[DarkAngel]

Anyone purchased CDs for sale at MP3.com and is the sound quality as good as CDs from the stores? Many groups I like alot
have CDs which are only available online, and not sold through retail stores. As I understand it these CDs do play on home stereo
or computer.

Any other problems/downside to buying MP3 CDs?

Dusty
This is where we can get exclusive CDs from groups like
This Ascension
Machine in the Garden etc.

 

[DarkAngel]

OOOOPPPPPPPS!
Too late to stop me, I just ordered 3 MP3 CDs, I suspect the sound quality is not quite up to redbook CDs bought in store,
but these cannot be purchased anywhere but MP3 and prices are lower. Some of these are greatest hits/sampler type CDs, others remix/works in progress, others appear to be online only CD releases, here are my first gothic MP3 purchases:

This Ascension - Amapola

Machine in the Garden - When Angels Peer Favorably Upon Us

Collide - Sampler


Another question is there a difference in sound quality between CDs bought directly from MP3 vs ones you download and then copy to CD ........any sound quality lost in the extra transfer step?

 

[gaineso]

I don't know for a fact, but, it seems to me that music downloaded that has the same bit-rate encoding should sound the same as that bought on disc.

It's always going to be lower quality than redbook, but, as you say, some of these groups are only available this way.

My tastes are a little more mainstream, ie, old fashioned, so I can get pretty much anything I want on CD or vinyl.

Blues, Jazz, Acid/San Fran Rock, Southern Rock, Classical etc., are easily available. I don't know if I'll ever be able to listen to some of this new stuff, but that's what my father said 45 yrs ago about Elvis and then the Beatles.

Times change, music changes, and I guess we all must adapt and accept. I must accept your music. Accepting and liking are different. You probably wouldn't like Coltrane anymore than I'd like Radiohead or some of the other new groups.

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC and enjoy. Don't blow your ears out though, like a lot of young people are doing. Watch the volume and you'll be able to enjoy the music when you're 60 too.

 

[Hirsch]

I bought two CD's from MP3.com, for the same reason (no place else to get the music). I have no idea if this is universally true, but the two I bought had a shrill and painful high end. I can't add much more...they're too hard to listen to for any length of time. When I get time, I'm going to convert them to .wav files, and see if I can clean up the sound a bit with a good .wav editor (I use Diamond Cut Millenium for this type of thing...hope it works).

Please let us know if yours are better quality. Right now, MP3.com is not my favorite place for music.

As long as the MP3's you download are the same as the ones being burned to disk, you shouldn't see a loss in quality by creating CD's from download MP3's. In fact, if you are careful in the CD writing process, yours may turn out better than theirs.

 

[DarkAngel]

Quote:

I have no idea if this is universally true, but the two I bought had a shrill and painful high end. I can't add much more...they're too hard to listen to for any length of time.

I don't like the sound of that! Well I can do some interesting compares because I do also have some redbook CDs of different material by these groups and I can compare them to these MP3 CDs and see how they stack up in general.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Yes, I have bought CD's from mp3.com (Zia, others). They are still Redbook CD's, but I believe they are sourced from decoded MP3's, hence the lower quality. But if that's the only source...what ya gonna do?

Collide! I love Collide, they are so awesome...I'll have to check those out, thanks for the heads up...

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch I use Diamond Cut Millenium for this type of thing...

I heard GoldWave is good for that sort of thing, too. I've used it before, but a long time ago.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by DarkAngel I don't like the sound of that! Well I can do some interesting compares because I do also have some redbook CDs of different material by these groups and I can compare them to these MP3 CDs and see how they stack up in general.

You may have better luck than I did. The song compilations I bought were never released in redbook, but only on vinyl and cassette. I have some of the material on the original cassette release, which sounds much better than the MP3 transfer (sad but true). So, there was a lot more opportunity to mess up the transfer to MP3 than if they simply performed DAE on a CD, and converted the resulting .wav to MP3.

 

[Xevion]

I think all they do is convert the mp3s to wav and burn to CD. So you get 128k mp3 quality CDs! But if you can't get it anywhere else, music is music.

 

[andrzejpw]

Quote:

Originally posted by Xevion I think all they do is convert the mp3s to wav and burn to CD. So you get 128k mp3 quality CDs! But if you can't get it anywhere else, music is music.

Hmm, I dunno. That would be pretty stupid, imho. 128 mp3s on a cd? It might be true, but don't these artists send in a cd master or something? I don't think that they just upload mp3 files. . .

 

[DarkAngel]

The CDs you purchase from MP3 have music in two formats on the same disk, CD and MP3. The MP3 format will be 128 kb to keep files small for portable use, but the artist/group may have used higher bit rate transfer for CD format to get higher quality sound. I will find out when my 3 CDs arrive.

I hope they sound good because I see many more CDs I want to purchase here, what a great site!

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw Hmm, I dunno. That would be pretty stupid, imho. 128 mp3s on a cd? It might be true, but don't these artists send in a cd master or something?

Nope. Quote:

I don't think that they just upload mp3 files. . .

Actually, that's exactly what they do.

 

[gorgon_123]

i've bought one CD from MP3.com (group called Bazuzu....). It sounds pretty bad, but hey, it was cheap and it's the only place i can find it. still listenable.

 

[gorgon_123]

a thought: try contacting the bands directly. they probably have a master CD that they MP3ed and uploaded. i know a few bands locally who record professionally for a couple thousand and produce redbook CDs themselves. i think that most MP3.com bands must be doing the same thing, and then they sign up online and upload crappy Mp3s.

 

[DarkAngel]

Dusty
The groups/artists do submit music to MP3 site using MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3) format, but can't you use various bit transfer rates higher than 128K? Depending on software settings they are using you can submit multimedia (win ripped) MP3s at 256k or better for songs to be sold in CD format on disk.........I may be way off here because I have never created MP3s, just the impression I got from info at site.

http://software.mp3.com/software/gui...ert/index.html

Sounds like no one is too impressed with CDs purchased from this site