$50 for MP3s
$60 for FLAC or ALAC, which you can rip from a $25 CD
$70 for 24/96 hires flac or alec, which you can’t.
13 Likes
I looked up the track listing on iTunes, and it opens with, like, seven different versions of Enter Sandman, all in a row.
Why would anyone buy that in vinyl? It’s preposterous.
They should up the ante and release it on 8-track. Just a single 8-track cassette with all Enter Sandman covers. You can’t fast forward or reverse, just flip between the four programs playing Enter Sandman.
14 Likes
can anyone tell me if there are wildly genre-divergent covers on here? (think Dynamite Hack’s cover of “Boys in the Hood”). if so, and if this box set appears in my local library, I will borrow and rip it.
I don’t care that the proceeds go to charity. this band is on the list of organizations I absolutely will never willingly do business with in any capacity.
3 Likes
Every book I look up on Amazon, the ebook is around the same price as the paperback. Some are even more expensive than the brand new paperback.
But… All profits go to charity…? What am I missing here?
2 Likes
My understanding is that 24/96 is only really of value in a studio environment - for future proofing for archiving masters or as a processing workflow format where it can maintain digital (not audio) integrity within the DAW plugin chains as well as mastering.
Unless your audio system is worth more than your house and you have the hearing of a border collie I can’t see 24/96 making sense as a consumer format.
Ironically it would be a pristine format for bootleggers. 
The following video by Rick Beato says something to the fact that Metallica may be scooping an extra 20 bucks from their audience for no real benefit. Also Rick is an absolute champion of the fight against record company take down trollies on youtube:
7 Likes
Six versions of enter sandman? Seems redundant since the best version already exists.
1 Like
I did miss that. It makes me feel a little better, but I still think it’s bullshit. I’ll stream the album later though.
1 Like
Fair! I guess I just don’t know many people who still have CD players heh. I prefer to buy DRM-free digital files (usually through Bandcamp, if/when possible). For my own music, I’ve been thinking about the value of having a physical product to sell at live performances (now that those are happening again), and whether it’s better to do a CD or a cassette (both with an accompanying digital download code).
1 Like
I just wish they had split the songs up a little more, instead of lumping them all together. Give me the experience of those 12 songs, over and over again, in different genres!
1 Like
I’m kind of conflicted by this as well. Back in the day, I steered far clear of Napster and such - and I didn’t even know what Napster looked like until I saw it in action at a friend’s house.
But in spite of that, Metallica’s snit really left a bad taste in my mouth, especially at a time when everybody in the music biz was trying to force DRM’ed music files down our throat. Sony’s laughably bureaucratic digital music players did a great job of tanking the Walkman brand, but that was only because there were non-DRM’ed alternatives.
I’d say, if you’re interested, listen to it on Spotify (or elsewhere), pick out the tracks you like best, and just buy those.
Spot-on. I’ve made live recordings, and 24-bit gives you a lot more wiggle room regarding recording levels. Once you’ve done your editing and postprocessing, there’s no sense in exporting a 24-bit finished product.
Also, if you’re recording choral or orchestral performances, even with 16 bits the real-world dynamic range will far exceed what most consumer audio gear can handle at concert volume. Some dynamic range compression is necessary if you want the recording to be listenable on most stereo systems.
2 Likes
Thanks.
My litmus test question has always been how many folk have actually heard real drums in a real room i.e. not mediated by any technology?
What is going on with the nitpicking about audio fidelity in this day when most of our music comes recorded or via amplification?
Don’t get me started on the acoustic design of amphitheaters!!
2 Likes
I wonder what Metallica would be like now if Cliff Burton hadn’t died. Maybe no different but he seemed more down to earth than the rest of the band.
St Vincent does this version of “Sad But True”, and it sounds like Trent Reznor as a woman doing the cover. I love it.
Jason Isbel and the 400 Unit do the same song, and it sounds like a goth country cover. I love it, too.
Overall, I think it’s pretty uneven. I’ve listened to maybe 30 of them, and some are great, some are meh
1 Like
Likewise, no Steve’N’Seagulls. fail !
2 Likes
You could just torrent it for free
1 Like
First of all, as a serious connoisseur of music, I don’t waste money on lodging, so the comparison between my setup and my “house” is moot. I rent a performance hall for my listening sessions, and I sleep in the supply closet at work.
Second, a border collie isn’t even in the top ten breeds of dog for hearing acuity. The commonly accepted reference breed for people who—and I’m not trying to condescend here, but you leave me with very little choice—know the first thing about music is the Lhasa Apso. According to my most recent audiometrics checkup, I can hear 11.4 times better than a Lhasa Apso, and in some detection categories—Danceability and Cable-Oxygen Contamination, for example—I’m in the 20x range.
However, it’s all moot, as we’re discussing… […] I’m sorry I began laughing uncontrollably there for a full ten minutes, but it’s just so funny… as we’re discussing 24/96 “high-resolution” FLAC. I wouldn’t use that joke format for my outgoing voicemail message! At a MINIMUM, if you must listen to a digitally-bastardized recording at all, you need 512-bit transphonic quadrasampled .mp99 files. And the trick there is finding a system that can manage a 20-terabyte file without adding too much impedance. I find a few dozen IBM POWER9 blades running a modified version of BeOS is tolerable. But nothing less.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to spend a few hours in an anechoic chamber to rest my ears. I’ve got a jam-packed schedule today—I’m writing a big blog post about which oscilloscopes produce the most danceable sine waves.
17 Likes
She’s their accountant. Charity Williams, CPA.
2 Likes
