Head-Fi.org › Forums › Misc.-Category Forums › Music › Please help me identify a new age song --- FLAC link included --- WILL BE PAID CASH REWARD
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Please help me identify a new age song --- FLAC link included --- WILL BE PAID CASH REWARD

post #1 of 11
12/17/10 at 11:03pm
Thread Starter 

Hey guys --

 

Ok, this one will be a toughie --- if you can identify this song name, artist, and album I will PayPal you $10.  blink.gif  Yes, seriously.

 

Here's the scoop:  At night when I fall asleep I like turning on the SoundScapes channel (Time Warner Cable channel 934).  Sometimes I'll wake up to something I like and hit record and keep it on my cable box.  But I've never gone to as much trouble as what I did this evening.  I just really liked this song for some reason and want to hear other songs by the artist.  It's ethereal and holiday-esque with classical guitar and glockenspiel (or xylophone).

 

As you know, the artist name, song title and album are always listed when a song is played.  The problem here is that they didn't update the information from the previous song when this one started playing.  I know that because I looked up the previous song online and listened to it, and it was in fact the previous song.  So I am clueless.

 

I actually took the cable box out of my bedroom, brought it to my computer, unhooked my cable modem and plugged in the feed to the cable box, connected a TOSlink to Mini TOSlink cable to my Mac Mini, downloaded Audacity, synced up close to the song, recorded it to a 16/44.1 WAV file, and trimmed off everything extra but this song.

 

Attached is a link of the full, lossless version in FLAC format.  (Well, at least it's lossless on my end.  I'm not sure exactly what bitrate they broadcast through cable.)  For all I know the song could be royalty free -- if it's not I will certainly remove the link.  So if you can identify the song title, artist name and album title I will PayPal you $10.

 

It almost reminds me a little of Manheim Steamroller, but I know it isn't because it's not cheesy. And the guitar sounds like Ottmar Liebert but more subdued.  I can't possibly check everything myself so I need help.  That's your job. wink_face.gif  Happy hunting!

 

LINK REMOVED --- IDENTIFIED BY MR.X --- THANK YOU!


Edited by IPodPJ - 12/19/10 at 4:01am
Reply
post #2 of 11
12/19/10 at 1:42am
Thread Starter 

No one? 

Reply
post #3 of 11
12/19/10 at 2:04am

Song - Spellbound

Artist - Cheryl Gunn

Album - Vanity of Venus

Reply
post #4 of 11
12/19/10 at 2:13am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MR.X View Post

Song - Spellbound

Artist - Cheryl Gunn

Album - Vanity of Venus


Outstanding!!  How the hell did you figure that out?  Do you own it?

 

Not really digging the rest of the album, from what I can tell on the short Amazon.com samples, but I can buy it used for $1.11 so it's worth it to find out.

 

Please PM me your PayPal e-mail address so I can send you the $10.

 

Thank you!

Reply
post #5 of 11
12/19/10 at 10:51am

I've purchased a couple of apps for my phone for exactly this purpose, cant stand not knowing the name of a song ive likedtongue_smile.gif

 

One of the apps on the phone recognized it. Its a nice track, gona find myself the rest of the album in lossless.

Thanks for the paypal offer but i'll pass, enjoy the albumwink_face.gif


Edited by MR.X - 12/19/10 at 10:53am
Reply
post #6 of 11
12/19/10 at 1:40pm
Thread Starter 

Thank you again!  I tried online music databases where you upload song clips but they couldn't identify it.  I did not try the iPhone apps because I only have a Touch, but I'm glad you were able to.

Reply
post #7 of 11
12/19/10 at 8:52pm

 

EDIT: Totally wrong thread for my original post, but congrats on the music discovery!


Edited by logwed - 12/19/10 at 9:07pm
Reply
post #8 of 11
12/24/10 at 1:38pm
Thread Starter 

Well my CD arrived the other day (got it for $1.11 used, don't you love Amazon?).  The music is okay, but the sound quality is superb.  This artist actually cares about the SQ.  The CD has the HDCD logo on it and says it was from a 24-bit master.  Unfortunately with the Ref-7 I can't listen to the HDCD layer.  It probably sounds even better though.  When ripped with EAC, it shows the peak levels are between 85% and 93% depending on the track which is really good, and shows the artist cared about dynamics.  Most artist nowadays have music that peaks at 99-100%.

