Differences between the two leaks

[Locarius]

I am noticing subtle differences aside from quality improvements, however I deleted the old leak. Has anyone else noticed anything or tried playing them side by side?

It's possible that the quality of the rip makes certain things 'pop' much more. I can't wait to hear a lossless version.

[ZeroGlass]

There are sounds all around and layering that I was not hearing that i am hearing now and i am smiling like a little bitch! :D

[Locarius]

Yea this more than makes up for the dissapointment I had before. The tracks play together nicely and it sounds really well engineered.

[ZeroGlass]

Listen to the intro of Jambi and notice the echo of the vocals, and the percussion behind it that was clearly not able to be heard before....

[daveelton]

I'm really glad to hear this, I was a bit dissapointed in what I had heard at first but this gives me new hope :)

[Locarius]

Intension seems to have new vocal effects or layers.

[Shivawn]

I'm not sure if it's legitimate to talk about the leak this way, but just for my own information, how big is the 'new leak'.

The original one I had was around 105megs. Is this leak of higher quality?

[ZeroGlass]

Much higher quality (assuming you have quality equipment to listen to it) . Just coz the old one was around 105 dont mean it actually filled all that space with anything.

[Locarius]

This is variable bitrate, so it will encode digital silence at a much lower bitrate than noise. This saves space for the parts that need more to encode properly.

[ZeroGlass]

I just listened to Wings PArt 2 and yes yes yes this sing just got better and the bass is phenomenal. If only this rip was released instead of that leak we would never have to have been tortured.

[Elbandagji]

I just listened to Wings PArt 2 and yes yes yes this sing just got better and the bass is phenomenal. If only this rip was released instead of that leak we would never have to have been tortured.

So is this the end to the "hoax"? We just downloaded an unfinished version?

[Masses]

It depends how anal you are.

Btw, what does Vicarious sound like now..compared?

[CallofCthulhu]

There's a new leak now?

[Masses]

No. Go back to sleep.

Vicarious differences?

[vilemerchant]

Guys how big is the new leak?

[ZeroGlass]

Listen to Rosetta Stoned again. There is more to hear this time round. As for VIcarious..........IT......IS.......ALIVE.......

[placidium]

are you talking about the mp3 leaks that are significantly larger than the m4a leaks?

[ZeroGlass]

Sorry its 109.62 mb

[ZeroGlass]

ALso there are no more gaps.

[Elbandagji]

Listen to Rosetta Stoned again. There is more to hear this time round. As for VIcarious..........IT......IS.......ALIVE.......


Please explain in detail.

[ZeroGlass]

Please explain in detail.


Hmmm ill do my best.


Previous Vicarious : $1 a day studio

Latest Vicarious : $2,000 a day studio

[ZeroGlass]

And you can clearly hear a voice singing in RIght in Two this time, right before you hear a guitar kick in THAT ISNT SAYING TIMMY

[Elbandagji]

Hmmm ill do my best.


Previous Vicarious : $1 a day studio

Latest Vicarious : $2,000 a day studio

Very nice, and the rest? Do the songs now sound less like "B-sides"?

I thought the album was great as is. But if it gets even better...

[ZeroGlass]

Dude this album is now what we should have heard the first time. THere is so much layering that was missed on the first rip in regards to vocals and background percussion. Youll hear it instantly once Vicarious kicks in. And it continues thruoghout the WHOLE album and its a cerebral experience.

[Locarius]

Yea I agree... if people heard this the first time we would be without about 90% of these 'fake' threads.

[Masses]

when?

[STA]

I wish I knew which version I had now...

[ZeroGlass]

I heard the layering you talk about since day 1. I d/l the 109mb version.
The only release with the decent sound is the one without gaps and damn hissy snakes all over the top. The fact you have a version that is the smae size does not mean it is the same quality, as poor encoding will downsample beautiful layers of noise and keep dead noise instead of the other way round.

[Cemetery Shindig]

Zero glass...i sent you a PM.

