Band On The Run Re-Issue: DOWNLOAD CENTRAL

I think I'll just buy the 24/96 uncompressed download. I've already got enough "physical" BOTR media such as the original vinyl, cassette, DCC Gold CD and the 25th Anniversary 2-CD set. HDtracks.com have it for $19.98

 

Yay! Topspin came through with a set of links to each individual track. I've spent the last hour downloading them and, although there was no info given as to which version I had (limited or unlimited) I've compared checksums and can confirm that I've got the unlimited version.

I'd also like the limited version, just for completeness, so I'll chase it up. I may never listen to them but I figure that if I've paid for them I should have them!

 

Neil, I suggest you skip the DVD-A HiRez route for this recording. If you can get a hold of DVD-V authoring software that does 96/24 you are good to go, will enjoy compatibility with more players and can play the music through digital links, instead of the more common analog connection for DVD-A.

I am sorry, though, that I am not familiar with the Mac environment to suggest any software for this.

 

If you are on a PC I suggest you use the free player Foobar2000 (www.foobar2000.org) with the 'Resample (SoX) DSP to downsample. I would not trust anything else, save iZotope's RX Advaced (or some other program that has iZotope's resampling and dithering algorithms for any downsampling/bit depth change, unless you want to get a less-than-optimal conversion.

 

They mention it is the same amount as used on the CD.

 

This is how these HiRez files should sound if downsampled to CD rez with the tools I mentioned above: http://www.sendspace.com/file/mfxi6w (flac) BTW, this is from the un-limited version.

 

I had no probs downloading the large zip file with limited and unlimited wave files in it using my vista laptop. But I couldn't unzip it using windows built in zip handler or with 7zip. They both report a corrupt zip or unsupported compression.

Eventually got it to unzip using a new download of winrar 64 (on my windows 7 64 bit workstation) which seemed to be the only program supporting whatever strange zip compression method is used in the supplied file.

In the meantime topspin also sent me the links to each individual file but I didn't try those having got the zip to work and having Australian sized download limits I didn't want to use up more of my monthly quota.

 

The negative downloading experiences I've read on this and other various threads regarding BOTR's hi-rez file purchasing system makes me leery of buying them online...I'd rather have a DVD pressing in 96k/24-bit resolution available through a reputable website than any downloading option!!!

 

Have you guys who are having problems with the download read the caveats on the purchase page at paulmccartney.com? (http://www.paulmccartney.com/bandontherun/) Bottom left of page.

 

I'd like to report that I had no issues downloading the unlimited files from Topspin or burning to DVD-A. Just to let everyone know that it is possible!

Maybe I got lucky?

 

I didn't have any problems (I am on a Mac and use Safari) and I did read those stipulations but I wonder if some of the people having problems downloading didn't read or see the stipulations (which probably could have been pointed out more clearly) and that is indeed the reason for their problems.

Very good point.

 

I had a similar problem and the same thing, got the email with the individual links for the unlimted and the .pdf booklet. Downloaded them all, though I'm not all that sure on what to do with it now.

 

I pointed those out on the other thread.

 

But, add up the numbers. How many have had a positive experience downloading the files as opposed to those who didn't? And, before you form your conclusion, remember that unhappy people are always the ones who yell louder.

 

Hi Grant,

Great! Didn't know, as I just jumped in mid-thread because it was too long to read it all.

 

It's quite possible that some firewalls or AV programs could slow down a person's download, thereby increasing the chance for an interrupted, cancelled, or even corrupted files.

I do most of my downloads on a computer with a direct ethernet connection. I have had situations where that computer could do perfect, quick downloads, where the one with the wireless connection had issues.

 

There is a lot of confusion about this release, I am going to try to sort through it all in this post. I am sure I will forget something or mess something up, but hopefully some will find it useful. If you spot an error or omission, feel free to PM me or post a reply.

How to ensure file integrity for the limited and unlimited files:

A lot of people are having problems with the download process. Topspin has exacerbated the problem with the huge .zip files, but we can easily verify the files are correct. A "MD5 hash" is a checksum for files (think of it as a fingerprint for a file, something that will uniquely identify it).

To generate MD5 hash values for the BotR files, using Windows, is not too hard. There are a number of tools to do it, I used "MD5sum for Windows". It is free and available here:

http://www.pc-tools.net/win32/md5sums/

-Download and unzip it. The file you need is "md5sums.exe"
-Create a folder and put all the BotR ".wav" files into that folder.
-Drag the folder containing the BotR ".wav" files and drop it on "md5sums.exe"
-Check the outputs against the following values"

Unlimited version:

