My boxset arrived on Friday, May 3rd.
My boxset arrived on Friday, May 3rd.
Mine arrived Saturday (May 4th) afternoon.
I've opened it and looked it over and ripped the cds to flac files for portable use but have not listened to it yet.
Also, for those interested in such things, I ran the Dynamic Ranger Meter extension of Foobar2000 and got the following:
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Analyzed: Van der Graaf Generator / The Aerosol Grey Machine [2019 edition - disc one]
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR8 -1.46 dB -12.53 dB 4:59 01-Afterwards
DR12 -0.10 dB -15.49 dB 6:19 02-Orthenthian St
DR10 -0.31 dB -15.00 dB 6:35 03-Running Back
DR11 -0.10 dB -13.38 dB 6:57 04-Into A Game
DR12 -1.95 dB -17.07 dB 4:33 05-Ferret & Featherbird
DR11 -0.51 dB -14.68 dB 0:46 06-Aerosol Grey Machine
DR11 -0.10 dB -12.31 dB 1:27 07-Black Smoke Yen
DR9 -0.10 dB -11.89 dB 8:21 08-Aquarian
DR11 -0.10 dB -13.85 dB 3:20 09-Giant Squid
DR8 -0.10 dB -10.17 dB 7:57 10-Octopus
DR10 -1.01 dB -14.80 dB 3:31 11-Necromancer
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Number of tracks: 11
Official DR value: DR10
The previous FIE! issue of the album was overall not quite as compressed:
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Analyzed: Van der Graaf Generator / The Aerosol Grey Machine [Fie!]
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR8 -2.95 dB -14.02 dB 4:58 01-Afterwards
DR12 -0.89 dB -16.98 dB 6:19 02-Orthenthian St
DR10 -1.80 dB -16.49 dB 6:35 03-Running Back
DR12 -0.01 dB -14.86 dB 6:57 04-Into a Game
DR12 -3.44 dB -18.60 dB 4:33 05-Ferret & Featherbird
DR11 -2.00 dB -16.16 dB 0:46 06-Aerosol Grey Machine
DR12 -0.30 dB -13.79 dB 1:27 07-Black Smoke Yen
DR10 -0.53 dB -13.37 dB 8:21 08-Aquarian
DR11 -0.91 dB -15.34 dB 3:19 09-Giant Squid
DR9 -0.11 dB -11.66 dB 7:57 10-Octopus
DR10 -2.50 dB -16.23 dB 3:30 11-Necromancer
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Number of tracks: 11
Official DR value: DR11
yeah, that's real neat too... better than the official one, IMHOOriginally Posted by Buddhabreath
But you're right... hardly sufficient to buy.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Interesting...
Did you run the Foobar2000 DR for disc 2 as well?
I'm curious to look at its values.
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Analyzed: Van der Graaf Generator / The Aerosol Grey Machine [2019 edition - disc two]
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR8 -0.34 dB -10.05 dB 3:33 01-Firebrand [1967 demo]
DR10 -0.10 dB -12.47 dB 4:05 02-Sunshine [1967 demo]
DR8 -1.52 dB -11.26 dB 3:31 03-People You Were Going To [BBC Top Gear, 18th November 1968]
DR9 -0.76 dB -10.54 dB 4:44 04-Afterwards [BBC Top Gear, 18th November 1968]
DR9 -0.68 dB -12.08 dB 4:12 05-Necromancer [BBC Top Gear, 18th November 1968]
DR8 -0.25 dB -10.66 dB 5:49 06-Octopus [BBC Top Gear, 18th November 1968]
DR8 -1.58 dB -12.26 dB 2:46 07-People You Were Going To [single A-side]
DR10 -0.82 dB -13.59 dB 4:10 08-Firebrand [single B-side]
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Number of tracks: 8
Official DR value: DR9
Ouch! The dynamics look quite squashed.
Disc 2 in particular seems very bad.
Finally received the package with the box.
Very upset for the poor quality control.
The first 2 tracks on cd2 - the only real reason to get this so-called super deluxe edition - are 100% mpeg sourced as tested with Audiochecker.
They have been clearly taken from the mp3 download section of this fan site:
http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk/mp3.htm
They are both very poor mono super-compressed files (mp3 @ 24Kbps 22kH) and cherry red has simply upscaled them in wav format.
Furthermore, as the original demo tape of Firebrand has a fault at the beginning, cherry red has simply opted for deleting the first 15 seconds of the song, which now starts abruptly while the tape warp is starting to going away.
So, instead of contacting Caleb Bradley, the guy who still owns that very first VDGG demo tape, cherry red went the safe route grabbing the poorest easy downloadable recording from the web and included it on the super deluxe edition.
Here's the story of that demo tape:
http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk/caleb.htm
For the 2 or 3 people here who are still uncertain if buying this box or not, i'd strongly suggest you NOT TO BUY IT.
Keep your old Fie or Repertoire cd copies and download those 2 demo tracks from the VDGG fan site. Then you're perfectly covered.
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