Im sure we’ve all had experience with this at least once. You buy a track and it skips in one point or it peaks or it cuts off half way through, etc.
What have been your experiences and with what vendors?
I’ve usually had tracks that are pretty obvious (like it cuts out half way through, etc) and this is easy to dispute. In these cases its been fine with Beatport and Itunes (they’ll either issue a credit or allow a redownload)
Recently I’ve had tracks that were harder to “prove” I guess (not to me since it sounds as plain as day but to the vendor). And the more I think about it, the more it pisses me off.
This would not fly with CDs or Vinyl. With either if these, if its scratched…its scratched and its pretty easy to tell. But with MP3 or whatever format…it’s sometimes your word against theirs when it comes to sound quality.
I had 2 tracks in question recently. One I didnt bother bringing up to the vendor since the rest of the track was fine but in 2 parts it was clipping loudly. Now…could this be a problem with encoding, the particular file they received as a master and if so…who is to say they just dont ignore it unless hundreds of other people bought and complained about this track that you did.
An other track Im in dispute right now for is the same issue. The track seems fine until about 1min into the song and then a very audible crackle is heard…almost like a vinyl effect but it does not sound intentional like it was actually recorded as part of the track by the artist. Currently the guy Im dealing with assures me his word is better than mine…but the anomaly exists after the 3rd download. Im NOT trying to go purchase this track again from an other vendor to compare either.
are you afraid of downloading the song from p2p network? its just to see whether you are correct. Or you could just tell us what song it is, we (i) will check it out for ya
I haven’t personally had trouble with the actual quality of the tracks i have purchased (i use djdownload mainly, slightly cheaper than BP with the exchange rate), i always listen to the whole track as soon as i get it just to make sure. However, i have noticed the odd track has very low gain levels and a few have been obviously taken off a mix cd or something, as there is some definite mixing into another track right at the end.
I had that problem once but I never went very deep in solving it. I bought from beatport the minimal track “Mono Turn” from Broombeck. It happened to have some clippin during a song section… It is a very annoying sound but as I love the track I use it anyways and hide it with some effects most of the time.
Then I must confess I downloaded the same track from somewhere and curiously it had the same clippin so I guess that the site that uploaded the track had originaly got it from beatport also.
I have heard that track played live by a couple of djs and I did not hear the clippin so I am sure that the artist didn´t record it. Must be beatport enconding process or something similar as rvltion mentioned.
16 Bit Lolitas - Cabardi Loca (Bonus Unmixed Version)
16 Bit Lolitas - The Return (Original)
Andy Tau - North (Original)
and yes I have obtained all these tracks additionally “by other means” (deleted them already) to compare to the ones I actually purchased and in all cases, they had the same faults in the same area which only really shows that the source files were the same on the “alternative” files I downloaded.
If I knew anything about web design/programming and felt I could spare potential productivity time…I’d develop a site/community where we could go to and report this. (sort of a consumer reporting tool) It’s a sound integrity thing if you ask me…in addition to the integrity of the vendors and the intent of the artists who created the tracks in the 1st place.
If I were an artist releasing my tracks with a busy touring schedule, etc…I may never even know if there are thousands of shitty copies of my work floating around.
