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Brian W.
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| Posted: 11 December 2009 at 4:41pm | IP Logged
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No kidding -- $1.49 per track, in your choice of FLAC, WMA Lossless, and, believe it or not, Apple Lossless!
http://www.rhino.com/shop/format/Digital
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 11 December 2009 at 4:45pm | IP Logged
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AAAAH! AAAH! AAAH!
The DIGITAL 45 SERIES is available there in LOSSLESS! The Doors, everything!
AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Edited by Brian W. on 11 December 2009 at 7:22pm
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 12 December 2009 at 12:47am | IP Logged
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When people have the time, I definitely recommend them checking out the 4000+ albums/singles they have put up on their site, especially since so many albums have never been available on CD or digital format before now! Quite an impressive job. I wish labels like Universal and Curb would follow suit. Sony/BMG, too.
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 12 December 2009 at 12:50am | IP Logged
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For the more tech-savvy, can someone explain to me which lossless format I should get:
WMA
FLAC
Apple lossless
if I want to transfer the files straight onto a CDR. (I don't have an ipod so I don't think I want Apple lossless). Are any of the above the same as buying a WAV? I believe my CD burner (and WaveLab software) will only allow me to transfer WAVs & IAFF formats in.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 12 December 2009 at 10:48am | IP Logged
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EdisonLite wrote:
For the more tech-savvy, can someone explain to me which lossless format I should get:
WMA
FLAC
Apple lossless
if I want to transfer the files straight onto a CDR. (I don't have an ipod so I don't think I want Apple lossless). Are any of the above the same as buying a WAV? I believe my CD burner (and WaveLab software) will only allow me to transfer WAVs & IAFF formats in. |
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Hmm... it depends on what your CD player will play. Most CD players won't play straight WAVs, so I doubt it'll allow you to play these other file formats without conversion.
I've been buying the FLACs and converting to WAVs with Foobar 2000. There's no loss of quality -- it's lossless to lossless. FLAC is the free, open format -- Apple Lossless and WMA are proprietary formats, so that's why I lean toward FLAC.
From a quality standpoint, it's my understanding that there's no difference between them.
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aaronk
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| Posted: 12 December 2009 at 11:33am | IP Logged
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Technically speaking, a WAV is not the same as a compressed lossless file; however, the sound quality should be identical between the two.
The short answer to your question about which one you should get is: take your pick. If you are burning your CDs using something other than Windows Media Player or iTunes, you will most likely have to convert the files to WAV before burning. This is not a big deal, though, because there are tons of free converting programs you can download online.
Personally, I would probably go with FLAC, based on what I've read about the various lossless formats.
Someone once explained to me how file compression works in simple terms. Let me see if I can help shed some light...
As you may already know, all computer files are stored as 1's and 0's. Your computer reads the 1's and 0's and makes something meaningful out of them, such as a picture, text, video, or sound. File compression is a way to store those 1's and 0's in a smaller space.
An uncompressed format doesn't do anything with the 1's and 0's. It stores them exactly how the computer will read them. A compressed format says, "Hey, there's a bunch of times in this file that the same string of numbers repeats itself. Let's give that a 'code' that takes up less room." As an example, here's what that code might look like for a lossless but compressed file:
uncompressed data lossless compressed data
0000000000000000 ......... A
0000000000000001 ......... B
1111111111111111 ......... C
1111111111111110 ......... D
By contrast, a lossy compression might do something like this:
uncompressed data lossy compressed data
0000000000000000 ......... A
0000000000000001 ......... A
1111111111111111 ......... C
1111111111111110 ......... C
Basically, a lossy compression says "Oh, that's close enough," and assigns the same key to more than one string of numbers. This is how it's able to get file sizes much smaller.
Again, this is a very simplified explanation of how it all works. But the bottom line is that, as long as the lossless compression is doing its job correctly, there should be no quality difference between WAV and FLAC/WMA Lossless/Apple Lossless.
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aaronk
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| Posted: 12 December 2009 at 11:37am | IP Logged
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Brian W. wrote:
Most CD players won't play straight WAVs, so I doubt it'll allow you to play these other file formats without conversion.
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That's correct. When you create an audio CD, the burning software is automatically converting the file into the proper format that an audio CD player can read. Most burning programs will probably handle WAV, AIFF, MP3, and WMA. For other formats, I suppose it depends on how new and how good the software is. Either way, like Brian has been doing, it's easy to convert to wav before burning.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 12 December 2009 at 12:15pm | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
| it's easy to convert to wav before burning. |
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Although, Gordon, if you just want to burn them as a regular CD-R, playable in any player, you don't need to convert it to anything first. Foobar will burn FLAC directly to CD format. Windows Media Player will burn the WMA files directly to CD. And iTunes will burn Apple Lossless to CD. They'll all convert to the proper CD format when you press "burn to CD."
The only reason I'm converting to WAVs is to open them in an audio editor.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 12 December 2009 at 12:18pm | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
As you may already know, all computer files are stored as 1's and 0's. Your computer reads the 1's and 0's and makes something meaningful out of them, such as a picture, text, video, or sound. File compression is a way to store those 1's and 0's in a smaller space.
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I'm having a flashback: Midway Drive-In, 1972, the WonkaVision scene from "Willy Wonka."
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aaronk
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| Posted: 12 December 2009 at 3:08pm | IP Logged
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That's good to know Foobar will burn FLAC directly to CD, Brian.
