Samantas5855
Ancient Mariner
did you listen to the blu ray of twotw yet?
Senjutsu charts position
- Thread starter Frank666
- Start date
srfc
Ancient Mariner
I watched the documentary only
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
Same here…
Not just it's dying, younger generations don't even know what that is. Only streaming exists for them.
Everyone has to accept it, like vinyl, it will be a niche format for collectors. I bought it myself too (the book format) and most probably never play the CD anymore. I only use Spotify and YT.
If you want to compete in the charts, you have to adapt to streaming requirements and focus online.
Maiden has done well I think, online marketing was done right I think. What I find strange a little bit that the flag videos on YT are very slow to increase in viewership.
srfc
Ancient Mariner
I think that people are listening to the actual physical albums.
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
The younger generations are dumbs, they don't know what they're missing without CD and vinyls.
I am not of a younger generation and nope, they are not dumb. I got to know music with cassette tapes and vinyl. Nice memories and everything, but quite a miserable format and of very low quality to todays standards. I used to listen to Maiden with low quality tapes copied from a friend who copied from a friend etc.
Vinyls were nice, just extremely unpractical. And no, they sounded bad when not listening to really quality pressings and via average equipment. I am glad that CDs are gone too, in hindsight, it is a miserable format too. Vinyl is nice, especially with the whole packaging that you could look at for hours, but both are quite cumbersome to port and listen anywhere I want. Streaming platforms are nice, and easy to use. The best way to explore new music too. Music appreciation does not depend on the media.My only complaint of streaming platforms, is that one can't view the lyrics, it should be viewable and integrated. Of course packaging and artwork is nice to grab in your hands with a physical format, but since everything else is digital, it's not a pain anymore. My main point in listening to music is that I need it in good quality and accessible anywhere and anytime on multiple devices. I could explore many new music only via streaming platforms lately.
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
I don't mean the metalheads who, young or not, are always buying CD's, vinyls and cassette tapes, but the non-metalheads who always download legally from iTunes or illegally from obscure platforms to put directly the music on their iPad or other mp3 players... I'm almost 38 years old, but if I sometimes download mp3 to put them on my phone, I also and most of times love to play CDs and vinyls, because the sound is really better and more powerful than on mp3. I use my phone to listen to metal music when I'm travelling by train or driving to the city for some shopping in the market. The rest of time, I'm listening heavy music on CD or vinyl. The youngest generations are always taped on their smartphones or iPads, even in their bedrooms. That's a shame. Even if I must admit that all the people cannot have a solid musical culture, they could at least buy the CDs of their favorite artists, that would be some recognition toward their "idols"... In some other side, it's nice, because it helps metal bands to get higher in world's charts and shows that only metalheads are really loving music and artists by showing their inconditional support to the artists or bands they love by buying CD's or vinyls. For example, I love Maiden, it's my all times favorite band. And I've just bought the mediabook CD on tuesday. When I'll can, I'll buy the digipack CD and one copy of the triple vinyl (don't know what version, though), maybe at Christmas. But, as I'm respecting the band who always gave me a great happiness in Life and also some indirect support when I was really depressed 20 years ago, I'm supporting Maiden by buying CD's, vinyls and some extra merchandising (when my limited finances allow me to do it). That's why I think that youngest generations are dumb, because if they don't buy albums, they don't allow to their favorite bands and/or artists to have a serene career and make some new albums... And I'm sorry if you took my tirade for you, but it was not the case.I am not of a younger generation and nope, they are not dumb. I got to know music with cassette tapes and vinyl. Nice memories and everything, but quite a miserable format and of very low quality to todays standards. I used to listen to Maiden with low quality tapes copied from a friend who copied from a friend etc.
My only complaint of streaming platforms, is that one can't view the lyrics, it should be viewable and integrated. Of course packaging and artwork is nice to grab in your hands with a physical format, but since everything else is digital, it's not a pain anymore. My main point in listening to music is that I need it in good quality and accessible anywhere and anytime on multiple devices. I could explore many new music only via streaming platforms lately.
Last edited:
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
Vinyl was already a dead format in the 80s. We left it behind because it sucked. The people who claim it’s better are full of shit unless they do all their listening in the superhuman >22KHz range or they only listen to albums with completely shit original mastering that had to be opened up to get it to be listenable at all on vinyl. Vinyl was already dead, it still should be dead, and yet here it is, still kicking.
Streaming also isn’t the only way to get music digitally. I’ve bought some albums as uncompressed, non-DRM’d digital files, and this is a perfectly reasonable way to go that doesn’t have the limitations of physical media but also doesn’t forfeit your ownership rights.
I think people too often confuse the medium with the advantage they think it offers. Some people think vinyl is great because the mastering has more dynamic range. Well, guess what — in most cases it’s the better mastering that they’re enjoying, not the hissing and popping and disc flipping. If they got the same master in an uncompressed digital format they’d likely be even happier.
