Grateful Dead

Just another person who bought the 72 50th anniversary rerelease and couldn’t download it. Can’t even get through to customer service.
Someone needs to take charge of this process.

Didn't have to log into store to buy the Lyceum digital download

HAVE to to download it

Login rejected. Forgot password email never appeared (not in spam)

This is not only unethical but I suspect illegal.

I shall blacklist this on my Mastercard if there is no response in 24 hours. And download it from somewhere else. Sick of this, there is a problem EVERY time with the download orders. Every other site that does downloads - nugs etc., there i no problem.

This is beyond pathetic. Clearly no testing was done at all.

SORT IT OUT.

Add to that, the login page has a GUEST option, which suggests was for such as I who DID not log in to buy.

Makes no difference. You still have to log in. Maybe i could re register? OH NO. You can log in - but there is NO register option.

I can't print what I'm thinking....

Help? What help? This is in effect fraud, Mary.

No need to log in to buy

HAVE to to download. WHY? Guest option for download makes no difference.

EVERY time I buy downloads from dead.net there is a problem. Took me TWO months to hget the hi-res American Beauty I ordered

24 hours to sort this out else I report dead.net to relevant government sites for reporting online fraud.

Re: Lyceum 1972.
A lot of people, including myself, paid good money weeks or months ago to pre-order the digital downloads. We were told they would be available July 29. It's Aug. 1 and we have nothing.
What the hell is going on? And why aren't there emails in our inboxes explaining the issue. This is an insult to people who have supported this band and this commercial enterprise for decades.

Randall, I get what you are saying about a remix vs. remaster. The Beatles for example did a complete remix on several albums and it was a big deal. However, there must be some benefit to only remastering and still doing it with 24-192 bits. Almost all the big albums - Bowie, Van Morrison, Dylan have re-issued in the 24-192 or 24-96 with only remastered and the quality difference is obvious. Listen to Astral Weeks. I am curious with my Europe '72 from HDT, is there an easy way to tell whether they have really expanded the sound to 24-192 or whether they have just filled in with blank space?

There are ways. A spectral analysis can be run on a given file.

The artists you mention have all done those things. They have access to their master, 24 track recordings which are typically PCM. From there, they can create a hi-def set of files. And there is the rub: There is no evidence whatsoever that has occurred in this situation. There is usually a lineage advertised because the artists WANT us as either audiophiles or consumers to understand THIS IS AN UPGRADE. But if they only use the word "remastered" instead of other identifiers like "remixed from the master tapes", then generally there is a strong possibility they are just trying to sell us a lipsticked pig.

There IS a lot of fraud in the audiophile world and a lot of polemics and differing POV. It's easily researched online and can be interesting reading.

Concerning this release, I can only speculate that no one went back to the master tapes and created a new set of files. There is nothing to indicate it. I can only say that since there IS no qualifier like "remixed from the master tapes" which - as pointed out earlier - would have been screamed from the highest rooftop and would have been hammered on in the so-called "Seaside Chat". That would be a big deal and a precursor for the future of the rest of the E tour.

Pink Floyd's "Animals" was "remixed and remastered from the master studio tapes" last year and is miles away from the other 24 bit releases Pink Floyd did last year. It was obvious upon 1st listen. It shimmers. Plus, they advertised it as such and they are releasing another "Animals" remix in September. Why? No idea. Can't be much better than last years.

Point is, they advertised it as such. Not just "remastered" but "remixed and remastered from the studio 24 track tapes".

This has not been advertised as such and I can almost guarantee that if these show HAD gone through a whole new mix and master, they would have talked about it ceaselessly for months before the release.

So, that just leaves purchasers with virtually the same mix with no real added value. And for myself, I have always been happy with the sound from the E72 box and 16 bit files. I would of course welcome a new mix but I just don't think this is it. So, I recommend "Caution" (Get it? I'm KILLING me) when buying this or any future "remasters" of the E72 tour. Unless they specifically say "Yeah these shows are remixed right from the vault tapes" specifically, likely they AREN'T and have been padded with extra bits and KHZ and brightened a bit with some dial turning.

Which is disappointing because I don't like being had by people I have helped support. I might be completely incorrect but this smacks of money grab. Someone has to pay for production costs for the upcoming MSG box set. Why not you and I?

