Talking Heads Catalog on HDtracks

[mdmeinmd]

Hi all! New to CA, and have found the site a great resource. This is my first post so please bear with me.

 

I recently purchased four Talking Heads albums from HDtracks - Talking Heads: 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Remain in Light, and Speaking in Tongues. Each of these albums is sold as audiophile 96kHz/24bit files. Upon listening to each of these albums, I found only Remain in Light to sound superior to my old compact disc versions (Note: my compact disc versions of these albums are not the 2005 remasters but the mid-80's issues.).

 

I ran all album files in Audacity. A large number of these tracks appear to be not as advertised, i.e. not 96kHz/24bit. Furthermore, many of the files had compressed dynamics and exhibited clipping. Was not expecting such clipping or dynamic range problems - these are advertised as audiophile quality!

 

Concerning the specifics of each album...

 

Talking Heads: 77 - no clipping found, but dynamic range compressed on all files. Tracks 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11 (more than half of the tracks) show no signal above ~22kHz. Track 11 waveform and spectrogram...

 

 

 

More Songs About Buildings And Food - clipping found on all tracks except tracks 1, 8, 9, and 10 (of 11 total tracks). All tracks except 2, 3, and 5 show no signal above ~22kHz. Track 11 waveform (red lines indicate clipping) and spectrogram...

 

 

 

Remain in Light - this album sounds fantastic! I have no problems with any of this album's music files - no clipping, great dynamic range, and all read as 24-bit/96kHz. Track 8 waveform and spectrogram...

 

 

 

Speaking in Tongues - dynamic range is poor across entire album (9 total tracks), with tracks 1 and 4 having clipping. Tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4 have no signal above ~22kHz. Track 1 waveform (red lines indicate clipping) and spectrogram...

 

 

 

An issue I have with all of these albums is the lack of information regarding the source. This has been mentioned in other threads numerous times, and it would be nice if HDtracks indicated where these "audiophile" quality files originate from. An extreme example of this is track 8 on the Remain in Light album. The HDtracks version is 7+ minutes long whereas all other versions I have found are ~ 6 minutes in length. Would be nice where this version came from.

 

I have asked HDtracks to address my concerns in one of three ways: (1) provide me information concerning the origin of the high resolution files for these three albums - not just a simple assurance - so that I can be sure they are in fact the 24-bit/96kHz they are listed as being; (2) provide me with true audiophile quality versions of these albums; (3) credit my account for the cost of these three albums (or some fraction of the cost). I have yet to hear back.

 

Jay

[got tinnitus]

Hi Jay

 

RIL does sound awesome. I have the original first release on vinyl to compare it to and you're right, there appears to be some minor remix work going on. One track in particular (can't recall which one) has some prominent backing vocals missing on the HD Track release.

 

Sorry to hear though the other albums don't appear to be the real-deal. I so wish HD Tracks (and others) post a sample plot so you know what you're buying...

 

I recently got burned on Esperanza Spalding's latest; a big let down in terms of SQ and the plot seemed to show some serious filtering.

[wgscott]

True Stories is also problematic.

 

Be sure to have a look at this thread.

[Julf]

True Stories is also problematic..

 

Only if you believe some amateur cowpokes who keep throwing around their open source software in an irresponsible way...

[Garf]

Jay, I am sorry you apparently didn't wrangle up the threads talking about the problem with True Stories. We put that sad story to pasture long ago, and sat back at the campfire listening to the excellent Remain in Light instead. (I hope you read the post wgscott linked, my attempt at cowboy banter will make some sense).

 

Thanks for pulling the gun and testing the other Talking Head offerings from HDTracks, after buying True Stories, I was a bit gun shy about buying another from HDTracks.

 

Sad, as I wanted to believe that 77 was as good as Remain in Light, I almost added that title to a couple of other orders. I still have some hope that HDTracks will pull their heads out of their arses, and find the actual True Stories that rumors have it, is floating around somewhere.

 

They will probably give you the canned response, and give you credit to download other albums. It is sad really, I am still holding on to the hope that things will improve.

 

Regards,

 

Gary (an aspiring Audacity Cowboy)

[wgscott]

The most frustrating thing about True Stories is that HD tracks clearly has (or has immediate access) to the good high res files. You can see them posted in that thread. But they won't acknowledge that the ones they sell are different, and problematic. I just don't get it. What do they have to lose?

