Star Wars Ultimate Edition Soundtracks coming Jan. 2016

Itunes CD rip engine is awful, I get dropouts and jitter. Try "Phile Audio" its an app you download from the apple store. It's cheap and it interfaces with itunes. You can also rip from multiple drives at the same time

 

I always use XLD to rip a CD; if there's a problem during ripping it tells you exactly what and where. iTunes doesn't do that.

 

And XLD can be configured to automatically import the files into iTunes.

 

What if you copy and paste the files from the CD onto your computer and then use iTunes to convert them? I have a MacBook Pro so the CD files show up as .aiff. Would this method me more accurate than using iTunes to rip the tracks?

 

You can't copy and paste, because there are no files on audio cds

 

I've done it before. On my computer the tracks show up as .aiff files and I can drag them to my desktop.

 

yeah the Mac OS works in a way that makes sense

 

XLD is the best, because you can slow the speed down, and it has redundant error checking. It's like "exact audio copy" for mac

 

Also, dragging-and-dropping the AIFF files doesn't take into account PRE-GAP information, which is crucial particularly with earlier CDs.

 

not really, unless you want to preserve the spacing in between tracks, or if it's a continuous album, like a live album.

 

Precisely... why wouldn't you want to preserve the original album spacing?

Plus, on some early CDs, music actually exists IN the pre-gap. I never go without.

 

If you have a CD that skips and you copy and paste the tracks onto your mac, will those tracks not skip? I was thinking if iTunes sometimes rips CDs and the files skip, then maybe copying them first to your mac and then converting them to ALAC in iTunes might fix the problem. Is this true?

 

No. You risk having error correction and not a bit perfect rip. On a Mac, use XLD, on a PC, use EAC to rip CDs.

 

Any idea if we have some remixes here as well? The Ulladub, versions, I'm talking about. (Available on Spotify.)

 

If the CD skips, it's either dirty, or severely scratched. Clean the disc by washing it under warm water. If it's scratched, there are some polishing kits that will buff out the scratch. I bought a "laserdisc repair kit" off ebay a few years ago, and the light buffing compound works pretty good. Just make sure you don't try buffing the label side!

 

And of course I get my Star Wars stuff confused with my War of the Worlds stuff. Space music eh,what ya gonna do?

 

I was really wondering what you were on about.

 

Silly question--but are these getting individual releases? Looking to get ANH and ESB soundtracks on vinyl and the originals are not all that common.

I saw an individual release for TPM but that's the only one.

 

Phile Audio is better than XLD at ripping CDs?

 

no, its better for ripping into Itunes than ripping into itunes directly. If you want a really accurate rip, then use XLD, but XLD does not interface with Itunes.

 

Oh, but it does. See the checkbox near the bottom of the preferences pane ("Add encoded files to iTunes if possible")?

 

I wonder when or if we will get a more complete soundtrack for all the PT films like their was for the OT

 

Unless Disney have something up their sleeves, I'm guessing never. The Ultimate vinyl & download sets (together with the nice packaging, shame about the audio Ultimate CD box) look to be the last throw of the dice from Sony so I'm not expecting anything further from the latter. After the Phantom Menace Ultimate 2CD I wouldn't have a lot of faith in their not monkeying it up even if they were to go ahead with more complete prequel trilogy soundtracks. It's quite telling that the best Sony put out soundtrack wise was a decent mastering of the original 1977-1983 LP configuration soundtracks.

On the other hand Disney haven't done anything to disappoint so far: the Force Awakens soundtrack was handled well on CD, download and vinyl and the Rebels Season 1 soundtrack has appeared on iTunes/Apple Music and is a surprisingly pleasant listen, given its origins (at best Rebels reworks Williams themes for the 77-83 films).

Still enjoying the heck out of my 24/96 Ultimate Collection hi-res downloads here; had them on quite often lately due to an evening of Star Wars I-VII music by the Halle Orchestra in Manchester in October.

 

I love the latest Star Wars soundtracks releases. I have the OT both in 192 Khz/24 bit downloads and vinyl LPs and The Force Awakens on CD, double LP aet and 192 Khz/24 bit download and aometimes I find difficult to choose between the HiRez downloads or the LPs. CD is out of the question.

 

The Original Trilogy soundtracks are available separately in Europe. Star Wars have been available since June, the other two since late August. Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back are double LP sets and Return Of The Jedi is a single LP, they are exact copies of the original releases. They are pressed on golden vinyl and they sound very good to my ears. You can't go wrong with these ones.