Neil Young News: Thank You Archives Guy!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Thank You Archives Guy!

Many thanks to Archives Guy for patiently answering literally hundreds of questions over the months!

Your patience and knowledge has been invaluable as so many Neil Young fans anxiously await the release of The Archives and contemplate significant investments in the packages and associated hardware.

For most of us, this is literally diving into the deep end without a life vest. So to know that knowledgeable technical support is available is especially helpful.

Also, a big thanks to all of the readers with great questions. It is our understanding that over the past year or so many of the thoughts and suggestions posted here have been incorporated into either this Volume or future volumes.

And thanks for everyone who posted system suggestions today! WE'll continue these threads until the official NYA FAQ is up.

In the meantime, here's a rundown of recent Q&A's:

Archives Guy Online *NOW* for Q&A Session

Archives Guy Stops By For Some Q&A

Demo of North Country Archives Disc #8

NYA Preview Arrives But We Can Only Sit and Stare

And -- as usual -- over in the right sidebar, a permanent link in the NYA section for Everything You've Ever Wanted To Know About The Neil Young Archives But Were Afraid To Ask.

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45 Comments:

At 5/21/2009 06:50:00 PM, Anonymous said...: Hey Thrasher,
Can you have a section where people share locations of hidden tracks etc. on the archives.
Syscrusher
At 5/21/2009 07:16:00 PM, Anonymous said...: Yes, big thanks to Archives Guy. Remember he is only the messenger trying to provide the best info he can regarding the archives release. Mick (Aus)
At 5/21/2009 07:57:00 PM, Anonymous said...: Ditto on the Big Thanks!
Where else have you seen such access one step away from the Artist himself?
Archives Guy has made all of this, and that includes LincVolt, extremely enjoyable while we await Neil's many Projects.
Next news.....Toast???
That would be sweet to hear about.

Thanks AG and Thrasher
LIVE RUST
A Beauty Day here in Abbotsford BC Canada!!
At 5/21/2009 08:12:00 PM, Portage and Main said...: El Archives Guy
El Archives Guy

Yano pueda caminar
Porque no tiene
Porque la falta

Mucho Garfong que fumar!

Una cosa mey derissa
Pegi Young sin camissa! Ah-Ha!

Jorque vienen los viestas!

El Archives Guy
El Archives Guy

Muchas gracias mi amigo!

The WHOLE enchilada, senor?

Si!

GO GARFONGS!

They're comin' down the hill
Between the stars!

(nothing nasty here Thrash) :>)
At 5/21/2009 08:16:00 PM, Portage and Main said...: Sung to the tune of "La Cucharacha".....
At 5/21/2009 08:28:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: I don't understand Spanish, but I like the vibe and it fits well with Stanley Cup hockey, the BBQ and the tequila currently flowing at casa de archives hombre.
At 5/21/2009 08:29:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: viva la Penguins!! ??
At 5/21/2009 09:04:00 PM, Portage and Main said...: EL Archives Guy!-

Takillya and BBQ? If I was'nt
700 miles north I'd invite myself
over! Instead I'm in my work truck
poundin' on this LT!

It's a good vibe for sure man!
Hey, I got to hang out with Paul
Gaustad of the Sabres last week.
I work with his "EX" girlfriend who
hated Buffalo weather. They're still buds.

So what's the juice of the day?
Cazadores? Don Julio? Herradurra?

I lived in SM county from '60 to '75 and know the vibe of the BG road!

Have a good one and looking forward
to NYA!
And yeah,man.
Viva la Penquins!

Gotta work now...
At 5/21/2009 09:58:00 PM, Shadow said...: Thanks AG from all us Neil fans . The Searcher

Fan since i was 15 in 1967
At 5/21/2009 10:04:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: Portage & Main-

Patron, of course.

