fleminec

I've always found EasyTAG (easytag.sf.net), to be a great program.  If you have your files named correctly, you can use EasyTAG to create tags automatically, based on file names and folders.  So if you had a folder named "John Williams" and inside that a folder named "Star Wars Episode I" and inside that all your tracks, named something like "01 - Title.flac" you could have EasyTAG automatically tag your files with artist, album, tracknumber and title, just based on the file hierarchy and name.

Not sure what OS you're using, but EasyTAG is available for both Windows and Linux, or if you're on Mac OS X, there's a Fink port, although those are often pretty rough to set up, if you're only trying to get one program.

Maybe, but you don't get one without the other.  :-)

The sample sounds great; I love how clear everything you've put up has been, compared to other vinyl transfers I've heard.

Just one thought on levels, though... the sample seems overly loud between about 1:00 and 1:15, especially in the flutes, and there's a bit of crackling there as well.  The levels don't "look" too hot, but they sure sound it, right there.

Overall, though... this is sounding like another good one.  Thanks!

Wow... just got my computer back up and running (yay for overnight delivery!), and I just listened to the samples.  Freaking.  Amazing.  I so can't wait to hear what you've done with Return of the Jedi.  Sending PM right now!  :-)

I'm pretty sure he was joking.

Have you tried 7-Zip?  It's a free and open-source compression utility for Windows that can save as RAR files.

http://www.7-zip.org/

Disaster sounds serious... what happened?

I'm loving the "Lapti Nek" remixes!  I could really only "hear" the vinyl surface noise at the very beginning (maybe the first 12-13 seconds) of Side A, and the very end of Side B.

Fantastic job!

I'm wondering... was this a case of your record being super pristine, or did you declick/denoise/decrackle software work that well?  Just curious.  I just know that after hearing that, I'm really looking forward to your soundtrack LP rips.  Any thoughts on how they compare to the "Lapti Nek" single as far as pops and clicks go?

Regardless, I'm loving this thread.  :-)

I did find a couple covers for the single as well.  Not sure if you scanned your copy, or if you grabbed something off the Internet, but I found front and back covers (although the front cover is different), and cleaned them up a bit.  Hope they're useful for somebody.  (Right-click to save to your hard drive for the full-size images.)

I, for one, would love to get a copy of this!  I had waited to comment on it because your initial post said the project was on hold, but absolutely, I'd love to hear any changes you've made.  Your first set was so good; if you think what you've done here is better... I'm all in favor of that!

Quick question:  I don't have a copy of the Imperial Edition DVD, but have seen where I could download it.  The audio track on that DVD... is it PCM?  I'm asking because it's sort of sounding as if you're ready to move on (you mentioned it doesn't seem as if it's "worth it" since no one else had chimed in), and if that's so... if I ripped the audio track from the DVD, would that give me Set 2 from what you're discussing here?  Just checking, but I'd still love to get a copy of this from you, or from JediTray, if that's a possibility.

Thanks for your work!

Eric

I actually got a PM from him about that.  Thanks!

So. Freaking. Excited!

I was just asking about the vinyl rips of the original soundtrack releases (Return Of The Jedi in particular) a couple days ago on the ABC and 7FN OT Soundtracks "Salvage" thread, but no one had mentioned having them.

So I absolutely WILL be keepin an eye on this thread!  And you can bet I'll help seed.

I just love vinyl rips.  I've been a lurker/leecher over at avaxhome.ws for a while, and have learned to love the warmth a good LP rip provides.  I've been trying to get an account there, mainly so I could beg the two people whose rips I most often download (aksman and Dr. Robert), if they would "pretty please" rip the Star Wars Trilogy soundtracks, but sign-ups are closed.  :-(  It's really interesting reading some of the comments regarding noise reduction and click and pop removal.  Dr. Robert in particular seems to do an excellent job of this.

Anyway, I'm just thrilled (still!  again!) that you're doing these, and as much as I'd like to say "hurry up" and get them done (especially RoTJ), I almost want you to do everything BUT the original trilogy first, so by the time you get to them, you have your process down.

Yes, I'm greedy like that.

Anyway, if you decide to try and spread these in a way other than torrent, let me know.  I just uploaded the ABC Salvage editions and that seemed to go well.  I'd be happy to help share your stuff as well.

