Getting FLAC from the Philly Orchestra

As I had mentioned I would, I emailed the Philly Orchestra's music store's support folks. The response below (from Fred) made me feel a) wrong, and b) cheap. Apparently the store's MP3s are all 256kbps VBR... and, no, they won't give me a free FLAC download to evaluate the difference ("it's only $5, you cheap bastard").

So what's up with mplayer?

Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)

(maybe that 9% means it's 9% sure it's 128kbps :)

Anyway, here's Fred's email. On the bright side, it made me realize that I don't know enough people named Fred.

Dear Haig Didizian,
>> When I realized your MP3 downloads are fairly low quality (128kbps),
Actually they are encoded at 256 kbps. Please see the FAQ: "The standard MP3 files, encoded at 256 kbps VB "
Sorry I can not give you a free flac download.
If you want to try out flac downloads thay are not very expensive, only about $5.

Please let us know if you require further assistance.

Thanks for supporting livedownloads.com!

--Fred

Philly Orchestra Online Music Store

The Philadelphia Orchestra recently opened an online music store to host their recordings.

For a limited time, you can download a 2005 performance of Beethoven's 5th Symphony for free. This one was recorded under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach.

Two things of note:

• It looks as if most recordings are $5 (Beethoven's 9th is $10, however). That's more reasonable than iTunes, though not quite as "reasonable" as AllOfMP3 -- and by reasonable I mean "probably illegal". I'm not complaining... no, no...
  
• They provide recordings in FLAC, or the Free Lossless Audio Codec. It's slightly more expensive, but it's neat because it compresses the audio data without removing sound information. If you can hear compression artifacts in 128kbps MP3s (which is what the new orchestra store sells), you'll probably want to check out the FLAC versions. Problem is, your iPod won't know what to do with FLAC files. The Wikipedia entry has sections for software and hardware support.
  

I'm a bit bummed that the free download offer doesn't extend to the FLAC files for this recording... otherwise, I'd be able to download both and compare. I'm feeling activist today, so I'll write an email.

Anthem of the Week -- October 13th

I plan to post a song once a week that captures the spirit of the week past. I've been trying to figure out why I want to do this, but I can't really verbalize it. Actually, I can. But it sounds ridiculous and cliche.

So. I think Friday's a good day to post a song, so I can play the song to death over the weekend.

Now, for the first installment of Anthem of the Week:

Title: Smoke It
Artist: The Dandy Warhols
Album: Odditorium, or Warlords of Mars

Listen | Lyrics

Why this song: I was having a conversation on Wednesday night with some folks who are a little bit older than I am (I'm 26). We started talking about how most of my close friends are focused (for whatever reason) on professional success and personal stability (money, mortgage, kids, pets, blah)... and I realized that there's still a significant part of me that just wants to be a kid. And, you know what? I'm cool with that - adults are boring.

The chorus of "Smoke It" starts: "Smoke it just as long as you can smoke it." Awesome.

Welcome

So I caved and created a blog... now I can be unique and interesting like everyone else. I tend to be 2-3 years behind trends... so I suppose this is about right. That reminds me -- I need to post a picture of myself with a trucker hat 20 degrees off center.