[quote="ChainGangGuy"]Thanks for the heads-up, hygraed! I gotta say, I haven't been too thrilled with anything they've released since Factory Showroom, but I'm always willing to give the Johns another chance.[/quote]

It is definitely superior to The Spine and Mink Car. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Also, the Dust Brothers.

I'm told that 128Kbps with verriable bitrate on newer codecs is "transparent" but in practice I've managed to notice a difference with MP3s at least so I tend to encode everything at V4, or about 160Kbps. Tat said, Nero updated their AAC encoder a couple of months ago so I should probably switch to that. But, I mostly only use lossie stuff for the 'pod and the last time I tried the Nero encoder on the shuffle it acted like it was empty, which pissed me off to no end as I then had to reencode my entire fucking library.

[quote="hygraed"]The new They Might Be Giants album, "The Else," has gotten an early release on iTunes and it is really good.[/quote]

Thanks for the heads-up, hygraed! I gotta say, I haven't been too thrilled with anything they've released since Factory Showroom, but I'm always willing to give the Johns another chance.

Maybe the Beatles-esque stereo tricks, like vocals on one side and everything else on the other. Or rapid panning of the bass line. Gimmicky stuff like that. What was that Roger Waters album where he explains the new super-stereo thing? Something like:
"The dog barking should sound like it's three houses down. If it dosen't then your speakers are out of phase."

I dunno, it was in the liner notes of one of his albums. Stereo is a must have. I notice that the latest release of Nero allows one to record in 5.1 surround. Hmmmm. I could have serious fun with something like that. Maybe I should get busy and start plugging in more.


THE
UNTAPPED
AARDVARK

There's definitely a difference between 128 and 160 or 192 that you can hear on any decent speakers. Anything above 192, though, and you're getting to a point where only the best ears can here the difference on the best equipment.

Cymbals are always the dead giveaway for me, because they throw out so many high frequencies.

Anyway, this reminds me of the time on groucho that JQW tried to argue that stereo recording is nothing more than a gimmick. That was funny.

[quote="hygraed"]I guess my ears are inferior because I can't hear the difference between CD audio and 128kbit AAC compression. Then again, I probably would not have bought the album from iTunes if a) it was already available on CD and b) I did not plan to buy the CD anyway when it comes out for the bonus disc.[/quote]
Well, just take the Daredevil's word for it. I don't mind 128, though for some things I prefer higher quality MP3s. You don't really need to hear The Circle Jerks in FLAC, though I like the idea of getting some things in better quality.

Even if I'm not the most attentive listener, I accept the science behind it and try to work with that. Saying you don't hear the difference is like driving on lower octane gas because you don't pay attention to whatever octane is supposed to fucking do.

Right now I'm grabbing an advance from oink, (300 seeds, 50 MBs of ratio I will never recover, great).

I guess my ears are inferior because I can't hear the difference between CD audio and 128kbit AAC compression. Then again, I probably would not have bought the album from iTunes if a) it was already available on CD and b) I did not plan to buy the CD anyway when it comes out for the bonus disc.

128 CBR. I can't beieve peopel shell out money for that garbage. (Not the album, mind you, which I haven't heard. The store.)

Ah, I'll definitely just download this pre-stripped from a torrent site. The fuck are their things encoded at on the itunes anyway?

The new They Might Be Giants album, "The Else," has gotten an early release on iTunes and it is really good. It's a bit darker than their previous work, but to me that signifies the fact that they're getting older and possibly more mature.

Anyway, check it out. And if you're worried about buying DRM-protected music, the hymn project has you covered.

http://www.hymn-project.org/download.php