Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler RUSH Tour 2007!

Tom,

I'm with you... waiting patiently for the MVI release.

Well, I don't know about "patiently". But yeah, between the tickets and the MVI release and associated expenses, they need to make that extra $15 from somebody else. Of course, if I still don't have the new tunes a couple weeks before the show, I'll have no choice but to go buy the CD.

Good news, I got an e-mail from amazon that the MVI of Snakes and Arrows has actualy shipped!

Okay, I'm going to need some help here, I think...

I got the MVI disk yesterday (whoopee!).

However, it is a confusing muddle of technology to me.

It appears that there are two distinct paths to access content on the disk.

First, as MVI (running it's own little bundled MVI application on a PC). This provides MP3 versions of the tunes, lyrics, games, a decent documentary and other extras.

Second, as a DVD. This provides a 5.1 mix and high-res 2.0 mix of the album.

This disk does NOT play anything as a CD.

I have not yet heard enough of the album to either be familiar with the tunes or to comment on the production quality of the content.

Here is my question: Due to the death of one of my Sony megachangers, some of you may remember that I am in the process of ripping "everything" to FLAC. It is brutally slow going. Is there ANY WAY for me to get the high-fidelity versions of the songs from this disk? The MP3's are in plain sight, but they sound crummy. Having already bought the MVI disk, I don't want to either have to buy the CD or listen to the DVD in order to access high quality versions of the music. I know I can't preserve the multi-channel or high sampling rate resolution.

Below is a snip from another forum (I am not the OP). It just confused the hell out of me.

I'm looking for step-by-step with software references.

This is - apparently - the point at which technology exceeded my willingness to learn it. Luddites unite!

Quote:

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On the MVI disk, does anyone know if you can copy off the 96KHz / 24 bit audio files directly?

In looking through all the folders, it's not obvious where they live. I can see the MP3 files (44.1Khz/16 bit/192Kbps) but I cannot see any other (obvious) audio files anywhere.

Quote:

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Those files reside in the VIDEO_TS directory in the .VOB files just like any other DVD. You will need to use a DVD audio extractor to rip them from the .VOB files. It's kinda pointless though since the Dolby Digital 5.1 file is a 44.1kHz 448kbps 16-bit sampling rate in .AC3 format, which when opened with a regular audio program will downsample it to 2.0 stereo. And the LPCM 2.0 file is a 96kHz 1441kbps 24-bit sampling rate in .WAV format, which to open and play you'd have to have a high-end sound card to support. The only thing you could do with it is listen because a redbook CD only supports 44.1kHz 1441kbps 16-bit sampling rate in .WAV format. And if you converted either of those files to .MP3 or Apple's .AAC format, they would end up sounding nearly identical to the same files ripped from the redbook CD version.

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Tom, I'm in the same boat as you. I have requested a hold of the standard CD from our local library. To each their own, but I don't feel it wrong to make a CD copy of this album after buying the DVD version.

From what I've heard so far on the DVD, the mix of this album is very good, unlike Vapor Trails.

I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the new album if you plan on seeing them on tour this year. 8 songs from the new album are being played...strange setlist on this tour. I did not know many songs on the setlist (not including the new album), and I have been a fan for almost 20 years.

I agree. Anyone seeing them on this tour is going to definitely want to get familiar with "Snakes & Arrows" before they go. First of all it is an excellent album, especially the instrumentals, and secondly a large part of the concert is songs from the album.

Ditto - they are going deep into the new album and also digging up some oldies, some of which they have never done live before.

They also played 2/3 of Permanent Waves. Interesting. Nothing from Power Windows, one of my favorite albums.

They have retired or skipped some well-worn favorites. No "Closer to the Heart", nothing from 2112, etc. In fact, fans of early Rush will be disappointed. They didn't play anything from their first 5 studio albums. The only things from the '70s were "Bangkok" and "Circumstances".

Course, there's always R30 and their other excellent DVDs for catching those oldies. I'm glad they kept it fresh.

I am looking forward to hearing the new songs performed live. I have watched/listened to Rush In Rio and R30 so much that a new set list will be refreshing!

The concert sound was the best on the new songs. Makes sense, I guess, because that's what they are playing the most lately, what with recording and all. The second set opener was very impressive - the lighting and stage presence for Far Cry was top notch. And the multiple instrumentals rock!! Enjoy the show!