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 November 1, 2008 The Digital Music Revolution: What Download Sites Have to Offer -- Part Two Last month, I promised that I’d be posting updates about websites from which high-resolution recordings can be downloaded. Well, this technology is moving so fast that I have one already. HDtracks’ (www.hdtracks.com) oft-repeated promise to offer 24-bit/96kHz downloads has become a reality. The site’s 96/24 Store now offers 63 titles available for download, and I’m sure the list will grow quickly. The selections are nicely distributed among 16 genres, including Classical, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Folk, Soundtracks, and Historical. The first I downloaded were Exotic Dances from the Opera, with Eiji Oue conducting the Minnesota Symphony (Reference Recordings), and Chuck Mangione’s The Feeling’s Back (Chesky Records). The results were outstanding. The Oue has almost unbelievable transparency and plenty of focus; whether very soft or very loud, the many cymbal clashes in Dance of the Tumblers, from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, have uncanny presence; and while Mangione’s soulful trumpet is smooth as silk, the attack of every note can be sensed in a most intimate way. Downloading 24/96 files from HDtracks is as simple as downloading the site’s 16-bit/44.1kHz CD-quality tracks -- HDtracks’ simple-to-use download manager makes the process a breeze. The only difference, other than the improved sound quality, was the time and cost. It took about 15 minutes to download the two albums I mentioned, and the cost of hi-rez downloads is higher: $15.98 USD per album, instead of the $11.98 charged for CD quality. Individual tracks are priced much lower. Linn has long been a respected name in both recordings and playback gear. Over the years, the company has made some of the most coveted turntables you can buy, as well as highly regarded electronic components. They’ve also made their own recordings, and have been pioneers in adapting to the latest formats. Linn was one of the first companies to hook up with SACD, and one that, early on, began releasing SACD/CDs, which allowed them to release each title in only a single edition that would be playable by CD players as well as stereo and multichannel SACD players. Because Linn is so forward-looking, it’s a big endorsement of digital downloading that such a company is so interested in the format. The Linn Records website (www.linnrecords.com) offers both 16/24 and hi-rez downloads in FLAC or WMA format. But if iTunes is your music organizer and browser, don’t let that deter you; iTunes is not yet compatible with FLAC, but some really good conversion programs are available that will convert FLAC files to AIFF or WAV, which are playable with iTunes. I use dBpoweramp (www.dbpoweramp.com), but there are other good ones out there (Linn suggests Max). What I like about dBpoweramp is that I can choose the precise sampling rate I want. iTunes itself supposedly accepts WMA files and converts them to AIFF, but I had better luck converting them myself. Be prepared to experiment to find the format that best suits your needs. Linn’s website includes pages that are very helpful in learning which download format is best for you. Just hit the Downloads tab to see the topics clearly listed. I know, from having heard many of their SACD recordings, that Linn Records has one of the best production teams in the industry, and I found that their 24/96 Studio Master downloads are every bit as good as their SACDs. I downloaded albums by two of my favorite jazz singers, Claire Martin and Ian Shaw, who record exclusively for Linn. On the classical side, Linn offers more recordings of chamber music than of big orchestral works. I tried some titles by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Gilliam Weir’s recording of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto, and On Wenlock Edge, a collection of Ralph Vaughan Williams songs sung by tenor James Gilchrist. The results were outstanding, fully equal to the new hi-rez titles from HDtracks. In addition to recordings from its own catalog, Linn also offers downloads from other small, independent labels: Acousence Classics, Le Q, Petrock, Red Ram, and X-Phonics Music. (At this time, recordings from none of these is available on HDtracks.) Of course, the SACD editions of Linn’s own recordings also include surround mixes, but Linn tells me that they’ll be offering these mixes for download by the end of October. At that time, they’ll also have a built-in download manager, as HDtracks does. If that hasn’t happened by the time you read this, you’ll need a download manager of your own if you don’t want the inconvenience of downloading each track separately. Again, click the Downloads tab for a discussion of this topic, and some good recommendations.
Linn offers one thing that is, as far as I can tell, unique to the company: hard drives preloaded with Linn titles, called Linn Digital Music Collections. These come in many models and bear catalog numbers, just like an SACD release. CDK 952, for instance, includes every Studio Master download in the Linn catalog, loaded on a Lacie 500GB drive. CDK 963 comprises all of Linn’s classical recordings, on a 1TB disc. These are normally equipped with a USB jack: plug in and play. I’ve just given two examples, but there are many others; you can chose the repertory you want, and even substitute drives. While the files loaded on Digital Music Collection drives are FLAC, Linn told me that they will discuss using a different format, should you require it. The collections are expensive; CDK 952 costs $1750, CDK 963 $3370. But you don’t have to spend any money at all to sample the quality of Linn Records recordings; they’ve just begun offering a six-track sampler. Go to www.linnrecords.com/linn-downloads-testfiles.aspx for instructions. The Linn Records site offers downloads that are among the highest quality available. Though their prices are higher than HDtracks and their repertory not as varied, they have a number of unique recordings of repertory or by artists that are otherwise unavailable. It’s well worthwhile to visit the site, download the sampler, give it a listen, and see what you think. Next month: two specialty sites, one offering 24/96 downloads using two- and four-track tapes as masters, and another devoted entirely to a single artist. . . . Rad Bennett
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At the Linn site, as at
HDtracks, you buy downloads by setting up an account and charging your MasterCard or Visa
card. Linn downloads aren’t cheap: 16/44.1 CD quality is $15 per album, and hi-rez
downloads run $25 to $35. Linn has also begun offering money-saving collections of discs
by given artists -- a sort of virtual "boxed set." And individual tracks are
priced much lower.