CD's V Digital?

Printable View

11/10/2006, 9:18 AM
rebs23

CD's V Digital?

Last year I began downloading music but have found the whole experience a pain. I used to download to a computer at work and also one at home but with the licensing issues with MP3's you can't seem to copy from one computer to another! I also had to change my username etc for one site and lost all the licensing for previous downloads and had to download them all again.

So I have gone back to buying CD's for more or less the same price as digital albums. At least this way I can burn them onto any computer I want, transfer them to any player I want when I want. Its just way easier and hassle free. Anyone else gone down the same road or had similar problems with downloads, licensing, etc? Its a real pain that your digital download cannot "travel" with you from one computer to another. A previous computer also crashed.

Are there any solutions or am I just using the wrong websites. I am using Sony players and downloads from Connect?
11/10/2006, 9:24 AM
BohsPartisan

I like the whole album cover, liner notes experience so I buy CD's as a rule.
11/10/2006, 10:01 AM
Dodge

CDs sound miles better but I only download these days. Just easier seeing as I generally only listen through my mp3 player. I have no moral issues with getting music free either (or practically free using the allofmp3) either
11/10/2006, 11:02 AM
ccfcman

I like the art work and the boxing of CDs and so I buy loads, yet instantly transfer 'em onto my laptop :)

I do download also, but overall, I'd rather a CD for a present than say an iTunes voucher :)
11/10/2006, 11:24 AM
max power

i download everything. i burn what i need for the car or for work but its all downloads,

i use i tunes for some stuff and the russian for the rest.

i find the quality fine if you stay at 192 kb per sec or higher. 128 kb for exapmple sounds like longwave.
11/10/2006, 3:12 PM
finlma

Rebs,

You don't need to download the MP3s twice. Once you've paid for them you own them but that doesn't mean you can download them again. You should get a memory stick to copy your MP3s from one computer to another. You could also burn them onto blank cds - costing less than �2 and fit around 4 albums worth of MP3s.
11/10/2006, 3:56 PM
Soper

I collect the albums I like on vinyl as they tend to be pressed on different coloured vinyl and in small quantities, anything else I will download and might buy eventually on vinyl.
11/10/2006, 10:30 PM
Dr.Nightdub

Yiz are all heathens apart from Soper. Vinyl rules, morally if not musically.
12/10/2006, 7:44 AM
max power

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr.Nightdub

Yiz are all heathens apart from Soper. Vinyl rules, morally if not musically.

yes and we should all crush our nice cars and go back to driving Model T ( in black only of course )
12/10/2006, 7:52 AM
noby

I was a tape man who moved to cd's. I never really got into vinyl properly, and kind of regret it sometimes.
I went through my downloading phase a few years ago, and over the space of a few months had every 'hard to get' song I wanted. I also had an awful lot of compilations/best of's. You kind of get bored with it very easily, so I went back to buying albums (cd). Clicking on a button to download some song you always liked will never compare to coming across it in a record stall or shop bargain bin.
12/10/2006, 9:05 AM
rebs23

Quote:

Originally Posted by finlma

Rebs,

You don't need to download the MP3s twice. Once you've paid for them you own them but that doesn't mean you can download them again. You should get a memory stick to copy your MP3s from one computer to another. You could also burn them onto blank cds - costing less than �2 and fit around 4 albums worth of MP3s.

I tried to copy them using a memory stick but for some reason it didn't work with the "connect" downloads. When they were then copied onto the other laptop I couldn't play them as they originated from another laptop. When I got onto Connect I had to prove I was the original user to download the copyright to play the downloads on the new laptop.

I dunno it seems easier to burn them from a CD and then you also have a permanent copy of the music. What happens if your laptop crashes, I know you should burn your downloads onto a cd but you get lazy and probably won't do it, I know I did. If you buy from CD Wow it costs roughly the same as the album to download so why not just get the CD?

As for Vinyl, I kept with it for ages but now have a heap of records in the corner that I don't listen to anymore. Some day I'll get around to recording them digitally (thanks for the link for that filma!) but I'm going to need a week to do that and have to make sure the small fella isn't around trying to play frisby with them!!
12/10/2006, 3:22 PM
DmanDmythDledge

I download singles but if I want an album I'd just buy it as I wouldn't be arsed downloading one.
14/10/2006, 9:18 AM
CollegeTillIDie

Well when you buy the CD's you automatically get a "licence" to put the songs on your computer. And I have found trouble burning some downloaded sound files on to CD.
17/10/2006, 9:46 PM
sonofstan

Eh, Just re the thread title - CDs are digital; and all digital media sound crap
18/10/2006, 7:45 AM
BohsPartisan

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonofstan

Eh, Just re the thread title - CDs are digital; and all digital media sound crap

Yeah bring back scratchy jumping tinny sounding vinyl.
18/10/2006, 9:32 AM
sonofstan

Quote:

Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

Yeah bring back scratchy jumping tinny sounding vinyl.

I'm not responsible for the state of your records ....