With any DD site, never, ever, ever pre-order. I learned that years ago. They get your cash up front and if something goes kablooie, they never move as fast to get the issue fixed as they do taking bank. Ever. I learned to read the forums 1st to see if there are - if any - complaints or issues. And given this sites record of screw jobbing, people ought to know better by now. Guess a lot of people are learning now.

And may as well stop sending messages telling them your "download options" are messed up. They know that and went home over the weekend. No one is working feverishly trying to get anyone their purchase right now. New "download options" may have to be issued and won't THAT add to the CF?

This isn't me being sanctimonious. This is my way of expressing sympathy. Believe me, I get it. Never again.

Sure would be nice to download and listen to the shows I paid for three months ago.

I think the thing that hacks me off the most is that there hasn't been a peep from the store on what the issue is or when they think it will be resolved. Not here, not reddit, not Twitter.

C'mon, guys. Get it together.

Ok folks. My excellent sources at rhino confirmed that the flac files are 96/24. They also said download issues should be fixed. I’ll try in a couple of hours. Fingers crossed for success.

My good sources at rhino confirmed the resolution and also said download issues should be resolved. I’ll try in a few hours.

A friend of mine said his files still don't work. I have to say - its stunning how long this has taken.

STILL BROKEN as of 5 pm Eastern.

You can't swing a dead cat in California without hitting a computer programmer - can't these people find ONE that's competent? I spent 40 years doing software design, development and maintenance and I know that there is NO EXCUSE for having the same errors over and over. Unless, of course, you just don't give a sh*t.

Pretty sad day when the GD 'organization' (I use the term loosely) has become so comfortable taking advantage of their most dedicated fans. Guess they have been infected by the typical Corporate America attitude...

Well when I was able to access and test the downloads they still were not functional as of 7PM EST. Painful

Still Not Working. The incompetence is SHAMEFUL. How about the 600 plus boxset think I can get that one at some point? I payed for that in April for crying out loud.

The description above says:
Mastered by GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer David Glasser.

If I recall correctly, in the seaside chat Dave says that David Glasser used Norman’s digital files that were used for the E72 Box.
So, not a redigitization of the tapes.

I’m assuming that the tapes were digitized at 24-bit (would seem stupid to not have done that), mixed, and then converted to 16-bit for CD.
So, if Glasser had access to 24-bit files, then these hypothetical digital files that people paid for but have not received, might sound better than the E72 Box.

Also, if you get the files you can drag them into VLC (traffic cone video player) and check the info for the files to see bit rate etc.

I seem to remember this happening on a previous digital download release. I sent in my request for an answer and clarification on Friday and have yet to receive a response. And of course now I see why. It's frankly a bit pathetic in this day and age that this keeps happening and that we are all shooting in the dark for answers. And the site remains incapable of downloading as of 7:10PM CDT - 8/1/22

This seems to happen……every….single…..time

Incompetence
Is not a delicate flower of recurring seasons
It's fleshy petals bright and fragrant
But a weed in the garden of delight
forever bound to bring despair
to those who wait in vain and hope.

So many roads I know
All I want is one to download my files.

Still not working. For heaven's sake, either outsource the store to a competent organisation or get some coders who know what they are doing. This is beyond ridiculous. And an insult to all us loyal deadheads who have sprayed money at dead.net over the years. Must have spent thousands since - what was it? Dick's Picks 1 the first album?

And it happens EVERY time

Yours, pissed off ex hacker who wrote his first code in 1967...

Should also mention that this form does not work. Tried twice. No rest password email followed. And no, it's not in my spam folder

Again, please get in people who know what they are doing to run the store. Never had a download problem downloading from nugs.net, for example

I believe Bitrate is likely correct. The download is likely a 24/96 version of the 2011 remix and remaster. (It is possible that further work may have been done to the digital files in preparing the LPs or digital download, but if so no one seems to have officially said so.)

It would be nice if David Lemieux would explain the actual transfer process for these and other downloads. It would also be nice if the site could handle downloads more effectively.

