what does faq stand for
fruitcake asking questions

- */"NINJA´\
alt.fan.frank-zappa, 
March 2001
 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the zappa versions/vinyl vs. cd guide, and why should i care?

A: There's a concept in Zappa fandom called "Conceptual Continuity," the idea of the oeuvre being one long composition which takes various forms; a one-off riff here might metamorphose into a song later on, a cover of "Whipping Post" on an album from 1984 can be traced back to an audience member in the 1970s, et cetera.

This guide traces the conceptual continuity of Zappa's albums.

The guide evolved from a wonderful document written by Vladimir Sovetov in the early (-er) days of the Internet. It later found its home on the web, and was maintained by the wonderful Bossk(R) for many years. Bossk(R) then bequeathed it to me, your humble webmaster.

The Zappa Versions/Vinyl Vs. CD guide is designed for the Zappa newbie, the expert, and everything in between. FZ released a lot of albums, and his love of change--and, specifically, his hands-on approach to issuing his catalog on CD--means that the Zappa catalog is especially confusing in its scope. Thus, hopefully it will aide new fans in making purchasing decisions, while also explaining to the 1970s-era Zappa fan why his recently purchased CD of "Sleep Dirt" has singing on it, for god's sake. This has become even more pressing with the 2012 reissues of the Zappa catalog; now, with some titles, there are upwards of four different versions that can be found lurking in stores to thoroughly confuse the consumer.

It also hopefully appeals to those who find this kind of music-related investigation to be as fascinating as I do. Zappa fans do not have Lewisohn's Recording Sessions to tell them why certain changes happened; as such, it's all detective work, and given the sheer variety of issues to contend with...well, it's a lot of detective work. Not everyone may find revelations about the sequence of "Yeah"s in "Wild Love" to be the focus of their particular interest, but someone might (and, if you do, you'll find a lot of other stuff to like here).


Q: What's with the Japanese Paper-Sleeve CDs?

A: The same stuff in new packaging. If you haven't heard of this line of CDs, they came out in Japan in 2001/2002, in little paper-sleeve replicas of LP covers. They look very nice, and come with all sorts of fetishistic wonderment, but are completely ignorable otherwise.

In 2012, it appeared that Japan was ready to roll out a new batch of mini-LP CDs. These will presumably duplicate the 2012 remasters.


Q: Are There Any Differences Between Vinyl and CDs?

A: Yes, in most cases. Zappa loved to tinker, and was changing things even before the CD era had fully swung into gear.

Note that the 2012 reissues, to the extent that they use "new" remasters, tend to revert to the way things sounded on vinyl.

(Read more on the individual pages for each album, which you can reach from the main page.)


Q: Are There Any Differences Between Old and New CDs? What about old cds and old cds?

A: Yes, in several cases.

(Read more in this on the individual pages for each album, which you can reach from the main page. Also check the 2012 CD rundown.)


Q: How do you tell when two CDs are "the same?"

A: Throughout the various album pages, you'll find statements asserting that various CDs are "identical."

To explain what we mean by this, we first need to explain the idea of discs being "the same." Pre-digital formats--vinyl, tape, wax cylinders, and the like--were analogue media. You could have two records, pressed around the same time, with the same basic content that nevertheless sounded very different; location pressed, condition of the stamper, quality of vinyl, and other factors all would influence how a record would sound. Vinyl-philes often search out specific pressings that have good reputations for exactly these reasons.

Compounding this issue is another innate quality of analogue sound reproduction: no two playthroughs will ever be exactly the same. Let's say that Frank transfers the old "Chunga's Revenge" album master to digital in the UMRK. He transfers the master for side one, then accidentally transfers side one again. These two transfers were performed on the same tape machine, using the same tape, within 15 minutes of each other. Despite this, the two transfers wouldn't be exactly the same. They'd probably sound pretty similar, but if you attempting to synchronize them, they would drift ever so slowly out of sync.

Digital audio, on the other hand, operates on an entirely different paradigm. Digital audio is a series of ones and zeroes that is not inherently dependent on the medium; a consequence of this is that digital audio playback will (for all intents and purposes) for the same source be the same every time. Now, Frank transfers side one of "Chunga's Revenge" to digital. He uses this digital tape to make a CD. Five years later, he "approves" the same digital transfer for a reissue campaign, and makes new CDs. If you started the CDs at the exact same time, they would stay in exact sync, provided nothing went wrong in the pressing process.