 

They never acknowledged my correspondence on this, but they did finally refund my credit card purchase. Frankly, I would much rather they had kept the money and given me the good high-res files.

[mdmeinmd]

Ah, I did read the "True Stories" threads, but I was duped by the glorious sound of the "Remain In Light" album. Still have not heard back from the folks at HDtracks. I really don't want a credit - just want some 24bit/96kHz Talking Heads' albums and information concerning the source of their files. What is strange about these albums is that some tracks do appear to be 24bit/96kHz while others do not. I will use "Talking Heads: 77" as an example.

 

Here are the Audacity graphs for track 1:

 

 

 

 

All looks good (although the dynamics are a bit compressed). Tracks 2, 4, 5, and 9 also look good. Now let's look at track 3:

 

 

 

 

Tracks 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11 look much like track 3.

 

Makes one wonder where HDtracks is getting these files from and who is running quality control. Looks to me as if half the tracks are legit while the other half are not.

 

I asked HDtracks for source information and legitimate 24bit/96kHz files for all tracks on this album. We shall see if they reply and, if they do, whether they credit me for the fraction of the album that is not "as advertised" or provide me with the information and legit files.

 

Will post files for "More Songs About Buildings and Food" and "Speaking in Tongues" in the coming days.

 

Jay

[wgscott]

 

Will post files for "More Songs About Buildings and Food" and "Speaking in Tongues" in the coming days.

 

Jay

 

If you could post them in the "objective and subjective" forum, one thread per album, it would be great. We (all of us) are trying to create a collective resource that is somewhat standardized and easy to access.

 

I think the quoting feature will enable you to do this without having to re-upload the stuff you already have. Just quote the text with the img tags, and then copy it into your copy/paste buffer, and then paste into a new thread. Or if that is too onerous, linking to this one from a thread there would help.

 

Thanks.

 

Bill

[bottlerocket]

"Speaking in Tongues - dynamic range is poor across entire album (9 total tracks), with tracks 1 and 4 having clipping. Tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4 have no signal above ~22kHz. Track 1 waveform (red lines indicate clipping) and spectrogram..."

 

My experience with the HD Tracks version of Speaking in Tongues was exactly as above. HD Tracks allowed me to make an alternate choice free of charge, and I was satisfied with that. (hey I got Charlie Brown's Christmas; what's not like).

 

I started wondering if any Talking Heads early music would be a good choice for Hi - res despite the engineering.

[mdmeinmd]

Heard back from the good folks at HDtracks. They are willing to offer me a downloadable album for each of the Talking Heads albums that I am dissatisfied with (read: that were not as advertised). Was hoping that the reply would have information concerning the origin of the poor quality Talking Heads album downloads, but none was given.

 

Will post plots for these three albums - "Talking Heads: 77", "More Songs About Buildings and Food", and "Speaking in Tongues" in the (suggested) appropriate forum in the coming days. That way others will know what they are about to buy.

 

Jay

[Vorlon]

Here come my late 4 cents:

 

I just checked "Fear of Music", which I have downmixed from 5.1 to stereo from the DVD-A album. Track no.1, "I Zimbra", sounded funny compared to the 2ch track, didn't like it, huge lack of bass.

 

So I analyzed both tracks with MusicScope. The downmix is 96/24, but sounds funny. The 2ch track sounded like I am used to, from my old CD. It has added a little loudness, but no clipping; checked this with Acoustica. But it is upsampled, and stops at 22kHz. I still like the sound of it, so I use this track on my server.

 

Regarding "77" on DVD-A, I found all tracks to be 96/24. "Remain in Light", DVD-A - OK.

 

Lastly, (Ha!), I was finally able to arrest HiResAudio. I purchased "Speaking in Tongues" 96/24. The first four tracks are upsampled, ending at 22kHz. I have asked them for money back, or next album free.

[Vorlon]

Correcting myself here:

 

I cannot expect these old albums being native 96/24. They all sound great, no matter the upsampling. So I have withdrawn my request for money back, but I did ask for better info on each album. As long as the info is there, I could easily purchase more upsampled stuff, aware of the restrictions older albums/masterings may have.

 

Regarding "More Songs"...most is upsampled. I think only two tracks are 96/24. The album sounds fine anyway. I check my albums with MusicScope.

 

PS: Values like DR8 does not scare me anymore. Using Acoustica and MusicScope, I can see that there is still headroom and no clipping on many DR8 albums. Knowing that, I just turn the volume down a little.