I'm with you chemicalreaction, I don't care about the quality for the most part (draw line at 96k though). I use mp3 for the same reason griffin does - previewing songs. Well, and to get hold of stuff that's not commercially available (live songs mostly)

yes i have most of the chems live and dj sets and i have to thanks mp3s for that.

Most males cannot hear those missing frequencies and often not even artifacts of compression.



However, I -- and perhaps some other people on here -- have a hearing range wider than most women. I notice.



-> Nerdcore: you mean PowerMac G5? :P I'm getting one in June :D

I posted about the human hearing in another post before, basically up until your late teens your hearing is more acute but as you get older you start to lose highs or lows as your eardrum either slackens or tightens. Our hearing is strongest in the mid range about 3000hz as most of the everyday sounds are in this range. Did you know that 1db increase in this frequency range is equal to a 3db increase in other ranges.

I think chemicalreaction brought up some good points regarding mp3's and I think in his situation what he does makes sense - however (and this is a big "however") I don't think it's "right" to download stuff just because you're a music fan who loves music. From where I see it, that's sort of abusing the system. When I was younger and living at home and going to school before I had to work for a living, I saved my allowance/babysitting money/birthday money etc and bought my records that way or traded stuff with friends. Downloading music just for the sake of donwloading music even if music is your passion is no excuse to take advantage of the system. I'm not attacking you, chemicalreaction, in any way because I don't know the details of your life - and I hope you don't see it as an attack, just pointing out something from my perspective. My husband is very guilty of downloading songs (is that the fcc knocking at my door?) and we argue about this constantly. And to some degree, I've been guilty of file sharing in the past. I downloaded Come With Us before it came out and I purchased it (there, I said it, I'll get to that point in my next post) Take all this into account - I work in a record store, record sales allow me to have a job that I feel (even though the pay is crud) can be rewarding because music of all kinds is a gift... so it's kind of natural for me to feel the way I do.



Personally, I have no problem with sampling songs if your intent is pure - $18.99 is a lot to shell out for one cd that you might hate, and record stores that allow trade-ins on used product are becoming extint and far between. Anyway. I wished I had the luxury of technology when I was younger, it would've saved me the hassle and money spent on records I didn't like. Consumers are smarter these days, and technology has helped consumers spend their money wisely. But I do think some lines have been crossed and people (from downloaders all the way up to the big wigs in the music industry) have abused the system - and the old argument I hear all the time "the artists don't see the money from sales anyway" is bullshit. Even if they only received one penny for every 10,000 units sold, if everyone's getting something for nothing that might mean the artist never sees that penny. It doesn't matter how successful or on-the-charts an artist is, or if they spend all their royalties on touring, drugs, hookers, clothes, cars - creating music is their livelihood, it is their job and even if we think some artists are shit, hey, it's their gig and they've earned it. In the end, that penny should be theirs.



Sorry for going off on a tangent, but that's my 2 and a half cents on the issue of downloading. :-//

[quote+"whirlygirl"]I downloaded Come With Us before it came out and I purchased it (there, I said it, I'll get to that point in my next post)[/quote]



Now that I got that out in the open... my reasons? I wanted to hear it, and I knew that even if I did not like it, I would purchase it anyway because I am a fan of the Chemical Brothers. And I did, the ltd digipak was a birthday present to myself. Maybe it was totally unethical and out of line, and if anyone sees it that way I completely understand.

iguanapunk Escribi�:

When you listen to a song, you don't want to miss out on what the composers have created. Listening to a song as how it was intended to be heard, perfect quality is a different experiance and makes a lot of difference.



Saying this, if you don't have the right equipment you wont be able to fully apreciate the sound. I'm talking about a 7.1 quality surround system, and a decent unit. If you've experianced that, then you can tell me the sound quality doesn't matter.

This I agree with. Case in point, the Come With Us record I downloaded. It was actually damn good quality for an mp3, I'll give it that.



But not as good as the real deal. When I got my official copy of Come With Us, I heard things I didn't hear on my downloaded copy - these things were subtle, but they were definitely "there" and these subtleties had enough of an impact on me to completely change my tune as far as Come With Us goes. I won't bore you with nit picky details on the differences between what I heard in the downloaded copy and the real thing - but I can tell you, the difference was definitely there. I still have my dl'd copy and I listened to it the other day. The difference wasn't completely night and day, but it's there I tell you.



So the moral of this story is, I will not download anymore Chemical Brothers records no matter how much I'm frothing at the mouth and no matter how impatient I am. Safe to say, my downloaded copy could have easily spoiled my outlook on Come With Us - perhaps if I wasn't a big fan. I'm glad to say I didn't let the downloaded quality get in the way of me obtaining the real deal, and ultimately listening to the quality in which the Chems intended CWU to be heard.



As for 7.1 surround - that would be ultimate and I'd love to have a set-up like that. But I think if the ears are open and you're listening intently, you can hear quality even if it's not an ultimate 7.1 surround sound system...

I personally like headphones as the best way to listen to music, for many reasons.

1) You don't piss other people off, no matter how loud.

2) You don't get outside noise interference (ie. neighbours vacuuming or whatever)

3) Panning. Songs like Elektrobank (that siren near the beginning) sound a million times better as it pans between your ears. It's just you and the sound, and the brothers do their job - messing with your head, without the aid of substances.

I use my headphones non stop when making tunes. You also want good headphones so you can hear all the little details :)

I got a nice set of techniques headphones,the bass is pretty awesome

i listen to most music in my car, when i am relaxed just cruzin...it's best. the other day i put get yourself high Ahhh bad ass. i got some really good speakers in my car and i can hear even the smallest detail.

I listen to most of my music on the PC, but cos I blew my decent set I bought recently (u know) i'm back to my old shitty ones, it's not the same.

somehow i don't like the idea of listening dance music when sitting...like in front of a pc...when i hear good dance music i dance no matter where i am ( well i shake my booty atleast which some people say looks like i am having a seizure) well anyway if i am in the car i speed up and almost everytime go 15 miles over the the posted. when in front on the PC it's hard to move...you know what i mean.

Get yourself a chair with wheels on. When I stick on Billie Jean, my chair goes all over the place.

i do have chair with wheels on but with headphones on it's hard to manuever and do a 360.

X-D My god, you two (iguana and chemreaction) are making me laugh tonight!



The mental theater is killing me.

Any word on a at least a 128K funky drumsss?

iguanapunk Escribi�:

Any word on a at least a 128K funky drumsss?

I HAVE A 360 KB VERSION (ORIGINAL FILE), BUT HOW TO SEND YOU...AND VERY SOON MY 2ND TRACK SO PREPARE BECAUSE THIS IS BEAUTIFUL (YEAH I�M MODEST).

360? Are you thinking 320 KBPS?(CD quality)

I think that's what he meant ;) he's getting his angles mixed up with his music. I guess mexico is just weird.

320kbps is NOT CD Quality! Pay attention, folks!