Clean, well cared for vinyl played on a decent system sounds way better than any digital system.
18/10/2006, 9:50 AM
max power

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonofstan

I'm not responsible for the state of your records ....

Clean, well cared for vinyl played on a decent system sounds way better than any digital system.

yeah and those tapes really gave out quality sound :rolleyes:

that has to be one of the most stupid statements i've ever seen, nexts its vhs is better than dvd:D
18/10/2006, 9:59 AM
el punter

Quote:

Originally Posted by max power

yeah and those tapes really gave out quality sound :rolleyes:

that has to be one of the most stupid statements i've ever seen, nexts its vhs is better than dvd:D

vinyl is scientifically better quality than cd, because original sound is analog. CDs are a digital recreation of the sound.

here's the science

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question487.htm

your statement has to be one of the most poorly researched I've ever seen
18/10/2006, 10:15 AM
sonofstan

Quote:

Originally Posted by max power

yeah and those tapes really gave out quality sound :rolleyes:

that has to be one of the most stupid statements i've ever seen, nexts its vhs is better than dvd:D

Cassettes were sh!te ....

Seriously though, CDs give an impression of sounding better because the high frequencies (the treble end) are brighter because the frequency range is broader and because thare is more separation between the elements of a piece of music, giving the illusion that you hear more. The problem is music isn't supposed to work that way, any more than visual art or cinema is. The problem with CDs is somewhat analogous with the problem with CGI - if the background is too detailed it distracts from the foreground, making focussing difficult and it's similar with CDs; being able to pick out the cowbell perfectly may give you a pseudo- audiophile buzz -'listen to how good this sounds, I can pick out the cowbell' - but the salient musical feature of a recording is - rarely - a cowbell; in fact, digital listening encourages this sort of focussing on irrelevant detail, which in turn encourages producers to insert those kind of details. The problem is that music is meant to be the experience of a whole and any means of recording and reproducing music should be judged on the musicality of the resulting noise.

Even aside from that, it can be argues that digital recording doesn't even reproduce sound accurately; obviously enough, digital recording works by sampling a sound source, assigning a fixed algorithm of numeric values to it and then storing this numeric information which is then read and reproduced by the player. The problem is that sound works in wave forms not in discrete numeric bundles of information, and there is ample evidence that the human ear can hear the difference between a step- wise, quantified version of a sound and an analogue mode of reproduction which maps the shape of the wave form. If you go looking, you'll find any amount of studies to show that high end analogue beats digital anytime; just look at any of the serious audio journals or their sites and ask why the sort of geek who is prepared to spend a fortune of hi fi will still always go for analogue.
18/10/2006, 10:55 AM
First

I lke having my CD's stacked nicely,ready for whatever mood I'm in.
Only problem is when you realise your mates have lifted them............:eek:
18/10/2006, 10:41 PM
Dr.Nightdub

Another advantage of vinyl: harder for your mates to slip into their pocket. And CDs skip as well.

Just a question, which some of those who understand the science bit may be able to answer: does the fact that so many re-released albums proudly display "Digitally re-mastered" not suggest that what was originally recorded (for vinyl) was what the artist intended you to hear, but what you get after it's re-mastered is what the remixing engineer reckons the artist would've preferred you to hear - in other words, he's interpreting the music, as it were?
18/10/2006, 11:26 PM
Dodge

Probably just means they were recorded on ****ty 8 tracks or something doc and now the engineers can get closer to what the artists wanted his/her work to sound like (particularly true when the artists are involved...)
18/10/2006, 11:44 PM
Soper

Apart from the sound, I also love the fact that with vinyl, I feel like I am getting my moneys worth, with the nice big cover and everything, and the (on occasion) randomly coloured record.Better than squeaky clean cd's in cheap plastic cases
19/10/2006, 4:18 AM
sonofstan

Nice to have unearthed a few more vinyl loyalists around here.
Re, Nightdub's question; mastering is the last bit of the recording process; in the old days the master was a 2 track 1/4 inch tape mixed down from the original 4,8. 16 or 24 track tape, which was then cut by lathe onto an acetate, from which a 'negative' of the vinyl was made. The first CD reissues generally involved simply copying this master onto DAT or Betamax, the problem being that the original was mixed for optimal reproduction on vinyl which didn't necessarily suit the different requirements of a digital medium. This is why the first CD versions of many classics were so terrible - the first CD version of Pet Sounds, for example was an abortion.

To counter this, engineers started going back to the original multitracks and producing a new master from there, If that's all that happens, and if the artist is consulted, then I can't see too much of an issue with it; if you want a CD version of something that sounds as good as it can given the limitations of the medium, then its probably the way to go. JUst be aware it won't entirely reflect the original intentions - but if you simply dub the original master to digital it will generally sound way worse than it did on vinyl over and above the general loss of quality on CD anyway.

edit given the nature of the music business, in many cases, particularly with small labels and in countries such a Jamaica, the master will be long lost by the time someone wants to reissue something on CD - in a surprising number of cases, the CD will be put together from the best vinyl copy available