Tool's NEW ALBUM Fear Inoculum - August 30th, 2019

If you aren't an audiophile in terms of gear, I would attribute what you are hearing for as the result of the mix and mastering rather than loss of information via data compression especially when talking about the dynamic range and tonality of the drums - 320kps Ogg Vorbis is surprisingly a really decent sounding format based on my Spotify experience - when talking about lossy formats that is - I found myself pleasantly surprised jamming out to it!

Personally I might go for the Qobuz download on release day because I want to have a copy on my hard drive/iPod and download it on Spotify on my phone

 

Easy tiger! Lol, I'm just a few years younger than you, and I also passed on the CD because it seems corny and gimmicky. I'll stream it in Hi Res until it comes out on vinyl.

I've got thousands of albums on vinyl, CD, SACD, DVD Audio and I stream hi res Qobuz. Why limit yourself?

PS: I do agree with you that its ridiculous that the whole album is not on the first physical release, another reason I didn't preorder it...

 

Its all very well saying that excluded parts from the CD are insignificant segues but I see albums as works of art and once you start cutting bits out you are removing parts from the finished work and therefore meddling with the artists original intent. I don’t want to pay over the odds for a product that is an abridged version, regardless of whether it is music, a book or a film and regardless of how important that removed section is deemed. Maybe in the past I have been guilty of skipping tracks on a CD but that is my choice entirely.

 

Although that is why there is a download card included with every copy of the CD, so technically you aren't paying for an abridged version! After all CD information is digital, so what is the difference between 1s and 0s from a CD and from the download?


Personally I am more satisfied with this compromise than them trying to split the album into two awkwardly-timed disks

 

I wonder, for all the people saying things like this, do you own any 2-disc sets and, if so, were they ever a problem for you, awkward timing etc. or anything else?

 

I own plenty of 2-disc sets, but I can't think of any where both disks had really short running times or one disk had tons of tracks and the second disk had just whatever little bit they couldn't fit onto disk 1. Either of these scenarios would be what would happen with this Tool album - hence the totally cool compromise of the download card.


I mean to be fair, obviously the guys who wrote the material and are in complete control of how this album is absorbed, decided this is the best way to present this album in the way that they want. I trust them

 

Because when you shell out £79 (as is the case in the UK) for a CD, the primary product you are paying for is the CD and that product is not the full fat product. If I want to download or stream I can do so at a fraction of the cost. I am not a CD buyer as a rule but if they charge similar money for the vinyl and it is incomplete but they chuck a download code in the box as a sweetener then you can count me unimpressed.

PS. I would far rather have the complete album on two CDs and put up with 30 second job of having to swop disks over!

 

Yeah, I'm an idgit when it comes to this stuff, I think you're right now that I've experimented even more. I think this all might be something we can chalk up to the relationship between each of the albums' mastering/mixes and the equalizer settings I keep permanently set in Spotify that works well for all other albums.

I was getting tons of clipping static on the downbeats during the first half of the song and the loud climax at the end was just mud on top of mud. Then I play Schism, The Pot, and H. and while loud, the static edges are all gone and there's room to breathe again throughout the songs. You get back to Sober and it sounds GLORIOUS compared to FI.

Then I went in and manually dialed down the bottom 3 freqs back some and it sounded a little better. Still not helping the dynamics but at least there's more clarity in the instruments. Maybe they just made this thing super bottom-heavy loud to make it sound good on that little speaker that's coming bundled with the CD? Again, I'm an idgit. I'll try again with a flatter EQ in the car later to see if that was the issue in there as well.

 

Man, I really hope they don't truncate the vinyl release, that would suck! Guess we'll see...

 

The way I looked at it personally, was when you shell out that money for pre-order for an interactive CD you are paying for a limited edition interactive CD with mini speakers and a screen, and the material exactly how Tool chooses to present it on the disk

I would argue the primary product you are getting with this limited edition packaging is the full interactive limited edition experience, and instead of mass producing a second disk they chose to bring those tiny transitional ambient tracks on the download card which I find to be a totally cool solution to that, again just my own opinion on that one of course too


I mean I get what you are saying - I guess for me since even though I love CD's and vinyl, but also my iPod and digital library, it is not an issue at all to me because I will get the album in full with little struggle. Different strokes

 

Really short running times? The Wall (81:08) and Quadrophenia (81:42), to name two significant ones, are shorter than FI (86:38). I've been listening to, and talking about, those albums for decades and never heard anyone say the individual disk running times were too short. What a bizarre notion.

As for putting just a "little bit" onto a second disk, there's no reason to think that's what would happen.

This point is eminently logical, but which Tool do you trust? The guys who wrote an 86-minute album to begin with? (Seems like a cool bunch). Or the guys who decided to take the unprecedented (as far as I know) step of abridging the CD? (Seems like they board-roomed themselves into a corner of some kind - not quite as cool).

