12th generation tape that I left running on the tracker. bottom line here is that for better or for worse, this is a lossless tracker. The potential for lossless is greater. wouldn't you feel better recording on a lossless recorder than on your atrac md? don't you believe that you have the strong potential of getting an even better recording by using a WAV recorder? if you can squeeze so much quality out of an antiquated lossy deck, imagine what you could do recording at 24bit.
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Checksums Demystified | ask for help in Technobabble thetradersden.org | ttd recommended free software/freeware webring shntool tlh eac foobar2000 spek audacity cdwave vlc Quote:
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#111
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
reading this thread has me more confused. im still trying to figure out the diff b/w lossless and lossy. take a show originally recorded on a maxell tape--wouldnt that be considered wav, which would make it lossless?
a show recorded on a hi- md recorder, would be lossless b/c the software included converts its to a wav? is it still lossless, or am i "lost" on the whole subject. futhermore, if i convert a wav to a flac, would it still be lossless? i understand the whole mp3 thing, b/c its already compressed. thus, its lossy b/c the compression done while recording causes it to "lose" some of the music, crowd, etc...would this be right? also, say a wav file was converted from tape to disc with the gawd awful dolby reduction crap--would this still be lossless, or would it be lossy at this point? No members have liked this post.
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#112
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
sometimes, the quality of those cell phone videos is really good, about as often as republican mayor in chicago! really, we all have seen good ones. i think they can compliment a better video, giving one more perspective of the floor, etc...
No members have liked this post.
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#113
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
All digital is lossy compared to analog, because you are digitally representing the smooth round analog sound waves with jagged edged graphs, like staircase steps. Higher bit depths (esp.) and sampling rates make the stair steps smaller, so more detail is captured, but it is still lossy.
When you're talking about "lossless digital" you are talking about the compression. mp3 and other lossy codecs throw out data that can't be recovered when they compress, FLAC and SHN do not because they are lossless codecs. All the info deleted when a .wav is compressed to FLAC is redundant data, meaning data that is carried in the other channel of a stereo recording, or elsewhere in the recording. A .wav file is just uncompressed digital audio. No members have liked this post.
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#114
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
Joe,
when we use the term 'lossy' on this forum we mean mp3, rm, aac, ac3, ogg ... stuff like that.
__________________
Checksums Demystified | ask for help in Technobabble thetradersden.org | ttd recommended free software/freeware webring shntool tlh eac foobar2000 spek audacity cdwave vlc Quote:
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#115
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
I will state my opinion as succintly as I can, though I could go on for some time about how this subject eliminates the availability of many shows for collectors who prefer this tracker. I am a taper. I am also poor. I survive on $700 a month, and I am perpetually chasing shutoffs of my utilities because of that. I use whatever recording gear is available to me to get the show because its the show that matters, not the gear. A WAV recorder for under $200...well that's a great idea, but if its over $40 I can't afford it. So I use an el cheapo cassette recorder that has no frequency response above 10khz and below 400hz. And it puts a hell of a lot of white noise on the tape too, forcing me to use a lot of NR. Look at my recent Riders On The Storm thread to see how shitty my recorder is. Fortunately this gig was taped by several DAT users and there are good sounding versions out there. However I also taped Kenny Wayne Shepherd with this recorder, and I haven't seen another recorder surface, so that's what you get. I'd much prefer a MD or mp3 recording of