Sounds Good 2010?

[Slosh]

I know, not much traffic here anymore but is anyone up for another group compilation?

If so here is my nomination (24-bit FLAC)

Looking for good songs with good sound quality. No audiophilia dreck allowed!

[Finch Platte]

The new Far sounds preety damn good, and it's rockin'. Nunna dat pussy-boy bojingles fleugelhorn sheeyot.

[3LB]

I'm on my phone right now, but I'll contribute sumpin later

[Finch Platte]

What's the best converter?

[Slosh]

What's the best converter?

Ummm...Washington to Ben Franklin works for me

Seriously, we can do .wav too.

[Slosh]

Well, I see this went over about as well as I expected.

[noddin0ff]

The last Sounds Good turned out terrific. I still listen to it frequently. From the post it sounded like you were after 24-bit recordings. Not something I have in abundance. Maybe a clearer statement of the ground rules?

[noddin0ff]

Got your Voices flac to convert to Apple Lossless as 24bit, 88.2kHz with Max, so there's an iTunes compatible file.

Wow, it sounds good! Compared with the rip from original CD. Thinking I should at least consider some upgrades to remastered CDs. Unless the rip fairies pay a visit...

[3LB]

I can do FLAC, but not from 24bit masters

I been busy though

[Slosh]

I'm not expecting 24-bit from anyone else, that's just what I happened to use (converted digitally from SACD). I'd convert it to regular old 16/44 if we got enough songs for another compilation, and even that sounds better than the commercial CD (I tried it already).

I didn't know you can do high resolution Apple Lossless. When I had iTunes trancode the wave file it down-converted @ 16/44.

[tentoze]

I'm pretty sure nothing I could offer would integrate well here.

[noddin0ff]

I didn't know you can do high resolution Apple Lossless. When I had iTunes trancode the wave file it down-converted @ 16/44.

From my trials, it looks like the Apple Lossless format support supports all sorts of bits and frequencies, but the converter built into iTunes does not. I use a free 3rd party converter called Max (Mac OS) and that transcodes without down-coversion. The only thing Max wont handle is lossless wma. For that I use a freebie called Switch. Max will import directly to iTunes if you want it to.

For the Mac OS crowd, sbooth.org also has Rip, a superior and free CD ripping utility that definitely outperforms what's in iTunes. Rip is probably the best available for the Mac OS on the error correction front. I've been using it for a year now.


I'll try to pick some tunes.

[ForeverAutumn]

I'm happy to contribute something but am technologically challenged. So if you want to move the group comps from the old burn and mail format to downloading, then someone is going to have to give me step by step instructions. Because I don't have a clue on how to go about this.

[Finch Platte]

I'm happy to contribute something but am technologically challenged. So if you want to move the group comps from the old burn and mail format to downloading, then someone is going to have to give me step by step instructions. Because I don't have a clue on how to go about this.

What she said.

[noddin0ff]

I propose that Slosh make a dropbox to put things in and send out the link to those that have deposits to make. I'll leave it to Slosh to explain.

It should be very easy. promise.

[noddin0ff]

Hopefully, there’s no overlap here with the bundle of tracks from the previous Sounds Good.

My top picks of the bunch for quality would be

Ode to Billie Joe (Carla Cook)
Blackbird (Rene Marie)
Sometimes in this Country (Crooked Still)
Chocolate Jesus (Tom Waits)
Pancakes (Marvin Pontiac) and This Morning – We Remembered Everything (Circulatory System)…but I have odd tastes sometimes.

I understand, however, that your tastes may vary. So, I threw in a bunch more. I’ll leave the download link up for a week (below). All the files are in flac and zipped into one file. If there are any ARers who would like to sample in a different format, just PM me. I’m happy to accommodate.


Hit this link for download (~370MB)

and one more bonus track (Remastered)

[Swish]

What she said.

What he said.

[3LB]

ain't we just talkin conversion from wave file to flac, then uploading it?

[ForeverAutumn]

Flac. Okay. I'm going to also need instructions on how to convert Flac to something that I can play in iTunes. And the conversion program needs to be compatible with my Mac.

Why must you people make things so complicated?

[noddin0ff]

So...

Step one: Ripping a tune to a lossless format. If you use iTunes, you want to go to the preferences and set the import settings to Apple Lossless. If you use another importer, you'll likely want to use flac, which is also a lossless format.

Step two: Converting. Skip step two. Slosh can convert what you send to whatever he needs.

Step three: uploading
There are a lot of web sites that offer free file hosting. Meaning, you go to a web page, create and account, upload a file by navigating to the file and clicking upload, and then you receive a link to the file that you PM/mail to Slosh. He goes to the link and gets the file.

One such service is http://www.yousendit.com/.

You visit the page. Either try the free trial or register for a 'lite' (free) account. To register, follow the "Plans and Sign Up" tab. Give it a email address and password. When you want to send a file, click 'send file', then provide the email you are sending To: (I just give my own email address), use the Browse button to find and select the file. Then click send. Depending on your web speeds, you may wait a while for the file to send. Go listen to music or something and come back. What I don't like about yousendit is that it doesn't give you current status. But, on the plus side, it's easy.

If you send to yourself, then after the file is sent go check your email. Your email will have a link that you can copy and PM to Slosh.

ta dah! Welcome to the digital age! ;-)

There are other sites that work basically the almost the same way. But probably faster. Two that come to mind are
http://www.megaupload.com
http://www.mediafire.com

I've been using mediafire. They all make there money by blasting adds at people when they go retrieve the files. But both offer reasonable service given that they are free.

In these you upload to an account that you can browse on the web. It hosts all the files you upload. You can obtain the links for these files from the browsing page. Usually there is a button that says "Share" and will give you a link to copy or mail.


If you find these addicting, you will want to go to www.dropbox.com and work through their instructions. Dropbox is a tiny bit more elaborate to set up, but once you do, file storage/moving/sharing becomes real easy.

[Slosh]

Any format that is CD quality is fine. Wave, AIFF, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless, Wave Pack, APE, etc. Doesn't matter to me, I'm not picky. Hmmm...I guess that means I'll be compiling if we get enough stuff to fill up a CD-R.

[Slosh]

Unless the rip fairies pay a visit...

Sorry, those 5 studio albums are nearly 4GB in 24/88.2 FLAC.

[Finch Platte]

Any format that is CD quality is fine. Wave, AIFF, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless, Wave Pack, APE, etc. Doesn't matter to me, I'm not picky. Hmmm...I guess that means I'll be compiling if we get enough stuff to fill up a CD-R.

How about I just send you a CD with new stuff I like on it and you take your pick what to put on your disc?

I know, call me

[noddin0ff]

Another pick from the way back machine

All That Money Wants

[Demetrio]

I'm happy to contribute something but am technologically challenged. So if you want to move the group comps from the old burn and mail format to downloading, then someone is going to have to give me step by step instructions. Because I don't have a clue on how to go about this.

What she said.

Hey, folks,

I would love to contribute too (I think I have some great audiophile oriented material here in my collection), but I know nothing about the technologies you are talking about too.

Demetrio.