I understand that this works for some people, but we should be able to agree that this is unusual and surprising.

 

The CD is over $90 from regular retail outlets in Japan. It might be a very heavy item so shipping costs are built in. At that price, I’ll pass. I love the new track, but will be patient and hope for a vinyl release.

 

Look at this way for those bemoaning the missing sections on CD. It's like this. Remember when the Japan CD release had "bonus tracks" that weren't available in the US? The only way you could get them was to either live in Japan or wait for the import store. This is the same thing, only instead of an import Japnese CD, it's a digital file. Because it's 2019. And I am an old ass at 57. And I think it's great I don't have to wait for the Japenese import CD to hear the "bonus tracks". I can download them the day of release. Win!!! hahahah

 

To continue to belabor my "boring old man" point:

I stopped listening to the FI track (which I loved) around a week ago, not because of the CD issue, but in order to avoid burning out on it and keep it fresh yet familiar for my first album listen - but now, I don't want to listen to it at all because, as I said before about listening to the album next week...

I learned this in an interesting way (well, not really interesting; this bit is at least as dull as the rest of my screed): I went into the Amazon Music app on my phone to confirm that the song was gone after I canceled my order (I believe they made the lone available track available to me because I'd preordered the album through Amazon - how kind of them). Somehow the song was still there, so I pressed "play" to see if it really was still available, and it began - and the first few sounds actually did piss me off. Again - congrats, guys.

 

Now before I make my next point I definitely wanna say I don't mean to sound combative or anything like that. But there seems to be a couple of folks who won't let the issue of the omission of the transitional tracks go and it seems to be overtaking this thread and I would rather let the positive vibes of new awaited Tool music override that

But ultimately, there are two ways you can go. You can be angry they left off on the CD (some ambient transitional tracks you can easily get) and get angry to the point where listening to the music makes you pissed, or you can embrace the ever-changing aspects of life and just spend an extra 45 seconds to download the ambient tracks and listen to some amazing music.


And I feel like if you gave it a try, using a download card or whatever, you might find yourself liking the experience of bonding with us over this music much more than the experience of being angry that their physical CD doesn't line up with the way you are used to listening to an album.

We are all on the same team here! Team Tool fans, and you really can't go wrong with Tool music no matter how you hear it

 

Well, yeah - that's what I'm after, too. The problem is that I expect I will hear a gap or differences in volume level and/or quality when my listen goes from CD-sourced tracks to a download-sourced track, and that takes me out of the whole "jamming/absorbing" mindset, reminding me of the f*cked up nature of what I was sold - that is what bothers me. It would be the 15-year old artificial Christmas tree of albums ("wait, does this part go there? are you sure?").

If this was an ordinary album of 10 discrete tracks (separated by silence), I could tinker my way around things and might not care so much, but since some of their music tends to connect (like Useful Idiot goes into 46 & 2), I can't tolerate differences - I need a single source (and don't mention the "free" download card, because if I buy a CD and use the download card, why am I buying the CD??????? So I can crack it in half and use the sharp edges to cut my ears off????).

I may buy the album from HD Tracks (which, as with almost everything else about this release, hasn't been confirmed), but the fact that I have to turn my back on the band's actual physical product in order to obtain a cohesive copy of the album underscores that they did this entirely the wrong way.

 

You don't sound combative, and I have been talking about this a lot. I don't expect everyone (or anyone, really) to agree with me or feel the same; I just think some basic points are being missed, so I repeat myself forever...

But you're right - now should be a time of good vibes, and I'm basically farting all over this thread (time to put the beans down and go home).

 

I hope that however you choose to listen to the album, that you dig it and that the album blows your mind just as how 10,000 Days blew my mind when my friend first showed me Tool

 

There is nothing anyone can do about how this album will be released. It is what it is. I'm happy I was able to go ahead and preorder the 24/96 version from Qobuz. Now all I have to do is wait.

 

I can understand your quandary. I think I would listen to the CD if that were my best set up.

There's no reason to mix sources...
Sounds like you've got some misplaced anger towards young'uns.

This guy gets it.

 

so , when is the first leak coming ? 26th ? 27th ?28th (my guess) ?

 

Sure there is...the CD doesn’t have all the tracks (I might’ve mentioned this...)

 

Somebody posted a picture of the unopened limited edition package on Reddit....for those so inclined to spoilers.

 

Is there something preventing you from listening to the entire album via download or streaming? The sound quality would equal or surpass that of the CD for many of those options if that’s a concern.

 

It’s going to be one mastering for all formats so if you want the segues mixed in, get the digital download. Highly unlikely the CD will have different mastering moves than the DD.