Thus, a conclusion: two discs that are derived from the same digital transfer will stay in sync. 

[Note two quick caveats to the above. Firstly, this particular analysis is borderline meaningless when talking about albums that were recorded digitally. "Them Or Us," for example, is a digital recording; consequently, it is expected that all CDs will stay in sync. Secondly, just because two recordings do NOT stay in sync does not mean that they cannot derive from the same digital transfer. Bah!]

There's another level to this, though. Two albums derived from the same digital transfer with no further "tinkering" will cancel out to perfect digital silence when subtracted in an audio editor, minus any gremlins that may have crept into the digital master over time. Thus, there's another, stronger conclusion: two sound files that cancel out in this manner are digitally identical.

Why should we care? Hearing is a very subjective thing, as any review of sound quality will attest. As such, the above method is the closest to objectivity we can get in describing versions. If two CDs have the same data, they are digitally identical, and should thus sound exactly the same. As there is a tendency to expert "remastered" issues to sound better than older CDs, this can occasionally go against common sense, which is why the above explanation should be helpful.

Alas, it has also become popular in recent years to loudly proclaim that "digitally identical" CDs can sound different. "Debates" on this subject rage with the ferocity, vitriol, and relative merit of such disputes as evolution versus creationism. Suffice it to say, some people will never believe in the possible fallibility of their perceptions, and this is their right. However, this site will not humor, and will not repost, subjective listening impressions based on the purported differences between identical cds.

Note that many of the 2012 reissues are not remastered, but are instead "taken from" the old digital masters used to prepare previous CDs. They are not technically taken from previous CDs. As Joe Travers notes:

"[T]he 1630 masters were in wretched shape by the time we transferred them in 2008. That Ampex tape stock is so problematic, they had to be baked in order to retrieve the data. FYI, we also had to do that for almost all of the 1630 Digital House Masters that the catalog lived on. It took almost a year to treat & save all of those tapes. UGH."


Q: WHAT ARE THE "BAD BATCH" CDS, AND WHY ARE THEY BAD?

A: Sound quality issues are often subjective. An album that sounds "bad" to one person might sound quite spiffy to another. The Hot Rats remix is one such example; some people absolutely hate the remix, while some like it.

That said, there are a few CDs in Zappa's catalogue which exhibit signs of particularly nasty audio defects, like drop-outs and volume swells. Many of these discs come from the same few batches in the late eighties, and their problems can (apparently) be blamed on a combination of a "state-of-the-art" digital workstation and Zappa's deteriorating hearing/health. Many of the problems occur in the right-channel of the stereo spectrum, for some reason. As the above might imply, we've never really gotten a satisfactory answer to what exactly happened here, only a description of a confluence of factors (we can, however, rule out bad analog to digital transfers as the culprit, as at least one of the "bad batch" items is a pure digital recording; moreover, many of the "Bad Batch" CDs were seemingly made from digital transfers Zappa had already released on the "Old Masters" boxes without any problems).

Some of these discs are worse than others. The revised (as of 2012) list of the "bad batch" includes the following discs:: You Are What You Is (all post-EMI CDs, fixed in 1998), Tinseltown Rebellion (all post-EMI CDs, fixed in 1998), Sheik Yerbouti (all post EMI CDs), Them Or Us (Zappa Records and '95 Ryko), Zoot Allures, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, Just Another Band from LA (in part), Chunga's Revenge, the Apostrophe/Over-Nite Sensation twofer (only the Zappa Records edition), Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (also only the Zappa Records edition), and--oddly enough--L. Shankar's "Touch Me There," which was released on Barking Pumpkin and Zappa Records. A few other discs (like JABFLA) are also theoretically from the same bad batch, but do not exhibit the same audio problems universally. You Are What You Is, Tinseltown Rebellion, Sheik Yerbouti, and Them Or Us have EMI CD (and Ryko, for "Them or Us') variations which do not have these audio issues, and YAWYI and TR were reissued in corrected editions by Ryko in 1998.

Apparently, all non-EMI , non-2012 versions of the above albums have these problems. This includes issues on Zappa Records, and various releases on Rykodisc. Thankfully, the 2012 reissues fixed all of these problems, except (so far) with "Touch Me There," for obvious reasons. You'll want to avoid older iterations of these titles when hunting through the used bins.

A word about the "bad batch" items: you may not be bothered by the audio defects on these titles. People enjoyed "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" on CD merrily for years without noticing that there are right-channel dropouts throughout the album. We are not attempting to imply that you shouldn't buy these titles, but merely that they have problems, which may bother some more than others.


