[FAKE] Old Tunes Vol. 2 and A Few Old Tunes in FLAC.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:41 pm

SIDE B link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b1o2e5b41fczt ... e%20B.flac

Spectral analysis, anyone?

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:43 pm

Basefree wrote:If you can, just rip both tapes straight away A/B style without waiting for approval. It's faster, and probably worth it, since the two showcase tracks show some good results.

Even if the tapes weren't real, I still want to say thank you at this point. I appreciate the gesture of wanting to share the tapes with the community.

Thank you, I appreciate it. Side A is almost finished, and I'll upload a sample of AFOT after OTv2 is finished. I got them from the same lot, so I'm willing to bet that if OTv2 is real, "then it follows" that AFOT is real.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 2:02 pm

While I wait for side A of OTv2, I thought I'd share some of my favorites off of AFOT. I would've done Boqurant/5-9-78, but I didn't feel like fast forwarding the tape that far, so I did Sac/Blockbusters/IWGIT.
http://www.fileswap.com/dl/0PbAnXirG/

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 2:25 pm

OTv2 Side A: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uu7tl7gtz0xsd ... e%20A.flac
Doing AFOT side B now.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:09 pm

AFOT Side B: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j6pp9qiuzev5c ... e%20B.flac
Side A is uploading.
EDIT: To note, both side B and the end of side A have some distortion. As indicated, I purchased these from a recording studio who did not publish this kind of work, and therefore I speculate the tapes were in a box some where for some years in the Florida climate.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:14 pm

After everything is finished, I would very much like a spectral analysis to conclude whether or not these are bona fide originals, or copies.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:55 pm

Here's the last rip, along with photos of the cassettes I ripped them from. The iPhone camera is shit a picking up colors, but it's for the best seeing as how both the sleeves and labels are yellowed a bit.
AFOT Side A:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2904k77hk6c5r ... e%20A.flac
AFOT & OTv2 photographs:
https://anonfiles.com/file/1b435cc367f1 ... b3b9d074b4
https://anonfiles.com/file/26d0eb9a78c6 ... dd9de82f7a

Basefree · Post by **Basefree** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 4:04 pm

Looks like I'll be the first to say thanks again.

Thanks!

I hope some audio overlord comes over soon to give us his judgement.

Interesting by the way that the cassettes seem to be different for each OTV2 that we've seen? Based on what's on bocpages. Maybe they're just different sides, dunno.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 4:09 pm

Basefree wrote:Looks like I'll be the first to say thanks again. Thanks!

I hope some audio overlord comes over soon to give us his judgement.

Interesting by the way that the cassettes seem to be different for each OTV2 that we've seen? Based on what's on bocpages. Maybe they're just different sides, dunno.

My pleasure! Hopefully they are real. I didn't pay too much for them, but it would be nice to know that I'd gotten the real deal.
I don't know what's up with all the cassette variants. Cassettes were relatively expensive if you got a nice type II or type IV, so it's possible they just made recordings with whatever tapes they had lying around. I don't know, just a thought.
I do know, however, that if these are legit, then Marcus or Mike's handwriting is on them. If that's the case, I'll likely shit my pants. I mean, I haven't had any doubts to their legitimacy, but having it reinforced by the best BoC community sure would make it a little more special.

Basefree · Post by **Basefree** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 4:18 pm

The track transitions seem to be gapless, which is also a truly convincing sign. Hyped for this. Thanks again! You have a good chance of getting rid of your troll status for something a bit more memorable.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 4:22 pm

Basefree wrote:The track transitions seem to be gapless, which is also a truly convincing sign. Hyped for this. Thanks again! You have a good chance of getting rid of your troll status for something a bit more memorable.

Haha, good riddance! I hate the bit of flutter and distortion on AFOT, but it's really not too noticeable. Something I never got to hear on the .mp3 versions was the transition between Forest Moon and Skimming Stones.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:40 pm

No one willing to analyze the spectra online, yet?

euue · Post by **euue** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 9:01 pm

i dunno but that definitely looks to me like legit handwriting

dajahew1 · Post by **dajahew1** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 11:39 pm

I am *slightly* skeptical about this... the frequencies have a shelf at 16k, which is normal for mp3 files. If it were ripped from a genuine tape, the frequencies would not roll off at exactly 16k. It seems to me that someone took the original poor-quality mp3 files, recorded them onto a tape, then recorded it back to give the extra frequencies above 16k, which is just tape hiss. But hey, that's just my two cents, I could be wrong.

Here is an example of a legitimate tape rip:

As you can see no shelf is visible at 16k, which shows that the source was not an MP3 file.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:05 am

dajahew1 wrote:

I am *slightly* skeptical about this... the frequencies have a shelf at 16k, which is normal for mp3 files. If it were ripped from a genuine tape, the frequencies would not roll off at exactly 16k. It seems to me that someone took the original poor-quality mp3 files, recorded them onto a tape, then recorded it back to give the extra frequencies above 16k, which is just tape hiss. But hey, that's just my two cents, I could be wrong.

