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 December 1, 2008 The Digital Music Revolution: What Download Sites Have to Offer -- Part Three
When Ampex began releasing recordings on reel-to-reel tape, notably items from the London/Decca catalog, I jumped aboard right away. As good as the sound of some early stereo LPs was, the tapes were better. They didn’t suffer from the limitations inherent in stamping into a platter a groove that could be tracked by most phonograph cartridges, they had greater dynamic range and wider frequency response, and they were much less susceptible to pops and ticks. Recordings had been released on two-track reel-to-reel tapes since the beginning of stereo, by RCA, Mercury, and other labels, but they had to be rewound after each play. Much like an LP, a four-track tape could be flipped over to play its other "side." Dolby Noise Reduction made the tapes quieter, with little background noise. Unfortunately, the Dolby spec was seemingly often applied without standards, and reel-to-reel tapes are hard to mass-produce without the problems that seemed to exist in just about every other release, so the format folded after some years. But while they were around, reel-to-reel tapes were the next best things to master tapes, and that’s how HDTT uses them. Using the sophisticated playback equipment listed on the site (click on the "Mastering Equipment" link), they’ve made available once again some amazing-sounding recordings as well as some that sound, in the best sense, very analog. Some of the greatest recording engineers ever born were working back then, and HDTT allows their work, and the artistry of many famous musicians who have since died, to now be heard in better sound than ever. Some of these recordings have been reissued on CD, but many haven’t, including several treasures I thought had disappeared forever. These include Alexander Gibson and the London Symphony’s virtually definitive versions of Sibelius’s Karelia Suite and Symphony No.5, Pierre Monteux and the Paris Conservatory Orchestra performing Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (it sounds amazing in 24/96, head and shoulders above any earlier incarnations on LP or CD), William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s persuasive reading of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No.2 (originally released on Command), a sparkling recording of Offenbach overtures from Herrmann Scherchen and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, and many more. Start with the Karelia Suite and go from there. In addition to 24/96 FLAC downloads, HDTT also offers CDs in standard or deluxe editions, duped one at a time. Most downloads cost a reasonable $12 per complete original album, but in most cases you can also download a single track or composition. For example, HDTT offers Karl Münchinger’s recordings of Schubert’s symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 with the Vienna Philharmonic for $12, but you can download just one of the symphonies for $6. Sometimes a single download comprises an entire composition, sometimes not. Although Steinberg’s recording of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No.2 costs $12, each of the four movements must be downloaded as a separate file. This should cause no problems if you have a good download manager or a rudimentary knowledge of file management. With one HDTT download I had to go into iTunes’ information screen to number the tracks so that they’d play in the correct order, but that was an unusual case. And if you have a problem, HDTT will listen; I found them very helpful. HDTT accepts the usual credit cards as well as PayPal, and, as on all the sites covered in Part One and Part Two of this survey, you can create a personal account: when you place subsequent orders, all you have to provide are your e-mail address and password. All downloads you purchase remain linked to your account for some time; should you mess one up for some reason, you can download it again, no questions asked, until it expires. The ones I bought won’t expire until sometime in 2010 -- that’s very generous, compared to other sites. The other site this month is Gimmell Records. Click the Downloads tab and you’ll see a dropdown screen with these links:
Gimmell’s gimmick is that the label is devoted to recordings by a single group: The Tallis Scholars, an internationally renowned a cappella choral group that records music by Byrd, Palestrina, and other Renaissance composers. It’s lovely music impeccably performed, but not to everyone’s taste. If it’s to yours, I recommend these downloads with great enthusiasm. The sound of some Christmas music and Byrd masses I downloaded is downright ethereal. Gimmell gives the buyer a great number of options, explains each of them clearly, and the payment and download processes are easy. Several pop artists have websites through which they sell downloads of their music, and Gimmell is proving that such a business model can also work with classical music. I think we’ll be seeing more and more such sites, which eliminate the middlemen who used to come between performers and listeners. Next time: Naxos makes a leap toward high-definition sound that adds thousands of titles to audiophiles’ wish lists. . . . Rad Bennett
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This month I talk about two sites
that specialize in high-definition, 24-bit/96kHz audio downloads and have some unusual
features. The first is 
Click on one of those and you’ll
get a list of the recordings available in that configuration, prefaced with one of the
clearest explanations I have ever read as to exactly what codec was used for each, and
what to expect when downloading and listening to the track. The prices vary: MP3 is $11.99
per album, CD (16-bit/44.1kHz) is $15.99, Studio Master (24/44.1) is $19.99, Studio Master
Pro (24/88.2) and Studio Master 5.1 (24/48) are $23.99, and Studio Master Pro 5.1 (24/96)
is $29.95. All but MP3 can be ordered in WAV or FLAC format.