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Comment by mbirth | Hacker News Reader

There seems to be a playlist on YouTube with slightly better quality: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYn090EvNBcinpVcrKNmY...

*EDIT:* There's also the CD version somewhere out there. Here's a Reddit post where someone ripped it (but didn't make it available): https://www.reddit.com/r/Neuromancer/comments/1gr7k4n/audiob...

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There was a wetransfer link but that expired. Has anyone got a torrent for the CD Version? Or perhaps a reddit acount to contact that OP to get another download for it? If you can make it available i can seed it indefinetly

I have the CD version, but I stupidly re-encoded it to something like 256kbps CBR MP3 back in 2012. Still, the fidelity is far greater than what was shared here.

I can uploaded it somewhere if you'd like.

Edit: Here you go: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MvEQd-V3Ma86XMnQYpCa...

Please share this far & wide. I have a busy night ahead of me or I'd take the time to upload it to IA.

The CD set is ISBN 1-57042-156-0. There are two available on ebay, one at ~$2,500 USD and the other (in worse shape) for $450.

I think the mp3 might have to do for now. :) Thanks for sharing.

You're very welcome! Please pass it along.

I managed to snag a set of the CD's. I'll post the FLAC files once they arrive and I can rip them.

YES!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!

Not sure if anyone will see this - but I ripped the CD's at level 5 flac. Hopefully the share works. I haven't used limewire.com for this before.

Normally I wouldn't do this, but there's no way other reasonable way to acquire them now.

https://limewire.com/d/kyg1E#4nQ9kdF9g5

Thanks!

256kbit CBR MP3 is pretty good for spoken word material

Agreed. With that being said, I meant that it was a stupid move from an archival POV.

Is it though? Voice consumes so much less sonic bandwidth than music. I imagine the codec places extra emphasis on faithfully reproducing voices, since our brains are so wired to perceive them. A 256kbps spoken word recording is going to be a lot higher quality, comparatively, than a musical recording.

I meant "archival" in an absolute/save-all-the-exact-bits sense.

For whatever reason, if someone were interested in knowing exactly which bits were on the CDs, my copy wouldn't suffice.

Trust me, I know I wouldn't be able to hear the difference in an ABX test.

Nah. Even at 128kbps for voice mp3 is completely transparent. Try an ABX sometime.

I meant "archival" in an absolute/save-all-the-exact-bits sense.

Trust me, I know very well that I would not be able to hear the difference in an ABX test, even with incredible equipment.

That's why like-minded HN users are here ;-)

I uploaded your MP3s to Internet Archive for all to enjoy: https://archive.org/details/william-gibson-neuromancer-abrid...

Thank you!!!

Can you please edit the metadata to mention that it's from the CD?

Thank you!

thanks, the OP is of lesser quality compared to this one.

Yeah, I took a quick listen to OP -- unfortunately their mp3s are of very poor quality. I heard numerous glitches while listening :(

I think the audio quality gives this recording character. What could be more cyberpunk than hearing the quirky artifacts resulting from ripping an obsolete recording medium?

I was about to say, feels more of its time...

A little embarrassing when the 1970s technology is better than the 1990s.

‘Worse is better’ in effect. MP3 trades quality for convenience.

Edit: I read above that these particular MP3s are corrupted, so they have a serious enjoyability issue.

That's the point. CDs have error correction to handle corruption. MP3 has nothing. A complete downgrade in robustness.

With an advantage in compactness that makes them easier to distribute. That trade off is their point.

That wasn't the MPEG design goal. It was to stream video through a distribution network where dropouts would be tolerated as part of doing business. People were accustomed to snowy analog broadcast video. That is more disruptive when listening to purely audio. This is incidentally why CDs had their error handling significantly improved over Phillips' original prototype which would have been much more susceptible to scratches if commercialized.

No I know but I mean it has actual mp3 encoding errors because the files are getting corrupted over time lol, like it's an issue in the storage medium not the original analog-to-digital conversion :(

Examples in the following file http://bearcave.com/bookrev/neuromancer/Tape1a.mp3 :

0:40, 1:04, 1:13, 1:21, 2:18 ... I mean.. the files are basically ruined :\

In the article there is link to William Gibson, "No Maps for these Territories". That is broken. Is that somewhere else also?

https://youtu.be/qIDVvhy9Z0I

Giblophile so encountered this years ago...definitely worth a watch.

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