Rare Recordings and Rare Items  »   Recordings of the European Tour (Part 2/May-Sept 2010)

I'm already getting PMs from people, asking me to upload the recordings of the Irish concerts to Rapidshare or somewhere similar.

I'll be mastering these at the end of the weekend when I get home from Ireland and uploading them to DIME at the rate of one a day for the next three days (assuming I manage to successfully also record tonight's gig in Galway).

I prefer services like DIME, because they are based around the fundamental concept of sharing. They also have strict policies governing file quality and supporting documentation, and they respect the wishes of any artist who doesn't want their work published there.

DIME has limited membership (100,000 users), but dormant accounts are cleaned up every day and, if you keep trying, you'll eventually be able to register and get in.

I have no objection to others using Rapidshare and similar services, but for me, they're a last resort. There's no quality control, no copyright control, no respect of artists' wishes, and no encouragement to share.

Some people have written to say that their Internet provider doesn't allow the use of torrent sites. That's a shame, especially if they do allow sites like Rapidshare, because it's the latter kind of site that gives file sharing a bad name. DIME, on the other hand, does much to promote the idea of respectful sharing.

I feel I'm doing my part by uploading the recordings to DIME. If someone else wants to put them on Rapidshare, that's fine by me. As with Brussels, though, I would ask that you not repost the files in a lossy format, such as MP3. This pollutes and degrades the trading pool. If you need MP3 for your own use, generate them yourself from the FLAC files. FLAC is an open standard, supported by free tools on every common computer platform, so everyone is capable of generating whichever other formats they need from the FLAC master.

So, no, I won't personally be uploading them anywhere except for DIME, but someone here is bound to help you out if there's really no way you can get the stuff from there.

I can download it and send you in mp3 when it's up!

don't forget me, either

A control freak? I know you're half-joking, but that means you're also half-serious. I actually don't think I'm being one on this issue.

I'm simply requesting adherence to the de facto standards by which unofficial audio and video material is traded these days. These standards have evolved to assure the quality of traded material and prevent accidental or deliberate degradation.

Since FLAC can be used to generate all other formats, I don't understand why anyone would request the posting of MP3s or any other format. You can generate whatever you need from the FLAC.

If I were really a control freak, I'd hoard the recordings for myself, but I won't be happy until I see the download counters incrementing on DIME.

At the end of the day, anyone can do whatever they want with the recordings. It's up to them. Ultimately, I want them to reach as many fans as possible, regardless of the format.

I'd just like to think that they'll still be readily available in the original quality years from now, and that fans who want the concert in the same quality that it was recorded in won't find only RAR archives of poorly encoded MP3s when they go looking.

Thanks again Ian! ;)

@pendragonm,

I'll definitely post here when I upload each of the concerts.

The earliest that the Dublin gig will go up on DIME is Sunday evening, because I don't even get home to Amsterdam until tomorrow.

I'd rather pay for a live album on CD, but I will search these out in the meantime...
Thanks for making them available!

Would someone be so kind and pass on a link or something to download this stuff, once available, on MP3 format? Only that I don't have the faintest idea what DIME and FLAC is and, frankly, I'm not up to discovering new territories in technology (?), at the present time.
So, anything a bit more accesible would be very much appreciated.

Oh, and it might be useful to mention I'm interested in material from the ARK tour, be it audio or video.

Cool! Cheers

I'm down and uploading :)

Weeee thanks dude. - Noticed the many changes/additions on "Love on the Vine"? I think they sound rough. I prefer the Brussels version.

@Adrian,

Just wait until you hear the Cork and Galway gigs if you think Dublin sounds good. :-)

The torrent includes a file with a review of the gig and details of the equipment used to record it. I hope that was included in the RAR file.

It's essentially just an expanded write-up of what I posted here after the gig, but it gives the gig some context and helps the listener picture the setting.

You're welcome. Please post your thoughts about it.

I checked the .RAR file and the original info.txt file from the torrent is missing.

At the risk of inviting more jibes about being a control freak, I would request that you not omit that file when distributing your own archives, as it contains the context of the gig, details of the recording and the equipment used to make it, etc.

