Here are my rips for DECAYS’ Red or Maryam. Right now, I have the audio tracks and source files uploaded. The USB drive itself comes with both 24-bit 48KHz WAV files and 320Kbps (also 48KHz) MP3 files. I converted the WAV files to FLAC but just copied the MP3 files. I did fill out the tags though. Also, I should note that the final WAV file (“beautiful”) is corrupted on my USB drive (and apparently its the same for all of them). It cuts off at about 2:28. The official website (check the first post there) has a fixed version to download. That’s what I used for the source for the FLAC files. It also came with a digital booklet (PDF) and some concert photos (JPEG), both of which I uploaded.

I also copied all of the files into a 7-Zip archive and uploaded that. This has the source audio files, including the corrupted song, the video files, the booklet, and the pictures all in the same arrangement as they come on the USB drive. I also went ahead and uploaded the fixed “beautiful” WAV file into the same “USB Source” folder.

I will work on doing my rips for the video files once I’m done with the LUNATIC FEST videos. These video files include the “Secret mode” music video and a couple of live footage music videos. Also, I should note that if you check this post, you’ll notice that they also released a live footage music video for “Secret mode” to iTunes. I was intending to download it as it appears to be available internationally, but when trying to update iTunes (I don’t use iTunes, so my install was pretty old), the installation had errors and made it so that I couldn’t open the old version either, so I couldn’t buy it. Maybe later.

Mirror 1: https://mega.nz/#F!axQljCgS!WiWvb_knSUz9NcgfLBNI-w

Mirror 2: https://mega.nz/#F!jMwylAjC!LzRthiFPW4-lHDBtgzszpQ

As some additional notes, I did test to make sure that the 24-bit files were actually 24-bit. I did a reduced encode without dithering and made sure that they failed the bit-compare test in foobar2000, and indeed they did. I also made sure that the downloaded “beautiful” matched the USB drive’s up until it cut off, and it did. I haven’t tested to see if I can tell the difference between 24-bit and 16-bit with these, but I’m going to guess with pretty high confidence that it’s a no. I doubt I can tell the difference between them and a reasonably high-bitrate MP3 encode. Also, just a weird thing I noticed, they apparently used LAME 3.92 as the encoder for the MP3s. I doubt it makes a noticeable difference. It just seems weird that they’d use an older version, but I don’t know what software they use.

Also, for anyone that has the iTunes version of the original “Secret mode” music video, the one included on the USB drive is higher quality. It’s a 1920×756 (once you crop off the letterboxing) ~14.2Mbps h.263 (basically Xvid/DivX, EDIT: I should say about the same level as, as they’re not the same) encode. I say higher quality, as the extra resolution and bitrate more than make up for the older codec, though I could still see some blocking and other artifacting while watching it. I’ll plan to do an encode and try to filter out a few of those things. The audio looks to be a lower bitrate audio than the iTunes version, and comparing both files in Audacity, the iTunes version does appear to retain a bit more of the higher frequencies. Anyway, for my rips, I’ll probably actually use the WAV tracks for the source. I should note that the two live footage videos use h.264 and higher bitrate AAC encodes, though again, I’ll still do my encodes with the WAV tracks as the source for the audio.

The Ninja Panda