this stuff to my tapes any day. Your decisions to ban ATRAC and mp3 masters just keeps people from getting certain shows. Sure they can use a different tracker, but who wants to? I uploaded a Queensryche show to Dime and had it banned because someone did a SA on it and it looked lossy. It wasn't. I cut all the frequencies above and below a certain point because there wasn't any music information outside those points, just noise. This made a SA/FA look like mp3 when it wasn't. After explaining it to the mods the torrent was reinstated with apologies. But this (along with other stupid rules) has put me off uploading anything to Dime anymore. My point is, its the music that matters, not the format. I personally do not care if someone encodes my tapes to mp3 and recirculates them. If a person is satisfied with that standard of quality then they should be able to get it their way. More formats make higher availability and that'sa what I want to see: the music spread as far and wide as possible. Quality is secondary to quantity with me. Don't read me wrong on that. I personally want the best possible, but the average person doesn't care about that. I did a hearing test and I cannot hear a test tone above 16k. This sucks as I am a producer/engineer/concert taper, but its the price you pay for making a career in (rock) music your choice (not one that pays well either, bu that's my choice, too. Make it cheap enough that anyone can afford me. Same philisophy I have when I paint houses. I'll do a 3 story victorian for $1000. Better a job that pays little to no job that pays nothing). My point is that if an mp3 or a MD are the only known sources then they should be allowed. I realize the issue of people lying about lineage or not doing proper research, but that's why you police this stuff. Hell, find and assign mods to do just that one thing. But there are things out there that are going to disappear because of the elitist standards of sites like yours. For example, I transferred a couple Zappa shows from cassettes may years ago before lossless really took off. I made the transfers into 192 mp3s, then threw the tapes out, considering my work withthem to be done. Well it turns out that the Zappa trading community was blown away by the existence of these tapes, considerinbg them to be untaped/lost shows. I traded them to a prominent Zappa trader via WinMX and he spread the wealth. Now these recording are inferior to nearly all serious traders because they are lossy, but they are the only existing copies and there will never be others. THe trading community is deprived of these by anti-lossy standards such as the ones on this site. Now I realize that I have little clout here as I do not upload much here (or d/l much for that matter), but I have upped over 200 shows to Yeeshkul, the Pink Floyd tracker, as many co-members here can attest. So I am an important part of the trading community. I just feel that music belongs to everyone and it should not be profited on (this means you, record companies; you're dead. Lie down and accept it, already), nor should it be restricted to elitist traders with higher than average standards. I know the mission statement, but calling this a lossless site while still allowing minidisc recording from 2007 and back is hypocritical. Either allow them or don't. No lossy means no lossy. ALL MD recordings should be banned, or mp3 masters should also be allowed. One or the other. The way it is is self-conflicting.
Seems I've rambled despite my promise to be succint. I guess that's how it is when its important
__________________
To enforce copyright laws is to prevent people from making peaceful use of the information they possess. If one has acquired the information legitimately it is a violation of freedom of speech to prevent one from using it, reproducing it, trading it. Information is a universal, existing in other people's minds and other people's property, and over these the originator has no legitimate sovereignty. Copyright laws extort from the public a reward enormously in excess of the labor measure of an entertainers' services, making them, in essence, discriminatory against anyone paid a single time for a job. The only way there will ever be balance is when we are either all paid ad infinitum for work we did years ago, or when they are not. Until then I will fight for the freedom of information by challenging copyright law every chance I get. Join the Pirate Party and help make a difference. No members have liked this post.
