Digital Downloads or The CD

[Preacherman777]

We are just one week away from the release of digital downloads and the CD is suppose to be a week after that. So I've been asking myself whether I want to buy downloads or wait for the CD. First I thought well, maybe I'll just buy the new songs as downloads and then wait for the CD, but then I thought well, I guess I could buy the album as download and buy the CD just help out Petra. Anyone else been thinking about this?

[Dan]

The digital downloads will be better quality than the CD, I am not going to the TBN taping.. but did I hear correctly that a DVD will be created from this?

[Dan]

Anything will be better than 16bit 44.1 kHz sample rate of audio cd's. I think Brent went over this once before..

[CatNamedManny]

As one of the unwashed masses who doesn't really hear the difference between high-quality and low-quality files, I'm a CD man. I'll probably wait, tough as that will be, then rip the songs to my iTunes. Will they be selling the CD at the TBN taping? That would make a lot of sense, though Nov. 20 is three days before the "week after" Nov. 16 that's been mentioned.

[imc]

The digital downloads will be better quality than the CD, I am not going to the TBN taping.. but did I hear correctly that a DVD will be created from this?

Unlikely. The MP3 versions will be no more than 16bit/44.1KHz, but they will be compressed so will sound worse than the CD. The FLAC version could be higher sample rate than the CD, but is unlikely to be (I'd guess 48KHz max) as it needs to be compatible with consumer soundcards. So the FLAC will be the same quality or very slightly better (but not noticable to the best ears in the world) than CD, but the MP3 version will be noticable lower quality than CD.

If you're bothered about quality, go for CD - you can always rip it to FLAC anyway.

*FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, it is similar to MP3 in that it compresses audio, but different to MP3 in that it is "lossless", it can be decompressed to an identical version of the original source material. The disadvantage to MP3 is it only achieves compression of around 50%, MP3 you can often achieve 90% compression and it still will sound acceptable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Lossless_Audio_Codec

[ErioL]

Since when was digital downloading better than the CD? CDs are as good as its gonna get, unless they're releasing something on vinyl.

[Dan]

Are you guys serious... mp3 files can have little or no compression, the file would be big but can have higher specs.. they are selling the Digital downloads themselves so it can be whatever they want... though it will most likely be like other MP3 files 5 to 8 mb size for everyones $2 players.

[Jan]

Haven't decided if I'm going to get it or not.....but if I do, I'll wait until y'all decide which one is the best quality, then go for that. I can wait.

[Dan]

I guess for the purpose of the argument the CD will be better quality unless they give us MP3 that are like 70MB each.

If Classic Petra could fork it, I KNOW they would sell a tonne of vinyl. Abbey Roads still presses records I think.

[bakersfieldpethead]

I might buy both.

[imc]

Are you guys serious... mp3 files can have little or no compression, the file would be big but can have higher specs.. they are selling the Digital downloads themselves so it can be whatever they want... though it will most likely be like other MP3 files 5 to 8 mb size for everyones $2 players.

MP3's apply lossy data compression to the sound, they are by their very nature compressed (in terms of the file size, not the dynamic range, although that can be affected). They can have different levels of compression, and with the lowest level of compression most people would not tell the difference, but it is still compressed. Audio CD's are not compressed, so they will always provide a higher quality sound than MP3.

[Dan]

Are you guys serious... mp3 files can have little or no compression, the file would be big but can have higher specs.. they are selling the Digital downloads themselves so it can be whatever they want... though it will most likely be like other MP3 files 5 to 8 mb size for everyones $2 players.

MP3's apply lossy data compression to the sound, they are by their very nature compressed (in terms of the file size, not the dynamic range, although that can be affected). They can have different levels of compression, and with the lowest level of compression most people would not tell the difference, but it is still compressed. Audio CD's are not compressed, so they will always provide a higher quality sound than MP3.

All I am saying is technically if I create a MP3 24bit @ 48Khz sample rate/ 320KB 70+MB audio file from the original source, 0.01 minimal compression who wins on audio quality ? MP3 does, and obviously WAV is better always.

[imc]

All I am saying is technically if I create a MP3 24bit @ 48Khz sample rate/ 320KB 70+MB audio file from the original source, 0.01 minimal compression who wins on audio quality ? MP3 does, and obviously WAV is better always.

FLAC is new to me.. will read up.

except that most mp3 players do not support 24bit audio and would convert it to 16 bit, so I'd be surprised if anyone made 24 bit MP3's available commercially. So in your example you'd be talking about 48KHz at 16 bit, plus a small amount of compression. Not sure it could be claimed to be "better" than CD quality. As good as perhaps, but "better" implies there would be a noticeable difference, which there wouldn't be.

[executioner]

Are you guys serious... mp3 files can have little or no compression, the file would be big but can have higher specs.. they are selling the Digital downloads themselves so it can be whatever they want... though it will most likely be like other MP3 files 5 to 8 mb size for everyones $2 players.

Dead serious!! The CD quality is clearly better hands down. You lose so much instrumentation in DDL. I urge you to buy both and listen to both with high quality Head phones and the first thing you will say is where did all the instruments go on the DDL? DDL can only carry about half of the sounds of a CD.
I will also tell you if you have been buying only DDL over the last few years I would go and buy a few CD's and see what your missing out on. This is why I feel the CD will never completely die out.

[executioner]

I will buy both but will most likely listen to DDL when needed. I listen mostly to CD's to get all the sound that is available.