If you're a fan of the historic old-school recordings of your favorite classical music composers, you MUST pay a visit to PristineClassical.com, I just discovered them by reading some glowing reviews online in various forums and websites and I don't know how I got by without them. I recently bought Furtwangler's intense 1942 historic performance of Beethoven's Ninth symphony in Berlin. For a while now, I had this Mp3 version of that symphony from Amazon.com, the sound quality is exactly what you'd expect from a radio broadcast recording of a 76 year old performance, there is ample amounts of hiss, static, coughs in the audience, and the loudest parts overwhelm the microphones and it sounds very harsh. A couple of days ago, I downloaded the same symphony from Pristine Classical and what a world of difference their remastering made. The loudest parts are handled well, a good amount of the coughs are removed, and the overall sound is just great for a recording that old. It's truly like hearing the recording for the first time, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Everything I said is true for the 1952 Toscanini recording of Beethoven's Ninth with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The story is the same, I just today downloaded the "Ambient Stereo FLAC" recording and once again, the sound quality is leaps and bounds above anything you'll find on Amazon. I also must add that none of the warmth that you get from an old recording is lost, it still sounds like an old performance, only in the best sound possible.
I'm gonna reiterate my point, if you're a fan of the historic old-school recordings but not so much of the sound quality, you owe it to yourself to give Pristine Classical a chance, you won't be disappointed.
- Beethoven's 9th Symphony - Toscanini 1952 NBC Symphony Orchestra (I downloaded the "Ambient Stereo FLAC")
- Beethoven's 9th Symphony - Furtwangler 1942 Berliner Philharmoniker (I downloaded the "Mono 16-Bit FLAC")
- Here is what "Pristine Classical" has to say about their "Ambient Stereo" technology.
Click "Read More" to your right for tips on downloading and music-file conversion (FLAC, MP3, AIFF, etc.)
I'm gonna reiterate my point, if you're a fan of the historic old-school recordings but not so much of the sound quality, you owe it to yourself to give Pristine Classical a chance, you won't be disappointed.
- Beethoven's 9th Symphony - Toscanini 1952 NBC Symphony Orchestra (I downloaded the "Ambient Stereo FLAC")
- Beethoven's 9th Symphony - Furtwangler 1942 Berliner Philharmoniker (I downloaded the "Mono 16-Bit FLAC")
- Here is what "Pristine Classical" has to say about their "Ambient Stereo" technology.
Click "Read More" to your right for tips on downloading and music-file conversion (FLAC, MP3, AIFF, etc.)
- Extra Information and Tips on FLAC, MP3, AIFF, iTunes, and downloading from Pristine Classical -
- If you do choose to download the higher quality FLAC instead of the Mp3, please be aware that iTunes does not play FLAC files, so if you do not already have a program that can convert FLAC files to Mp3 (or whatever other file you prefer). I highly suggest you download the popular and guaranteed safe free-software called Audacity, CNET gave it a five-star review and offers a secure download.
- Pristine Classical will send you an email with the link to download your music files, once you download it, the files will be in a compressed zip folder, extract the files by right-clicking on the zipped-folder and click "extract all".
You can watch this YouTube video for help or follow these steps, or both.
1.) You will have to open up Audacity, drag all of the song files into Audacity
2.) Click "Control A" to select all of the songs
3.) Go to "File" then click "Export Multiple"
4.) Under "Export Format", select whatever file format you'd like to convert them to. Personally, since I use iTunes, I export them to "AIFF (Apple) signed 16-bit PCM", that way you can keep the high quality that you payed for.
5.) MAKE SURE TO UNCHECK THE "Overwrite the existing files" BOX! This way, you'll be able to keep the raw FLAC files just in case.
6.) Create or choose the folder where you'd like the newly converted song files to go.
7.) Click "Export"
iTunes
- If you use iTunes, add the AIFF files by clicking "File" then "Add File to library", once they are in your iTunes, right click them and click "Create Apple Lossless Version". I recommend this only if you're planning on adding them to a mobile device like your iPhone or phone, the AIFF files are huge and will take up too much space on your phone. The Apple Lossless files will be much smaller and still have the same optimal sound quality. Enjoy your new music! I hope this helped.
- If you do choose to download the higher quality FLAC instead of the Mp3, please be aware that iTunes does not play FLAC files, so if you do not already have a program that can convert FLAC files to Mp3 (or whatever other file you prefer). I highly suggest you download the popular and guaranteed safe free-software called Audacity, CNET gave it a five-star review and offers a secure download.
- Pristine Classical will send you an email with the link to download your music files, once you download it, the files will be in a compressed zip folder, extract the files by right-clicking on the zipped-folder and click "extract all".
You can watch this YouTube video for help or follow these steps, or both.
1.) You will have to open up Audacity, drag all of the song files into Audacity
2.) Click "Control A" to select all of the songs
3.) Go to "File" then click "Export Multiple"
4.) Under "Export Format", select whatever file format you'd like to convert them to. Personally, since I use iTunes, I export them to "AIFF (Apple) signed 16-bit PCM", that way you can keep the high quality that you payed for.
5.) MAKE SURE TO UNCHECK THE "Overwrite the existing files" BOX! This way, you'll be able to keep the raw FLAC files just in case.
6.) Create or choose the folder where you'd like the newly converted song files to go.
7.) Click "Export"
iTunes
- If you use iTunes, add the AIFF files by clicking "File" then "Add File to library", once they are in your iTunes, right click them and click "Create Apple Lossless Version". I recommend this only if you're planning on adding them to a mobile device like your iPhone or phone, the AIFF files are huge and will take up too much space on your phone. The Apple Lossless files will be much smaller and still have the same optimal sound quality. Enjoy your new music! I hope this helped.