• aleph@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    Killer samples do happen, sure but vorbis at Q9? I’m highly dubious. That track in particular just sounds badly recorded to begin with. If you have that same version in FLAC i would be interested to see some ABX test results or test it myself.

    For archival purposes, though, I agree FLAC is the way to go.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      Killer samples do happen, sure but vorbis at Q9? I’m highly dubious.

      Back in 2004, when the album released, the encoder was barely past version 1.0. Though after 20 years I could misremember “full quality” as “whatever people said wouldn’t degrade quality”.

      That track in particular just sounds badly recorded to begin with.

      Heresy. Next thing you’re going to tell me is that Sunn O))) should move the mics away from the amps so the sound is cleaner. Granted, though, Sunn O))) does that live, blackmail live is quite different because they can’t layer a gazillion tracks for the mix. But yes the deliberateness of just how much noise is in those guitars doesn’t get conveyed after getting mangled by ten year old youtube compression.

      • aleph@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        9 months ago

        Lol, I’m not saying that brickwalling the mix to achieve a certain effect isn’t a thing, but at the extreme levels of compression and clipping apparent on that track, it’s unlikely that a FLAC would sound even remotely different. Apparently the band agreed - in 2020 they issued a remaster which seems noticeably less crushed:

        Dynamic range comparison screenshot

        Incidentally, I saw Sunn O))) live once. I can still feel my bowels shake.