I feel it is iTunes that is responsible for the clipping. They copy the audio and ramp up the volume. I have had a few tracks that were fine but when I upgraded them to iTunes Plus the clipping and distortion was awful. I have had a couple of albums like that too and I have complained to them for it. 

No, buying through iTunes Store is totally at your own will. Nobody make you pay for songs in there...

what he said

 

 

 

Why pay?

Why buy/downlaod lossy at all?

Quote:

exactly, especially when CD's can be had for less via amazon, ebay

We Wisconsin folks are apparently more logical than the rest.

I agree.  I was born in WI!!!

 

Anyway, I agree with the lossy argument.  I used to have no problem using lossy on my iPod with crappy cans.  Now I have some decent gear, and lossy no longer cuts it.  CD and vinyl only for me now.
 

Psh, cheeseheads.

 

And constant to the question in the post, the ones that stick out without any effort to remember are Death Magnetic and that new Slayer album. Californication is one that I'm really sad clips. I think anything Flaming Lips intentionally clips?

Edited by Ishcabible - 7/12/10 at 4:13pm

 

 

nope.  don't give them that much credit.

itunes does NOTHING with the tracks.  other than upload 'em and sell the crap out of 'em.

 

they are compressed during the recording and production of the album.

and then they are normalized during mastering.

sometimes, even normalized at nearly zero decibels.  AKA BRICKWALLED.

 

listening to modern music (produced since 1996) is like reading an email in all caps.  there is no light and shade. 

 

no quiet, therefore there can be no loud.

 

your suspicion of itunes is misplaced.  it is the entire recording industry, friends.

 

and, unfortunately, the industry has devalued the product.  (music)

 

and they wonder why illegal downloading is at astronomical levels?

 

consumers no longer find music worth paying for.  it is transient.  it is temporal at best.

it's here today and gone tomorrow.

 

why?

because no one can stand to listen to it all the way through.

 

:facepalm:
 

Edited by TheWuss - 7/12/10 at 4:47pm

But...one could argue that iTunes (and the like) merely fuel this.  They are giving the industry a false sense of optimism...."Hey, let's sell these crappy tracks at about a buck a piece, and watch 'em come in truckloads!  They'll NEVER know that the quality of the product is close to horse manure.  And if they do find out, we'll make a phone so that all southpaws can't even call their mates to tell them about it!"

Anything with an apple logo makes me want to puke.

I love my Macbook and even my iPod Classic (although the hard drive is noisy...normal, or so they say it should be...), but I detest iTunes, the iPhone, iPad, etc.  I have a Macbook because my Dell nearly lit me ablaze, and an iPod because I enjoy having a good chunk of my library with me at all times.

 

Past that, ack. 

That's too bad. Is someone forcing you to buy Apple products? You do know that there are many competing products out there, right? Have you considered buying one of them?

As for iTunes, I stopped buying from them years ago. I pick up used CDs and SACDs from eBay, garage sales, used record shops, swapmeets, pawn shops, and anywhere they turn up. Lately, I've been finding discs from $1-$5 each. That's pretty reasonable and also cheaper than iTunes. I can rip them lossless if I want, too.

If you buy used, music has never been cheaper. I don't illegally download and don't condone it, but the practice has destroyed the resale value of CDs. I take full advantage of that.