Q: Why are there so many differences?

A: Because Zappa wanted it that way. The fact is that Zappa loved to change things, and sometimes he would make a mistake or just make a change that you don't like. A lot of the time, when Zappa fans don't like something, they blame it on "the record company", because they know Zappa didn't like record companies and had run-ins with some of them. But what you have to remember is that Zappa was, for a great part of his career, in effect, his own record company. This is not the case with most other artists. There are many differences between different versions of his albums, and only very, very few of them can be blamed on record companies. Almost all of them are because of Zappa: he remixed an album, he remastered an album, he re-recorded parts of an album, he made a mistake, or he approved a mistake that someone else had made. The ZFT finally began vetoing these decisions in 2012, but until then, Zappa's 1980s/1990s decisions ruled the day.

Examples of things that people don't like that are Zappa's fault include:

  • The CD version of Cruisin' with Ruben & the Jets - Zappa remixed and re-recorded it, and while the original has been released on "Greasy Love Songs," the version you can buy in stores is still the remix.
  • The old CD version of We're Only In It for the Money - Zappa remixed and re-recorded it.
  • "Willie the Pimp, part 2" was deleted from the non-2012 CD versions of Fillmore East, June 1971 - deleted by none other than Frank Zappa.
  • The pre-2012 Sleep Dirt CD has vocals that were not on the vinyl - because Zappa wanted those vocals all along, but hadn't recorded them at the time of the LP release.
  • "I'm So Cute" is a lot shorter on most CD versions of Sheik Yerbouti - Zappa's decision. He put a stop to the EMI CD version, which sounded better and had the full "I'm So Cute" on it.
  • Bad CD versions of You Are What You Is - Zappa approved this bad remaster, and put a stop to the good EMI version.
  • Any remix - record companies didn't have a right to remix Zappa's albums. He either remixed them himself, or let someone else remix them and liked the results.

There are 250 (or maybe 270, according to a new census) people in the USA.

- Miguel Amorim, alt.fan.frank-zappa, January 1999
 

And that list could be several pages longer. Examples of versions that people don't like that are a record company's fault (and this list couldn't be much longer at all) include:

  • The censorship on the heavily-censored We're Only In It for the Money vinyl - in Zappa's own words, this album was censored by a "sick motherfucker with a razor blade".
  • The Zappa in New York vinyl without "Punky's Whips" - this debacle started a major lawsuit, which Zappa finally won (but in the meantime, the record company had time to put out three LPs without much input from Zappa - Orchestral Favorites, Sleep Dirt and Studio Tan - and when he prepared CD versions of those three later, he made a lot of changes which some fans don't like.)
  • Unauthorized compilations, such as the non-Mothermania MGM-Verve releases and several of the Ryko-era CD compilations (or, according to the ZFT, all of the Ryko-era CD compilations).

So, criticising a record company when a Zappa album sounds strange is almost like criticising them when we don't like a Zappa song. Zappa made album versions like other artists make songs - sure he made some bad songs in his day, but we love him anyway!


Q: I Have All the Old CDs. What Are the Most and Least Important New CDs to Get?

A: Check the 2012 rundown and the individual album pages. In short, though, it depends on which "old" CDs you have. In most cases, however, the "old" CDs represent something Zappa tampered with, and the "new" CDs--which are now the 2012 reissues--represent reversions to the way things sounded back in the LP days.

Note that in no cases are any of the Ryko 1995 CDs essential anymore (at least not yet). If you have any older disc, there is no reason to ever upgrade to a 1995 Ryko specifically instead of one of the 2012 discs.


Q: WHAT ARE THE AU20 GOLD CDS?

A: Audiophile versions of Apostrophe (') and One Size Fits All. They're not just gold versions; they were made from different master tapes than the regular Ryko 1995 CDs. These master tapes were remasters of the original vinyl mixes - in the case of One Size Fits All, the Au20 CD eliminated the extra reverberation that was added to the regular CD master, and in the case of Apostrophe ('), the original CD was remixed, so the vinyl mix on the Au20 CD is different from the regular CD. The Au20 releases were part of a series of gold discs released by Rykodisc which also included some entries by David Bowie and Elvis Costello.

However, at some point in production, Ryko started using these masters for new pressings of their regular CDs, too, so some production runs of the regular CDs were Au20 versions without the gold. 

