Preferred Download Formats

[SunLover]

I've got a question for you... (Please grant me an interview). Sorry, couldn't resist.

As most people here know, I have been posting the concerts already cut into individual tracks, which has been very popular. For the Atlantic City show on 08/24, I uploaded two large individual files as part one and part two. I was just testing this method out. I believe this may have thrown some people off a bit, plus the fact that the show was on a Sunday...

What I would like to know is in the poll question. Do y'all prefer individual tracks that you can later burn to CD or do you like the single large files that keep the show intact?

Let me know your opinions. Either method is fine with me!!

FINS UP!!

SunLover

[FunkHouse9]

I certainly prefer to have the shows already cut into tracks. But, I'd like to stress that I, and many others based on my experience, like to keep all of the between song chatter in there. When I divide shows up, I start the track at or very near the beginning of a song and end it right before the beginning of the next. That way most of the talk is confined to the end of tracks. When the talk is at the beginning, you get impatient waiting to here the song if you're shuffling on an iPod, etc. Once the song is over, you can skip the talk and move on. Cutting out the talk completely robs the concert of a lot of what made it special or unique.

[LIPH]

I don't really care, I can cut it into tracks myself.

[East Texas Parrothead]

I'm just glad someone is offering the shows ... so easy to grab them the way you put them up ... thanks. Drinks are on me the next time you come to Texas!

[chippewa]

I certainly prefer to have the shows already cut into tracks. But, I'd like to stress that I, and many others based on my experience, like to keep all of the between song chatter in there. When I divide shows up, I start the track at or very near the beginning of a song and end it right before the beginning of the next. That way most of the talk is confined to the end of tracks. When the talk is at the beginning, you get impatient waiting to here the song if you're shuffling on an iPod, etc. Once the song is over, you can skip the talk and move on. Cutting out the talk completely robs the concert of a lot of what made it special or unique.

^^^
wJs

I've grabbed some of your single tracks, everything has sounded great. If I want an entire concert I usually burn that to a cd, but I'm not a fan of burning individual mp3s because of the gaps between tracks. I know, huge file sizes for .wav or uncomopressed files. Maybe I just need to keep them as mp3s and play them on the iPod only.

[SunLover]

I certainly prefer to have the shows already cut into tracks. But, I'd like to stress that I, and many others based on my experience, like to keep all of the between song chatter in there. When I divide shows up, I start the track at or very near the beginning of a song and end it right before the beginning of the next....

...Cutting out the talk completely robs the concert of a lot of what made it special or unique.

That's the way I've been cutting the shows. I like to have the track start at the song. I believe the Tuesday, Thursdays, & Saturdays CD as well as Feeding Frenzy were cut like that.

And no, I would never cut any of Jimmy's talking out. There's some fun stuff in that!!

[Joetown Parrothead]

I also just wanted to say Thank you for your time and efforts in doing this for all of us! I like it the way it is now, but whatever is easier for you would be the way I would vote!

[gingerbreadman]

Interesting perspectives. My preference is that the track should stand alone. The story that Jimmy tells as he introduces each song should go at the beginning and the thank you's to the parrotheads and/or individual band members should go at the end.

This is more work, because you have to listen to the banter all over again, but for me, hearing the banter with the right song is half the fun!

Most of the time I have cut the tracks just at the point where Jimmy kind of clears his throat and says allll...right! That's usually where it's time to shift focus on the next song.

It's too bad mp3's have these gap problems, but I guess that's a function of the player...

[bikes to build]

hey sunlover thanks for all of your work with the concerts. i'll take them in either format, i picked the individual tracks. thanks again!

[Dezdmona]

I don't always dowload entire concerts, but will pick and choose songs (some songs aren't the best versions, or I just have too man copies of the same song),
but I always try to grab songs he doesn't play often.
If he tells a story about a song before he plays it, I'd like that on the cut.

Just my 2 cents.
Love what your doing SL...

[FunkHouse9]

I believe that in most cases the gaps between songs are caused by the cd burning software and not the format. If I take an entire MP3 concert, select the files to burn and set it to not put a gap between songs, they play straight through. In the case of iTunes, you can set each individual song for gapless playback so it will play on an iPod straight through. I believe many other MP3 players have that as well.

[jimsig]

I believe that in most cases the gaps between songs are caused by the cd burning software and not the format. If I take an entire MP3 concert, select the files to burn and set it to not put a gap between songs, they play straight through. In the case of iTunes, you can set each individual song for gapless playback so it will play on an iPod straight through. I believe many other MP3 players have that as well.

I use NERO and it gives me the choice to putting a gap or not. Not sure if any buring programs still call them the following but it used to be called, DAO or TAO. TAO is track at once and or DAO is disc at once. TAO would put the approx 2 sec gap in, and DAO would burn the CD without the gap, but you are still able to go to individual tracks. If you get around to trading shows, traders do not want the gap. The reason is that if you go to a concert there is not 2 seconds of silence.

