Listen to my new Ultimatum & Deliverance records!

Check it out! Just some short clips. The audio is the actual audio from my turntable and I am pleased how well these releases turned out.

First, my favorite Ultimatum tune:



And Weapons

Sweeeet! Glad you enjoy them.

Those sound good even over my crappy pc speaks

can u plz remind me of the title track playing? I do not have the cd with me right now. thanks

Weapons Of Our Warfare. The Ultimatum song is One For All.

yap now I remember. thanks

This videos are great, good sound.

Krokus, I am still waiting to find out who the European distributor is. Will let you know as soon as I know.

Rob asked me to make another video from Side 1 of the record. Here ya go!

So is vinyl a "cool thing" in USA again now ? I personally don´t like vinyl ...

I had a conversation with my buddy who works in a record store more or less along the lines of why vinyl still "works." Now, both of us think "audiophile" vinyl is total bulls@#$ simply because vinyl, on a technical level, is a deeply flawed thing. You get inner groove distortion, static attracts dust to the groove which further degrades sound quality no matter how well you take care of your collection, etc. And yet, you'll see turntables that cost more than my car for people who are convinced they'll surpass Blu-ray hi-def recordings if ONLY their turntable has a gold-plated cartridge or some such garbage. Total crap.

What vinyl DOES have is a unique playback mechanism, big artwork and the sense of EXPERIENCE. You'd need to rip a physical record to get the playback artifacts and the general sound of vinyl. Digital gets ACCURATE, but since vinyl was never accurate to begin with, it still doesn't scratch the same itch.

This is why cassettes are gone for anyone who doesn't have nostalgia for them - they were designed to be portable more than anything else and now there is better tech for the same thing. Just as an example...

I like it for a variety of reasons. I don't care about the gram weight but 180 feels cool. I prefer to by a good used copy over new but I have bought a lot of new releases lately from The Beatles, Zeppelin, Styx, Hendrix and the two above. I was quite pleased with the audio of the above videos. Gives you an idea of what I actually hear when I play it. Sounds excellent to me. One For All is the inner most track on side 2 and I detect no inner grove distortion at all.

I've read articles on the difference between analog and digital sound and the sound waves, etc. Sound waves are analog by definition. Digital soundwaves are a snapshot of the analog audio, so can never truly capture it, even if it's nearly impossible to tell the difference.

The fact of the matter is, MP3s suck. They are compressed files that lose certain bits of information to keep the file size down. CDs are great. I've never complained about them, but they have limitations as well. Digital sound will always be digital. Just like a digital painting can never compare to a real oil painting, even if it is so darned close you can barely tell the difference.

As for vinyl, I like the collectibilty of it. (Is collectibilty a word? :-p ) The bigger artwork. The warmer sound. Nostaligia for sure. However, I'm also a big collector of CDs as well. Either way, there is something about owning that piece of a band's history, as opposed to having a file on a cell phone.

I think if someone listens to the CD version of Heart of Metal, then compares it to the vinyl version, they will definitely hear a difference in the sound. Of course, the songs were remixed and remastered for vinyl, so the sound would have to be difference regardless.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question487.htm

The idea with hi-def and whatever supersedes it is that, even though digital waveforms look like step pyramids, the steps become smaller and smaller until the digital waveform is almost an exact reproduction of the analog waveform.

Still, part of the appeal of blu-ray to me (I keep harping on this, it's a new thing and it kind of blows me away) is that it doesn't sound the same as a CD. But at the same time, vinyl doesn't sound like a blu-ray or a CD, so all three are unique ways to hear the same music and, in some cases, can be a huge revelation on the base tune.

What's better for a fan than really being able to immerse in the tunes they love?   

Runicen wrote:

The idea with hi-def and whatever supersedes it is that, even though digital waveforms look like step pyramids, the steps become smaller and smaller until the digital waveform is almost an exact reproduction of the analog waveform.   

Yes, that was my point with the painting comparison. It's nearly impossible to tell the difference even on the best systems. It's just a matter of preference.

