Les Baxter Exotica FINALLY on iTunes

Well, not as good as CDs, obviously, but Capitol has FINALLY put some full Les Baxter exotica titles on iTunes. Quality sounds very clean listening to the previews.

Available thus far:

Ritual
Tamboo
Ports
Skins
African Jazz
Sacred Idol
Space Escapade
Jewels of the Sea

$6.99 a throw. Albums recorded in stereo seem to be in stereo.

[ Edited by: OnyaBirri 2010-06-27 11:47 ]

[ Edited by: OnyaBirri 2010-06-27 11:47 ]

[ Edited by: OnyaBirri 2010-06-27 12:31 ]

I just dowloaded "Ports" and am listening now. I have a clean mono copy but have never found a clean stereo version.

First, you can actually hear tape hiss, which is a GOOD thing, meaning they didn't noise-reduction it to death.

Quality sounds very good for an mp3. I hated how the tracks from this album sounded on the "Exotic Moods" comp - they were way too processed. "Tahiti" sounded really pinched on that collection. It sounds wide open on the download and really breathes.

I'm planning to buy one more, put the two on a CD, and listen in a couple of different environments before I buy any more. But I'll probably end up buying all seven.

Hopefully, they'll add "Jungle Jazz," The Passions" and "Caribbean Moonlight" to the roster.

[ Edited by: OnyaBirri 2010-06-27 12:32 ]

I downloaded "Ports" and "Sacred Idol," burned both to a CD and put in my main stereo.

I A/B'd "Tahiti" between the download and the "Exotic Moods" version. The download BLOWS AWAY the CD.

It sounds like these are very faithful, flat transfers from the masters with little, if any, tinkering or tweaking.

Thanks for the heads up! It looks like you can download them at Amazon as well. Amazon doesn't use DRM for their music downloads which is a big plus for those that go beyond iTunes and iPods for playback.

What's DRM? I almost never buy downloads. I'm still buying LPs.

What's the sonic advantage to downloading via Amazon vs. iTunes???

On 2010-06-27 13:55, OnyaBirri wrote:
What's DRM? I almost never buy downloads. I'm still buying LPs.

What's the sonic advantage to downloading via Amazon vs. iTunes???

DRM is Digital Rights Management. It may be moot though as iTunes is supposedly phasing it out. Amazon has never used it.

Here's a quick definition I found:
DRM is an acronym for Digital Rights Management, a broad term used to describe a number of techniques for restricting the free use and transfer of digital content. DRM is used in a number of media, but is most commonly found in video and music files. There are many who argue that DRM is a misnomer, since it deals with use issues rather than the rights of the consumer. They therefore reinterpret DRM to stand for Digital Restrictions Management.

Sonically, there is no audible difference between iTunes and Amazon. iTunes uses AAC and Amazon uses MP3, both formats are encoded at 256 kbps. Both claim theirs is better than the other. However, MP3's are more convenient in that they can be played on more devices than AAC. For instance, I can burn a data cd full of MP3's and my car's cd player can play them back. The same car cd player will not play AAC files. Again though, if you're plugging in an iPod into your car audio system, then this would be another moot issue.

Nevertheless, I would love to hear an AAC file from iTunes vs. an MP3 from Amazon of the same recording, properly compared in a double blind test.

Thanks for the detailed response. I listen on my computer (Mac) and iPod, and then burn a CD for home/work/car, so iTunes will work for me.

Today I listened to parts of "Ports" and "Sacred Idol" in the car and on my work computer, in addition to my home stereo. I think these sound REALLY good for digital downloads. I will probably buy more of these for the convenience of having clean digital transfers.

Listening to some more of the sound samples.

"Tamboo" sounds STUNNING - I have never heard this album so crystal clear. I would love to hear from anyone with the Collectibles "Tamboo/Skins" twofer if the sound on that CD is as good as the iTunes sound samples.

"Ritual," on the other hand, is disappointing. It has the same fake stereo processing that was used on the "Exotic Moods" comp. I'm wondering if it was re-mastered at the same time, with the idea that Capitol would release it on CD if "Exotic Moods" sold well.

But I'm not complaining. I'm glad this stuff if finally out there!

thanks for the heads up on this onyabirri! just bought one...

mr. ho