Frequently Asked Questions

This is just a post of some questions I am frequently asked. If you have any other general comments / questions, feel free to post them here.

HOW CAN I HELP?

It's a big goal to liberate quality sound from record collectors with deep pockets. I only ask that when you download something, please leave a note of thanks so that I know you've stopped by. 

CAN I SHARE YOUR RIPS ON ANOTHER SITE?

Absolutely, BUT... I ask that if you re-post anything you get from this blog, that you credit @ThePoodleBites and include a link here. That way people can be redirected to some of the other great things I've posted, and I get the great enjoyment of reading comments from you folks, which is a big part of the reason I keep ripping in the first place! Otherwise, please feel free to get this music "out there" as far and wide as humanly possible.

I'M HAVING AN ISSUE WITH THE MEGA DOWNLOAD LIMIT.

Apparently MEGA is now limiting the amount of data that free users can download per day. There are apparently some ways to get around this. If you are a little tech savvy, you could try using this open-source code on GitHub. Others have reported that tools such as JDownloader have worked to bypass this quota, or using the MEGA mobile app. A quick Google search reveals some other possible methods, for example see here. If all else fails, you should be able to simply download a subset of files and return after 24 hours to download more. 

HOW CAN I DOWNLOAD ONLY SOME SPECIFIC FILES INSTEAD OF EVERYTHING AT ONCE?

There are a few methods of downloading files off MEGA. If one wants to only download a subset of everything on the link, for example skipping the large artwork scans, this can be done by first selecting which files you would like to download and then downloading those files. To first select which files you'd like, you can make use of two convenient keyboard shortcuts: if you hold the "CTRL" ("Control") key while clicking on files, it will allow you to select multiple files at the same time. Alternatively you can also hold the "SHIFT" key to select a range of files. After you have selected some number of files using either method, simply right-click on one of the selected files and then click on "Download...". You can then select to either download the files individually ("Standard Download") or in a compressed .zip archive. 

WHY IS THE ARTWORK SO BIG?

As the price of hard disk space gets cheaper and cheaper, the sound quality of music seems to get worse and worse. This is exactly the opposite correlation of what you'd expect; but generally, those who care deeply about the music they listen to tend to seek out the best-sounding versions available, either by tracking down various CD masterings or even turning to formats such as vinyl. And at cents per gigabyte these days, it doesn't really make sense to skimp out on file size when you've finally found that sound you like. This goes similarly for artwork scans of albums; why save a low-resolution JPEG when one can save a lossless PNG and have a backup of the artwork from their favorite albums stored on the cloud forever? For those who prefer lower-resolution files, you can download the JPEGs that you see on this website: just click on any image to bring it up full-screen, then right-click and "Save image as..." whatever you'd like. Otherwise, I'd recommend downloading the high-resolution files and downsampling to your heart's content.

WHAT IS 'FLAC'? CAN I JUST GET AN MP3?

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec and is a universal standard of digitally encoded audio without any loss of audio information, unlike 'lossy' formats such as MP3 and Ogg. One can play FLAC files (and convert to other formats) using such freeware as foobar2000 (Windows) or DeaDBeeF (Linux / Unix).

I'M HEARING FADES AT THE BEGINNING OR END OF TRACKS THAT SHOULDN'T BE THERE, WHY?

Early or late digital fades are one of my biggest pet peeves from the CD era. Accordingly, all of my rips preserve the exact spacing between, and beginning/end, of tracks. You can rest assured that the files you are downloading have had hundreds of hours poured into them to ensure that they represent exactly what they should, and all that they should; I assure you, there are no fading errors or anomalies in my rips, unless they are actually on the original source material. Instead, the cause of this issue is usually on the user end. Most playback software is actually pre-configured to add fades like this when listening to music. I recommend to first read my blog post for mention of any oddities, and then to check the settings in your playback device or program. In foobar2000, you can find this setting under File → Preferences → Playback → Output → Enable smooth seeking, pause and volume changes.

WHAT IS 'EQ SUBTRACTION'?

