Anyone with PrimeCuts CDs? I broke one.

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Jim Davis

Professional "Craigslist DJ"
I'm ripping my PrimeCuts CD library to FLAC, and I found that my PrimeCuts Monthly December 2013 disc is cracked. It probably came in the mail like that, I had a bad habit of not checking the discs when they arrived.

If anyone has it and could either part with it or rip FLAC files from it and post for me to download, I would be very grateful!
 
First what is a professional Craigslist DJ and isn't what he's asking is illegal?
 
First what is a professional Craigslist DJ and isn't what he's asking is illegal?

Mix: Shut up.
Jim: Contact Jim Weisz at PrimeCuts. Sometimes they have extra discs available. They probably won't have that one, but it's worth asking.
 
Mix: Shut up.

Lol, thank you Brendan. And yeah I guess I'll shoot Jim an email, it's just pretty far back so I'm sure he cleared them all with their "back issue sales" they used to do, and since they ditched discs they probably tossed any leftovers in the dumpster. Honestly, I probably have all the songs on that disc from other sources anyway, I'm just a bit OCD when it comes to complete collections :p
 
Honestly, I probably have all the songs on that disc from other sources anyway, I'm just a bit OCD when it comes to complete collections :p

At least you have the track listing. Anything good on that one?

Worst-case scenario for Mr. OCD: I'll mail you my copies of the PrimeCuts Weekly discs that have the songs that appeared on that monthly disc. "Timber" is the only one that I still play on a relatively regular basis.
 
Got a reply from Jim, I was right:

I’m sorry, we don’t. We kept all of our discs a few months after we discontinued them but then we got rid of all of them. So we don’t have any discs from any of our services left.

I think I'll just live without the disc, but thanks for the offer Brendan :)
 
Got a reply from Jim, I was right:



I think I'll just live without the disc, but thanks for the offer Brendan :)
Does PrimeCuts have a no-loss digital version of the contents you can download and recreate the CD from?
 
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Does PrimeCuts have a no-loss digital version of the contents you can download and recreate the CD from?

Starting with April of 2016 they offered FLAC versions of their discs for download... everyone would learn later that it was in preparation for them to discontinue physical disc service. Prior to that, though, they only offered MP3 downloads.

Also, their licensing is very weird -- I asked once if they could post the Monthly ZIP files so that I could just download that as FLAC and the weeklies as MP3 to save space and weed out non-hits since I subscribe to weekly now; he said they would have to pay for double licensing in that case. Yet, I can re-download the ZIP files multiple times, they don't have a feature that limits the number of times you download a file.

That being said, there's no way they would ever post an old disc for me to re-download.
 
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Sorry. I was a Top Hits USA guy. I do have Prime Cuts 09-06-2006 through 12-31-2007 but I don't know how or why they are in my library.
 
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I have quite a bit of Top Hits USA. When I started 6 years ago I built a base library by buying up collections from retiring DJs. One guy emptied his garage for $500 and it included Top Hits USA from 1992-2009. It was a hell of a deal (notwithstanding the fact that a quarter of them had damage from the label/foil layer side which made them un-rippable).

They don't do any processing (e.g. dynamic range compression) to the audio, though, so their tracks sound quieter next to Prime Cuts and definitely Promo Only. Not saying it's worse or better, but even VirtualDJ misses on normalizing volume on inconsistent track levels sometimes :/
 
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Do you know what CD # it was? I have some material from that period, though it may only be in mp3 format .. not FLAC.
 
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Do you know what CD # it was? I have some material from that period, though it may only be in mp3 format .. not FLAC.

It was PM1312... I have the MP3s of the disc though. I'm in the process of ripping lossless FLAC archives.
 
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looks like we posted at the same time
 
They don't do any processing (e.g. dynamic range compression) to the audio, though, so their tracks sound quieter next to Prime Cuts and definitely Promo Only.

Gotta disagree with you there... the Top Hits USA discs from 1992-1996 had some terrible processing added to them; the discs were designed for radio automation systems and so the tracks had some hard limiting and compression going on that totally messed with the sound. I was DJing in a skating rink with Top Hits servicing during those years and it drove me nuts... listen to songs like "Whoomp! (There It Is)" and you can hear the volume drop almost immediately at the start of the bassline. Other songs just sound like mud. Any of the Top Hits USA discs that had the "Ultrasonic-Q" markings had this compression/limiting on them.

In general, I found that Prime Cuts issues usually had the lowest volume levels, and Promo Only the loudest.
 
Gotta disagree with you there... the Top Hits USA discs from 1992-1996 had some terrible processing added to them; the discs were designed for radio automation systems and so the tracks had some hard limiting and compression going on that totally messed with the sound. I was DJing in a skating rink with Top Hits servicing during those years and it drove me nuts... listen to songs like "Whoomp! (There It Is)" and you can hear the volume drop almost immediately at the start of the bassline. Other songs just sound like mud. Any of the Top Hits USA discs that had the "Ultrasonic-Q" markings had this compression/limiting on them.

In general, I found that Prime Cuts issues usually had the lowest volume levels, and Promo Only the loudest.

So I pulled that song from RPM Disc T177, and then from PO Platinum Series disc 12 and PO Radio Essentials disc 40. Unfortunately, I don't have any TM Century/Studios discs with that track.

Here's an Audacity screenshot, waveforms in that order (RPM, Platinum Series, Radio Essentials):

whoomp.png

I definitely see what you mean about the random spike in volume at the beginning for RPM. It's also there at the very end. I wonder if it was to compensate for crossfading in the automation systems? Weird.

The Radio Essentials version resembles what I've heard from Promo Only... maximum loudness. The Platinum series has much lower levels for some reason.

Either way, I stand corrected!