Red Mosquito

Sgt. Crackpot wrote:Looks like I'm signing up for Spotify. I've resisted for long enough. What's the quick run down on how it works? Do you pay a monthly fee and have access to all of their music? Can you download and play offline?

You can listen for free with ads. Can't download though. Or pay 9.99 (I think) a month for unlimited access and downloads. You can choose the quality of streaming and downloads too.

tragabigzanda wrote:Backspacer sounds like it has more depth to me too.

Hard to tell via a spotify stream but you might be right about this - definitely noticing more Jeff in the outro of Gonna See My Friend

I noticed that Backspacer was never made available via HDtracks etc, so hopefully it's getting a spit and polish before release there...

To my dumb ears, Life Wasted benefits like a motherfucker. It's less obvious and more musical. If only they woulda fixed that fadeout though.

ridleybradout wrote:May need to update the Deluxe edition once we have this in digital HD flac (which even the most cyncial PJ fan would have to expect to be the case come November).

I'm still concerned this master will unceremoniously disappear soon, replaced by Brendan's remixed version.

I went onto Spotify to check this out but it asked for my email address and birth date so I just went back to listening to the new Clientele album on CD.

Birds in Hell wrote:

ridleybradout wrote:May need to update the Deluxe edition once we have this in digital HD flac (which even the most cyncial PJ fan would have to expect to be the case come November).

I'm still concerned this master will unceremoniously disappear soon, replaced by Brendan's remixed version.

Good point - this does sound too good to be latter-day BoB

So paid Spotify accounts allow you to download songs for offline use, right? If so, has anyone tested this yet?

Monkey_Driven wrote:You can listen for free with ads. Can't download though. Or pay 9.99 (I think) a month for unlimited access and downloads. You can choose the quality of streaming and downloads too.

tragabigzanda wrote:Free version: You can stream their library, but you have to listen to ads; and on certain devices (PS4, for example), you get a shitty stream quality and until very recently had to listen to every album on shuffle.

Pay version: I think it's $10/mo? You get better audio quality (not .flac or anything) and no ads.

In either scenario, the artists get screwed but I don't know that you should necessarily feel bad about that.

ridleybradout wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Backspacer sounds like it has more depth to me too.

Hard to tell via a spotify stream but you might be right about this - definitely noticing more Jeff in the outro of Gonna See My Friend

I noticed that Backspacer was never made available via HDtracks etc, so hopefully it's getting a spit and polish before release there...

Spotify definitely did *not* have betterman live as a part of this track list, as of at least late spring.

McParadigm wrote:

ridleybradout wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Backspacer sounds like it has more depth to me too.

Hard to tell via a spotify stream but you might be right about this - definitely noticing more Jeff in the outro of Gonna See My Friend

I noticed that Backspacer was never made available via HDtracks etc, so hopefully it's getting a spit and polish before release there...

Spotify definitely did *not* have betterman live as a part of this track list, as of at least late spring.

Scratch my earlier comment - I just did an A-B against my Backspacer CD and it sounds the same to me.

tragabigzanda wrote:Are you sure it'd be lossy? It's not like there's some clock syncing that needs to happen between converters; it's simply routing the digital stream signal via a virtual route, and Soundflower lets you adjust both the input and output format. If you're just dumping it into Logic or Audacity or something, why wouldn't the end quality be the exact same?

I guess what I mean is that my preference would be to extract the original files, not create a rip and possibly introduce additional issues. I have a Spotify Premium account set to "extreme" quality, which I believe is 320kbps MP3 (there's no lossless option). Given the choice, I'd prefer to have the original MP3 files over a lossless recording of the lossy stream, if that makes sense.

evenslow wrote:To my dumb ears, Life Wasted benefits like a motherfucker. It's less obvious and more musical. If only they woulda fixed that fadeout though.

The whole record benefits. It's a stunning change.

It's hard to imagine the technical process digging a wider ditch between the intricate, dynamic record that you made and the brittle, hammering one people are doomed to hear.

McParadigm wrote:

evenslow wrote:To my dumb ears, Life Wasted benefits like a motherfucker. It's less obvious and more musical. If only they woulda fixed that fadeout though.

The whole record benefits. It's a stunning change.

It's hard to imagine the technical process digging a wider ditch between the intricate, dynamic record that you made and the brittle, hammering one people are doomed to hear.

We have tasted an album wasted. But, oddly, we are going back again.

I have Spotify, and all this talk made me go listen to the records... but they don't sound different at all to me. What am I missing?

Someone posted a couple of pages back that there was a lyric change in 'Come Back' but I didn't hear one.

Avocado sounds the same :/

BootsToAsses wrote:Avocado sounds the same :/

It's the exact the same mix, just a much more dynamic and natural sounding mastering of it. It's probably a distinction best appreciated on good headphones, it's especially apparent if you can swap back and forth between the original and this new version. The instruments sound more natural, there's a lot more depth to the sound and it's not fatiguing to listen to.

When the drums kick in on Inside Job, man, that's the stuff.

Birds in Hell wrote:

BootsToAsses wrote:Avocado sounds the same :/

It's the exact the same mix, just a much more dynamic and natural sounding mastering of it. It's probably a distinction best appreciated on good headphones, it's especially apparent if you can swap back and forth between the original and this new version. The instruments sound more natural, there's a lot more depth to the sound and it's not fatiguing to listen to.

When the drums kick in on Inside Job, man, that's the stuff.

yes all of this.

i can hear different guitars and it's not just all one big guitar blob.

"guitar blob" being a technical mastering term.

Birds in Hell wrote:The instruments sound more natural, there's a lot more depth to the sound and it's not fatiguing to listen to.

When the drums kick in on Inside Job, man, that's the stuff.

It really is. The drums throughout really benefit from not being swallowed up by a wall of brittle misery.

For me, it's like peeling back layers of gauze. There are so many details that were definitely there...and even plainly audible...before, but which used to hit like a bump in white plaster. Now they’re out there in the sunlight and free to move, and it makes such a difference.

Listening to Mike’s decorations dance above rhythm parts that actually speak to, and about, each other made me realize how mechanical and samey some songs sounded before. All that humanity just got buried.

And man do I enjoy that rhythm section.

McParadigm wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:The instruments sound more natural, there's a lot more depth to the sound and it's not fatiguing to listen to.

When the drums kick in on Inside Job, man, that's the stuff.

It really is. The drums throughout really benefit from not being swallowed up by a wall of brittle misery.

For me, it's like peeling back layers of gauze. There are so many details that were definitely there...and even plainly audible...before, but which used to hit like a bump in white plaster. Now they’re out there in the sunlight and free to move, and it makes such a difference.

Listening to Mike’s decorations dance above rhythm parts that actually speak to, and about, each other made me realize how mechanical and samey some songs sounded before. All that humanity just got buried.

And man do I enjoy that rhythm section.

Alright, who are you and what have you done with McParadigm?