[STA]

The only release with the decent sound is the one without gaps and damn hissy snakes all over the top. The fact you have a version that is the smae size does not mean it is the same quality, as poor encoding will downsample beautiful layers of noise and keep dead noise instead of the other way round.

Hmm...mine has gaps.

[Locarius]

The good one leaked about 3 hours ago. If you have anything older than that keep looking.

[dwohlfahrt]

weird, this new one sounds just about like the old one i had, but i loved it, so no loss for me :D

[ZeroGlass]

I played the old leak at least 20 times thru my iriver h320 and Shure E3c isolating canalphones. ITs much easier to notice these things straight away:

No more hissing
No more tinny guitars
Sounds like theres 2 Justins all of a sudden
Background percussion/vocals that werent there before suddenly appear....

This album is a lot deeper than even i thought.....

[Shivawn]

And you can clearly hear a voice singing in RIght in Two this time, right before you hear a guitar kick in THAT ISNT SAYING TIMMY

I downloaded a new version, that still has the 'Timmay' but it's at 6:05 instead of 6:01... what the living fuck did I just download?

[Locarius]

The old one appends 2 second gaps between tracks, so that will change the lengths a bit.

[Atrophy Annie]

This album is a lot deeper than even i thought.....

you're right. a lot more of the "studio trickery" shows up on this one.

joe barresi = a genius, cuz this album sounds amazing...and i've only listened to jambi!!!

[Elbandagji]

I downloaded a new version, that still has the 'Timmay' but it's at 6:05 instead of 6:01... what the living fuck did I just download?

I have always heard the Timmay sound at 6:05...

What version did i get?

Holy shit!! I have had this one all along~!

[Cemetery Shindig]

I have always heard the Timmay sound at 6:05...

What version did i get?

Holy shit!! I have had this one all along~!

Both versions have probably always been available, i remember seeing two seperate links on fileshare or whatever originally. Most of the people who disliked the album probably heard the lossy version. Though, I heard the lossy version and still thought it kicked ass...

[Locarius]

They are all lossy versions so far. Its just that one rip is shitty and one isn't.

[STA]

This "new" leak appears to be in .mp3 format, is that right? My old one was M4A; isn't that supposed to be higher quality?

[ZeroGlass]

Just heard another new sound at the end of Rosetta Stoned : right after the song ends you hear an echo of "shit the bed" sounding like a whisper. Yea, its not a big deal but hey im loving it.

Man i would be so stoked if this was gonna be a double album, more songs in this vein would be a dream come true.

[Shivawn]

Man i would be so stoked if this was gonna be a double album, more songs in this vein would be a dream come true.

I hear ya there. I didn't hate this album, but the possibility of having more? Well, that's be amazing. From the looks of it, it's just going to be be one CD. But... if this is the album we're getting, I'm more than happy. I'm estatic. =)

[ZeroGlass]

Basically to calrify the whole issue of what format is better etc....

ITs irrelevant what format it is if it was ripped/encoded incorrectly.

ITs irrelevant what size it is if it was ripped/encoded incorrectly.

ITs irrelevant what release you have of this album unless you have the initials R N S

[wadestrong]

i just downloaded the new leak, but there are abunch of popping noises in each of the songs im listening to. is this a problem for anyone else?

[ZeroGlass]

Can you elaborate a little?

[fakee]

This "new" leak appears to be in .mp3 format, is that right? My old one was M4A; isn't that supposed to be higher quality?

No, it depends on the source and the encoding options. The difference between the new release and the previous is that the m4a's were highly overcompressed.

The sound of the percussion is most noticably changed. In the m4as the percussion is almost absent. Now I can hear it.

But everyone thought that the first leak was unmastered except for vicarious. This doesn't seem to be the case. I am comparing, and the actual content between the m4a and mp3s seems to be identical. The only difference is that the m4as were overcompressed. The actual mastering is the same.

Whoa this new leak has Maynard rapping at the end of Rosetta Stoned!

