Chart pop music in high quality downloads ?

tausifs · 15-06-2009, 3:19 PM

Most downloads are very compressed, eg. iTunes AAC, other sites mp3.

Are there any legal sites that offer less compressed , better audio quality eg. wav files for purchasing chart pop music ?

The idea occurred to me as the Now albums usually only have half a dozen decent tracks that I like.

danmc_82 · 15-06-2009, 3:52 PM

What bit-rate are you looking at?

tausifs · 15-06-2009, 5:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danmc_82

What bit-rate are you looking at?

Sorry I don't know what bitrate it would be.

krish · 15-06-2009, 6:31 PM

Amazon.co.uk offer DRM-free MP3s of which many are 256 or 320 kbps

... and they've always got free songs available (list always changing)
- currently includes Prodigy, Rev & The Makers, The Mars Volta, Pixies, et al

Amazon's freebies: Amazon.co.uk: 000-001: MP3 Downloads

tausifs · 15-06-2009, 10:48 PM

Thanks I have just got some from amazon and they sound fine on my iPod, would be interesting to convert to WAV and try on my hifi...

*insomniak123* · 15-06-2009, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tausifs

Thanks I have just got some from amazon and they sound fine on my iPod, would be interesting to convert to WAV and try on my hifi...

wouldn't make a difference, if anything it'd sound worse

the only data you've got is the 256kb per second; you can't magic up the rest of the 1,411kb expected for a raw wav file out of nowhere and expect it to sound better

evangelink · 16-06-2009, 10:56 AM

7 Digital is another good place for legal downloads. Most albums are 320kbs, and reasonably priced. A lot of new albums are only a fiver in the first couple of weeks.

tausifs · 16-06-2009, 9:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by insomniak123

wouldn't make a difference, if anything it'd sound worse

the only data you've got is the 256kb per second; you can't magic up the rest of the 1,411kb expected for a raw wav file out of nowhere and expect it to sound better

Yes I understand that. My point was how much worse would it sound (upconverted WAV) compared to CD.

soundstory · 25-06-2009, 12:53 PM

Though there are plenty of progs that can do it.

I'd consider it pretty pointless, it's not going to uncompress anything.

Strobe · 25-06-2009, 6:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tausifs

Yes I understand that. My point was how much worse would it sound (upconverted WAV) compared to CD.

It's not 'upconverting' - it's just creating a lossless copy of a lossy file, still lossy but a huge file size. Converting an mp3 to WAV (or any other lossless format) serves no purpose that I can think of. An mp3 converted to WAV will sound exactly the same as the original mp3 file, compared to CD or otherwise.

soundstory · 29-06-2009, 9:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strobe

It's not 'upconverting' - it's just creating a lossless copy of a lossy file, still lossy but a huge file size. Converting an mp3 to WAV (or any other lossless format) serves no purpose that I can think of. An mp3 converted to WAV will sound exactly the same as the original mp3 file, compared to CD or otherwise.

Indeed