Bad Experience - Live Metallica downloads

Todd Smigelski · 01-27-2005, 05:13 PM

As a nice keepsake, I downloaded the "high quality" .flac version of the 10/1/04 Detroit show i attended for $12.95. http://www.livemetallica.com/

In all honesty, this isn't worth $2 in my book. I equate the sound quality to that of AM radio. And this download is taken right from the soundboard? I really feel ripped off and it bothers me everytime I look at my 2 CD set with custom .pdf cover art.

Quote from website:
"This technology will enable our fans to get the best possible recording of the show, without having to hold a microphone in the air for the entire night!"--Lars

I hope for every fans sake that paid for something like this, that this is a one time soundboard recording problem.

Has anyone else paid for any downloads from their 2004 tour? I'd like to hear something to the contrary.

I have downloaded 'The Tragically Hip' from a similiar, if not the same 'live downloads' company and the range and resolution is excellent. http://www.livedownloads.com/

Thanks for any feedback...

Don Giro · 01-28-2005, 08:11 AM

I haven't ordered any of these shows. I wanted to download them all when they were first announced, but I thought the prices to be a little steep for what I consider glorified bootlegs. At $12.95 a pop, it also seems like too much work, what with having to print out artwork (I have an old monochrome laser printer) and supplying my own 2-disc jewel cases. I quickly lost interest in the whole thing.

I was surprised they didn't officially release them all on factory-pressed discs like Pearl Jam did a few years ago (something I hoped Metallica would do when I first read about the massive slew of live releases Pearl Jam had launched on the public). I would have probably bought them all.

IIRC, Lars Ulrich said he fully expected all this material to be illegally traded on file-sharing networks, so maybe these downloads were an attempt to save face after the Napster debacle.

Thanks for the info.

MickeS · 01-28-2005, 08:32 AM

I downloaded the Tucson show (3/3/2004) in 128 kbit mp3. Sounds very good to me, FAR from "AM radio quality". Sounds like a good "real" unedited and unpolished live album. I have no complaints at all.

/Mike

Alan Erceg · 01-28-2005, 02:24 PM

I downloaded the .FLac version of the Pittsburgh, Pa show I attended last September and the quality was superb. Was actually better than I expected.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with it...

Colin Jacobson · 01-28-2005, 05:32 PM

Maybe there was some problem with the source for the Detroit show? Sounds like these other two were better, so maybe something negatively affected the Detroit tapes...

**HTF Ads**

Todd Stout · 02-14-2005, 12:27 PM

I downloaded the FLAC version of the 8/17/04 Fargo, ND show yesterday and burned a couple of CDs. To me I'd say the sound quality of the show is on par with the prerecorded audio cassette tapes that I used to buy back in the 80's. It's not horrible but it is a bit muddy sounding. I'm not sure if this is due to the FLAC codec or if it's the source material or maybe both. Too bad they didn't just make these available as a couple of ISO files for each show and skipped the compression altogether .

I may try downloading one more show to see if the quality is any better. If I get the same results I'll just give up on these recordings. I wish they would have taken a lesson from Pearl Jam and released these on actual CDs.

It was nice to hear St. Anger and Frantic performed live. They sound so much better in concert than they do on the St. Anger CD. As much as I like the music on St. Anger, I have an extremely hard time listening to it because of the horrible sound mix. I'll have to keep wishing for a remixed version to come out one of these years... St. Anger Revisted or Re-St. Anger anyone?

ElevSkyMovie · 02-14-2005, 12:56 PM

flac doesn't add/subtract to the sound, it doesn't color it. It compresses the .wav files to approximately half the size of the .wav file, losslessly. When you decode the flac file you get excactly what they started with, so if it doesn't sound good, it didn't sound good to begin with.

Is there a forum or something where people talk about which shows came out the best sounding?

Todd Stout · 02-14-2005, 02:13 PM

I kind of figured the source material was at fault for the mediocre sound quality. I was not familar at all with FLAC until I found the livemetallica.com site but it appears to be just the ticket for delivering music over the Internet.

I found this thread on Metallica's message board that covers the quality of some of the shows:
http://www.metallicabb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=161894