HDTracks has WMG Eagles, Jackson Browne and more

[tubes59]

I am downloading Eagles Hotel California, Jackson Browne Running on Empty and Ry Cooder Buena Vista Social Club right now...can't wait to listen.

 

HDTracks notes future WMG releases by Talking Heads, Foreigner, Linda Ronstadt, R.E.M., Steely Dan, Deep Purple, Eric Clapton, Alice Cooper, Doobie Brothers, Talking Heads, Natalie Merchant, Seal, Joni Mitchell, Metallica, Hootie & the Blowfish.

 

Better save lots of room on my credit card! This is exciting!

 

 

[SteveS1]

there are some terrific 16/44 versions of those if you are selective. They would not be fertile ground for massive improvement.

 

 

[tubes59]

Before Hi Rez downloads, I listened only to vinyl and redbook cds having never got on the SACD wagon. I do still enjoy many, many 16/44 cds and lots of vinyl but welcome the broader choice and listening quality that is now just starting to become available in Hi Rez downloads including the new material on HDtracks.

 

I know there is a lot of debate about the quality of existing SACDs and DVD audio compared to the HDtracks (and others) but to those of us who never got into SACD in the first place (and have no plans at this point to buy any), this is a really nice sounding new world.

 

Having said that, if there is straightforward way to find out which redbooks of a particular release are comparable to SACD or Hi Rez downloads, I'd really like to know about that as an alternative but I'm thinking that's probably a bit of a project to keep up with in itself. Although the Hi rez downloads are a little pricey if you already own other versions (SACD, DVDa or the redbooks you mention) that are comparable, for those that don't, this availability seems like great news.

 

[wgscott]

I was going to download a single from Hotel CA and check it first, before I bought it, but you can only buy the album.

 

I'll wait and see what other people get...

 

REM and Talking Heads would be great.

 

[bottlerocket]

I've previously acquired Ry Cooder Buena Vista Social Club along with REM and Jackson Browne all on DVDa. The REM I have is Best of 1988 - 2003 and some of the tracks are clearly up- samples, while others appear to be the real thing, so beware on that one. There are many REM DVDa's so I am not sure what HD Tracks will offer. Ry Cooder is great all around and definitely hi-res. I just purchased the Hotel California with the 15% discount. Here is the Audacity spectrum. It's not brick walled...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[goldsdad]

Well, the frequencies are not brickwalled, but the waveform certainly could be.

See the bright lines spiking to the top of the spectrum. They're often an indication of clipping. Post a screenshot of the waveform for that track if it's not too much trouble.

 

 

[jcpom]

track listing is incorrect - does anyone know if the download is wrong as well?

 

[SteveS1]

"I was going to download a single from Hotel CA and check it first, before I bought it, but you can only buy the album."

 

The trouble is, Hotel California has been released with some particularly well mastered CDs early on - the DCC version is stunning. Unless you know one of those masterings is used, I would be very sceptical - same goes for the Jackson Browne and Ry Cooder.

 

Now if HD Tracks, or anyone else for that matter actually re-mastered some albums that have not been served so well in the past on 16/44 - that would be worth getting excited about. But if they just take the latest mastering (often worse than original CDs) then issuing it in high res is a waste of time. I have already found this to be the case with a couple. Hence my disenchantment with it.

 

The Hi Res music supply has a credibility problem with me when it comes to back catalogue, which is what I suspect more folk are actually interested in.

 

YMMV etc. But it pays to find the best mastered copies in 16/44 - which is often NOT the latest one and not always rare or expensive (although some are, of course). That's not to say the Hi Res issues sound "bad" but they are not the best and certainly no revelation to me. Opportunities are being missed I feel, and I get the unnerving feeling that once again music enthusiasts are being short changed.

 

Steve

 

[firedog]

I don't think that the download available as album only necessarily means anything...sometimes royalty/marketing agreements forbid downloading of individual songs. If that's the case, HDTracks can do nothing about it.

 

[bottlerocket]

 

 

 

[bottlerocket]

 

 

Note: these are all The Eagles - track Hotel California from the HDTracks download

 

[jcpom]

for dummy me, please

 

[bottlerocket]

The spectrum and the frequency analysis show plenty of energy above 22khz which shows it is not up-sampled from redbook.

 

The waveform shows the recording engineer had poor hearing and liked his music loud as in spiking the VU meter a lot.

 

My guess is a lot of early rock recordings look like that, not sure.

 

Am I correct to say it is unlikely to be compressed based on that waveform? I am not an expert and I usually post these pics looking for some better interpretation.

 

 

 

 

 

[jcalleja]

Such a pity ,but I think that we are at the door of another bad joke by the big corporates of music industry.

 

In view that they are lost in looking for a viable and profitable alternative to the old business model,they are trying to just repeat what made them very rich in the past,just selling the same catalogue again in another format.

 

Why to bother looking for the best masters or remasters,why to spend money in careful transfers to HD formats?why to be clear about origin of files and transfer processes if there is ,although these days only a niche market,a bunch of customers eager to have HD versions?

 

I think, if only for the sake of preservation of their assets,and artistic and cultural value,all of them should be thinking of a digital archival project.And at the same time, a good reissue of the best value in their catalogue will bring them some extra revenue,but hey why bother?,they do not know what they are listening.....