Malkin gets the hattie with a wicked backhander....
At 5/21/2009 10:07:00 PM, karen said...: oui! merci beaucoup a l'homme des archives! viva l'homme des archives! et merci a thrasher! viva thrasher's wheat! viva les archives! et bien sur, une mille merci's a ny, for all the content in the first place : ) (that last part pushed the limits of my written foreign language skills) x karen
At 5/21/2009 10:14:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: Karen-

Lincvolt est une belle femme et l'auto.

zoom zoom en silence.

bonsoir
At 5/21/2009 10:58:00 PM, dr dip said...: Ah thanks cobber,Me and me sheila, well we juz wanna thanks yous all for ya help, your a bonza mate..
Awh and put another shrimp on the blu-ray willya! cheers dink..

dinky dip from down under!'Chivy Boy
Dya understand 'stralian!
At 5/21/2009 11:52:00 PM, astrololee said...: Hey dr dip
You just crack me up everytime I read one of your posts. Just love your dry sense of humour, keep up the blogs, no day would be complete without your input.
At 5/22/2009 01:18:00 AM, Portage and Main said...: "Archives like hockey game.
Must take many slaps
To reach goal."

- Charlie Chan
At 5/22/2009 01:28:00 AM, Homesick in Paradise said...: Merci à Guy L'Archiviste and thanks to Trasher for relaying the precious info about the Archives.

Those who speak French can faire un tour mon blog où je reprends pas mal d'info de TW en français.

Merci à tous!

Jacques-Eric Legarde, Xroads (France)
At 5/22/2009 03:58:00 AM, Anonymous said...: Astrololee! Please, Please don't encourage him! He's going to be the death of me!!
t
At 5/22/2009 04:40:00 AM, Anonymous said...: Yeah, thanks Archives Guy!

And thanks Thrasher!

Not long now!

:-)

Davie from Scotland

P.S. if Neil reads this at all, or if AG can get a message to him, THANK-YOU NEIL! And PLEASE play "Comes A Time" in Aberdeen, Scotland on the 24th of June! haha :-D
At 5/22/2009 05:06:00 AM, Anonymous said...: OUi, grand merci à sire Archives Guy.
At 5/22/2009 05:19:00 AM, Davide from Italy said...: I am Davide form Italy, I cannot join the "Thank you Archives Guy" choir, at least not until I will receive an answer on my 2 posts on the previous thread. I bought my Panasonic BD 35 player in december, after Archives Guy said that it was among the players tested with ok results for bd live functions, and now I am dealing with a player in which the sound jumps and click for 2 seconds every time I press the enter button on my remote control for looking at the memorabilia while simultaneosuly listening to the music on NYA Preview disc.
Once again I think I am exposing a seriuos issue that deserves an answer form Archives Guy. I am not trying to annoy one with this issue, I just want to be sure that my important and serious complain goes out to the right people
At 5/22/2009 07:50:00 AM, Burnzy said...: Yup, he's done a great job! Thanks once again!
At 5/22/2009 08:26:00 AM, zejt said...: thanks from zejt up in T.O.
At 5/22/2009 10:34:00 AM, Anonymous said...: Vielen Dank an Archives Guyund das Archiv-Team, Thrasher und der großen Neil!

-Chicago
(as long as we go multilingual)
At 5/22/2009 10:36:00 AM, Archives Guy said...: Davide-

A firmware update to your player should fix the problem you mention. I understand the issue that you are bringing up.

-Archives Guy
At 5/22/2009 11:39:00 AM, SPENNER said...: Hi,
Theres a big 2 page review of Archives in the issue of Mojo (5 stars). However, it says that downloadable content on the Blu-Rays needs to be paid for!! Surely this isn't right.
At 5/22/2009 11:46:00 AM, Archives Guy said...: Davide-

We are looking into the behavior with your player.
This just in from our technical staff:

"We definitely didn't experience this issue during testing as the BD35 was our primary QC player.

I did see similar issues on newer Panasonic players when testing with Panasonic in March at the round robin test, so it could be that newer firmware made things worse. We'll test here and contact Panasonic. "

-Archives Guy
At 5/22/2009 11:47:00 AM, Archives Guy said...: Spenner-

Mojo got that wrong.