Thanks!

Eric

One more thing...

I've been looking for quite a while, but haven't stumbled upon a rip of the original "Return of the Jedi" LP.  I'm not a vinyl freak, but I've really enjoyed listening to the 7FN needle drops mentioned in this thread.  I have no way to transfer my old copies (neither the skill nor the software nor the patience, more than likely!), but would be more than willing to share if someone is willing to make it available.

Actually, that's what led me to the question: I wanted to upload the "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back" vinyl rips along with the trilogy I just uploaded, but because I'm a bit of a completist, I couldn't only upload two (I'm a bit messed up that way).

So, yeah... if anyone has a copy, or knows where one is, I'd love to get it, and I'd definitely help spread it around.

Thanks!

Eric

Three things:

ABC Said: "It's great to see someone able to loggin to this site only to offer such a help. And I'm honoured it is about my work on this set. Thank you very much, and thanks for your kind words."

Actually, I had an account at OT.com probably five or six years ago, however I couldn't remember the password, and no longer had access to the original email account, so wasn't sure about how to get that changed, so I signed up for a new account.  Didn't matter anyway, since I don't think I ever posted with the old account!  But you're welcome.  Your scores deserve to be spread around, so anything I can do to help.  And that includes your new Imperial Audiophile Edition.  Looks like it will be a bit of a process to upload (5 discs?  I'm drooling already!), but I'd be willing to help out.  Just sayin'..

Easterhay Said: "So, these are the remastered scores from 1997, yes?"

No.  These are the scores ABC remastered.  Read the first post of the thread to find out more about the project.  I think he used the 1997 scores (or maybe their 2004 versions), in addition to the 1993 anthology, to come up with the best-sounding versions of the original trilogy scores.  But these aren't the 1997 special edition scores as originally released, no.  You'd also talked about setting up a trading vine, and while I've been one before (for both Phish and Grateful Dead concerts), I'm not sure it's all that viable an option anymore.  For one, it was excellent back in the days before high-speed Internet and bittorrent, but now that we have what we have today (Megaupload, Demonoid, Usenet, and forums in which to point people to where the files are), I'm not sure a vine is necessary.  But ask around, I could be wrong!  :-)

BillyBoy35 Said: "Thanks mate, your a legend, much appreciated... Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier but FLACS are just what I was after. I'll be sure to re-up in future if the links go down, but from the sounds of it you've got it covered. Thanks again for yours and ABC' efforts."

No problem, and phfff... not a legend, only an uploader.  :-)  No problem not getting back to me sooner.  And thanks for the re-upload offer.  I totally don't expect my uploads to exist forever.  Probably longer than would be expected if I had uploaded directly to Megaupload or Rapidshare, but certainly not forever.

Eric

Okay, I haven't heard back from BillyBoy35 on whether or not the MP3 files would be okay, but I ended up finding the original FLAC files on an external hard drive, so it doesn't matter anyway.  If anyone wants the MP3 files, they'll just have to download the FLAC files and convert for themselves.

I ended up uploading the complete remastered trilogy (not the LP rips), and posted them to Sharebee.  For those unfamiliar with Sharebee, it's a fantastic site that once you upload to them, uploads your file to Megaupload, Rapidshare, zSHARE, Badongo and DepositFiles.  In fact, you don't download from Sharebee, but when you click on a Sharebee link, you're given a list of those five sites, and then you download from them.  The huge advantage (other than upload once and have it go to five different sites), is that Sharebee monitors the other sites, and if the file gets deleted from one, Sharebee re-uploads.

In order to hopefully keep the Sharebee links alive as long as possible, I've created a ShortText document that holds all the Sharebee links, and the ShortText link is anonymized by Redirect.am (which is routed through the is.gd URL shortening service), so the Sharebee links won't show OT.com as the referring link and anyone watching for that kind of stuff won't find it... as quickly.  :-)

Anyway, here's the link:

http://is.gd/eMtVL

Enjoy!  And be sure to thank ABC for his fantastic work; he deserves it!  And 7FN as well, for his vinyl rip contributions; great stuff all around.  :-)

P.S. For your sanity's sake, it's really better if you have ad-blocking software installed for your web browser.  I didn't realize it until partway through uploading, but Sharebee uses a TON of ads (including the really annoying kind that fade in over the actual web page as you're sitting there), but with AdBlock Plus installed in Firefox, I don't see a thing... it's as if there aren't any ads at all.  Just a word of warning.  :-)

At the moment I only have the mp3 copies I made for myself to put on my portable player.  If those are okay instead of the FLAC files, I can get them uploaded for you.  Otherwise, if you want to hang on for a couple of days, I can get the originals downloaded off Usenet and then uploaded somewhere, but the uploading process might take a while.  I'm on a shared connection with kind of cruddy upload speeds, especially during the day.