For streaming it’s the convenience of being able to play anything in the library anywhere. I agree that for sampling music this is a big plus, and I use YouTube and Bandcamp for free for this purpose — to discover things I want to buy, or to listen to things as a one-off. But I almost never encounter a situation where I need to play music and I don’t have my phone on me to act as a source, or where I need to play something I don’t own and I can’t find it on a free streaming service. Also, streaming doesn’t actually let you play the music anywhere — you have to have an active internet connection or think about exactly what you want to listen to and download it in advance. If the digital files are ones you own that are already on your device, then this is never a concern and you literally can listen to anything anywhere from that device. And the stuff you own can’t be taken away.
Remember that people were willing to buy shitty DRM’d 64Kb/sec WMA’s back in the day, and until very recently were content with 128Kb/sec MP3 and AAC files, which are complete garbage next to uncompressed audio. Streaming audio also sucked, though there are finally some uncompressed streaming options becoming available now. People wanted the convenience of digital delivery and were willing to sacrifice audio quality and ownership rights to get it, which is a compromise I would never personally make. And as long as enough people like me exist, there will continue to be ways to buy uncompressed music, be it via CD or non-DRM’d digital files. The question is how long there will be enough of us to combat the collective foolishness of everyone else who wants to pay a monthly fee to rent a worse product.
jazz from hell
Ancient Mariner
Album’s #1 in Switzerland.
srfc
Ancient Mariner
How can you be sure you're getting the real thing?
I bought Somewhere Back in Time from HD Tracks. It wasn't Somewhere Back in Time, it was a collection of the songs from the individual albums copied and pasted into the same playlist as Somewhere Back in Time. Not majorly different, but the Live tracks hadn't been mastered for the compilation like they are on the real album, i.e. the crowd noise starts abruptly, it doesn't fade in.
I'm not going to cry over something minor like that, but if they lie about that, why wouldn't they lie about other stuff too? Could so called high def files just be the normal CD quality re-encoded?
This is what has me worried more than anything else about the demise of physical products.
Maturin
Sköldpadda
Never a problem anywhere where people live but if you are used to going camping in northern Siberia, I agree. Might be lucky, Sweden has 4G practically everywhere by now and my phone company charges me €20 for 20 GB of data, adding the leftovers to next months use which means I haven't been close to using even 25% of my monthly available data...
"Normal CD quality" is extremely high quality. The only format that eclipsed that was the DVD-A.
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
That sucks. It was false advertising on their part, and if they’re unwilling to rectify it then you and/or Iron Maiden could sue them, but they’re betting that you won’t. Honestly, you should email Maiden’s management company about it and they will probably send a cease & desist letter to HD Tracks so others won’t get similarly burned.
Could be, but it’s like anything else you buy — someone might sell you a knockoff, but larger retailers aren’t going to be willing to take that risk for fear of legal repercussions.
You could check yourself if it’s just the literal CD file by zooming in and seeing if the samples are doubled. If they’re not, then you’re at least getting the CD file interpolated up to 96KHz, which is still technically better than the CD (like SD video upscaled to HD resolution), but also not what you were expecting. And probably illegal.
You could stick exclusively to bigger names like Onkyo Music if you’re concerned about grift.
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
People live in a lot of places, and cellular coverage in the United States can still get pretty spotty if you’re off the major highways and not near a reasonably sized town. I know I wouldn’t want to rely on having a cellular internet connection if I was driving out in the sticks.
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
I'd like to leave a wider post here so some things get clarified.
There is an infinite amount of frequencies in between 1 and 1.1 Hz. Analogue to digital converters have a property of finite resolution. Let's say 4 bit. If you power 2 by 4 you'll get 16, and 16 is the number of levels you can work with. Now if you just dump in a fixed electric signal, let's say 8 volts, your measurable resolution becomes half a volt. So the only information encodable is 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and so on.
Now if you dump this information in a data format that can hold 64 bits per sample, you get very fishy values because its obvious they're 'rougher' and less precise than the format can hold.
If the original is 24 bit LPCM found on CD, then the values will be aligned to that bit depth.
It will take some actual hands on approach from someone qualified to smudge around these 'slopes' without audibly messing up the music itself.
Whenever that happens it's a game of cat and mouse. If you have an experienced audio engineer doing this it will take an experienced audio engineer to figure it out.
srfc
Ancient Mariner
I'm not too pissed off about it TBH The only reason I bought it in the first place was because I was buying the 2015 remasters of LAD and Rock in Rio, as they had not been released on CD at that point and there was no rumours that they ever were going to be released at that time. So I thought the only way to get a lossless version of those albums was to buy them from HD Tracks, and at the time I was buying they had a deal for " buy 3 albums for x amount" so I just bought SBIT as well.
Like you say, just buying from reputable places is the best bet.
Spaldy
Ancient Mariner
Vinyl never died. It just became niche for a while.
What a staggeringly condescending statement. Audio format preferences aren't objective and no-one made you the king of other people's opinions. I could throw a dart onto the internet and hit 1000 audiophiles and audio experts who would soundly disagree with you.
Also, I have both the CD and the Vinyl of Senjutsu. The vinyl copy sounds better. Now, tell me I'm full of shit.
So, you're saying something that millions of people enjoy and that brings in a healthy revenue stream for artists and the music industry as a whole should be dead just because you don't like it?
And why do you think that is?