-Archives Guy
At 5/22/2009 12:36:00 PM, Shittyhorse said...: Archives guy....Thanks a lot for all the info bro. Once again NO ONE comes close to Neil (or his team) these days. We're all part of History here. Can't wait for the archives here in Wallingford CT!

Question; Say a new format comes out in Five years that totally trumps Blu ray in sound and picture,is it possible that future archives be available in that format? Also I'm 29 years old now. How old will I be when all the archives are released? Are we talking every 1,2,5, or 10 years....just asking for a guess or rough estimate. Thanks a lot!

ROCK ON NEIL!
At 5/22/2009 02:38:00 PM, SONY said...: AG-

With you we now have a bonified prophet to the holy grail of musicdom. Please accept our homage:

Arch(ives Guy)of the Covenent
At 5/22/2009 04:27:00 PM, dr dip said...: Well, my dear Shitty,

There are 3 things in life that are inevitable....
DEATH

TAXES

..AND NEIL YOUNG ARCHIVES FOLLOW UPS

But the last inevitibility?....

I'm not so sure!!!

Seeya at the nursing home with the complete set of volumes!!!..he he
At 5/22/2009 04:47:00 PM, dr dip said...: "The Archives Song"
(to the tune .."she'll be comin' round the mountain")

Neil'l be comin round sugarmountain

When they come!

Neil'l be comin round sugarmoutain

When they come!

Neil'l be comin round sugarmountain

On Crazyhorse he's mountin'!

He'll be comin round sugarmountain

When they come!

Bringya Blu-ray players

When they come!

Bringya blu-ray players

When they come!

Brinya blu-ray players

Plus trolls and all naysayers

Just bringya Archives payers

When they come......BLOO RAY!!!!!
At 5/22/2009 05:39:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: great...thanks for the earworm.

now I have freakin' "She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain" stuck in my head.
At 5/23/2009 12:52:00 AM, SONY said...: I got the revolutin blues
At 5/23/2009 12:32:00 PM, Doonerak said...: Thanks Archives Guy (and Thrasher) for a fun 6 months of Q&A. Taking time to do this between LincVolt work, demos and other projects has been very much appreciated.

My BD set is on order and I'm in the process of determining my player strategy. I hope that your pushing of the BD specs doesn't come back to bite you guys.

One sound question. In the earlier days of CDs, folks would spend inordinate amounts of bucks on their players/amplifiers/speakers to get "audiophile sound". Will a $300 BD player, with a $300 Sony AV receiver, playing 24/192 sound, really sound better than a $5000 CD Player, with a $5000 amplifier? Assume all else is equivalent.

Get what I am asking? We all are in a whirl about 24/192, but as an engineer, I need to ask what is the limiting factor. Really. What do you think?

That aside, what role does recording engineering play in determining sound quality, only considering state of the art studios, for example.

Thanks again. Doonerak / LRR
At 5/23/2009 01:16:00 PM, Davide from Italy said...: Everything is allright now with my Panasonic BD 35. Changed some settings thanks to the help of John from Australia on another thread. I had to change all audio settings to PCM (PCM rules!). Now I can happily join the "Thank you Archives guy" choir for the fundamental help us he gave to people like me who decided to jump on the fabulous ride that NYA on Blu Ray proves to be.

Davide from Italy
At 5/23/2009 01:51:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: Davide-

So glad that worked out for you. Yes, PCM is the setting that you want.

In general, folks should take the time to go thru the SET UP pages on the Archives discs. Apart from color bars and tones, we have some details about how optimize your system.
Selecting PCM is one of the details noted as is avoiding digital outs that may automatically down sample the audio.

-Archives Guy
At 5/23/2009 02:09:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: Doonerak-

I'm not part of the Lincvolt project too much nor do I do demos, but thanks for the kind words.

I have experienced the difference between consumer and audiophile setups and can hear the how much better the expensive set up is. The soundfield is more open with spatial depth and frequency clarity.
However, I think that the average person needn't go to the audiophile extreme for a satisfying experience.

Something that you excluded from your list was speakers, which are the most important part of the chain. I always tell people to invest first in good speakers.

