Req: Red Flag Promo CD-SIngles

[Fred Taghon]

Does anyone happen to have either the "Russian Radio" or "If I Ever" Enigma Promo CD-Singles?

https://www.discogs.com/release/1252031 ... sian-Radio
https://www.discogs.com/release/839928- ... -If-I-Ever

If so, any chance of sharing a lossless rip with Log & Cue files?

OR can someone at least confirm the track times? The Discogs times for each appear to be taken from the label on the CD sleeve or the disc itself.

Thanks for any help!

[Uvox]

My rip times are --

1989 - If I Ever (Promo CDM)

01.If I Ever (Hot Radio Mix) (3:54)
02.If I Ever (12" Dance Remix) (6:54)
03.If I Ever (LP Version) (3:40)

14:27

Low MP3 quality

[PKPN]

As for Russian Radio, I don't have that promo CD, but according to gnudb, the first track (the Fresh Radio Mix) is 16675 sectors (3:42.333). This happens to be the exact length of that mix on the Hitmakers vol. 17 sampler, which I do have.

The second track (the Single Radio Mix) I *think* is 3:28 or 3:29; this database is not very precise for the last track on a disc.

Notably, the sticker & labels of the 1989 retail 12" say the Radio Moscow Edit runs 3:30, when in fact it runs about 3:42 due to a very long fade. I'm wondering if the Single Radio Mix is the same edit, just faded early. I'd like a lossless rip too!

[multicam]

If I Ever Flac

https://we.tl/t-5EdXBPquMf

+ Russian Radio (Fresh Radio Mix)

[crichert]

Noice!!! Thank you, multicam!!

[Fred Taghon]

Thank you all for chiming in with info and/or files, I really appreciate it! I traded some rare stuff for lossless rips of both of these but there are inconsistencies with the files I got in the trade and what is detailed on Discogs for each disc. No Log or Cue files were provided with either rip.

The "Russian Radio" rip I got in the trade comes up as "verifiable" in XLD and it shows 1/1 AccurateRip match, but that could also be from someone ripping a CD-R in EAC so it's not 100% conclusive (XLD rip Logs indicate "Pressed CD" or "CD-R"). Track 1 = 3:43:50 and Track 2 = 3:43:25. So my Track 1 is NOT the same as the as the Track 1 data PKPN referenced. Also, according to Discogs, Track 2 is "supposed to be" 3:30, not 3:43:25. Interesting that the "Hitmakers" CD PKPN mentioned has 3:30 printed on the disc, yet that track from the actual CD is 3:42.333. The Discogs entry does show that track time to be 3:42. Furthermore, Track 2 of my trade rip is definitely the Radio Moscow Mix.

The "If I Ever" rip I got in the trade does not come up as "verifiable" in XLD, which could simply mean it has not been ripped and uploaded to the AccurateRip database yet. I also tried using several common pre-gap values that Enigma Records often used (you MUST have the correct pre-gap value to be able to verify a rip with XLD) but none of those made any difference. I could go through and try all 75 different pre-gap values (:00 - :74) but I didn't want to spend the time, knowing chances were slim it was a 100% accurate rip anyway.

The times for my trade rip of "If I Ever" are Track 1 = 3:53:55, Track 2 = 6:54:40 and Track 3 = 3:39:72 which are all similar to the info from Uvox. The rip provided by multicam is Track 1 = 3:51:00, Track 2 = 6:51:00 and Track 3 = 3:39:00 which is unusual because it's extremely rare for every track time to be exact to the second. The "Russian Radio (Fresh Radio Mix)" multicam provided is 3:41:00, and also is 96 kHz instead of 44.1 kHz.

The good news is, a spectral analysis of my trade rips and the "If I Ever" rip from multicam ALL came back as CD quality (21,532 Hz to 21,878 Hz) so they are all almost 100% certainly from CD sources. Problem is, not everyone uses precise ripping software, especially rips from 15-20yrs ago, so there are lots of rips circulating where track times are not 100% accurate.

So it appears the mystery continues lol! Sometimes the only way to know for sure that you have an exact rip is to acquire the actual CD's, but these are particularly rare to come across! Thanks again for sharing the info and files for what you each have!

Here are the 2 rips I got from the trade:
https://we.tl/t-eBXKysOQNP

[crichert]

Thanks, Fred!

[PKPN]

The Fresh Club/Fresh Radio Mix in multicam's offering is from DjPaulT's 24/96 rip of the 12", and is still tagged as such. The other tracks in multicam's rip are sourced from the actual promo CD, but they have been further processed: Someone trimmed silence from the ends of the tracks such that they are now cut on whole-second boundaries, and they maximized the volume without clipping... as "fakes" go, these are pretty harmless.

Meanwhile, both of the rips Fred got verify in CUETools with "2/2" matches in CTDB, the levels are typical for 1989, and the durations seem right, so I'm satisfied that they are legit. Furthermore, in my previous comment, I misread the gnudb data. It actually matches the rip Fred got, with the first track being 16775 sectors. (Hitmakers is 16675; the promo single is 16775.)

Thanks to both multicam and Fred for helping out here! I used to only care about extended remixes and dub mixes, but nowadays I'm all about tracking down all the radio edits and single versions that are often still hard to find in good quality.

[Fred Taghon]

Oh very cool PKPN, I appreciate your further detective work there! Good to know my trade spoils are most likely the real deals!

Too funny, I also have shifted my focus onto rare radio edits/mixes lately, possibly because I seem to have acquired just about every extended mix I've ever wanted lol. Who am I kidding, I'm sure there's a few hundred or more on my wish list! I just checked my digital collection and found that over the years I have "re-created" 353 commercial and/or promo edits. Some are probably available on CD somewhere and I just didn't feel like tracking them down, but most are either hard to find on CD or have simply never been on any CD at all. Maybe I'll share some soon - I'm sure I've shared a good handful of them here over the years...