Watchmen digital

[william]

Before I even begin, I have a feeling that what I'm looking for might not exist.

Does anybody know where I can legally purchase the three Watchmen soundtracks in high-resolution audio format (WAV/FLAC)?

I know the first two (not the third?) are available on Amazon as compressed .mp3 files, but I'm hoping that there's some high-res source out there somewhere.

Thanks everyone.

[cdm]

Does anybody know where I can legally purchase the three Watchmen soundtracks in high-resolution audio format (WAV/FLAC)?

I think Tidal is your one-stop-shop for all three.

[piggy]

There's this, too...
https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/148174/Trent_Reznor__Atticus_Ross-Watchmen_Complete_Volume_Bundle-FLAC_48kHz24Bit_Download

[BRoswell]

There's this, too...
https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/148174/Trent_Reznor__Atticus_Ross-Watchmen_Complete_Volume_Bundle-FLAC_48kHz24Bit_Download

Fair warning: I bought the bundle and ran the tracks through Lossless Audio Checker, which said that all the tracks were upsampled. Make of that what you will.

[piggy]

Ok, didn't know that.

[armogi]

Fair warning: I bought the bundle and ran the tracks through Lossless Audio Checker, which said that all the tracks were upsampled. Make of that what you will.

yes, I *cough* found these online and was surprised to see they also came back as upsampled/mp3 sourced when i checked them, good (or not) to see it's the same on the "official" stores versions, makes me wonder tho.

[piggy]

So how can they get away with charging so much money for upsampled MP3s? That's not ok!

[armogi]

So how can they get away with charging so much money for upsampled MP3s? That's not ok!

fyi i did test the ghosts 5 & 6 with TLH and its the same story, some tracks come back as mpeg. I believe the current flac for ghosts 5 & 6 come from tidal, it may be tidal too for the watchmen flac floating around, there may be some sort of something in their lossless encoding that doesn't sit well with these lossless tester.

[botley]

That tester is bunk. It doesn't work. False positives galore.

[william]

Well, I wasn't expecting to get this far.

I'll be blunt, that AcousticSounds website looks a little... sketchy. But it DOES have all three albums in digital formats. But can I trust those files?
On the other hand, can I download WAV/FLAC from Tidal? I don't use that service so I'm not 100% certain of what it can/can't do.

[Jon]

Well, I wasn't expecting to get this far.

I'll be blunt, that AcousticSounds website looks a little... sketchy. But it DOES have all three albums in digital formats. But can I trust those files?
On the other hand, can I download WAV/FLAC from Tidal? I don't use that service so I'm not 100% certain of what it can/can't do.

Not officially to where you can keep them and move the files around after your membership expires. Github does have tidal-gui and tidal-dl; you'll want gui unless you're on linux:

https://github.com/Boosted300blk/Tidal-Media-Downloader

Lossless Audio Checker is a little bunk; I've had much better success with auCDtect (16/44.1 only). Something like Trader's Little Helper (http://tlh.easytree.org/) which acts as a front-end and has other functions. That being said, the lossless checkers are terrible in general for electronic music. Use Spek (http://spek.cc/) and your peepers / ears.

AcousticSounds does look a little old school, but they're the real-deal.

[TheBang]

Lossless Audio Checker does not detect MP3 transcodes (it says so right on its download page). It does detect AAC transcodes, and in my limited testing, it actually does that pretty well. The verdict of "upsampling" means that LAC thinks the audio went from, for example, 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz. I have found this detection to be iffy sometimes. "Upscaling" means that it thinks it went from, say, 16-bit to 24-bit. I have not tested this and so have no experience with its accuracy for detecting that. If anything though, I think it would tend to have false postives, but not false negatives. Given that, plus my skepticism of the upsampling detection, I believe that these probably are true 24/48 files.

For detecting MP3 transcodes, you want to use auCDtect. I have found its accuracy to be a bit hit or miss though.

TIDAL purchases are limited to 16/44. Given the current 15% off code at Acoustic Sounds, I think the bundle there is the best place to buy Watchmen digital.

[dtuck90]

I bought all 3 volumes from Acoustic Sounds and I ran the tracks through Spek and they are 100% not upsamples. Theres information all the way up to 24kHz.

[tricil]

The Acoustic Sounds downloads are exact 24bit 48kHz files. Just like the 24/48 downloads of the songs not on vinyl were.

Lossless Audio Checker is a pile of shit. Probably would give the same false positives to the aforementioned downloads from nin.com

[ItsJustDave]

Fair warning: I bought the bundle and ran the tracks through Lossless Audio Checker, which said that all the tracks were upsampled. Make of that what you will.

As countless others have mentioned, Lossless Audio Checker should not be trusted here. The Watchmen files available on acoustic sounds are functionally equivalent to what we've all come to expect from nin.com downloads. I imagine there's some legal or licensing reason these weren't made available directly from nin.com, but I can't speak to that aspect with any authority.

