[SR] 2008.11.25 - MoRA [CD, DVD Box Sets]

[pocket]

Thanks for that, my Spanish isn't very good but I understood a fair amount of what you put. I did enjoy.

[merman]

I didn't even try to read as that wouldn't help much, but huge thanks for the pictures!!! In fact I was looking for them yesterday so your documentation was right on time

[Orenji]

Thanks, Oiran! Well, at least we know for sure that Shiina still smokes, LOL.

[Shiki]

I got my DVD box from YesAsia today.

I've only done some preliminary listening on my PC, which only has a DAC capable of 44.1/48KHz, but there is at least somewhat of a difference from the original CD versions.

Will be interested in hearing Glathannus' comparison review.

EDIT: Removed incorrect statement.

[Glathannus]

Originally Posted by Shiki

The only thing I dislike is that they've merged the tracks again like they did with the heisei fuuzoku DVD, so you hear remnants of the previous and/or next tracks in most songs...

Are you sure about that? I never found any blending on Muzai Moratorium. Every track goes completely silent at least a third of a second before the next track.

Some parts of Shouso Strip and Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana are supposed to be transitioned together. I hear the exact same segues as before, but what's different between the MoRA DVD and the original CD, is where they decided to place the track/chapter points inbetween (sometimes the next track in MoRA would 'begin' too early). I prefer the original track divisions over where the MoRA DVDs decided to define the boundaries, but I do strongly stand in MoRA's defense, in that MoRA didn't introduce any more overlap than what was already on the original CDs. Total runtime between any two adjacent tracks, is the same as before.

Originally Posted by Shiki

I've only done some preliminary listening on my PC, which only has a DAC capable of 44.1/48KHz, but there is at least somewhat of a difference from the original CD versions.

Will be interested in hearing Glathannus' comparison review.

You can abuse the limitations of your 48kHz DAC by applying Rate Adjustment in software. It's where you change the pitch and the speed together proportionately. If you are listening to native 96kHz through a 48kHz soundcard, you will hear noticably more richness during a slowdown with 96kHz versus a slowdown with 44.1kHz. 96kHz carries twice as much information as 48kHz by being twice as 'fast' (which manifests in the form of smoothness). It's like slowing down a 60 frames-per-second video versus slowing down a 24 frames-per second video. Even if your screen can only display 30 fps, if you slow down video by 4%, native 24 fps video will turn into 23 fps, but a native 60 fps video will still offer framerate up to the 30 fps limit of your screen. In addition to hearing a refreshingly different pitch than what you've already heard hundreds of listening sessions before, you also get a little more time to pick up on a few more of the subtleties.

With the CDs, I wouldn't dare change their speed by more than 5%, because if you sped it up, Shiina Ringo sounded all-the-more shrieky, but if you slowed it down, then you not only were thinning the sound out, but you lost so much of the personality in Shiina Ringo's voice and it started to sound more like a different person. With the DVDs, I can slow it down by 8%, and much more of the vocal personality remains intact than if I had adjusted the CD playback that much.

[Shiki]

Originally Posted by Glathannus

I hear the exact same segues as before, but what's different between the MoRA DVD and the original CD, is where they decided to place the track/chapter points inbetween (sometimes the next track in MoRA would 'begin' too early).

Wow, you're right. I just compared the tracks again and it's just the track cutting points that have changed. I guess I'll split up the tracks manually according to what it used to be. Really glad about this.

Originally Posted by Glathannus

You can abuse the limitations of your 48kHz DAC by applying Rate Adjustment in software.

Interesting, I'll have to find out how to do this with foobar2000.

[Glathannus]

Originally Posted by Shiki

I guess I'll split up the tracks manually according to what it used to be. Really glad about this.

I'm going to try CUEsheets from the CDs, then have foobar2000 save out separate files for each of the virtually divided tracks, but I just haven't had time yet. The trick would be to demux the audio without splitting it by chapter for once. The only unavoidable snag is if you are using old CUEsheets and not MoRA CUEsheets, you will still have to manually break off the bonus tracks. Plus I don't know if the MoRA CUEsheets from the CDs can be completely trusted even with the base tracks on the DVDs. I'm not going to open my CD box just to find out, but there's a person or two I've already planned to ask to make CUEsheets from their CD boxes for me. I'll probably end up making my own CUEsheets from scratch, then distributing those 2 KB files just so nobody else with the DVD box has to choose between the dumb chapter points or manually dividing up the tracks.

Also, if you didn't like the crossfading on the HF DVD, you might try purchasing the tracks from e-Onkyo (they're in 96kHz/24bit lossless with no crossfading). Normally I don't support any business model that includes DRM, but this particular DRM is quite breakable with versions of Windows Media Player before 11.

Originally Posted by Glathannus

You can abuse the limitations of your 48kHz DAC by applying Rate Adjustment in software.

Originally Posted by Shiki

Interesting, I'll have to find out how to do this with foobar2000.

Depends what version you are using. 0.8.3 Special has a DSP option called SoundTouch. Newer versions have been less feature-rich as players, but a little more thoughtful on when/how to update files for ReplayGain, and the newer foobars allow you to selectively include/exclude individual DSP options for purposes of file converting, while with 0.8.3, you can't apply a different combination of DSP options than what you are currently using to listen to music. 0.8.3 Special still has factory-loaded support for Monkey's Audio, AC3/Dolby, and DTS. Whether you love or hate those formats, sometimes that support is useful.

[Shiki]

I tried SoundTouch yesterday, it works on the new foobars too (I'm using 0.9.5.3).

As for Monkey's Audio, I've already converted those in my collection to FLAC. Although I still installed the plug-in just in case.

Wonder why they didn't include the input plug-ins for those formats by default in the new versions.

Now, I'm not sure if I got this right but I increased the pitch and decreased the rate on the MoRa files. They sounded a bit weird.

[Glathannus]

I don't mess with anything on SoundTouch except the rate, with maxing out the anti-alias filter, and having the changes applied in realtime. On every occasion I have ever tweaked with the tempo and/or pitch, the distortion wasn't worth it.

[justriiingo]

all in all an underwhelming release?
well done Shiina Ringo, you have disappointed me once again.

btw, Amazon.jp is most amazing - it delivered my LP in 3 days flat. No extra markups. No mistakes in packing. I highly recommend.