Now that the 2012 CDs exist, the Au20s are an expensive curio rather than an essential investment for major fans of those two albums. Some still prefer them to the respective 2012 discs, but it is a matter of taste.


Q: WHAT ARE THE "EMI" CDS AND WHY DO/DID PEOPLE WANT THEM?

The EMI CDs are an oddity in Zappa's CD catalogue, in that they're the only "rogue" official releases out there. Zappa didn't like them, and attempted (successfully) to get them removed from the marketplace.

EMI is a very big record company. In the mid-eighties, EMI was Zappa's main European (and, apparently, at least one of his Japanese) label for his new album releases. EMI also re-released some of his slightly-older albums--like Sheik Yerbouti, for example--in "digitally remastered" vinyl releases. At some point, EMI apparently realized that they could take the digital masters provided by Frank for these digitally-remastered LPs and slap them on the marketplace in the sparkling-new Compact Disc Digital Audio format. The following discs were issued: Sheik Yerbouti, Joe's Garage, Tinsel-Town Rebellion, Shut Up & Play Yer Guitar, You Are What You Is, The Man from Utopia and Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch (as a "two-for-one" release), Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger, Them Or Us, Thing-Fish, Does Humor Belong in Music?, Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention and Jazz from Hell (also as a two-fer).

Safe to say, Frank was not pleased. He viewed these discs as cheap rip-offs, and in some ways they were. They were clearly taken from masters intended for the vinyl medium; they featured fade-outs between sides, and were clearly equalized for vinyl frequency response. The EMI CD releases were thus available for a comparably-short time in Europe, and were superseded by the "Zappa Records" label CD issues, the Ryko '95 issues, and now the 2012 Zappa issues.

Thanks to Zappa's tendency to change his albums for subsequent reissues, however, some EMI CDs are still necessary for completists. Currently, The Man from Utopia, Boulez Conducts Zappa, Thing-Fish and Does Humor Belong in Music are still essential, as all subsequent CDs (including 2012 releases) contain reworked and remixed versions.


Q: There Seem to Be a Lot of Versions of Zappa's Albums. Is There Any Pattern to It?

A: Tough one. First of all, his "entire catalogue" (actually, it was most of it) was re-released on CD in 1995, on the Ryko label. These are known as the "1995 CDs", and most of them are easy to recognise because they're in green-tinted trays (unless they're BMG versions of the 1995 CDs, that is). Before that, there were different CD versions in the US, Europe and Japan: in the US, most CDs were on Ryko or Barking Pumpkin; in Europe, they were on Zappa Records, and in Japan, they were on Music Scene Inc. (MSI) or Video Arts & Music (VACK). Before that, there were a few European CDs on EMI (see above), which were soon withdrawn. (According to Mikael Agardsson, there were also some Japanese EMI CDs - maybe five.)

Simplified CD Overview
  USA Europe Japan
2012 Vaulternative, Zappa Records (in both UMe and non-UMe flavors)
2001-2011 DTS, Ryko (main catalogue), Vaulternative, Zappa Records
1995 -

Ryko's "1995 CDs" - entire catalogue overhaul (still some regional variation, but most are just re-labeled Ryko editions)

Late '80s - 
early '90s
Ryko or Barking Pumpkin Zappa Records EMI, VACK or MSI
Mid-1980s EMI

Before that, there was vinyl. Early vinyl albums were on Verve, and, a bit later (1969), they were on Bizarre in the US and Reprise in Europe. In 1973, DiscReet took over, and around 1979 or so they were coming out on Barking Pumpkin in the US and CBS in Europe. EMI took over the European side in 1984, and the last regular vinyl releases, in 1987-1988, were on Zappa Records.

Simplified Vinyl Overview
  USA Europe Japan Elsewhere
1966-1968 Verve Verve Mostly Verve
1969-1972 Bizarre Reprise Bizarre/Reprise Mostly Reprise
1973-1978 DiscReet Mostly DiscReet
1979-1983 Barking Pumpkin CBS Mostly CBS
1984-1986 EMI ? Various
1987-1988 Zappa Records (?)

 

1985, '86, '87 The Old Masters boxes - special case

Yes, in the vinyl days, a lot of countries made their own LP versions - in Europe, South America, Asia and Oceania - and these did not follow simple patterns. (All the Bizarre-in-the-US LPs were released in Canada on Reprise, but with identical catalogue numbers and packaging). Then there were re-issues upon re-issues of re-issues. Some of Zappa's own re-issues were re-mastered. And of course, there have been cassette versions. And 8-track tape, and reel-to-reel, and even versions for the short-lived Sony PLAYTAPE format.

