David Ayers

I have heard this but don't own it so my recollections may be flawed, but yes I noted that material was repeated and wondered whether the desire was to avoid the set looking like long alt. takes so this wasn't mentioned and different titles were chosen to obscure the overlap and emphasise the differences. That's what I remember thinking but don't quote me.

I've never understood that concept about index points... never even had a player capable of finding them. I guess that's a purely classical music thing? Well any long continuous work can be broken down into tracks, which play continuously. The few prog rock CDs I have also have this feature. As you can easily imagine, Wagnerian operaor anything which is similarly durchkomponiert benefits from this, but also some shorter works are internally indexed either because they have movements which are played attacca (joined) or just indexed simply to points in the score, simply for information. On CD it's fine as you don't notice it. With mp3s and FLACs it can become an issue...

Oh yes I know that SBEs are not the same as the two second gap introduced when burning with WMP or other players. But they can be quite audible and may be aggravated if the split between two abutting sections do not marry perfectly. In the context of commercial classical sales they are quite unncessary since (1) no-one would ever want to buy only selected tracks of a continuously playing work and (2) all they do is replicate the CD index points which are a method of finding certain passages, so it ends up with the original CD index points creating a huge technical problem for no reason whatever. Boo hoo.

Ah! Yes, thanks for that answer. That's more-or-less the conclusion I was coming to. I mean, I didn't know how to actually edit the files back together which you have outlined there, but in principle that was what I was thinking. I didn't know what SBE was but now I know, and that is the whole of my problem. I'm not 'happy' with mp3s on my hi-fi, they just don't stack up, but they are fine within the limitations of my PC, and I don't use an ipod. So my conclusion has become to stick to commercial mp3 where I just want to hear a work and the hi-fi experience is not an issue, and avoid commercial FLAC's except where I know for sure there are no continuous play issues. That said, a lot of the things I am interested in have such issues - it's a pity. In an absolute emergency though I might well try out your method!

Thanks for those answers guys. I just took a look but can't find guidance on this issue. Of course the nusic files they offer can be most interesting. Yes I know and use Burrrn. It's very good with ape + cue! Also very good with seprate FLACs. It couldn't handle my mp3 joining issues though. Well the files I joined using a similar method did blip. Maybe it depends how perfectly 'cut' the files you are using are? However just the existence of Amadeus Pro hints that a Windows program may exist that does the same. Of course I can keep trying but... why pay then still have all the work to do, and why buy new things to try with that might or might not work? Apart from anything else I don't have time to keep burning copies and then trying them to see if they work. Here's my dilemma. Poor me, eh?

...and what about Sign of Four - yowzah...

Sigh. I've concluded that buying classical downloads is too hard work. If file-sharers have achieved perfect results for years using ape + cue why can't these companies do the same, I wonder. I was trying to order some FLACs from DG who have an offer FLACS-for-same-cost-as-mp3s. The offer expires today. The website shows the prices of FLACs as indeed the same as mp3s, but when you add them to your basket the prices are different (in one case I tried, the same). If the quality isn't there, the interface doesn't work and the customer support is inadequate, what is the point? And that's their re-vamped re-launched website. I'm considering too Bev's idea that this is 'new' technology and we must wait for it to come right. I'm taking the opposite view. Since mp3s have been around since the mid 90s, the technology (of the digitsl sound file) might well be half way through its life (as hard as this may be to imagine). The technology does exist to achieve the results I want but no commercial company is interested in using it. I suppose my conclusion is that recorded music as such is a declining market and that there is not enough money in it to drive product development. So commercial sites like Chandos and DG only work on the cheap and really won't ever be worth the investment it would take to put the technology where it needs to be and provide real customer support.

Ah sadly Amadeus Pro is Mac only. But I should probably add to what I said before by explaining that file joining, which I have tried, does not give seamless reproduction, but leaves a blip. In fact iTunes is unusual among players I have tried in that it actually joins files in playback musically, not mechanically, though strangely it can't cope with burning (last time I tried) and, obviously, doesn't play FLACs. Hm...

Ah well my point is that I've looked but I can't find one that solves the problem, and the classical companies can't point me at one. I was asking here whether anybody has *actually* solved it. Of course there are more players than I have tried, but my strong sense is this: (1) there is no CD burner that will automatically and seamlessly combine the (needlessly) separate tracks of continuous works on mp3; (2) there is no burner that will do the same for FLAC, and there is no player, even, that will do so for playback let alone for burning I know that I could continue looking at still other players, but at this point I am just asking around. If anyone knows a particular player that they have used to solve this problem please tell me!

