Just received my physical copy of Ki from HevyDevy themselves, (thanks for the thank you note)
Great to hear it from the disc rather than an mp3.
But hell yeah Id love to have a Vinyl copy of Ki.
My turntable still gets plenty of use so I'd jump on the chance to hear it in analog.

Are you in Newcastle upon Tyne ? Are you a Devin collector ?

There is a copy of the Ki promo (proper card sleeve) in the little promo shop at the Haymarket end of Northumberland Street........

..........for £1 !

I had the previous copy from there and it's perfectly fine. I was in there today seeing if they had the Addicted one in - you never know!
If anybody is heading in there it's in the right hand end of the rack to the left of the door. Good luck!

On the same note.
Bargain to be had at Play.com for those foolish enough to not have given Dev their money for Ki
http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/12083063/Ki/Product.html

Bargain.

Just received my physical copy of Ki from HevyDevy themselves, (thanks for the thank you note)
Great to hear it from the disc rather than an mp3.
But hell yeah Id love to have a Vinyl copy of Ki.
My turntable still gets plenty of use so I'd jump on the chance to hear it in analog.

Aren't CD's pretty much high-quality MP3's?

Aren't CD's pretty much high-quality MP3's?

Sort of but not really.

Cd's are uncompressed audio, so when a cd is converted to mp3 it gets compressed, even at 320 there is some frequency loss.
It's not a substantial loss but I prefer to hear music as close to the master copy as possible.

Aren't CD's pretty much high-quality MP3's?

Sort of but not really.

Cd's are uncompressed audio, so when a cd is converted to mp3 it gets compressed, even at 320 there is some frequency loss.
It's not a substantial loss but I prefer to hear music as close to the master copy as possible.

Yeah I normally listen to MP3s, but found with this that the cd was far superior. Maybe it is because the cd player is going through a better amp. I'm not sure but I reckon this is an album to be listened to on the best gear you have access to. When/if the vinyl version drops I might plug the good headphones into the good amp, now there is an idea.

I'll post this here, it might be safer?

With all the love for Addicted going on in the other thread, I finally caved and got the leak on Friday. Got the CD today. Must have listened about 6-7 times so far.

Am I the only one that thinks Ki is better than Addicted?

Not that I dislike Addicted, far from it. And maybe I just need to give it a lot more listens. But I just don't see it surpassing Ki, which I think is the easy album of the year.

just to contribute and help gain perspective on cd quality VS mp3 quality:

the mp3 format was made to shrink the size of audio files while retaining decent quality. it´s mainly focused on reducing the size, though.

logically, the only way to shrink the file size like that, is to degrade the audio quality. an uncompressed audio file is around 40 MB in size. the average mp3 is 1/10 of that size, at around 4 MB.
so if you take away 9/10 of the information, you can only imagine that the quality is much poorer, right?

the difference is in the small details. it´s just like the JPG image format, or poorly compressed video files. a shitty compression will leave you with a blobby mess.

the lower frequencies suffer. the mid range frequencies lose their fine grained nature and either get smoothed over or get a coarser grain, and the higher frequencies suffer the same but alot harder. cymbals end up sounding like this weird fluttering whistle-type noise, and lose their timbre and presence. it just sorta gets washed out and blended into the wall of noise.

in a perfect world, all digital audio would be expanded from the typical 20Hz-20KHz range to a more natural 10Hz-40KHz range, and the standard for audio files would be raw and uncompressed. i would want an ipod with as much storage capacity as possible so i could have room for the 10 times larger audio files, and i´d listen with a top-of-the-line monitoring headset. that´s my idea of a good night!

edit: which is also my idea of how i want to listen to Ki

You're not the only one, mate. I wholeheartedly agree. I'm not a big fan of Addicted at all. It's strange how Ki, although style-wise much different from his other work, feels so much more like a Devin Townsend album than Addicted.

My only comment about Ki.....

It's like Ocean Machine came back.

When I first listened to Ki, I put it away for months and didn't listen to it again. Thought "what in the world is this?" It wasn't recognizably Devin Townsend at the time...

But I've been spinning it lately, and I especially like listening to it and Addicted in one sitting. It just has some sort of cohesiveness that way that I really like. Ki might end up being one of my favorite albums of '09; while it isn't really familiar ground for Mr. Townsend, I really enjoy the fresh feel of it. It's also nice knowing that Devin is making the kind of music he wants to make, without feeling beholden to expectations. On an interpersonal and artistic level I find that very respectable and impressive, which factors into my enjoyment of the album as well.

I especially love the Winter/Trainfire combo, I think they have a great dynamic between them. Trainfire is just an awesome song, never expected something like that from "heavy" devy. I'm hoping this signifies that he feels comfortable enough with his own musical needs and creative drive that he'll just make the kind of music he wants to make from here on out. It's not a heavy album, and so the parts of it that do have some serious aggression have an element of surprise and contrast that helps rather than hurts the delivery.

To me, so far, the two albums we've got so far make me think working with Arjen inspired Devin somewhat to start blazing his own trails, as he always has, but in a decidedly more personal way than before.

Count me in as someone who'll be getting the box set when it's ready.

Must return to Ki, asap! Addicted is so overwhelming, I might lose Ki in my playlist. First thing in the morning, with my coffee.

Yes! Ki on vinyl, I would love it. Hope it'll happen.

[The Dev]

Each record is made for different people. As much as someone may prefer one over the other, to me...they're equal. and I wouldn't put it out if I thought it was shit. Some people won't see the value in one record over another for reasons of personal preference or personal views on what defines quality. But I think there's at least 4 or 5 'Devs' swimming around in the ol' noggin, and each demand a different soundtrack.

I feel Addicted in a very profound way. It's abrasive, and blunt, but it brings up an emotion in me that I have not experienced from any of my past releases. It was total release, and as a result of where it came in my musical development, it couldn't have sounded any different. I understand some people don't hear the same thing, or don't enjoy the energy or style, totally acceptable. But Addicted defines a sentiment for me that is a proclamation. I listen to it often, it means a HUGE amount to me and I'm quite proud of the production. When I'm in the right mood for it, I feel a strange sense of euphoria.

Ki will always be my personal 'favorite' though. Because it is. And also, because it suits quieter moments which I need more often lately.

Each record is made for different people..

Not sure if I agree with that one, Dev. I personally love Ki and Addicted equally. Ki did some things I like more/less that Addicted and the same with Addicted.