(And a mini-history of Zappa distribution from Biffy the Elephant Shrew:

The original Zappa Records was distributed by Mercury/Phonogram in the US (although those records came out on CBS elsewhere in the world) until they balked at distributing [the single] "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted", for political reasons. Consequently, CBS did the honors for "Drafted". Zappa then formed Barking Pumpkin, which was at first distributed by CBS, then switched to Capitol in 1984. (Perhaps because Capitol gave FZ the opportunity to put out The Perfect Stranger on their prestigious classical label, Angel?) [I think it was because CBS refused to distribute Thing-Fish. An old lady at the pressing factory heard it, brought it to whoever was in charge, and they flipped out, deeming it "unbelievably vulgar and offensive". I think Frank sued them over it, and then dropped CBS worldwide - JWB]

The Zappa label was revived in the late '80s, distributed by Music For Nations, for the European versions of the CDs that were coming out on Rykodisc and Barking Pumpkin (with the Capitol connection having evolved into CEMA) in the US.)


Q: Are There Any Difference Between Different Vinyl Versions?

A: Rarely. (Of course, since vinyl is an analogue medium, there can be differences in pressing quality and vinyl quality, and these differences can be subtle or not so subtle. But as a rule, there was no remixing of vinyl versions, even though a few albums, such as You Are What You Is, came out in digitally remastered vinyl versions. In some countries there was censorship, so certain regional versions may be shorter or have different tracks on them. And the Old Masters boxes of LP re-issues were not made from the old master tapes at all - they were same remasters and remixes that were used for the first CDs. And there were almost always differences in artwork and packaging.) Read more on the individual pages for each album, which you can reach from the main page.


Q: What's Up with the BMG Pressings of Zappa Albums?

A: from a reader:

BMG, in case you don't know, is an American "Record Club"; you know, one of those "17 CDs for half of a cent" type of deals. BMG, unlike Columbia's clubs as far as I know, actually PRINTS its own CDs, however. Therefore, if you buy titles from BMG, they're not going to be exactly the same as titles you buy in a store, and the Zappa albums are no exception. Some differences that I've found:

  1. There is, of course, no green jewel case. Darn.
  2. There's a copyright notice on various places on the CD (usually the back, sometimes other places) that state the disc is from BMG Direct Marketing.
  3. Occasionally, the back insert isn't put in too well ... it's hard to explain, but occasionally the titles on the sides of the disc (where it says RYKO, the catalogue number, Zappa's name in a weird font ;-) are cut off. I don't know why this happens.
  4. The art on the CD itself is sort of weird. At least in the case of the "early period" albums, the art on the CD is the same, but darker / MUCH blurrier, and with a few different bits of letting on it, and it's also printed on the disc differently. This might happen as well with the later discs as well, but I haven't seen them first hand, so I'm not sure.
  5. Some mistakes are made; for example, the Läther case is missing the see-through part of the jewel case that would allow you to see Frank and his Richie Nixon sign.

However, as far as sound quality goes, the releases seem to be mostly, if not exactly, the same. [More on BMG]


Q: Since There Are So Many Versions ... What If I Want them ALL?

A: You're crazy! It's impossible, but for the theory behind it, see this Completist's Guide (vigorously out of date).



Q: WHAT ARE DVD-AUDIO AND SACD? WHAT EQUIPMENT DO I NEED TO PLAY THEM?

A: In February, 2003, DTS Entertainment released Halloween, the first Zappa release in one of the new "high resolution" digital audio formats. Both formats promise "better-than"-CD audio quality, and are completely incompatible with each other. There are no Zappa CD releases in the SACD format as of now, so let's focus on the DVD-Audio format.

DVD-Audio (which is the format used in Halloween and QuAUDIOPHILIAc) is actually two formats in one. The DTS Entertainment DVD-Audio discs contain a DVD-Audio session and a DVD-Video session. The DVD-A session can only be accessed by DVD-Audio players, and offers lossless surround and (although not on the DTS discs) lossless high-resolution stereo playback. Lossless refers to the method used to compress the audio; lossy compression schemes like MP3 and Dolby Digital "throw out" parts of the audio they think you cannot hear in order to reduce file size, while "lossless" compression schemes are more like zip-files, in that they preserve everything about the original file while reducing the size. The DVD-Video session can contain anything a DVD-Video disc normally contains--including video, discographies, etc.--but can only contain lossy (DTS or Dolby) surround tracks. The stereo tracks can still be uncompressed, however. DTS's Zappa discs contain a DTS surround track and an LPCM (essentially CD quality) stereo track.

