Peter Gabriel's "Scratch My Back"

[barrows]

Looks like PG's new covers album: "Scratch My Back" is going to be available as a 24/48 download. It would be nice to have a higher sampling rate, but 24/48 should still be an improvement over 16/44.1. It appears that one must purchase the CD to get the code to allow for downloading the 24/48 version, it is not quite clear on the website yet. Details here:

 

http://petergabriel.com/scratchmyback/

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

A nice step in the right direction.

 

[taniane]

Peter Garbiel's "Scratch My Back" is available in full 24/48 FLAC to B&W Society of Sound members. If you needed a reason to join, now might be the time!

 

 

 

[Synfreak]

Hi!

 

I got a two-disc edition of "Scratch My back" with the announced "24Bit download-voucher", and downloaded the album immediatly from the SoS site ...., only to recognize (first), that this may be only upsampled 44,1khz material. Oouuummphhhh.

The levels / compression seems to be identical to the CD tracks, so that there is "only" the possibility of the better resolution of 24Bit, but as it seems to be upsampled to 48khz, I couldn't verify if the material is "real" 24Bit resolution.

 

So to say: If you are still a member of SoS, go and get the download immideatly, if not, ... I'm not sure if it is really worth the cost of getting it.

But, if you like some of the other albums on SoS, this might be an interesting offer, as you et a three months membership "for free".

 

Cheers

Harald

 

[murrayp]

I don't have the cd to compare to but the SoS download sounds pretty good to me......

 

 

[Audio_ELF]

Harald ...

 

You comment that you suspect the 24/48 B&W Download is an upsampled version, but may I ask how you can tell? Is it something you assessed through listening or is there some tell tale signs?

 

Eloise

 

[Lars]

"You comment that you suspect the 24/48 B&W Download is an upsampled version, but may I ask how you can tell? Is it something you assessed through listening or is there some tell tale signs?"

 

I haven't downloaded this title yet, but all of their previous 48/24 are upsampled from 44.1. They state this in the downloaded files info.

 

[Audio_ELF]

According to Society of Sound's Mission Statement We aim to provide each album in three formats, 16bit ALAC, 16bit FLAC and 24bit FLAC. However, if a recording wasn’t originally recorded in 24bit then we do not upsample it, and that album will only be available in 16bit formats.

 

So according to that they DON'T use upsampling

 

Eloise

 

 

 

[Lars]

"So according to that they DON'T use upsampling"

 

Download a 24 bit title from them and read the notes please. They are not changing the bit rate, just the sampling from 44.1 to 48.

 

[Audio_ELF]

True Lars ... some contradictions there ... some albums are completely upsampled, others have some tracks upsampled.

 

[Synfreak]

;-)

 

So, even that the point is already cleared (as the statemants from Lars nail it down), I would answer Eloise question, on how I got the "feeling" that the album is an upsampled version:

 

'm using Wavelab to listen to, and check for ... my files. With a good setup of the integrated FFT (realtime) analyser, one could tell quite fast, if the files are "upsampled" (or otherwise sourced from "lower resolution"), or if there is just no content in the higher frequency range (in this case above 20khz).

The FFT of the PG tracks show a massive filter-rollup above around 22khz, with no spuria above this frequency (which should be there, if it was recorded at 48khz samplingrate).

 

Besides fromthat, it is really good sounding (the CD version also) production, which isn't as hard limited/compressed as most of the other stuff available today.

 

Cheers

Harald

 

[Audio_ELF]

Harald - thanks for that summary...

 

You finished by saying "Besides fromthat, it is really good sounding (the CD version also) production, which isn't as hard limited/compressed as most of the other stuff available today."

 

Which is probably much more important than the sample rate, bit depth, etc the recording is made in. Only once you get past the compression that a large proportion of music uses, can you worry about High Resolution.

 

Eloise

 

[danny71]

I have no ways of measuring or analyzing files.. However I've been with SoS for a while now and so far there has always been a note if there have been up sampling.

 

There is no such note in this download..

 

And, as already noted the sound is very good.

 

Almost as important (or perhaps even more important), the emotions put in by Peter Gabriel in these recordings.. Did I hear genius?

 

 

[Lars]

A great recording whatever it is sampled at.

 

[icebreaker]

A childhood 'hero' comes crashing to earth. He sounds bored and disconnected from the material. Is this album a cruel joke? I'm in shock. I would say listen before purchase but that would be sadistic. If you think I'm exaggerating then go ahead and listen!

 

Suppose there is a downside to genius.

 

[murrayp]

Strange. It has exactly the opposite effect with me - at least with the songs I know. As I said further up it also sounds quite excellent here (which may also partly account for why enjoy it so much). Room correction puts the final icing on the cake for me making the tonality of his voice much more real than my speakers/room do in their natural state.

 

[ted_b]

our middle child Peter 19 yrs ago (named Neil for NY instead ). I own everything he's done....and although I'm not willing to call it a "cruel joke" I also find SMB a bit bored and lifeless (so far). The recording quality is excellent, as is usual with PG (except for PG number 2), but I can't connect yet. I will give it way more time, bu that's my $.02 so far.

 

[souptin]

Sign me up to the bored and lifeless camp on this - I'm a fan, but so far this recording does nothing for me.

 

[barrows]

Looks like a 24/96 version of "Scratch My Back" is available, on a USB stick, if one purchases the very limited/expensive deluxe box set:

 

http://petergabriel.com/scratchmyback/boxset/

 

I wonder if there will be any other way to get the 24/96 version...

 

[tresaino]

I'm one of the 500 fools who paid for the luxury version, for one last comparison between the vinyl and the 24/96 usb stick version. Has not arrived yet, will keep you posted. :-)