[wadestrong]

well every so often in each song on the album, i hear a popping noise, kind of like what you hear on an old record, but quieter.. its annoying.

[LomazK]

I think this new link is just a much better rip, not necessarily a different version or the matster of the album. For those who didn't like the album the first time they heard it, I'm not sure this will change anything. I for one think the new album is great and can't wait for May 2nd

[mjr]

sorry but you are only noticing differences because you listened to the other one a shitload of times...

[black_rose]

sorry but you are only noticing differences because you listened to the other one a shitload of times...

I only listened to the previous leak once and just popped Jambi on earlier from the new leak and there is an obvious difference ( seriously a massive one ). So i think you may be a bit deluded there.

[placidium]

compare the intro riff on jambi in the new leak to the old. it's a lot huger.

[magnolia]

I played the old leak at least 20 times thru my iriver h320 and Shure E3c isolating canalphones. ITs much easier to notice these things straight away:

No more hissing
No more tinny guitars
Sounds like theres 2 Justins all of a sudden
Background percussion/vocals that werent there before suddenly appear....

This album is a lot deeper than even i thought.....
This is EXCELLENT to hear, since I have the shitty rip and still love it... but I'm not going to download the quality leak. I'm gonna wait until May 2 to hear these new perks.

Then again I said I'd wait until May 2 to hear the album. That lasted about 2 hours.

[ScarletLetterMan]

definitely a much better rip, listening to jambi now, and it sounds like a totally new song, so many more layers are popping out, just listened to 10K days, more amazing than before, with all the effects, and it was awesome before!!

[knot0fvipers]

shit, i take back my last post. i only believed this to be fake because of the strange production.
a rip that has good production to me clearly ends this debate.

[FistFck]

i have a 5.1 system, and now have heard both versions. and i dont hear much of a difference. anyone care to elaborate what changes you hear?

[elusive_]

i've had a 140mb 'BiRDCATCHER' release since day two, the quality is def better then the origonal leak but im still concerned it might have been encoded one too many times... not that it shows any signs of it.

[Lagomorph]

i have both leaks, the new one has slightly better quality, but you can still hear rushed production.

[mmortal03]

I have done a lot of hobby work with psychoacoustics and comparing different encoders in the past, and I usually wouldn't be one to claim that there is a difference between two encodings, but this is almost night and day. I have compared these back and foward between each. Now that I have heard the new vbr mp3 leak, I will say that the original mp4 was horribly dynamically compressed, and probably put through a low and high pass filter. There was a ton of stuff that was masked over in the original rip. The talkbox stuff on Jambi is MUCH clearer now, and much more dynamic. The vocals are much clearer across the board. On 10,000 days, there is this high frequency sounding guitar part that was barely audible before.

On the Pot, there are some vocal harmonies that you can now hear. There are clearly some badly mutilated or flat out cut out high frequencies all over, and this really harms the percussion on the original leak, as well as the effects on the guitars. This new encoding also has much more articulated bass throughout.

On Lipan Conjuring, you can hear that they are shaking either rain sticks or some sort of tamborine type objects, either way, before it sounded like they were shaking crappy maracas.

Rosetta Stoned is ten times better. There are high frequency wah-wah type guitar roll offs that were completely missing before.

On Intension, there are these glass sweeping transient noises at the beginning that are much clearer now. About 3 minutes in, you can hear these echo vocals on top of Maynard that were hidden before.

Basically, if you heard the original leak, and felt like there was something missing, THIS COULD BE IT, and I was skeptical.

[Valediction]

This is a big reason why bands hate downloads as well. It's not so much the lost sales (I truly don't buy that there are that many LOST sales, those who were going to buy it will still buy it if they like it and actually it may attract those who want to try before buy, and actually GAIN sales) but more so that the first listen people get of the album is of a crappy leak. You KNEW it was bad that it was in m4a, an unusual format for a leak, and obviously the person didn't do it right. Well encoded VBR MP3s at high bitrates sound just as good as M4A does anyway, IMO.