Nonetheless I am personally fine with a 24 bit version of these files. Imo the 2011 remixing and remastering were excellent, capturing the Dead at their peek in some of their best 16 track sound. New remastering with 2022 state of the art tools could probably result in a better transfer. However imo the increase in word bit depth to 24 is the single most critical parameter. Imo the level of increased detail going from 16 to 24 bit word depth makes the most significant difference in transforming cd level sound to something much closer to the original tape.

I hope some posters will comment on the sound quality when they have received these files. I expect these comments will be positive, and if so I will get the shows once Dead.net has sorted out whatever the issues are.

1) Why dead.net haven't specified the sampling and bit rates for the downloads? (easy to assume, looking at the MSG set that ALAC is CDQ and FLAC is hi-rez - but it should really be specified)

2) Is there really a need to pre-order? ie. do dowloads sell out like CD's and Vinyl?

3) Personally I wouldn't order if I wasn't sure of the sampling and bit rates.

They have removed downloads from the store in the past (see, e.g., May 77). That is, of course, assuming that downloads are ever made available in the first place... because this one hasn't been. No word from customer "service."

Qobuz and HD Tracks have a seamless and well-tuned commercial process for downloading high-res music files. If Dead.net/Rhino can't handle this process they should outsource it to someone who can. This is ridiculous.
And for us to be getting utter silence is insulting in the extreme.
For what it's worth, I've never had issues with downloads from the garcia.com site. Maybe they could help out.
Seriously, WTF.

ALAC means Apple Lossless Audio Codec and FLAC means Free Lossless Audio Codec. ALAC is simply compatible with MAC. MEANT for MAC, really. ALAC and FLAC are not necessarily "hi-rez". Both codecs can be used for 24 bit and higher KHZ which then are "hi-rez". (FLAC 24, ALAC 24) 16 bit is not usually considered "hi-rez". It is considered - as is ALAC 16 - CD quality. Which is really the standard format for lossless audio files.

mp3, AAC and other lossy audio are the Swiss cheese of audio formats. People who appreciate quality eschew these formats and don't fool themselves or try to fool others those formats are "just as good". They aren't. They suck and should be illegal.

I hope you all get your files soon. I hope everyone remembers the lesson they are learning here. Never pre-order downloads. Especially here. Someone will buy them on new release day and by checking the comments you will say "Oh PHEW! Sure glad I didn't pre-order! Trusting Deadnet with the most rudimentary of tasks - the FTP download - is like trusting a monkey with matches and dynamite!"

Did you know that the Grateful Dead played on April 15, 1971 @ David Mead Field House, Meadville, PA? One day later - April 16, 1971 - the original specification for the File Transfer Protocol was written by Abhay Bhushan! Yeah! So, THAT means FTP file serving has been around for 51 years! And 51 years later, Rhino records or whoever is in charge of this disaster is muffing the oldest file transfer protocol in the world!

ALSO! Did you know? Rhino Records was originally a bootleg recording company before the principals sold their souls? Yeah! They were known for high quality bootleg recordings and actually cared about the music fan! And making money, of course.

I saw a note on a different site many years ago the digital download to something was "sold out". Oh. I did not know ones and zeroes could be "sold out". It illustrates the depth of incompetence some vendors can be subject to. Though MOST vendors get it together after a humiliating mistake or two. Not THIS site, though. Year after year of embarrassing gaffes. Not embarrassing for them, apparently. Just embarrassing to look at. Like watching someone having a tantrum in a coffee shop. Oh, come on. Get it together. Or give her a free Pumpkin spice latte and get her outta here. Get her OUTTA HERE.

More embarrassing, this will happen next year as well where dozens or hundreds bumble in again and pre-order, then freak out when something goes wonky. 51 years is plenty of time to get the FTP thing down. How long will it take customers here to read the writing on the e-WALL? It's been at least 11 years or so since DD were offered for sale. Every year there is an issue. Every year there is no explanation nor mea culpas.

Here we are, four days after the supposed release date of the Complete Lyceum downloads, and still nothing but that f---ing "Invalid URL download scheme" notification. There's also no communication as to when the downloads will finally be available. Such a delightful combination of incompetence and indifference, urgh!

After nearly 30 years I made a new profile, just to say how much this store sucks. If they were selling anything other than Grateful Dead music they would be out of business. No other fan base spends money like Deadheads do... ya know, I wonder if Dave is aware of how bad this store is sometimes, I'd be embarrassed and most certainly trying to do something about the general incompetence.