 

For sure,when talking about of music content with origin in analog form, we can only have what was on the tapes,with the limitations in frequency response and dynamic range.But,done right, what a marvelous way of making this goodies easily available for the people who really cares about music (and the sound that conveys it).

 

The only way to get that is not buying the bait,and said to our HD webstores,okay I will buy this again because there is a value added,although simply having easy access or just for not having to rip your vinyl and tag...,but only if master source is clear and transfer process is guaranteed and explicit.

 

So be really selective when buying "HD reissues"

 

And we can be supportive of good new music well recorded with the possibilities we have now.

 

Sadly for them the format is just either a "packaging issue" or a marketing tool , nothing more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Hawk]

With hi-res, the best sound for me is playback via my Naim CDX2/Nait5i/Credos. The best I've heard so far is Moving Pictures burned to CD.

 

Listening through the Mac/Rega dac combo, this is what I've heard so far (using Audirvana/Pure Music).

 

Chicago—Great detail, articulate, probably the best I've ever heard Chicago II.

 

Eagles—Great as usual, haven't heard it on the CDX2 versus my usual great recordings on CD.

 

Carly Simon—Lot's of great detail, but her vocals are quite harsh. Compared to my memory of vinyl replay on a LP12 or Rega, very disappointing. Hard to listen to.

 

Dave

 

[jcpom]

downloaded ok even though track listing is incorrect on website?

 

[The Hawk]

Just listened to various tracks (96/24 & 192/24) burned to CD (obviously at redbook resolution.

 

Impressions?

 

My CDX2 sounds better than anything the MacBook/Rega can accomplish, even limited to 44.1/16.

 

Carly Simon is still bright, relative to a lot of other music, but much more enjoyable.

 

The Eagles sound amazing as always.

 

The sleeper here is Chicago II. Sounding better than anything I've heard before, including vinyl. The bass is tremendous.

 

Well done HD Tracks and Warner.

 

Dave

 

[bleedink]

For example, the Talking Heads The Brick is an excellent example of high rez multichannel done right. It's hard to listen to the stereo version after hearing it. The mixes were done by one of the Heads. It's revelatory. I hope they start releasing some multi mixes soon...I recently heard Aimee Mann's SACD Lost in Space and while I prefer her in 2 channel I was so happy to finally be able to understand some words I could never hear in the CD releases. That's one example of an advantage to high rez...I can finally get the lyrics right!

 

[jcpom]

I'm in the studio w/ Carly!! (high beams and all!)

 

These latest HDtracks downloads (Eagles, Jackson Browne, Chicago, Carly Simon) are fantastic! Then again, I'm a 64-yr old male reliving my lost youth! Oh well, I can afford and enjoy - life is good!! My Paradigm Studio 60s are way beyond anything I could have ever afforded back then (60s, 70s, 80s, 90s)! Add a little wine and I'm in 7th heaven (until the Mrs gets home!)!

 

 

[new_media]

I assume many of these are DVD-A rips? I have several of these titles on DVD-A already including Hotel California, Buena Vista Social Club, and a few R.E.M albums.

 

[jcpom]

I can't quite make it out! 64-yr old ears aren't what they used to be!

 

[SteveS1]

but I'd be gutted if I couldn't get a Mac/DAC to out-perform it on 16/44 never mind anything else. Worth trying something a bit closer in price?

 

As for Carly Simon - a comparison with the latest Audio Fidelity CD release of No Secrets would be informative. It sounds stellar.

 

Steve

 

[goldsdad]

"For sure,when talking about of music content with origin in analog form, we can only have what was on the tapes,with the limitations in frequency response and dynamic range.But,done right, what a marvelous way of making this goodies easily available for the people who really cares about music (and the sound that conveys it)."

 

And that's what really angers me. The classic rock tapes have a limited enough dynamic range. The range was more or less preserved on pre-loudness war CDs. Todays digital transfer technology is, of course, capable of faithfully extracting more detail from the tapes than was the case in the 80s and 90s, but the dynamics are being crushed by companies desperately trying to win the loudness war.

 

To add insult to injury, the dynamically-destroyed masters (often with clipping despite 24 bits!!!) from which todays CD releases of the classics are derived are now being peddled as 'audiophile' quality downloads.

 

My glimmer of hope is that the record companies are archiving the raw data extracted from the analogue tapes, not just keeping the loudness-processed masters. Then before too long they will have another go at emptying our pockets by releasing true audiophile quality files.

 

 

 

[goldsdad]

Here's the waveform of a CD rip. A few peaks hit 0 dBFS, unfortunately, but clearly more dynamic than the 'audiophile' hi-res, eh?

 

 

 

[Mister Wednesday]

jcpom,

 

"...son of a gun"

 

You can see and hear Carly Simon, Klaus Voorman and producer Richard Perry reminiscing about that bass line that Klaus Voorman played as the intro to that song in an excellent 2009 documentary titled "All You Need Is Klaus". That was Carly Simon's off the cuff, amazed reaction to the bass line as she, the band and Richard Perry were working out the song. Richard Perry goes on to tell how that one bass line provided them with the key to how the rest of the song would go.

 

The documentary looks at the musical and visual arts career of Klaus Voorman and all the artists with which he played and did artwork. I have yet to see that documentary as being available for purchase as a DVD/Bluray so keep your eyes out for it to be broadcast again on your local TV stations.

 

Regards,

 

Mister Wednesday