Last edited by jpeace; 2008-08-31 at 03:16 PM. |
#116
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
strangely enough, we both work in audio and paint houses on the side! i guess that means i should address some of yer questions and comments today , hopefully being no less succinct as you
i will note, as a fellow "audio guy" it kinda concerns me that you seem to care little for things like fidelity, a broad frequency spectrum, gettin the best out of your recordings, etc -- just simple basic standards...but by gones, i'm not interviewing you for a position, either as an engineer or house painter although we have no problem with you believing that, you need to understand it is THAT philosophy which has lead to the "muddiness of the pool", making it tougher and tougher for serious collectors to wade thru...please re-read our Mission Statement, don't just skim it: http://www.thetradersden.org/index.php?#statement Quote:
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are you sure its not your work ethic thats causing the low monthly income? "quantity over quality" doesn't work in numerous aspects of life, not just collecting shows Quote:
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no offense, but yer argument is swiss cheese at best...we might disagree philosophically, and my ears are obviously way better than yers, but to sit here and say that we single-handedly keep the entire world from hearing any recording is completely ludicrous! Quote:
first off, if you've ever done a side by side comparison of ATRAC and MP3 compression, you would know that they are NOT the same -- far from it! i'm not gonna spend another 10mins typing out all the technical differences, as they've been gone over many many times here at TTD...but suffice it to say, MP3 strips out way more data than just a simple roll-off in the HFs secondly, some of us on staff agreed with you that we should ban all MD recordings outright, lossy is lossy right? others felt that a sort of "grandfather clause" should be put in place [atleast for the time being]...in the end, we all agreed on the current rules that are in place [all staff have an equal voice here] and third, how many "mp3 masters" are there really? i mean, 10 years ago MD was the consumer-level, reasonably-priced recording technology...therefore, a sizable amount of recordings from the 90s were made on these decks...but mp3 recorders are fairly new, not very popular when it comes to recording, and despite the shitty compression codec cost as much if not more than the majority of "low-end" lossless recorders...arguing mp3 masters and MD masters as the same thing is simply not a viable argument although we always try to respect others opinions and philosophies here at TTD, the simple truth is this site was not designed for the type of trading philosophy you ascribe to...and the majority of the members of this site, whether they agree completely or not, continue to come to the site BECAUSE they appreciate our standards -- they know they can get the quality goods here...if someone has a major problem with those standards, feel free to have your account deleted and do not support this site -- simpla as that! as technology changes, so will our standards and our rules...and as these things change, sometimes there will be rules which seem contradictory for a time -- but the world and black & white but the one thing you will always be able to count on here at TTD: Quality is not an option in the seeds here, it will be the standard. No members have liked this post.
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#117
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
Quote:
__________________
To enforce copyright laws is to prevent people from making peaceful use of the information they possess. If one has acquired the information legitimately it is a violation of freedom of speech to prevent one from using it, reproducing it, trading it. Information is a universal, existing in other people's minds and other people's property, and over these the originator has no legitimate sovereignty. Copyright laws extort from the public a reward enormously in excess of the labor measure of an entertainers' services, making them, in essence, discriminatory against anyone paid a single time for a job. The only way there will ever be balance is when we are either all paid ad infinitum for work we did years ago, or when they are not. Until then I will fight for the freedom of information by challenging copyright law every chance I get. Join the Pirate Party and help make a difference. No members have liked this post.
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#118
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
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fwiw, i have numerous mp3 shows in my collection that were only "released" in that format, and there will never be a lossless version...we're not saying you shouldn't have mp3 sources in your collection, this just isn't the place to u/l them...simple as that not to sound egocentric, but think of it in restaurant terms -- the sites which allow anything & everything being yer J&S cafeterias, and a site like TTD being yer Michelin-rated fine dining kinda place...we're not telling people they shouldn't go to the $5.99 all-you-can-eat buffet, it's just that yer not gonna get that kinda food at our restaurant No members have liked this post.
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#119
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
Quote:
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...ad.php?t=60300 http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...ad.php?t=64102 ...lots more out there if you search around.
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Checksums Demystified | ask for help in Technobabble thetradersden.org | ttd recommended free software/freeware webring shntool tlh eac foobar2000 spek audacity cdwave vlc Quote:
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#120
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Re: Are mp3 master recordings allowed @TTD???
This point has probably already been made but if something is recorded in mp3 format(or any format) then that recording is(as a master) by definition not lossy. To my thinking a master recording CANNOT be lossy since no information has been removed from it. information not recorded is not information removed.
That said i dont think ANY mp3 recording should be shared here, it would encourage the use of lower quality recording devices. there are litterally zillions of tapers out there taping many different things. most of them with affordable decks and mics that produce good to excellent quality recordings.
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Friends dont let friends encode generated VHS to DVD It's only a memory unless you film it! No members have liked this post.
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