I downloaded the MP3s this morning, but have only now actually gotten to sit down and listen to them. I'm pretty much used to ripping everything myself anyway, partly because I use DigitalDJ (http://nostatic.org/ddj/) as my music player (well, OK, as my jukebox; madplay (http://www.underbit.com/products/) is the actual player), which uses a SQL back-end database that's automatically populated with disc metadata by Grip (http://nostatic.org/grip/) during the rip, and partly because I prefer to rip at much higher quality than is generally available for download. (I use lame -p --vbr-new -V 0 --nohist -b 64 -B 320, which produces an output file about 15% larger on average than your static 160kbit files — roughly comparable in size to a static 192kbit file — but is almost indistinguishable from the CD source.) I can manually enter most of the metadata into DDJ's database, but it's much easier to let Grip do it.
Honestly, though, I suspect most people are going to be listening to the MP3 versions on an iPod or similar device on earbuds, and I doubt the difference would be audible there.
Either way, I can already hear details in these MP3s that weren't audible on the tape. I can't wait to hear what the CD sounds like....
no subject
I downloaded the MP3s this morning, but have only now actually gotten to sit down and listen to them. I'm pretty much used to ripping everything myself anyway, partly because I use DigitalDJ (http://nostatic.org/ddj/) as my music player (well, OK, as my jukebox; madplay (http://www.underbit.com/products/) is the actual player), which uses a SQL back-end database that's automatically populated with disc metadata by Grip (http://nostatic.org/grip/) during the rip, and partly because I prefer to rip at much higher quality than is generally available for download. (I use lame -p --vbr-new -V 0 --nohist -b 64 -B 320, which produces an output file about 15% larger on average than your static 160kbit files — roughly comparable in size to a static 192kbit file — but is almost indistinguishable from the CD source.) I can manually enter most of the metadata into DDJ's database, but it's much easier to let Grip do it.
Honestly, though, I suspect most people are going to be listening to the MP3 versions on an iPod or similar device on earbuds, and I doubt the difference would be audible there.
Either way, I can already hear details in these MP3s that weren't audible on the tape. I can't wait to hear what the CD sounds like....