I feel both bad and better having finally said it.

I've looked through comments of past releases and from those we can expect this to get worked out by around the 9th. Not feeling very optimistic about this, so I predict Thursday, August 11 as the day I can finally download these shows.

Got my shipping notification for DP43 this morning. Clicked tracking l!nk to find out it is Out For Delivery today. So, woo-hoo for that at least.

Finally had an acknowledgment to my email I sent on Friday saying it’s been passed on to the digital team for investigation.

I hope the investigation concludes they are inept.

Serious - WTF is going on here? Issues with the downloads? Issues with the transferring mechanism? Why the heck are digital downloads 5 days late in 2022. Is there any kind of recourse? If any other store had access to these recordings, we would have already heard them. This crap on happens with dead.net!

Please wake up - go to the computer - transcode some crap and get peeps their downloads!!! Jeez - enough already!!!

Starting to get a little frustrated at this point, it's been 4 days, this should have been addressed in the first couple of hours on 07/29/22 when there was a problem. Did no one test this before it went live? Apparently not!

Maybe they should throw us a gift card or store credit for dealing with this......but I doubt it.

If you go to the ‘sort by’ button above and sort by oldest, there’s a post from me that says:
———
April 9, 2022 - 9:14am#10
icecrmcnkd

24/96 Or 24/192 FLAC

STL Box is 24/192
Giants Box is 24/96

Based on the price difference of those, I’m guessing that Lyceum 72 will be 24/96.

In the seaside chat for the vinyl Dave says that they used the same Norman mix as used for the Steamer Trunk. But that that mix was remastered by Glasser.
So, if you already have the Steamer Trunk or the AME, no point in the download unless it sounds significantly better. I have the AME, so I’ll wait for the reviews of the downloads, confirmation that you get the correct and complete download (not usually the case based on comments on other download boards), and confirmation of what the FLAC files are.
———

Sounds like Rhino really screwed this one up.
Just like so many of the previous ones.
Kind of standard operating procedure…..

Took dead.net 2 months to sort out the delivery of low-res American Beauty when I'd ordered hi-res. I really am a ******* idiot keeping coming back for punishment.

In the past 24 hours, I've received 4 emails informing me that my order of Dave's Picks 43 had been shipped. All of these messages arrived 2 days after the discs arrived. Good work, folks.
Meanwhile the Lyceum 72 download debacle continues.
This is next-level buffoonery.

It's now Wednesday with no end to the download debacle in sight. I too have received a reply from "customer service" saying the matter had been forward to the digital download team. With their prowess in all thing digital who knows if they even know how to do that! I download frequently from Nugs, HD Tracks, even the Garcia Provisions site with never, ever an issue. These people have reached a new low in terms of incompetence. And to add to that I received my Dave's 43 shipping notice the day after I received the discs. Come on guys, figure this out or outsource to one of the many groups that have been doing this for a long time. I don't want CDs, I want hires downloads!

My best guess is Deadnet doesn't actually have a server. My belief is they sub out their digital to an aggregator and they do the work. Whoever it is obviously misses deadlines. It happens fairly often with Hot Tuna and Jorma releases. I see a show announced for a certain date and the date comes and goes. Contact the HT people and they check into it and blame their aggregator. Show turns up a week or 2 later on the download platform.

Getting the "We are kicking this upstairs to our digital team" most likely means they are calling their subcontractor to find out what the fuck is going on. My guess is the aggregator is backed up with work and is short staffed and they haven't gotten to them yet.

At least Jason is decent enough to reply with an answer pretty much within 30 minutes. Whoever collects the dough is where the buck stops.

So. Let's drill for "next" time:

01. Never preorder digital
02. Do NOT order digital before release day
03. If you are going to order digital, wait until release day or a day later. Read the feedback forum on release day to make sure people aren't getting hosed.

When this finally IS made available, chances are everyone will try downloading at once and crash the server. Wherever that is. Remember that funny feedback loop we get into trying to unlock our wives/girlfriends/both passenger side door while we are behind the wheel? She pulls JUST before the thing unlocks and we sit there and click into infinity? That'll be the server once the go is given.