 

The left-center area image depth and spatial information on track 6 is probably the best I've ever heard.  This song has instruments in foreground and background which can easily be distinguished on a really good system.


Edited by IPodPJ - 12/24/10 at 1:44pm
Reply
post #9 of 11
12/24/10 at 2:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by IPodPJ View Post

  The CD has the HDCD logo on it and says it was from a 24-bit master.  Unfortunately with the Ref-7 I can't listen to the HDCD layer.  It probably sounds even better though. 


 

Rip the CD to a CUE file with EAC.  Then use CUETools to split the CUE into tracks.  CUETools has the option of doing software decoding of HDCD.  Open the CUE in CUETools.  Check the options in CUETools to make sure "Detect HDCD encoding" is selected.  Click the box for "Decode HDCD to 20 bit" and "Store as 24 bit lossless".  Use CUETools to split the CUE to tracks and then check the log to see if it detected "peak extend".  If it detected "peak extend" then give a listen to the 24-bit file created.  You might like it.  It'll give you more dynamics.  Not all HDCD discs do "peak extend" (or rather what I would call peak squashing for the regular 16-bit CD version).

Reply
post #10 of 11
12/25/10 at 3:07pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ham Sandwich View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by IPodPJ View Post

  The CD has the HDCD logo on it and says it was from a 24-bit master.  Unfortunately with the Ref-7 I can't listen to the HDCD layer.  It probably sounds even better though. 


 

Rip the CD to a CUE file with EAC.  Then use CUETools to split the CUE into tracks.  CUETools has the option of doing software decoding of HDCD.  Open the CUE in CUETools.  Check the options in CUETools to make sure "Detect HDCD encoding" is selected.  Click the box for "Decode HDCD to 20 bit" and "Store as 24 bit lossless".  Use CUETools to split the CUE to tracks and then check the log to see if it detected "peak extend".  If it detected "peak extend" then give a listen to the 24-bit file created.  You might like it.  It'll give you more dynamics.  Not all HDCD discs do "peak extend" (or rather what I would call peak squashing for the regular 16-bit CD version).

 

Ok, I will try that.  Thanks!

 

However, since I've modified my transporter with two Audio-gd clocks, 16/44.1 audio sounds as good if not better than 24/96.  That's how good the clocks are, and the other upgrades I did to it.  Before I modded it it was the other way around.  And this gets fed into the Ref-7.

 

From what I understand of HDCD, only the first 14 bits are used for the regular audio and the last 2 bits contain the HD information.

Reply
post #11 of 11
12/26/10 at 5:53am

The control bits for the HDCD decoding are hidden in the dither.  So if you play an HDCD disc on a regular CD player you still get the benefit of all 16-bits, it's not chopping it down to the equivalent of 14-bit audio.  All CDs are going to have some flavor of dither added.  HDCD discs just get magic HDCD dither.

 

What I do for HDCD discs is check to see if they have "peak extend".  If they do then I do a software decode using CUETools.  If the HDCD does not have peak extend then I just leave it as 16-bit audio.  The software decoding cannot do the transient filters.  That's a feature that needs to be done in hardware on the DAC.  So if the HDCD disc only does "transient filters" then it makes no sense to do a software decode cause you're getting nothing from it.

 

One of these days I'd like to get a listen to a real HDCD player with a HDCD disc that does the special transient filters just to see if I hear the difference.  This is how Wikipedia describes the benefit of the special transient filters:

Quote from Wikipedia:
Precision digital interpolation filtering with multiple modes of operation, which can reduce alias distortion and temporal smearing, resulting in a more natural, open, and accurate sound reproduction.

 

The thing is though is that not every HDCD disc makes use of all of the HDCD features.  Some do the transient filters and some do not.  Some do peak extend and some do not.  Some HDCD discs don't enable any of the features at all. 

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Music
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Misc.-Category Forums › Music › Please help me identify a new age song --- FLAC link included --- WILL BE PAID CASH REWARD