Metal Reviews

I'm contemplating downloading it to buy a few things, like the new Tesla EP and the exclusive Avantasia track. But if I buy those tunes, are they encrypted at all? Can I rip the files to CDR and whatnot? I just want to be able to download MP3s that are free and clear of any sort of bullshit. Is it worth it?

afaik iTunes mp3s have DRM on them that have silly restrictions like you can only transfer them to other media 3 times or something.

Also, music on iTunes is NOT free. It's 99 cents per song. And usually $10.00 per album (for albums with less than 14 songs, at least).

I know, because I use it.

If you insist on going the legal route to download, use MP3fiesta.com. Its about a dollar an album over there.

Personally, I have started downloading like a madman because I am the kind of person that spends money on cd's regardless of what else is going on. At least nowadays we can listen to albums to see if they are worth a damn before spending money on them. With so many great bands and albums out money should only be spent on bands that deserve the support. But I won't download something just to fuck over the artist either. If its good I'll pick up the cd, if not it goes in the trash.

besides, downloading is the only way to go to get out of print albums, like prong's first two on epic records. how else are you going to get these albums.

Trust me, I buy more music per dollar earned than anyone you can imagine (about 100 per year, minimum) I am so glad that I can be more informed about what I will be getting for my money. And it is not just about supporting the artists. I've bought every rush album twice on cd since the remastering and own all of it on vinyl. when my cd's get scratched, broken or otherwise, I won't be replacing them again.

If the albums are only like $1, how is that any different from downloading? How can the band get any money from that?

I dunno if I'm just retarded, but I have more trouble finding stuff to download on the internet than I do finding it on CD. But w/e, I try not to download because I never buy what I download...I don't have much money at all so I can't convince myself to spend it on something I already have.

maybe he meant 1$ per song, not per album.

i could just go and check that website, but i'm too lazy.

the site is hosted in Russia... so I'm assuming they don't. There's been a couple of other websites like that :\

You pay ¢99 for a shitty sounding mp3 and you can't burn it to a disc. It's a lame ass rip-off, and the record industry wonders why people just take the shit for free. mp3's sound like complete shit, and are not worth paying for. Until iTunes starts offering CD quality stuff, people downloading stuff for free is still going to be rampant. The RIAA should be like Marvel Comics, put the shit up on your own digital server, let people sample a few things, and charge a low price for expanded content. It's funny that a funnybooks company can figure this shit out, but several media conglomerates can't buy themselves a clue.

I meant "free and clear," meaning that if I pay for them I can burn them, transfer them, edit them, do whatever I want with them. Charlotte Martin has released a few iTunes exclusive tracks and some dude I know from her forum always e-mails them to me, but they're in WMA format. Is he somehow converting them?

I'm not really keen on going this route, but I can't find the just-released Tesla EP or the Avanatsia song. Now that Demonoid is gone I don't know where to look for these kinds of download. I keep getting banned from Kerrazy. Haha.

They used to have a lot of restrictions (I wasn't able to attach them to emails for example) but I think they have been gotten rid of now. It was part of the version 7.5 update.

Actually, you CAN burn MP3's on iTunes to a disk (I do it whenever I buy something from there). And as for the sound quality, it's never bothered me. Now that iTunes is using their own file format for their MP3's, I don't know what the sound quality is for them right now. But I know Napster (which uses the standard MP3 format) uses 192 kbps music streams. Which is pretty close to CD quality.

Standard is 128, and you can raise it to 256kbps.

Edit:you can raise it to 320 manually. Nice.

I wouldn't bother. 160kbps is good enough, unless you are runing DSP's which will act differently according to the size of the bitrate.

A panel of sound engineers attended a conference about the state of digital music and NONE OF THEM could tell the slightest difference between 160kbps MP3 and a CD player.

I would suggest upsampling to 48khz if you use EQ's and DSP's because it will sound better because you can reverse dithering based on the EQ and DSP's ability to modulate and use algorithims to add extra frequencies based on what is present.

But anything above 160kbps is a waste of HDD space, if yu think it sounds better that is due to the power of suggestion (i'm prone to it myself)

sound is like video. video uses scanlines which you can not see, nor will you ever notice, you see a sharp and distinct image.

the problems with compression are this: distortion and loss of dynamic range. metal does not need too much dynamic range. maybe 12db at the most. so no problems there. and if you can't hear any distortion, then it is not there. Loss of actual signal is not going to happen at 160kbps.

There a lot of myths surrounding digital audio, it would take too much time for me to get into it here.

128kbps is perfectly fine. If you think it's not, turn that shit up a bit. Problem solved. I don't know how anyone can be like having 14MB MP3s for 4-minute songs, unless they've got a 1TB hard drive.

on most 128kbps mp3s i hear distortion on the cymbals and other trebly sounding things that annoys the hell out of me (I actually noticed the rip of Nattens Madrigal I downloaded having this problem lol ._.). anything 160kbps and up is fine though.

Is there a way to improve the quality of the music I already have in my library? All I could find was the way to change the quality the encoder makes the MP3's when you're ripping CD's.

yes, you can always re-encode to a higher sample rate (I did not say bit-rate) it is rare that people change the sample-rate for mp3 listening unless they know what they are doing.

In order to get better sound out of them you'll need some powerful DSP's and someone that knows how to set them. I constantly see bad reviews of great plugins for winamp processors because people do not know how to set them. These things are not toys, they are powerful audio processors that do dramatic things to sound waves for better or worse depending on the skill of the user.

I went to college for a time to learn more about sound engineering, Since I was learning nothing new, I quit to start working in the field, so take my advice.

I recommend Enhancer by iadrian for winamp, I can give you my setting that will make the most of the upsampling and depending on your stereo equipment will sound dramatically better or sound like a real band is in your living room.

and for god's sake people, quit buying small speakers and a mediocre subwoofer. Buy a standard set of three foot tall 3-way speakers and a reciever/amplifier, a y-adapter for the computer and enjoy yourself. CD's were designed to be played in stereo, not mono with some of the non-low end in stereo. we have two ears and speakers can trick them into thinking the location of the speaker is anywhere. just be smart and don't buy into (more expensive) marketing gimmicks that result in sound that sucks and cheaper manufactuering costs for them.

unless your subwoofer is 56 feet away from you, it can't produce a 20hz frequency, 28ft = 40hz, 14ft = 80ft, and so on these are the sizes of the bass frequencies themselves. no need to elaborate further right now.

I have never heard any sort of distortion on 128kbps files. And that's all I have when I listen to music in my truck and at work. They're all MP3/WMA files ripped at 128kbps. I just don't hear it at all.

Yeah i didn't notice it for a pretty long time but then just started to like a year ago or so. It's one of those things where once you notice it on one thing you start listening for it on others and its immediately noticeable and annoying :X