Code:

b792e625e0089a8da0c734fc8233bcc0  01 Band on the Run.wav
6c68a26866bdd1391f440df811b99d87  02 Jet.wav
15dfd0b749c6976965c218a8e2bb7242  03 Bluebird.wav
4acd9bd9c61631043ff900187ef45c74  04 Mrs Vandebilt.wav
7e00908d376e0adad8146a08f066a2a6  05 Let Me Roll It.wav
d166c187ed8f6f2a56a05570ca8a6c78  06 Mamunia.wav
ce6ceb0a81e6356b4ffe672e016948f1  07 No Words.wav
ca85943d1c3c1f797e5e64f1b5af3157  08 Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me).wav
bb085447a77bc80e2b7c79da986d76f6  09 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five.wav
aa3f8a6f0f61f7dc6771fadacaf50658  10 Helen Wheels.wav
f618d3341473b0428a9bbc734adf7304  11 Country Dreamer.wav
21e9fdec0f82de04b6d4c9a4e985edd2  12 Bluebird _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
b77e5c6bbdecfe2b00260779624588c5  13 Jet _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
800ec6dcd5eaf61f12b39ff9f4070392  14 Let Me Roll It _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
95ee0dbfce38b9ea813e1e7b9bb43315  15 Band on the Run _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
b316d5639b352ab88d34fcc3acea4470  16 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
2aa9a1277f5d2addf03eb937703f7e30  17 Country Dreamer _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
09c044b761d75c76232c7935decb0db1  18 Zoo Gang.wav

Limited Version:

Code:

d818387c5426a450dd7f0531ecdbebc3  01 Band on the Run.wav
045f67d226d20cbca7beef47f7b3dab3  02 Jet.wav
d1defd72538d6e48fcdf64f4ebc0e3af  03 Bluebird.wav
668206dafb5e0c17345481c08d2b2c01  04 Mrs Vandebilt.wav
94b5aeb9c57d6315474d534daff23bc2  05 Let Me Roll It.wav
a6062d07564d41711489778a1a4963a2  06 Mamunia.wav
2f57106a512af36a5d7058c10965b9fb  07 No Words.wav
8d988fbc0ff8993d0b54a07a3656670e  08 PicassoGÇÖs Last Words (Drink to Me).wav
7e440c41c3fdf54092882f9e22b6dcc7  09 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five.wav
291449cd513809c65d6f49c7277e783d  10 Helen Wheels.wav
d36ab074e86e81436239be184ed833fb  11 Country Dreamer.wav
1a6883c92c4e7eaa5d8caaad109ca07e  12 Bluebird _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
244bc6d5d0524b4e3b99c30253a2d5b3  13 Jet _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
951cd16ffb914c32b631bc290d8dfa2b  14 Let Me Roll It _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
f33cfd89ca41b43324f81351be2f2dfa  15 Band on the Run _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
56ffabc2434b7dd658ef7fa4056346bb  16 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
4e5e2af906df5ae1553c5cefd8b54cd8  17 Country Dreamer _from One Hand Clapping_.wav
c08e42ee0ffa9b7e6f09a4c9a21e82e1  18 Zoo Gang.wav

If the values match, you have complete, correct downloads.



How to burn the files to DVD-V:

If you take these 96k/24-bit files and burn the audio to a DVD using the following steps, you will have a DVD that will play on a standard DVD player and retain the 96k/24-bit resolution of the files.

To do this, on Windows, you will need to download and install the following (free) software:
Foobar2000 -> http://www.foobar2000.org/
lplex -> http://audioplex.sourceforge.net/
imgburn -> http://www.imgburn.com/


A side note before we begin (feel free to skip unless you a curious about why we have to do the conversions): When I tried to use lplex to create the DVD image using the downloaded .wav files, I get a number of "*ERR: Header of file is non-canonical." errors. I am not sure what foobar does during the conversion problem, it does not affect the music, but it does fix the header.

-Open foobar2000, select File->Add Folder and navigate to the folder containing the BotR .wav files.
-In foobar2000, select all the files by Edit->Select All
-In foobar2000, right-click on any of the files, and select "Convert->..."
-In foobar2000, for Output format, select "WAV". Important-> Under "Output path", select "Specify folder" and enter c:\botr (or something similar, just make sure you don't overwrite your original files) and press "OK". The conversion process may take a couple minutes.
-Once it is complete, drag the folder with the converted files and drop it on "lplex.exe". A Command Prompt window should open and you should see lplex process each file. This process will take several minutes.
-Once the process is complete (you should see "Press a key..." in the command prompt window), there should be a botr.iso file in the lplex folder - this is the file you want to burn to a DVD.
-You can burn the .iso image to a DVD using any software (Nero, etc) or just use imgburn (above).

Once you are done, you can delete the converted files and the .iso image, as well as the botr_dvd folder in the lplex folder.

Hope this helps. I am sure there are similar things you can use on a Mac, but I am a Windows user, so I can't help you there, sorry. I will try to monitor this thread and help out with any questions, so fire away.

 

There is some additional header information in the wave files that some authoring
software does not seem to like. Here is what happened when I tried a conversion
to flac and back to wav.

Ran a quick test, converted one track to flac and back to wav. The file
was NOT the same size and did NOT pass the md5 check. flac gave
warnings about skipping "unknown sub-chunks" "sav1", "sav2" and "pad".
Never seen that warning before. So there is definitly something going
on with additional "information" in the wav files that flac encoding seems
to remove.

Just remember that the new wav files that you get won't check OK with the
md5 files from the original wav files.

 

Great stuff Dan! This will be my future process for further Macca hi-rez files.

 

I had a problem with the 5GB file from topspin, but once they gave me the
codes for limited and unlimited as separate zip files everything worked file.
Even the download seemed faster.

 

No problems with the download direct from Maccas site. Got the unlimited ones.

 

I think this is a problem. Like someone else here, I downloaded directly from the website. I did not use the links they sent me in the email.