A week now since I purchased the digital Lyceum set, and still no resolution to the download issue. Communication has been minimal. It would be helpful to at least get a progress update.

While there seems to be no issue at all with purchasing the downloads, As many folks have already commented, the FLAC files will not download. (Invalid URL Scheme). Hopefully my multiple emails to customer service will eventually be responded to and I’ll get my money back. I cannot believe they haven’t removed the item from the store. It’s almost been a week and the same problem persists. Are they a) clueless, b) lazy, c) just don’t care, or d) all of the above

I vote for D, all of the above.

Bought these files on April 7 (never do that again), waiting patiently even though this item should have been released in late May to coincide with the anniversary of these shows. They have undoubtedly had these shows in the can since the E72 trunk release. Come on guys, give us an update or a refund.

To paraphrase a classic Seinfeld scene: they know how to take our money, they just don’t know how to deliver.

We are now past the 1-week mark. I have lost ALL faith in this platform. Not receiving the purchased product is bad enough, but the utter lack of communication is galling. Like many others, I received a customer service message three days ago saying that the problem was being investigated.

So what's going on now? How's the investigation proceeding? As I said a couple of days ago: next-level buffoonery.

How long should folks wait until they report fraud to their banks for all the pre-orders? Just curious. At this point - who knows if they even did the downloads? Im ready to call the bank on this one - its not even worth it. My friend sent me the 5/26 show - and while it does sound a bit brighter - not worth this stupidity.

I could have sworn that this release was on iTunes for pre-order when this was first announced because I said to myself after I pre-ordered here that I should have ordered on iTunes as it would have been easier process. But now when I go to iTunes this is nowhere to be found. Maybe I am misremembering, I don't know, but maybe I'm not and iTunes does not have it anymore because there is an issue with the files??? Who knows.

Whatever the reason, get it fixed or give us a refund.

It's now a week since release date and nothing has been communicated. I don't have much of a dog in this fight (this time). I didn't pre-order the files ONLY because I had been burned repeatedly by pre-ordering. I didn't even buy them 1st thing last Friday morning, again because I've been burned repeatedly doing it that way too. This time I decided to wait until things were working. Unfortunately, that is the only way this will ever get fixed. Once or twice having these kinds of issues is one thing, but its EVERY time. They are clueless, probably lazy, and absolutely do NOT care. They have absolutely NO problem taking people's money and the fact that a week later this is still up and available to be ordered with NO way to get what you paid for is the proof and shows a complete lack of respect for the fans that supported and support them.

Did anyone order the ALAC files, and are they downloadable? Just wondering if this SNAFU is only for the FLACs?

It is mind boggling why this always happens. One of the reasons I didn't pre-order it myself. I've heard the 5/26/72 CD rip, and that does sound fantastic, so am presuming these will also if and when we ever get them!

Aren't these supposed to be hi res? I downloaded FLAC from the order status page.

No matter what anyone thinks they ordered here, they will NOT be hi rez. Just bloated files of the 16 bit files that have been around since 2011 made to APPEAR hi-rez. Not remixed from the analog 24 bit master tapes in the vault. This was a hose job since its announcement. Anyone who has been around digital music collecting long enough would certainly know that.

The GD organization sold their souls many years ago. That includes the band members as well. In fact, it began with them. They don't see fans as anything but income, now. Next time you see Weir, mention it to him. He started all this the minute the vault was pulled from Archivecom. If people can't face this harsh fact, well then have fun with the continuing hallucination you are having.

"OH NO. They would NEVER do THAT to US."

Oh. Hell yeah, they would. They would, are and have been for a long time.

Had an email saying I’ll get a redemption code sent to me shortly. Did they have to do that with the St Louis box or Giants box?

I’ve sent a reply asking what the resolution should be, we will see if I get an accurate response

I've been assuming (had to assume since Rhino didn't bother to specify) that the FLAC files are 96-24 (maybe, but unlikely, 192-24) and that the E'72 suitcase was originally transferred at that resolution and then downsampled for the CDs. That is relatively common practice. How they end up with "HDCD" files on the CDs is unclear to me so my guess may be wrong. I would expect that the high res downloads we've been waiting for are the same 96-24 transfers from years ago. But who knows with these bozos.