WonkaVision! Ha! That's funny.
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 14 December 2009 at 2:14pm | IP Logged
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My understanding is that the files that are on the CDs we buy are all aiff's and not WAV's, is that correct? When I transfer a song from my CD into my computer, it will automatically be listed as Track01.wav in Windows Explorer, after a direct transfer - why is it converting it to a WAV if it's really an aiff?
Also, someone explained to me that since my Dell computer is 5 years old, the CD burner software it came with (called "RecordNow") won't know what to do with FLAC, WMA or Apple-Lossless files (since they are newer formats) and will give me an error if I try to transfer such a file into the list of songs I'm about to burn onto a CDR. So before I buy any of these formats from Rhino, I want to make sure I have the free software (mentioned above) that will convert FLACs or WMA's to WAVs (or should it be converting them to AIFFs?) Anyway, can someone give a link to the sites that convert the FLACs and the WMA's? Thanks.
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aaronk
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| Posted: 14 December 2009 at 4:23pm | IP Logged
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Here's the site for the free software that Brian mentioned above:
http://www.foobar2000.org/
It also looks like you've been given some misinformation. Audio CDs do not contain computer "files." They are formatted using what is called the "Red Book" standard. Whenever you copy a song from an audio CD to your computer, the "file" is saved in the output format of your choice (i.e. wav, aiff, mp3, etc.).
Once you convert the FLAC files using Foobar (or any other free software of your choosing), you'll be able to add the wav files to your CD burning software.
I hope that helps!
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aaronk
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| Posted: 14 December 2009 at 4:28pm | IP Logged
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By the way, AIFF is an Apple format, comparable to the WAV file used on Windows/PCs. Generally speaking, Windows/PCs will use WAV, while Mac computers will use AIFF.
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 15 December 2009 at 12:05am | IP Logged
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I was mistaken that Foobar "as is" will burn CDs. However, there is a plugin for it that will enable you to burn CDs from FLACs (or any other format Foobar reads) directly to CD without converting to WAV first:
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_burninate
Just download it, unzip it, and drop the resulting .dll file in the "Components" folder of Foobar on your C drive. Then, when you load the FLAC files into Foobar and right click them, a "Burn Audio CD" option will be at the bottom of the resulting pop-up list.
I just tried it, and it seems to work fine.
Edited by Brian W. on 15 December 2009 at 12:05am
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 18 January 2010 at 3:43am | IP Logged
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Rhino appears to be adding more downloads to the website, including some more Digital 45s, but at the moment they're not "available now."
Although they "Digital" on the album, they do not show the "Availble Now" icon that the other digital albums do. And when you click on them, it actually says "Physical Only" and has no purchase button. I'm assuming they're just preparing these and you will be able to purchase the digital tracks soon.
Among them is the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" Digital 45 and several Prince 12-inch singles, including the 12-inch of "Kiss" with the extended version of "Love or Money."
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aaronk
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| Posted: 18 January 2010 at 6:12am | IP Logged
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Holy crap! That's awesome! I never even realized they were putting 12" versions on there, but I just found the "Raspberry Beret" 12" with a rare treat: the 12" mix of "Hello."
"Hello" was originally released as the b-side to "Pop Life," but it's one of the few Prince 12" songs that has never been available on CD. I'm glad they included it instead of "She's Always In My Hair," since the latter is on "Ultimate." Very cool news, Brian!
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Santi Paradoa
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| Posted: 21 January 2010 at 11:18am | IP Logged
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That is great news on the two Prince b-sides finally available in their 12" extended versions. Has anyone been able to actually download either "Hello" or "Love or Money" directly from the Rhino site?
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Santi Paradoa
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 21 January 2010 at 12:57pm | IP Logged
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Santi Paradoa wrote:
| That is great news on the two Prince b-sides finally available in their 12" extended versions. Has anyone been able to actually download either "Hello" or "Love or Money" directly from the Rhino site? |
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I downloaded the single-length "Love or Money," but the extended version is still not yet available for purchase. I sent the webmaster an email detailing the problem (their entire series of Rhino Hi-Five, a digital-only series of EPs, is also showing "physical only" and won't let you purchase them).
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 04 February 2010 at 11:46pm | IP Logged
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Brian W. wrote:
| I downloaded the single-length "Love or Money," but the extended version is still not yet available for purchase. I sent the webmaster an email detailing the problem (their entire series of Rhino Hi-Five, a digital-only series of EPs, is also showing "physical only" and won't let you purchase them). |
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I finally got in touch with someone at Rhino who actually knew something, and he confirmed that, yes, digital albums on Rhino that don't say "available now" and say "physical only" even though they're digital -- those are just placeholders. What it ought to say is, "Coming Soon." He said he's going to look into seeing if they can get the wording changed.
He told me they intended to make Rhino's entire digital catalog available on the website over the next several months, but that they have to get all the digital files sent over to Rhino and upload them to their own website, and he said they arrive in batches, so it was going to take a while to get the whole catalog online.
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Santi Paradoa
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| Posted: 22 April 2010 at 10:23am | IP Logged
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Brian W. wrote:
| ...several Prince 12-inch singles, including the 12-inch of "Kiss" with the extended version of "Love or Money." |
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Brian: I guess the 12-inch versions of several Prince singles are still not available for download on Rhino's site?
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Santi Paradoa
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Topic: Lossless downloads on Rhino.com!