The other thing about going full audiophile is that one really needs to pay attention to the listening space and room acoustics at that level. The average person doesn't have an optimal room or even listening position.
I'd have to say that 8 of every 10 homes I visit that have a "home theater" system are arranged completely wrong.

My current archives test system has PS3 going analog into a mixing console->power amp->Tannoy speakers. It's pretty rocking.

-Archives Guy
At 5/23/2009 02:24:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: Doonerak-

Continuing on your good questions...

What I find the real limiting factors(if we are now discussing at an engineer level) are speaker quality, a signal chain with quality cable and D->A converters.
As you might know we are big fans of the Pacific Microsonics HDCD converters, which are AMAZING.
However they are hard to find and cost $10,000 or something..if you find one.

I don't want to get into a DAC conversation here because it only gets depressing. :-)

The recording engineer plays a huge role in determining sound quality because he(she) is first in line to originally capture the performance to tape or drive.
Microphone choice and placement, signal path, mic pres, A->D converters (if going digital) are all super important and choices the engineer makes.
A quality digital clock makes Pro Tools type recordings sound better. Working at high bit and sample rates is a good choice.
A well maintained and aligned tape deck beats the heck out of something that is neglected.

These are just a few details that a engineer can focus on to make better recordings..then a recording needs a good mix and mastering session before it is ready to hit your ears at home.

-Archives Guy
At 5/23/2009 05:33:00 PM, Doonerak said...: AG-

Thanks. I really appreciate that. And I do recognize speakers are the most important factor. In the comparison I was trying to draw, I got lazy and lumped those into the "all else being equal" qualifier.

I understand why you don't want me to get you started on DACs. From your note, I am inferring the following: The $20 48/192 DAC in the PS3 probably leads to an inferior sound experience compared with 20/44.1 Pacific Microsonics DAC for $oodles as the conversion is more in the limiting path than the digital sample rate. Agreed? Also, your test bench. I am guessing you have a SWEET preamp in your mixer. What kind?

Thanks for your insights.
At 5/23/2009 07:47:00 PM, Graham said...: Hi Archives Guy,

I have read here earlier that the Blue Ray edition is "all zone" however when ordering on Amazon you are warned that the discs are zone 1 only. Is this still correct?

Warner Australia are not releasing a local issue in Blue Ray,Play Station will not allow you to change zones. I don't want to get stuck with an imported version I cannot play.

Graham in Melbourne,Australia
At 5/24/2009 12:50:00 AM, Doonerak said...: AG- For the purposes of helping my to plan my purchase. Can you pls estimate how much storage I would need to accomodate the slug of PLANNED BD-Live downloads?

I'm not trying to weasel out any info on the downloads...I just don't want to overbuy or underbuy on my memory stick. I can always upgrade for much cheaper next year as flash prices come down pretty fast.

Thx. LRR/Doonerak.
At 5/24/2009 02:08:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: Graham-

The Archives are region free. Some of these ordering sites for some reason have been getting it wrong.

LRR- For sure a $10k DAC is going to sound better than a $20 one, but for the average consumer setup in an imperfect listening room, an affordable system is just fine. I don't want to turn this into an audiophile discussion because it just leaves the majority of readers behind, confused and disappointed.

In terms of download storage space we have no idea. You can always add additonal storage later.
I wouldn't get too hung up about it.

enjoy the weekend.
-Archives Guy
At 5/25/2009 02:26:00 AM, Kimball said...: Archives Guy:

I noted that the HDCD emblem is not on the Fork in the Road release, but it is on Sugar Mountain: Canterbury House.

Will the CD package of the Archives Vol 1 have HDCD processing?

Thanks
At 5/25/2009 12:40:00 PM, Archives Guy said...: Kimball-

Yes on the HDCD for Archives CDs.

Correct, FITR is not HDCD.
At 5/26/2009 10:50:00 AM, john said...: Thanks again Archives Guy.

When will the first BD live downloads be available for us Blu Ray purchasers?

Neil Young News

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Thank You Archives Guy!

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