[perterje]

Unfortunately, acousticsounds.com won't allow purchases of digital products from outside the USA.

[armogi]

This is all great information, thanks guys!

[william]

Excellent. This turned out to be way more useful than I feared. Thanks everyone.

[Hyperpower]

I have a question regarding digital files. https://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=results&searchtext=Watchmen+Volume there's this one and seems to have all 3 Volumes.

then there's https://ca.7digital.com/artist/trent-reznor-and-atticus-ross-1/release/watchmen-volume-2-music-from-the-hbo-series-10683214?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2 this site that only seems to have Volume 2. Is there a difference in sound quality between these files from these 2 sites?

I do not have a record player and these sites seem to be my only resort to own the music. Any help is appreciated.

sorry. originally posted in the Watchmen thread, had not noticed this one.
also, as a Canadian, i am unable to purchase these from the Acoustic Sounds website, what can people who do not own a record player but still want to pay for this music do?

[Leprekon666]

I have a question regarding digital files. https://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=results&searchtext=Watchmen+Volume there's this one and seems to have all 3 Volumes.

then there's https://ca.7digital.com/artist/trent-reznor-and-atticus-ross-1/release/watchmen-volume-2-music-from-the-hbo-series-10683214?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2 this site that only seems to have Volume 2. Is there a difference in sound quality between these files from these 2 sites?

I do not have a record player and these sites seem to be my only resort to own the music. Any help is appreciated.

sorry. originally posted in the Watchmen thread, had not noticed this one.
also, as a Canadian, i am unable to purchase these from the Acoustic Sounds website, what can people who do not own a record player but still want to pay for this music do?
Heard a VPN is only way outside the US

[TheBang]

I have a question regarding digital files. https://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=results&searchtext=Watchmen+Volume there's this one and seems to have all 3 Volumes.

then there's https://ca.7digital.com/artist/trent-reznor-and-atticus-ross-1/release/watchmen-volume-2-music-from-the-hbo-series-10683214?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2 this site that only seems to have Volume 2. Is there a difference in sound quality between these files from these 2 sites?

Yes, 7digital only has the 16/44 version of the files. Acoustic Sounds is the only place we've found that has the 24/48 hi-res lossless for purchase.


I do not have a record player and these sites seem to be my only resort to own the music. Any help is appreciated.
You didn't specify whether you're looking for lossless or not. If you want lossless, then your only purchase options are TIDAL for 16/44 lossless, or Acoustic Sounds for 24/48 lossless (and cheaper than TIDAL). Or 7digital for 16/44 lossless of just Vol. 2.

If you're OK with lossy formats, then it's available globally in AAC or MP3 formats (and cheaper than the lossless options) on the main retailers: iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play.

[Hyperpower]

Yes, 7digital only has the 16/44 version of the files. Acoustic Sounds is the only place we've found that has the 24/48 hi-res lossless for purchase.


You didn't specify whether you're looking for lossless or not. If you want lossless, then your only purchase options are TIDAL for 16/44 lossless, or Acoustic Sounds for 24/48 lossless (and cheaper than TIDAL). Or 7digital for 16/44 lossless of just Vol. 2.

If you're OK with lossy formats, then it's available globally in AAC or MP3 formats (and cheaper than the lossless options) on the main retailers: iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play.

sorry about the delayed/late response.
I was and still am looking for the best quality in terms of sound. I am probably one one of the few dinosaurs on this site who doesn't use streaming services and at the same time not having a record player leaves people such as myself in a weird position as I love to support my favorite musicians by buying their music.

Looking into VPNs, because that seems like the only way certain sites (Acoustic Sounds) allow me to purchase anything.

[SchwarzerAbt]

if you're OK with lossy formats, then it's available globally in AAC or MP3 formats (and cheaper than the lossless options) on the main retailers: iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play.

As far a I could see neither google nor amazon had Volume 3 available digitally. I had to create an itunes account just to purchase these.

[TheBang]

sorry about the delayed/late response.
I was and still am looking for the best quality in terms of sound. I am probably one one of the few dinosaurs on this site who doesn't use streaming services and at the same time not having a record player leaves people such as myself in a weird position as I love to support my favorite musicians by buying their music.

Looking into VPNs, because that seems like the only way certain sites (Acoustic Sounds) allow me to purchase anything.
Yeah, if you want the best quality, then Acoustic Sounds is the only choice. Besides GeoIP blocking, some retailers might also implement payment blocking depending on country of issue for your credit card. I don’t know if Acoustic Sounds does this though.

As far a I could see neither google nor amazon had Volume 3 available digitally. I had to create an itunes account just to purchase these.
Yeah, you’re right, it’s not on Amazon or Google. I’m not sure why distribution is so uneven for these titles. TIDAL does have a global presence, so that’s another option for either MP3 or FLACs, but their pricing does tend to be on the highest side.

[Wolfkiller]

I wouldn't be upset if someone happened to share their MPEG-1 Audio Layer III's to my Private Message box.