Also, I noticed that the files are encoded at only 224 KBps and are missing the date and track tags. The album tag has also been modified and the capitalisation of song titles changed.

Lest this create the impression that this reflects the source files, I would like to emphasise that, apart from a full review of the gig and a set list, the original torrent contains fully tagged files.

Please, if you're going to distribute archives with inferior copies of the original files, at least faithfully copy the metadata and include the supporting files. Apart from the work involved in recording the gig and editing the resulting audio, I also put a lot of effort into ensuring that the listener has as much information as possible about the gig, as well as full, properly formatted metadata, so that no further editing should be required. All the listener has to do is download and listen.

If you want to avoid the potential for this kind of digital degeneration, may I suggest you download the original torrent. DIME isn't that hard to get into. Dormant accounts are cleaned up every few minutes. You just need to show a little persistence. You'll also gain the satisfaction of knowing that your bandwidth is helping to distribute the recording. It's good to share. :-)

Thanks for reading,

Your friendly neighbourhood control freak.

After some 55 snatches, the Dublin gig is starting to calm down a bit down, freeing some of my upstream bandwidth to allow me to share my recording of Brendan live at Cork Pavilion on 27th May 2010. Get it while it's hot.

As I wrote yesterday, the sound quality of this recording is vastly better than that of Dublin and rivals my Brussels recording from stage one of the tour in March. You be the judge.

The Galway concert will follow tomorrow. I will post here when it's available.

As I mentioned in my last post, if you must repackage the torrent with modified contents, please retain the metadata as is and include the info.txt file, as this includes a full gig review, set list and details of the equipment used to make the recording. In other words, it's stuff that fans like us care about. Thanks.

Enjoy!

I haven't had a chance to listen yet. I downloaded it yesterday evening with a houseful of guests on our Memorial Day weekend/holiday. Got to bed very late and dragging at work today. The file is at home. I will have to wait until tonight to give it a listen.

Thank you Alexander, for making it available to the rest of us without a DIME account. And of course, thanks once more to the man (ianmacd) who took the time to record, edit, and upload the originals. Best regards to you both! I'm sure it will be awesome!

Can I request that someone (who can use torrents) makes the Cork gig available as a FLAC file please? I know that some of you prefer mp3s but for the rest of us who can't use torrents, it would be nice to hear the gig in lossless format (as Ian has made it available). FLAC can be easily converted to mp3 (and to wav for those who want to burn it onto a CDR) but for the reverse process there is significant loss of sound quality. I use Switch file converter (available free here) which easily converts a multitude of audio formats.

Thanks,

George.

You're welcome. I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for widening the distribution, too.

@Ianmacd

Thanks for all, Ian! You're a really cool dude! I downloaded the Dublin gig, and I'm downloading Galway at the moment. Can you tell me what sort of program I can use to put it on CD (Freeware, if possible)?

I bow down before your generosity and implication... Thumbs up!

I'm listening to the Cork recording right now. I'm really impressed with the sound quality. Good job, Ian!

hello there
just a few brief thoughts on the new song, "Tree of Life";
-so simple, elegant, and illuminating.
-form follows function; the vibrant qualities of the music body forth the lyrical content.
-praxis. live. get on with it. produce, play, enjoy, share, care, work, life, art. if you follow the golden rule (ha!) then meaning will be revealed. if necessary.
-certainty, confidence, questions. not equivocation, arrogance, or answers.
-joy.
-all things must pass.
-wheeeeeeeee!
peace
g

@summoningofthemuse

I have VLC media player. I can listen to FLAC with it, but I didn't find how to use it for converting FLAC to WAV.

@summoningofthemuse and Xaviersprayer

OK, it happens I had an old version of the program. I downloaded the new version and found the convert option.

Thanks!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Brendan and band, live at Galway Róisín Dubh on 28th May 2010.

Can someone please make this available on a non-torrent site? It would be much appreciated. thanks!! :)

Uploading now - the files will appear here as they complete. :)


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