Vinyl Rereleases December 2016 (Broken, TDS, TF)

[neorev]

How is the Broken remaster? Some guy on a Facebook NIN group said it's awful. I don't have a record player so I didn't order any vinyl ( too expensive to order from Canada). If anybody feels like sharing any of these remasters I can send you some cash with PayPal. PM me if willing to share.

What exactly did he find awful about it?

"Awful" seems a bit much.

[reznovka]

Slowest Internet possible combined with these huge amount of data is awful. My MacBook went through the night to get TDS for me and next night it'll be TF Deviations hopefully...Broken und TF will follow then...guess I should thought about the possibility of Trent releasing so much stuff before getting an MacBook Air with a 120 GB harddrive xD

[xolotl]

How is the Broken remaster? Some guy on a Facebook NIN group said it's awful.

Responses that I've seen in here range from: "It sounds awesome but maybe that's just a sort of placebo effect?" (that one includes myself), "Sounds pretty much just like Broken," and "It's lost some of its dynamic range." I don't think anyone here's come anywhere close to "awful" in review of it.

[fishtifer]

Responses that I've seen in here range from: "It sounds awesome but maybe that's just a sort of placebo effect?" (that one includes myself), "Sounds pretty much just like Broken," and "It's lost some of its dynamic range." I don't think anyone here's come anywhere close to "awful" in review of it.

From Facebook:"Anyone listened to the "definitive" edition of Broken EP yet? The 24/96 download sounds fucking awful, don't throw away your original CDs or records or cassettes!! Gave Up is almost unlistenable, hardly any dynamics; the original CD is gripping and has tension and release and sounds fucking fab."

I usually take so-called audiophiles opinions with a grain of salt - Dying to hear Happiness in Slavery remastered....

[Conan The Barbarian]

Slowest Internet possible combined with these huge amount of data is awful. My MacBook went through the night to get TDS for me and next night it'll be TF Deviations hopefully...Broken und TF will follow then...guess I should thought about the possibility of Trent releasing so much stuff before getting an MacBook Air with a 120 GB harddrive xD

120 gb? I hope you paid 100 dollars for that.

[neorev]

Only 120gbs? In 2016? Hell, it's almost 2017.

My Qosmio (Toshiba's higher end laptops) was $1800 for 32gb RAM, i7, 256gb Solid State Drive, 2x 1.25TB SATA HDs, and Blu-ray drive.

[Leviathant]

From Facebook:"Anyone listened to the "definitive" edition of Broken EP yet? The 24/96 download sounds fucking awful, don't throw away your original CDs or records or cassettes!! Gave Up is almost unlistenable, hardly any dynamics; the original CD is gripping and has tension and release and sounds fucking fab."

I usually take so-called audiophiles opinions with a grain of salt - Dying to hear Happiness in Slavery remastered....

"hardly any dynamics" on Broken cracks me up.

I remember an interview where they talked about the process of making sure Broken sounded loud no matter how low the volume was.

In other words, Broken was compressed to hell and back. Probably one of the first examples of the 'loudness war' style of production.

Is it more compressed now? GOOD! Also, don't throw away your cassettes? l.o.l.

[Prettybrokenspiral]

Broken IS awful.

Awful fucking good, that is..

[Pbgut]

Audiophiles can be really annoying, but there's a couple songs on the Fragile reissue that sound like they were processed so much they sound like they were recorded through an FM radio broadcast. 10 Miles High is really bombastic by design – master it any louder than it already was for the WITT single and it doesn't sound ... good. Since Broken falls in that range and was already super loud for its time, I can only imagine how that sounds... The complaint feels reasonable because, why remaster them for vinyl and then make a separate digital master that is extremely loud (remember, Broken and TF were already really loud as is). Guess it's one way to keep people listening to vinyl

Also Ripe is really noticeably more quiet than any other instrumentals by a long shot. I opened up the WAV and it doesn't peak at all. Too bad the rest of them aren't like that.

[wight rabbit]

remember, Broken and TF were already really loud as is

Broken was loud? That's one of the quietest releases in the NIN catalog...

[richardp]

Is anyone willing to share The Fragile with me?

[Pbgut]

Broken was loud? That's one of the quietest releases in the NIN catalog...

Er, my bad. I mean, the loud parts are already really really loud. It's kind of before its time in that sense, and it seems like an artistic choice. I haven't heard this remaster though, just TF, and I was disappointed in it. If they did the same treatment, I can imagine that that quality is gone and the loud parts might sound as if they are overdone.

EDIT: since the principal points of these reissues are to get them on vinyl again, it's not a huge deal, but it does seem kind of silly to take albums that were already really loud and make them even louder. Why not remaster them to allow for more detail from tech improvements in the last 17-25+ years without making things so loud that they're not enjoyable? Apparently some Broken tracks have a dr range of 3 now. That's...nutty. I haven't heard Broken but I make a lot of music and there's no way that can sound decent. Also this was our one shot to get a digital version of the vinyl Fragile. Oh well.

[Jon]

Audiophiles can be really annoying

When they have no clue what they are talking about and/or take no time to help others, I agree wholeheartedly. That being said, get your tomatoes ready...