[chippewa]

Hmmm, I thought it was impossible to eliminate the end gap in an mp3 file. I know I've set my burning software to zero and it's still there. You can even edit the silence off the end of a file, but when you resave the file it's right back. Is it maybe your hardware that is able to play these without gaps? I know iTunes version 7+ offered gapless playback.

[7lords]

Hmmm, I thought it was impossible to eliminate the end gap in an mp3 file. I know I've set my burning software to zero and it's still there. You can even edit the silence off the end of a file, but when you resave the file it's right back. Is it maybe your hardware that is able to play these without gaps? I know iTunes version 7+ offered gapless playback.

I've never had a gap when burning MP3 files with NERO.

[FunkHouse9]

Hmmm, I thought it was impossible to eliminate the end gap in an mp3 file. I know I've set my burning software to zero and it's still there. You can even edit the silence off the end of a file, but when you resave the file it's right back. Is it maybe your hardware that is able to play these without gaps? I know iTunes version 7+ offered gapless playback.

I have never seen a case where I've edited silence off the end of an MP3 and when I saved the file it came back. It's got to be a setting in your software. I don't believe it has anything to do with the hardware. I use Roxio Easy CD & DVD creator and have never had it add a gap.

iTunes offers gapless playback, but that is different than if you use iTunes to burn an audio cd. If you go to edit >preferences > advanced and then click the burning tab, you can set the gap between songs when it is burned to disc.

[oph]

MP3 files actually have space (aka headers) before the audio starts. This header contains among other bits of info the bitrate, frequency and ID Tag. You can search high and low but the patent for the MPEG-1 Layer 3 (aka mp3) specification (ISO 11172-3) is still not publicly available as last check the originator, Fraunhofer Institute, is still aggressively exercising the patent.

[gingerbreadman]

I don't always dowload entire concerts, but will pick and choose songs (some songs aren't the best versions, or I just have too man copies of the same song),
but I always try to grab songs he doesn't play often.
If he tells a story about a song before he plays it, I'd like that on the cut.

Just my 2 cents.
Love what your doing SL...

Ahh... DEZ... good to see someone that feels the same way as me!

[SunLover]

Thanks for all the responses and, as of 6:30a ET, five margaritas and drinks on ETP!!

I know that gapless playback is usually available on software players, like Winamp and WMP. I don't use Itunes much, so I can't verify that. I wish that gapless support was available for more hardware based mp3 players, like ipod or Iriver. It seems like they could be working on firmware updates to address this. I believe that for some Iriver players, there may be international and/or hacked firmware that does support gapless playback, but I don't think I want to risk a borked player in case the flash does not work.

Drinks are on me the next time you come to Texas!

I will have to take you up on that offer!

...Most of the time I have cut the tracks just at the point where Jimmy kind of clears his throat and says allll...right! That's usually where it's time to shift focus on the next song...

On each "alll right", that might be a cue to have a Landshark, too! A good beer drinking game!

Actually, I'm not surprised the discussion came up about where to cut the tracks. I know some people prefer Talk, then Song while others prefer Song, then Talk. GBM, I know what you're talking about by keeping the related talk around the beginning and end of the track. His "Alll right" or "Okey Dokey" is usually when he sets up the next song. I have always preferred the song to be the beginning of the track. As I mentioned earlier, I believe Feeding Frenzy was tracked like that.

The Phlock has spoken!
I will continue to cut the concerts by tracks. I have already started uploading the Atlantic City show in tracks. The uploads should be done very soon.

I hope y'all won't hold it against me that I tried this experiment. (Bad Sunlover! Shame on me!) Can I still keep my License To Chill or has it been revoked??

Thanks again for your feedback!! See you on the next show!

SunLover

[Tiki Bar]

I don't always dowload entire concerts, but will pick and choose songs (some songs aren't the best versions, or I just have too man copies of the same song),
but I always try to grab songs he doesn't play often.
If he tells a story about a song before he plays it, I'd like that on the cut.

Just my 2 cents.
Love what your doing SL...

Ahh... DEZ... good to see someone that feels the same way as me!

I'm with you guys!

On the where / how to cut the banter discussion, I MUCH prefer it kept with the songs... the intro is the intro, and should be kept as such! (And I don't think I've ever skipped listening to it! )

Beggars can't be choosers, and since I'm clueless about the whole recording and editing process, I don't have room to talk. But I've gotten some shows from vines, trading, etc, with the talking and intro's after the songs, and it drives me crazy!!

As for your poll Sunlover, I have no preference, but your efforts are greatly appreciated!! Thank you for sharing!!

[caly]

Please continue to cut them.
I will still buy you a margarita!