BTW I can´t tell the difference between a 128 kbps and a 320 kbps MP3. Some people say you can only notice a real difference between the 2 if you compare thm using REALLY GOOD headphones. I love MP3 , is much more "space sparring" (???) than CDs. Most of my CDs where stolen back in 2011 , but I still have many left here ... many of them are of the "Christian Metal" nature. Still have not heard this Ultimatum one (Heart of Metal) , I like the band tho. I´d rather buy MP3 to support the band , I actually have not compared directly the difference between MP3 and CDs , but for me MP3 is "good enough"

I use an iPod and listen to digital when I am working out. It's definitely nice to have a catalog of music with you. However, nothing will substitute owning the CD or vinyl for me.

I haven't done "internal" comparisons with MP3. I used to just rip everything to 320. Sadly, most retail services don't even go that far, which is where I tend to drop off with my support of internet download sales. If I'm paying near what it would cost for a CD, don't give me something THAT much lower in quality than the disc itself.

Now, if you want to talk MP3 vs. a lossless format like FLAC, it depends on the material, but I've played comparisons for friends who couldn't give a @#$# less by their own admission and they all said, "Wow. I had no idea it was that much of a difference." We're talking whole harmonies in certain instrument sounds, room reverb, etc. all nutted by MP3 and plain to the ear in FLAC.

The problem with MP3 is that it was an early attempt at "compressing" audio data and it starts by lopping off all sounds above and below certain frequency threshholds. The logic was that 'nobody hears this crap anyway' so it was taken as no big loss. Unfortunately, that's where certain harmonics and a LOT of reverb live. Now, I've tested some stuff and found that the difference between high quality MP3 and FLAC were negligible. My copy of Devin Townsend's "Contain Us" box set was like this. A SLIGHT improvement in drum reverb, and a LITTLE more clarity in the lower bass notes, but that's about it.

So, source counts for quite a lot. Ditto for how some records sound like ass.

Are those the records that were "selling out fast" for, like, six months? Haha.

Eyesore wrote:

Are those the records that were "selling out fast" for, like, six months? Haha.

The colored vinyl/CD combos are sold out. You know it's funny. When you are pre-selling limited edition releases with a special "pre-sale only" offer, people won't bite, but as soon as the album is released then suddenly people want it and are ticked that they didn't get in on the "special offer".

What do you mean I can't have the CD/vinyl combo? Pfft!

As far as analog v. digital? I just wanna say that the first four MSG album suffered from shitty production and they transferred that shitty production perfectly onto cd. That is why I love those albums!! My cassette sounds just like my cd!

side note - anyone into punk knows that vinyl is the way to go. Does anyone REALLY wanna hear GBH in full hi-def? boring.

ultmetal wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Are those the records that were "selling out fast" for, like, six months? Haha.

The colored vinyl/CD combos are sold out. You know it's funny. When you are pre-selling limited edition releases with a special "pre-sale only" offer, people won't bite, but as soon as the album is released then suddenly people want it and are ticked that they didn't get in on the "special offer".

What do you mean I can't have the CD/vinyl combo? Pfft!

I'm not complaining. I just thought it was funny. =)

Eyesore wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Are those the records that were "selling out fast" for, like, six months? Haha.

The colored vinyl/CD combos are sold out. You know it's funny. When you are pre-selling limited edition releases with a special "pre-sale only" offer, people won't bite, but as soon as the album is released then suddenly people want it and are ticked that they didn't get in on the "special offer".

What do you mean I can't have the CD/vinyl combo? Pfft!

I'm not complaining. I just thought it was funny. =)

Oh, I know you weren't complaining. I knew you were being funny, but it reminded me of the recent complaints I have heard.

ultmetal wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Are those the records that were "selling out fast" for, like, six months? Haha.

The colored vinyl/CD combos are sold out. You know it's funny. When you are pre-selling limited edition releases with a special "pre-sale only" offer, people won't bite, but as soon as the album is released then suddenly people want it and are ticked that they didn't get in on the "special offer".

What do you mean I can't have the CD/vinyl combo? Pfft!

I'm not complaining. I just thought it was funny. =)

Oh, I know you weren't complaining. I knew you were being funny, but it reminded me of the recent complaints I have heard.

It's true, though. Most people don't like paying for something they won't immediately receive. I have a friend who refuses to shop online because he doesn't like waiting a week.

YOU MEAN MY PURCHASE WON'T BE FLOWN DOWN BY A MAJESTIC EAGLE THAT IS SINGING MY PRAISES AS IT DESCENDS?

NO SALE!