Re: Broken

The vast majority of the audio is "leveled off" at around CD sample rate. "Pinion" and "Help Me I Am In Hell" are upsampled from 44.1 (...). Here's some examples:

[raptors661]

Same. I'm without a computer for the week and can't download a 6+GB file on my phone. The mp3 version on the other hand is doable.

[Pbgut]

When they have no clue what they are talking about and/or take no time to help others, I agree wholeheartedly. That being said, get your tomatoes ready...

Re: Broken

The vast majority of the audio is "leveled off" at around CD sample rate. "Pinion" and "Help Me I Am In Hell" are upsampled from 44.1 (...). Here's some examples:

I don't mind audiophiles . I just feel like the dynamic range stuff is more easily appreciable by moret people than the sample rate issues? The sample rate doesn't surprise me due to how digital recording was back then ... I assume he just remastered them at a higher bitrate due to some perceived benefit and didn't down sample them.

I was really hoping for a digital master of the vinyl masters ... I know some of the lower bass has to be in mono for that but you win big time with the dynamics (or you know, just a digital master that was quiet). A few 90s bands have remastered their old work to have more range than the originals, but again given the quieter version of Hesitation Marks that was bassier but basically just as loud, I was holding out irrational hope.

[reznovka]

120 gb? I hope you paid 100 dollars for that.

Nope :P

Bought the Air for the SSD (that's why it's only 120 GB) and because its super thin and light and never thought about the possibility of getting sooo much stuff in its lifetime.
I have some external Harddrives, so it's ok for me.

[ekrekel]

FYI:

ekrekel Dec 17, 20:43 PST I'm interested in the packaging and handling of these ore-orders. If the weights listed on the .js are correct my order looks to be about 11 pounds of vinyl. Will these come shipped in smaller sets? I fear a heavy package getting mishandled and showing up damaged. Does the shipping option modify the packaging? If so which is most secure? Y'all are pros, but I had to ask. Gnarlywood Customer Service (Firebrand Live) Dec 22, 17:36 PST Hi Eddie, Thanks for your purchase and thanks for writing in. The shipping option does not modify the packaging, all orders will be packaged the same way. I do not know the exact details of how they will be packed as we do not have them yet, but usually we use foam corners and bubble wrap to ensure they arrive damage free. If there is anything else we can help you with please let us know.

[ethan829]

Well, I thought I would make the fiscally responsible choice and pass on the reissues. Then I got paid this morning and promptly ordered The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, and Broken. Merry Christmas to me...

[Ripe(withdecay)]

I would totally buy all of these Definitive Editions if I had money and a vinyl player. Oh well, I'll just wait for someone to put them online.

[vivisection13]

My Deviations zip file only had WAV files. So it's supposed to be like the Definitive Editions with FLAC, WAV, and MP3 files. This is getting a little irritating.

[FineFinchTails]

Pretty Hate Machine sold out. Will they restock?

[halo eighteen]

Pretty Hate Machine sold out. Will they restock?

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinf...81&style=music

It's also out of stock at Amazon as well, but CD Universe has it for the same price (49 cents less actually).

[Conan The Barbarian]

I got a corrupt error, but again like the regular Fragile, it extracted and played fine.

[jmtd]

I got a corrupt error, but again like the regular Fragile, it extracted and played fine.

I'm pretty concerned that there'll be some corruption in the files *somewhere* that I hadn't noticed straight away.

OK, MAC OS X archive utiity didn't complain, although I'm a wee-bit skeptical that it would necessarily detect corruption and tell you anyway. sha1sums for the inner zips:

b4958d785924a34cfb574d7430855ee6a42442c6  Deviations FLAC and WAV.zip
df1b40f77c1f9cfef89417b19d9d78522c46aa42  Deviations MP3.zip

Edit: CRC32 checksums are possibly more useful, because ZIP uses those for verifying its own contents. The CRC32 reported for those two ZIPs in the outer, mega-zip are

c1683d64	Deviations FLAC and WAV.zip
924e9eaa	Deviations MP3.zip

which match the checksums for my extracted files.

[Conan The Barbarian]

Lucky you to get all three formats.

[Papagolash]

Oh my god, Pilgrimage sounds absolutely amazing, I didn't think it was possible it could improve.

[xolotl]

Oh my god, Pilgrimage sounds absolutely amazing, I didn't think it was possible it could improve.

Heh, glad it wasn't just me. I keep on wondering if the stuff I'm hearing is due to actual edits/changes or if my memory's just playing tricks on me. Pilgrimage did sound damn good.

[mark118]

http://imgur.com/a/s6tTI

these are my crcs, i ordered from the uk store, half of the links i only got when i asked them on twitter. the fragile and deviations had the same problem of needing to do the open archive> zip with 7zip until u get to the unzipped folder then you can copy it to somewhere else using 7zip without error. all of my zips contained flac wav and mp3.

[Conan The Barbarian]

Here we go lol

https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/...first_half_of/

[jmtd]

http://imgur.com/a/s6tTI

these are my crcs, i ordered from the uk store, half of the links i only got when i asked them on twitter. the fragile and deviations had the same problem of needing to do the open archive> zip with 7zip until u get to the unzipped folder then you can copy it to somewhere else using 7zip without error. all of my zips contained flac wav and mp3.

Thanks. My Deviations CRC32 matches yours. I didn't have to use 7zip (In fact command line 7z couldn't list or extract from the ZIP at all) but OS X's built-in unzipper "just worked".