Music Giants

smargo · « **on:** 20 Dec 2005, 04:01 am »

I 'm not sure if this has been posted previously - but i have been downloading songs from music giants and the quality is very good - they use wma lossless (windows media) which itunes and others don't use.

http://www.musicgiants.com/story.aspx

i downloaded 3 exact songs from itunes and music giants and to my ears the music giants downloads simply blows away itunes even with their best way of downloading ( wav files and I forget the other one, not apple lossless).

The music sounds very, very close as if you actually bought the cd and brought it home. (not that im raving about digital)

Much of the integrity of the harmonics, and flow is preserved! There is simply more there.

happy holidays

smargo

Folsom · « **Reply #1 on:** 20 Dec 2005, 09:45 am »

How much per song?

ted_b · « **Reply #2 on:** 20 Dec 2005, 02:36 pm »

Quote from: Destroyer of Smiles.

How much per song?

$1.29 per track, $15.29 per album. I'd need to browse the artist catalog a bit more to understand what kind of selection they have. I'm not a big purchaser of downloaded music; I usually just do Rhapsody to listen to songs/albums, then go out and buy the thing if I like it. Rhapsody has great selection. However, if I downloaded I see the value in higher fidelity at $1.29 vs MP3 at $.99, assuming decent selection.

Folsom · « **Reply #3 on:** 20 Dec 2005, 06:04 pm »

I would rather just by the CD for $11-15 and have a hard copy. The price of even 99 cents per song, for a 20 track disc.... The math is already running through your head, and consider an mp3 is 1/11th the bit rate of a real CD....

Interesting on their website it shows Itunes being rather low, that figure must not include Apple Lossless, if they sell it. Apple Lossless is at 44.1 kHz sampling and the bit rate is turned down just to compress a little with no compromise to quality. I have a bunch of Apple Lossless on my computer now from CD's, and think they are as good as the .wav files I converted from. - Pink Floyd is rocking my ears just as amazingly now as in .wav.

The bit rate listing they have could very well have zero companies from the original CD, well so long as they have a good source for the original copy.

If I was a Squeeze Boxer, with a fat wallet.... I would totally go for downloading some high fidelity songs just to know if I liked it, so I could purchase the CD, unless they had the entire CD. Unfortunately I still have a problem with the price of $15 for a non hard copy, I prefer having a hard copy for back up. Unless they keep a record of downloads so you can re-download any thing lost, I would still rather have the CD backup.

I will say I have been thinking about and wondering of a lot of aspects of a .wav equivalent sharing network or program for some time, at least there is one now.

smargo · « **Reply #4 on:** 21 Dec 2005, 04:28 am »

Quote

Interesting on their website it shows Itunes being rather low, that figure must not include Apple Lossless, if they sell it. Apple Lossless is at 44.1 kHz sampling and the bit rate is turned down just to compress a little with no compromise to quality. I have a bunch of Apple Lossless on my computer now from CD's, and think they are as good as the .wav files I converted from. - Pink Floyd is rocking my ears just as amazingly now as in .wav.

I really disagree - to my ears apple lossless is not as good as wma - it isn't - unfortunately they don't let you try one song. you have to purchase at least $50 worth to start and then when that runs out you have to buy at least $20 to keep going.

The only way you will know is try it. I was very skeptical but i bet you will have a smile on your face after you download something that was recorded well to begin with!

The site is a bit clunky and their catalog can't compare to say itunes - remember your downloading files with little compression so you eat up a lot of hard drive and so on. Again I think the quality is very good - musical - much more than apple lossless.

Regards
smargo

Jon L · « **Reply #5 on:** 21 Dec 2005, 05:06 am »

Huh? As far as I know, iTunes store does NOT offer any apple lossless files for sale. All the songs for sale at iTunes store are AAC compressed files just like MP3's, and they have the audacity to charge 99 cents for the piece of crap MP3 song.

It is also not true that WMA sounds "better" than Apple Lossless. If you rip a song off a real CD, into apple lossless, WMA lossless, and Flac, the sound quality of each is the exact same, all else being equal.

However, all is not equal, and if you play the apple lossless files from iTunes (from a PC, not Mac), it will sound substantial inferior to say Flac version played from Foobar/ASIO on a PC. This is due to the difference in the player program (iTunes vs. Foobar/ASIO), not the type of lossless files.

I have confirmed this many times by playing the apple lossless file in iTunes, heard the inferiority vs. Flac/foobar. Then I would take the exact same apple lossless file and convert it into another Flac (using dbpoweramp, etc), then play it on Foobar to hear the exact same sound as the original Flac.

Same thing with WMA lossless. If you take a Flac file, convert to WMA lossless, then convert the WMA lossless to apple lossless, the files sound exactly the same. UNLESS you play the apple lossless on iTunes on PC (don't know about Macs), which will sound worse due to iTunes/PC issues.

Folsom · « **Reply #6 on:** 21 Dec 2005, 05:15 am »

Are any other programs capable of playing Apple Lossless? I like the filing system that saves all my information.

I will go through the work to convert to any thing from Apple if I will gain some musical characteristics back.

I just want to be able to save all my album, track number, etc.... That is the big thing.

I hate to admit it, but I will go through the long ass process of renaming fucking every thing, again, for the I have no idea how many times, for better sound. Could you give a little more insite to Foobar/ASIO ? What formats do they support?

Folsom · « **Reply #7 on:** 21 Dec 2005, 06:05 am »

I am downloading it right now, aparantly Foobar supports Apple Lossess, SCORE FOR ME! I win.

Crap it does not use the saved information.... DAMNIT. Now every thing is out of order etc. Time for the other one.

Crap again, it will not even play them.

Well I downloaded a thing so the db converter does apple lossless to FLAC now. However Foobar is very confusing. I will do what I can.... I posted for some help. This thing is like using Linux.

Wow.... I know I keep editing to my little story but.... I have regained confidence in my laptop, speakers, and reciever. I am enjoying Pink Floyd at - let every one else in the house sleep - volume and it sounds MUCH better then before, way more revealing, at a very slow volume. Tomorrow is going to be a blast when I can turn it up. I feel like now I can actaully wait for my stylus, which I need some owed money to paid to get.

Another thought! Usually I find the music from my laptop some what irritable, right now it is much more pleasant and listenable.

Flac and Foobar saved me!

smargo · « **Reply #8 on:** 21 Dec 2005, 04:05 pm »

Quote from: Jon L

Huh? As far as I know, iTunes store does NOT offer any apple lossless files for sale. All the songs for sale at iTunes store are AAC compressed files just like MP3's, and they have the audacity to charge 99 cents for the piece of crap MP3 song.

It is also not true that WMA sounds "better" than Apple Lossless. If you rip a song off a real CD, into apple lossless, WMA lossless, and Flac, the sound quality of each is the exact same, all else being equal.

However, all is not equal, and if you play ...

Thanks for the info, much appreciated, i was talking about burning the downloaded music on cd and the quality of music on the cd with the wma -not listening on my computer.

thanks,
smargo