So, in summary: the DTS Entertainment Zappa releases should be playable in any standard DVD player, but you will need a DVD-Audio capable player in order to access the higher-quality, lossless surround tracks.


Q: BUT I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO THESE DISCS ON MY DVD PLAYER! WHAT CAN I DO?

A: Thankfully, it isn't that difficult to "rip" the LPCM tracks from these discs, and use them to make your own two-channel CDs. The process requires a small amount of technical know-how (and at least one step might involve software that isn't free), and is fairly easy to follow once you understand what it involves. Unfortunately, the very act of ripping the audio portion of these DVDs might very well be illegal in your country, as many ill-informed legislatures have made it a crime to circumvent the easily-circumventable copy-protection routines on most DVDs (in fact, it's illegal in the USA to even talk about how to do this...see the sacrifices I make for you guys?). However, many Zappa fans have been asking about this on AFF-Z, and we at the Patio believe that it's well within the realm of morality to alter your DVD in such a fashion.

Without further ado, here's how to free the uncompressed LPCM track from your spankin' new copy of Halloween or QuAUDIOPHILIAc (at least on a PC...Mac users, hopefully you'll be able to translate what follows into its Mac equivalent):

  • Download DVD Decrypter if you don't already have it. It's freeware; a google search should take you right to its homepage.
  • Once you have DVD Decrypter installed, go to TOOLS --> SETTINGS. While there's a lot you can futz with here, the only tab we're going to focus on is STREAM PROCESSING. Click that, and make sure "Convert PCM to WAV" is checked.
  • Click on the tab that says IFO Mode. Under OPTIONS, there should be something which says "FILE SPLITTING." Set that to "NONE." If you're using an old filesystem (anything older than Fat32, I think) this might not be a good idea, but then again, if your computer's that old you really shouldn't be doing this.
  • Insert the DVD into your DVD-Rom drive (you do have a DVD drive on your computer, right?). Click "Mode" and make sure you're in IFO mode.
  • The "INPUT" tab on the right will update itself with the contents of the disc. This part can get confusing. Basically, what you're seeing is a simplified display of the various program trees on the disc. By default, DVD Decrypter will generally select the longest one, which is (generally) what we're looking for. Don't change anything here.
  • Click on the "STREAM PROCESSING" tab. Click "ENABLE STREAM PROCESSING." Clear the checkmarks next to everything except the LPCM audio. Click on the LPCM Audio, and change "Direct Stream Copy" on the bottom set of buttons to "DEMUX." What we're doing here is telling DVD Decrypter to rip only the audio.
  • Hit the "Decrypt" button on the lower left of the main panel. DVD Decrypter will do its thing.
  • You should end up with an .ifo file and a .wav file in the directory to which you decrypted (if you forgot to set the file-splitting, you'll end up with TWO Wave files...don't worry, we can join them later). If you end up with a VOB, you missed one of the steps above (probably the "demux" step).
  • Here's the problem: that WAV file is unfortunately not *quite* equivalent to a standard CD wave file. CD audio is 44.1kHz/16 bits, whereas audio ripped from DVDs is sampled at 48kHz or more (and can also have a higher bit-depth). Halloween's audio is 48kHz/16 bits, so you can use the freeware program Besweet to downsample the audio, but QuAUDIOPHILIAC is 48kHz/24 bits, which is slightly problematic. Good conversion programs are unfortunately not cheap. My advice: attempt to find one of the older, crippleware versions of Cool Edit (like Cool Edit 2000). These have limited functionality, but you should be able to use 'em to downsample and reduce the bit-depth (use EDIT-->CONVERT SAMPLE TYPE). If you are able to do this, try keeping the sample conversion quality high (with pre and post filtering), and use dithering (with .7 bits, 44.1kHz noise shaping, and a triangle curve) to keep the quality of the conversion as high as possible. This might sound confusing, but you'll see those options as you use the program
  • You now have one big WAV file in the correct format. There are several ways to make a nice, multi-track CD out of this file. This part is up to you.

home - vinyl vs CDs - weirdo discography - bootlegs - misc - hot lynx - e-mail us at zappa dot patio at gmail dot com 2006-04-22 20:02

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