Thanks Bev. I was afraid you'd say something like that. The two problems I have run into with software that requires you to select and highlight tracks are first that you need to know which tracks should play seamlessly and second that usually you have to select all tracks to play seamlessly (as if for a Ministry of Sound DJ style mix). It's quiet obvious why this won't work for classical. I guess the fact that Chandos and DG brushed me off, and that fact that the documentation pages of any player I know don't explicitly address these issues mean, as you are saying, that no-one has resolved them. Of course, file-sharers solve the problem by using cue files. Why companies like Chandos and DG won't take the question seriously I don't know. Same goes for Spotify which, in effect,like these DG and Chandos downloads, doesn't work. Who wants to pay for something that won't work?

I once tried buying classical downloads from Chandos but gave up when I couldn't get proper technical support on seamlessly playing and burning tracks which needed to play continuously. I am considering trying again with the newly relaunched DG site, but, once again, I wrote to them and asked for technical advice and got brushed off. I know that itunes will play mp3s seamlessly, I never found a free mp3 player that would burn seamlessly, and more to the point I am unaware of any FLAC player that will burn seamlessly. Anyone solved this problem? Am I seeing it wrong?

I wonder if there are players who are better as a sideman than leader? As if the player thinks "It's not my name on it -- it won't 'cost' me anything to take chances..." When it comes to his own name, he plays it safe: "Don't want to scare anyone away..." As an aside on this topic, I've often thought the reverse, that in many cases a sideman/woman will reserve his/her best ideas for his/her own record. I find the cases where the sideperson stands out to be a minority, and often notable for that reason. Yes I thought someone would say that. You rightly infer that I never heard that stuff - it's about all of his that I don't actually own. I guess I'll buy in those Steeplechase LPs - I seem to remember Jim recommmending Montmartre. About ten years ago. Damn.

If the book is as in-depth as the review, I'll skip it. Actually I find Bob Blumenthal usually a bit too in awe of his subjects. In any case, isn't this basically a picture book with accompanying hero-worship by Blumenthal? Hardbopjazz, have you actually read it?

Yeah, things are moving slowly backwards. It has been a while since any 'new' RVG or Conn title hasn't it? I think it is amazing it got as far as it did. I wonder if we will get any more. Uh, not that I buy into the whole exploitative reissue scam any more, that is...

Well yeah I asking about perverse persistence - I reckon I own about fifty items from the Jackie Mac discography, if not more. That's a lot of records by someone I basically don't care for. Ok so one or two are with Miles or Mingus, so they pass muster for other reasons, but even so... There should probably be another thread on artists you love but you never really buy their records - hmmm, let me think... for me that might be Benny Goodman...

He's very right about that. People who donate books similarly do not realise how their donations will be utilised.

I've assiduously hoovered up dozens of titles by or featuring Jackie McLean over the years. But in fact I have never really liked him or thought much of him. Usual objections - repeats himself a lot, gimmicky sharp playing, etc. So what was I thinking when I bought all those records and why do I still listen to them. [crosses stage slowly, appearing to ponder] I probably have other artists in this category, if I put my mind to it. Am I alone?

Never mind the Mosaic cruise - I'm waiting for the Nessa houseboat avant-barbie with Roscoe flipping burgers between sets (keep those oh-so-modern solos short, eh, Roscoe, we get the idea. Hey this burger's still raw inside!).

Soundwise it's clear enough but would not please an audiophile.

Me and Bebop have already made our reservations (I'll take the top bunk, Beeb, after the last escapade of which we'll say no more except that my ribs are now almost healed). See you in the bar, Dan? I'll be the one with a fourth helping of lobster bisque from the all-day buffet dripping from his beard. Er, that might not narrow it down much, I realise... Oh and for the record, I don't have a beard. But I'll grow one. What else can you do on a cruise?

24 hour buffet plus 24 hour live jazz? I'm feeling a bit queasy myself.

Ta-freakin'-da!

Pharoah Sanders is on two Don Cherry Blue Notes.

Oh! No! I thought there was one which I had never heard but I am wrong - I can't find any details so I must have made it up. Strange though - why was I so convinced...

Yeah, keep going. There is plenty of stuff to listen to!