Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post - Think we'll ever see Gord and EMP do this?

TheWatchman · 10-26-2006, 08:23 AM

I like the idea, but the only problem with downloads like these are for those of us who have good systems and enjoy GOOD sounding music without listening to digital background fillers.

I have some Knopfler downloads that were mixed in the studio by Chuck Ainly and they sound fantastic, better than any live CD I've ever purchased in the store. If they are done correctly it's fine, but most downloads fall short on quality though.

To get the downloads to sound their best with little to no traces of the "compressed digital" sound is to burn them on pro CD's i.e. hhb CD's and burn them at 1x. If your burner will not burn that slow, then burn at nothing higher than 4x. Even if your software says it will burn at 1x, go into your burner hardware profile and set it to the lowest setting. It's the quality of your burner that will allow the low burn speeds, not the software.

Sound quality does suffer at higher than 4x burn speeds. 1x is best on pro CD's that are capable of being burned at these low speeds.

You will not find better mixed or better sounding CD's than those by Knopfler/Shangri-La studios. If you've never heard a perfect sounding recording, get Mark Knopfler, "Shangri-La", released in 2005. I have a friend with a very, very high end system which picks up everything in the recording and there are zero, and I mean zero flaws on this CD.

I would much rather purchase CD's but still I buy lots of downloads when I want a song or two and not an entire CD. I don't know how much Lightfoot would actually benefit from this though.

10-26-2006, 08:23 AM	#10
TheWatchman Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Columbia, Maryland Posts: 930	I like the idea, but the only problem with downloads like these are for those of us who have good systems and enjoy GOOD sounding music without listening to digital background fillers. I have some Knopfler downloads that were mixed in the studio by Chuck Ainly and they sound fantastic, better than any live CD I've ever purchased in the store. If they are done correctly it's fine, but most downloads fall short on quality though. To get the downloads to sound their best with little to no traces of the "compressed digital" sound is to burn them on pro CD's i.e. hhb CD's and burn them at 1x. If your burner will not burn that slow, then burn at nothing higher than 4x. Even if your software says it will burn at 1x, go into your burner hardware profile and set it to the lowest setting. It's the quality of your burner that will allow the low burn speeds, not the software. Sound quality does suffer at higher than 4x burn speeds. 1x is best on pro CD's that are capable of being burned at these low speeds. You will not find better mixed or better sounding CD's than those by Knopfler/Shangri-La studios. If you've never heard a perfect sounding recording, get Mark Knopfler, "Shangri-La", released in 2005. I have a friend with a very, very high end system which picks up everything in the recording and there are zero, and I mean zero flaws on this CD. I would much rather purchase CD's but still I buy lots of downloads when I want a song or two and not an entire CD. I don't know how much Lightfoot would actually benefit from this though.