Here is an example of a legitimate tape rip:

As you can see no shelf is visible at 16k, which shows that the source was not an MP3 file.

Does this certify illigetimacy? If so, that's really fucking disappointing.

FernieCanto · Post by **FernieCanto** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 1:47 am

Another definite sign, at least in the case of A Few Old Tunes, is that the tracks don't segue seamlessly like they should; there are gaps and hiccups caused by MP3 compression. It's even pretty safe to say that they are the same MP3 files available at http://rareboc.ax.lt/, because the final tracks of side B sound exactly the same, including the nonsensical fade-out at the end of Up the March Bank. So, yeah, unfortunately it's not legit.

NEUROMUTE · Post by **NEUROMUTE** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 1:51 am

FernieCanto wrote:Another definite sign, at least in the case of A Few Old Tunes, is that the tracks don't segue seamlessly like they should; there are gaps and hiccups caused by MP3 compression. It's even pretty safe to say that they are the same MP3 files available at http://rareboc.ax.lt/, because the final tracks of side B sound exactly the same, including the nonsensical fade-out at the end of Up the March Bank. So, yeah, unfortunately it's not legit.

I'm going to call the recording studio tomorrow. Weep fest commences now. Man, this sucks. Sorry guys, I thought I finally had something nice to share with you.

Basefree · Post by **Basefree** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 3:48 am

FernieCanto wrote:Another definite sign, at least in the case of A Few Old Tunes, is that the tracks don't segue seamlessly like they should; there are gaps and hiccups caused by MP3 compression. It's even pretty safe to say that they are the same MP3 files available at http://rareboc.ax.lt/, because the final tracks of side B sound exactly the same, including the nonsensical fade-out at the end of Up the March Bank. So, yeah, unfortunately it's not legit.

Ok, first, disclaimer: I am drunk as fuck at the moment of writing this.

Now, onto the point: I don't hear much glitches between the transitions: maybe some extremely minimal ones, but they could be accounted to the mastering of this tape. Definitely not similar to what's on the rareboc.ax link. I tested mostly side B, and it seemed pretty seamless overall. For a test, check Boqurant-5978. I'm using foobar2000, and I don't hear anything significant on Neuro's rip, but it's very audible with the rareboc link.

I should probably look more into it tomorrow, but I just wanted to write this out now.

FernieCanto · Post by **FernieCanto** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 4:35 am

I'm taking a closer look at side 2 of A Few Old Tunes now, prompted by your post. For reference, I'm using the mp3 files from rareboc, all of them appended to a single file using Audition, and comparing that to the FLAC recordings from Neuromute.

First off, the track transitions in those mp3 files are about as seamless as they can be for mp3 files; in the case of Boqurant/5.9.78, just by erasing the silence between tracks, the transition became absolutely seamless, which is rare. For comparison, the Random 35 Track Tape MP3s have absolutely awful transitions, and it's impossible to make them sound seamless without heavy tinkering (which I did, and my results are presented in the latest R35TT FLAC thread).

Other transitions are more problematic, but the problems are subtle. At the end of Blockbuster, for example, the host says "now here's the big prize, Kathy"; but when I try to remove the gap, it sounsd like "here's the big pri-- Kathy". The surprise: the FLAC recording sounds exactly like that.

Far more noticeable, though, is I'll Get It Tattooed / The Way You Show, in which there are, for whatever reason, two little gaps. The very same thing happens at The Way You Show / I Love U, and I Love U / King of Carnival. Now here's the kicker: on the FLAC, on all three instances, the first gap was removed, but the second one is still there, very obvious and glaring. I can try to provide screen captures later on, but you can actually hear it if you play it normally.

My hipothesis is that whomever recorded those tapes used some software to minimize those gaps. I remember one Winamp plug-in called MP3Splice, which I used in the past, but I don't know if it's compatible with the latest versions of Winamp. All I know is that it worked like a charm, making seamless transitions even in cases when I couldn't do manually. I am sure it would be able to fix those transitions, but in the double gaps, it would probably assume that the second gap was supposed to be there, and leave it untouched. I don't think the corrections were done manually, because nobody would be so careless to leave them only partially fixed. The other hipothesis is that those flaws are indeed in the original legitimate tapes, which meant that BoC was screwing up their own music with MP3 encoding, and I really doubt that.

Keep in mind: the fact that I'm going to such lengths and doing such serious nitpicking in these recordings only goes to show how much I wish they were legit.

Basefree · Post by **Basefree** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:36 am

You have done some fine detective work. The I Love U / King of Carnival gap is very audible indeed. The others, based on what I tested, seemed very minimal but audible if you pay attention.

I still don't know what to conclude of this. Some pretty convincing spectral analysis was posted above as well, which leans towards fake. What a rollercoaster.

I'll just claim I'm too stupid (or intoxicated) for this.

If you can, please look into OTV2 as well. Though I dunno, the spectrals seem to follow a similar pattern there too. Err. Whatever, I give up.

Good night..