So, let me know.

Eric

P.S. Oops, forgot to mention, the mp3 files are encoded at 256 kbps, so they sound pretty good.  Not FLAC good, but still good.  But yeah, let me know if you want the FLAC files, but it will take a couple days.

Hey, no problem; glad to help out and share knowledge.  I couldn't begin to do the audio wizardry you do, but I do what I can.

One thought about newsgroups for you to consider:  I think they're actually a perfect vehicle for you to use as a sharing option (probably not the ONLY way to share, since a lot of people don't use them, just as not everyone can use Megaupload or Rapidshare or Torrents), for a couple reasons.  Once they're uploaded to a newsgroup, they're there for a very long time.  You don't need to worry about Rapidshare or Megaupload deleting them soon after you upload, or from seeders stopping seeding a torrent, which takes away a lot of the "please upload them again!" comments.  Also, you don't have to upload them to alt.bin.starwars, and you don't have to label them accurately.  For instance, I understand you're trying to limit the sharing of your work to people you're fairly sure already own the originals, so to help limit that, you (or someone more familiar with the newsgroups), could upload them to a different group (not Star Wars related), using a name that's not going to make people want to download it.  That way when people on this board ask, they could be pointed in the right direction.

After people get the set, of course, it's impossible to control what they do with it (post it to Rapidshare or Megaupload or TehParadox or other message boards, or even make a torrent out of it), but that's something no one can contol anyway.  This way (posting it to the newsgroups), there is a copy available for two years, with no need to upload again and again because it's been deleted, and if it's uploaded "correctly" (non-Star Wars newsgroup and misleading name), then there's little chance that random people will stumble on it by accident.

Just a thought.

Also, I probably haven't said this before, since I was only answering the other poster's request for Return of a Jedi, then answering your post, but THANK YOU so much for your work!  I love the Salvage remasters, the LPs from 7FN, and especially love the Audiophile edition.  The sound is so much clearer, so much fuller, that it's amazing it's the same score, and that someone at Sony or someone in Lucas' camp wasn't able, or interested enough, to do the same thing.  It's sad, actually, and I'm really grateful you took it upon yourself to "fix" things for everyone here.  :-)  And I'm also really excited to hear your new project, whenever that eventually happens.

Anyway, thanks again for so much great work!  And if you think about the newsgroups some more and come to the conclusion that they might not be that bad of a choice as one of the ways to share your upcoming Imperial Audiophile Edition, I'd be happy to help out.  I've never uploaded to the newsgroups, but I think I could manage it.

Either way, thanks!

Eric

Here is how newsgroups work:

Let's say I post a message to alt.fan.starwars, which is a discussion group about Star Wars.  The copy of the message I post goes to my local server, which is part of a huge network of servers, and each server copies everything that goes through it to all the other servers it "talks to," until every server has a copy.  Now, with discussion newsgroups, this is simple, because those discussions happen in plain text, which takes up very little bandwidth or hard drive space.  Because of this, access to text-only newsgroups (such as alt.fan.starwars), can easily be had for free.  In fact, Google even lets you browse text-only newsgroups.  But you can't download music or videos or anything using Google's free access.  But that's just for discussions.

Without the downloading, newsgroups are basically the original message boards (they really aren't that much different from OriginalTrilogy.com).  In fact, if OT.com had been started fifteen years ago, it would likely have been a newsgroup.  The one main difference is that OT.com requires people to sign up for an account, while newsgroups are really like public bulletin boards.  Anyone can post a message that anyone can read and anyone can respond to.