Don't be confused, raw rips are in most cases NOT the most historically accurate way to hear these albums! My equipment is very much on the brighter end (I believe it's better to subtract treble than to add it), which should absolutely be corrected before finalizing digital masters. I've measured my system's frequency response using the Ultimate Analogue Test LP from Analogue Productions (which has some issues and is not completely accurate, but is a useful tool nonetheless) and by comparing my own masterings pressed to vinyl with the original digital masters and characterizing the response (again not perfect as lathes / lacquer masters have characteristics of their own, but this is another useful tool). My corrections are typically on the order of 4-5dB in the treble and 1-2dB in the bass, so they are not altogether small, but I can confidently say the result is within about 1 dB of a true "flat" response, certainly more than most audiophile setups, and apparently a higher standard than even Analogue Productions can produce. I believe the errors are mostly in the nonlinearity of the medium itself, which theoretically would be present on transfers done with any equipment.

Scenes from the barking poodle's music cage

DO YOU TAKE REQUESTS?

I tend to not take requests per se, but I'm happy to do a raw digital transfer of any LPs that you want to send my way. I do spend a large amount of time on the LPs I work on, so for my restoration projects I tend to only work with pristine vinyl of things not available in good sound quality elsewhere (e.g. master tape sourced CD), and generally only of excellent musical content (sorry, you will never see Peter Grudzien here). Please keep in mind this is a free and public blog, and that sometimes purchasing vinyl, especially some of the rarities here, do not come at little expense to me. To steal a line from Prof Stoned -- "I don't owe anybody anything!" Comments are appreciated.

I'LL BUY YOUR VINYL! MY WANT LIST

Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of some records I'd like to own, and possibly rip at some point in the future. If you have one / some of these, please contact me -- I'll happily pay top dollar for clean copies. Ones in bold are albums that I'm particularly pining for at the moment. ;) 

• 13th Floor Elevators - Psychedelic Sounds Of... [US Original Mono Promo]
• 13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere [US Original Mono]
• Agitation Free - Malesch [DE Original]
• Ananda Shankar - And His Music [India Original]
  
• Arcadium - Breathe Awhile [Australia Original]
• Atomic Forest - Obsession '77 [India Original]
  
• Birmingham Sunday - A Message From Birmingham Sunday [US Original]
• Blossom Toes - What On Earth EP [UK Original]
  
• Bobb Trimble - Iron Curtain Innocence [US Original]
  
• Bonniwell Music Machine ‎- The Bonniwell Music Machine [US Mono Promo]
• C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell [US Original]
• C.O.B. - Spirit Of Love [UK Original]
  
• Cold Sun - Dark Shadows [Original Acetate]
• Country Weather [Original Single-Sided Demo]
• Damin Eih, A.L.K., & Brother Clark - Never Mind [US Original]
  
• Dave Bixby - Ode To Quetzalcoatl [US Original]
• D.R. Hooker - The Truth [US Original]
• Fraction - Moon Blood [US Original]
• Frank Zappa - Crush All Boxes [Original US Test Pressing]
• Frank Zappa - Lumpy Gravy [Original Stereo Capitol Records Acetate]
• Grateful Dead - Aoxomoxoa [US Original White-Label Promo]
  
• Incredible String Band - The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion [UK Original Mono]
• Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter [UK Original Mono]
• It's All Meat - It's All Meat [Canadian Original]
  
• Joyful Noise a.k.a. Mad Dog a.k.a. C1/C2 [US Original Test Pressing]
• Love - Da Capo [US Original Mono / Stereo] -- in shrink
  
• Moby Grape - Wow [US Original Mono]
  
• Mothers Of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money [US Original Mono] 
• Paisleys - Cosmic Mind At Play [US Original]
  
• Pussy - Pussy Plays [UK Original]
• Randy Holden - Population II [US Original]
  
• Red Krayola - God Bless The Red Krayola And All Who Sail With It [US Original]
• Savages - Black Scorpio [India Original]
  
• Skip Bifferty - Skip Bifferty [UK 1st/2nd Press Mono]
• Spirit - Spirit [US Original Mono] 
• Spirogyra - St. Radigunds [UK Original]
  
• Tripsichord Music Box - Tripsichord [Red SF Sound Demo LP]
• Zerfas - Zerfas [US Original]

If you have one of these records and would be willing to lend / sell it for ripping, please contact me and let me know! You can find my email on the side or bottom of this page.

Thanks!  ~"tpb"