With content like music, videos, audiobooks and similar "stuff," on the other hand, things work a little bit differently.  The newsgroup alt.bin.starwars is a binaries newsgroup (the "bin" in the name stands for binaries), so you won't find any discussion at all, only movies and soundtracks and poster and comic books scans and audiobooks and stuff like that.  THOSE kind of files take up huge amounts of room, so it's typical for most local servers to delete those files after only a few days, if not sooner.  This quick deleting would make newsgroups lousy places to share content, since the content would be gone almost immediately.

However, there are companies (such as the companies I mentioned, Astraweb and GigaNews, along with others), who make copies of every single bit and byte of information that is posted, and store it on their own servers.  The big draw for people to use those companies is because they have incredibly long retention rates.  As an example, Astraweb now offers 742 days of retention, and GigaNews is advertising 752 days of retention, so in both cases, something posted today will still be available from them two years from now.  In the case of your Salvage editions, someone going as "Bullzeye" posted them 480 days ago, and someone going by "CBA" (your moniker but backwards?) posted them more than two months ago.  And they'll be there for a while.

When you pay for Usenet access, what you're basically paying for is the convenience of gaining access... not access to any specific content... but access to the content that they have backed up and stored on their servers in order to make it available to you long after it would otherwise have been deleted.  And yes, if someone signs up only to get a copy of your work, then that's kind of the same thing, but that's not really how they operate.  They just charge per Gigabyte of download, no matter what you're downloading.

So, to answer your question about why someone should pay in order to download from alt.bin.starwars, I guess it's because paying for newsgroup access really is the only option.  If there were no groups like Astraweb or GigaNews, the content would be deleted almost immediately, in order to make room for more content.  There are probably still some Internet providers who provide free access to newsgroups, but most have cut off access.  Mainly this is because there is so much "stuff" on it that not only would it require a huge amount of bandwidth, but they'd probably get sued for copyright infringement.

If you're not familiar with usenet/newsgroups, what I was suggesting probably sounded pretty off-the-wall, because you're right, alt.bin.starwars doesn't charge anything, but really, that's just how newsgroups work.  Ask around to people who use the newsgroups to transfer files back and forth.  In browsing through alt.bin.starwars, you'll actually see a lot of fan edits (some of them labeled "beta," because I assume one person working on an edit is using the newsgroups to send it to someone else working on the same projects), while other people are sharing different audio tracks (again, likely to be used in fan edits).  I can almost guarantee that those people have either purchased an account with one of the companies I mentioned or are lucky enough to have a school account where newsgroups access hasn't been shut off yet.  :-)

Hope that helps explain how newsgroups work!

If you use Usenet, all three scores are still available (assuming your Usenet provider has decent retention, which most seem to these days).  Following this link takes you to binsearch, where you can search Usenet.  I've tailored the search so you can see just the Return of the Jedi tracks.  You can create a Newzbin file (nzb) from this page, and feed that into your Usenet binaries downloader, and you should be good to go.  If you don't use Usenet (and I know a lot of people don't), I've found that Astraweb is a good deal.  For ten bucks you can download 25 GB of stuff, stretched out over however long a time period you want.  Or if you do a lot of binaries downloading, you can get unlimited downloads for ten bucks a month.  GigaNews isn't insanely expensive either, and I believe they at least used to offer a free three-day trial, so that's worth a look.

Anyway, the links to the search that will show you the Return of the Jedi (in FLAC):

http://bit.ly/dvZQoV

These aren't my uploads, but someone told me a while ago to search Usenet for *XS* OT Remastered Scores, and there they were.  All three scores are actually there, but since you were only looking for Return of the Jedi, I tweaked the search that I linked to so you'd only see it.

Hope that helps!

Eric

P.S. If you (or anyone) is looking for a program to download Usenet binaries (after getting an account with Astraweb or GigaNews or somewhere), SABnzbd gets a lot of good reviews.  I'm on Linux and use LottaNZB (and have used Unison on Mac OSX in the past), but SABnzbd seems to be well thought-of, and also runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.  SABnzbd.org should tell you everything you need to know about it.

P.P.S.  I forgot to mention, but if you click on the poster's name at the previous link, you'll also find the two LP rips released alongside the trilogy remasters.  And, The Empire Strikes Back Audiophile Edition is also on Usenet; just follow this link for another binsearch Usenet search:

http://bit.ly/av1v93

That's all.  I promise!  (Unless I think of something else)