In April 2000, NPR, in partnership with the Hollywood Theater of the
Ear, launched the most ambitious radio drama since Star Wars. 2000X
unites the best futuristic fiction with superb acting talents and
top-notch sound production. These audio plays celebrate the new
millennium, looking to the future for adventure, satire, suspense,
philosophy, comedy, and, of course, romance.
The 26 programs that make up 2000X cast an ear to the social, political,
and technological possibilities of the next millennium. All plays take
place totally or substantially in a time after 2000 AD. These ambitious
new dramas are based on works by such science-fiction stalwarts as H.G.
Wells, Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury, and Ursula K. Le Guin, along with the
fiction of mainstream luminaries such as Mark Twain, Jack London,
Rudyard Kipling, Kurt Vonnegut, and E. M. Forster. The award winning
author and broadcast personality Harlan Ellison is the series host.
Productions feature a who's who among actors: Robin Williams, Richard
Dreyfuss, Samantha Eggar, Charles Durning, and some 100 others. The
2000X production team includes a Grammy winner and a Peabody Award
winner.
Hopefully someday I will have a new set of these to upload, a high quality set in the original stereo that it was Broadcast in. Even the sets you buy from Audible are mono
NEW Sets LINK on Page 2
Replies
Yet another attempt to find these ... sigh ....
Sadly, there does not seem to be much new here.
First, let me address the alleged 320kbps encodes. I'll be brief: BULL. These are high bitrate re-encodes of low bitrate material culled from various sources, including the Radio Drama Revival podcasts. Offering a 320 kbps encode of a podcast is like offering a high megapixel screen shot of a copy of a fake Matisse. It's still junk, just faithfully reproduced.
Similarly, 320kbps stereo encodes of the NPR CD offerings merely give us a bloated file, faithfully reproducing in faux stereo a recording that is monaural. These do nothing to advance the quality of the available material.
The single biggest issue is that neither NPR nor the Rasovsky estate (Hollywood Theatre of the Ear) has rebroadcast or reproduction rights to much of the material. I've been in contact with both, either directly or through a West Coast colleague. There are so many copyright holders (author, adaptor, music, performance, announcing ...) that it is not likely that a full set will ever be released. The existing set (available from Amazon and others) represents the majority of the material which can be reproduced.
The next issue is the accuracy of any of the purported logs for this series. Remember that NPR merely offered content to member stations. They were (and are) free to broadcast it at the nationally scheduled time or at a later time more suitable to their local schedules, or to ignore it completely. This makes real-time capture asnd the reproduction of an accurate order of play far more difficult.
I'm still searching for the Holy Grail, but thsi offering looks more liek a detour than a sign post.
Bob
.
It is still better and more complete than anything I personally have come across before. Without access to better we are sadly stuck with what we have. The Holy Grail is not in reach, but at least now I have something that at least does not offend the ears like the previous encodes I had prior to this. The system is broken and no one wants to fix it because it is not profitable. I totally understand where you are coming from Bob and I have never followed it that far. I kept hoping for that one person who recorded it with above average non-digital equipment in stereo as it was broadcast or the radio tech that liked it and copied the tapes supplied to the station to put a decent set out there. Although there is no Pie in the Sky and I may be grasping at straws at least I can listen to the best that is available right now. Since listening to much of it live on a good Onkyo stereo system at the time of broadcast this set albeit not perfect is as close as I have come to recapturing a tiny fraction of that joy. ---------------------------------------- R
This is awesome Rick, Thank You
This is interesting - my set of 2000X has episodes 2 and 16 missing too. However, in my folder, I have 10 more items claiming to be 2000X. The format of the titles is different though. Any idea if these belong? Will post if of interest. Titles are:
A few blips from outer space
A learned fable
By the waters of Babylon
In a thousand years
Knock
The machine stops
The proud robot
The watchbird
Tidbits of time
Vaster than empires and more slow
Star Eater,
I would like that. Are they stereo and what bitrate? I have another set that was a discard from the information collected on the current effort. I thought that another effort on our part was in orderI am waiting for Bob to weigh in on these. He has been looking quite diligently ever since release and so have I. Information is scarce. At one point NPR had disks available but even then for only parts of the whole and mono. I can remember catching bits and pieces of it at broadcast. If memory serves correctly there were disputes over ownership of the material then as it died down parts of the material disappeared. Another interesting fact is that it was broadcast in full stereo sound then when disks were released and material from the shows hit the net only mono was coming from the material that was out there. I am truly surprised that some unknown person does not have a full stereo set recorded off the radio in the vast internet data stream. I caught only parts of thole that is 2000x. from my work in progress folder is a set of encodes tat were released with commentary by Yuri Rasovsky, the director of the effort from his own private collection and they are stereo. That is why every once in awhile I go on the hunt for additions to the stereo gene pool of 2000X. Another sad part is that what existed last time I looked for encodes of parts of the puzzle is broken down component parts of the whole that is 2000x. Vaster than Empire and more slow has been released in part over the years also. It is one big puzzle and there has to be a complete set somewhere in glorious full stereo sound that someone is sitting on. ------------------------------ R
Here they are - don't know if there's anything new here of not? They seem to be 56K mono recordings though.
Link to 2000X extra files
Thank you, will check them out. -------------------------- R
If anyone notices that some replies are missing, they are totally correct. I have gotten some new files and all my higher bitrate cuts are now lumped together in my working set which is included. That being said here is the explanation and download information. The picture came with the set. LOL
2000X Download sets LINK
The Main set has 2 folders "Original 13" and "Additional". It is broken up because the 13 were released on a consecutive airing. The additional set was broadcast later. This set is what a gentleman in England has compiled as the best of all the submissions he got from another site's members and some on Usenet. I commend him in that in the 13 and additional folders is one of the most complete sets I have ever seen. I am compiling my own best set from his and mine. If anyone else wants to help they can either compile too and then we compare notes or they can submit what they think is better to me. If you want to compile and build your own I will send you the discarded set that he also sent me so you have all the cards. I left the set of lo-fi cuts above simply because I know there are some of you that take the bitrate of all their files down to rock bottom and mono, for those members it is already done in the files above.
I was including my set because I may have some that the other Set did not or better copies. My set is mostly higher bitrates. Now I have a third reason. My software tells me that some that he has marked as Stereo are mono. Either my software is wrong or his is. I also feel differently about some of his other notations which are in each files name because they are subjective. Some of the pronouncements can be fixed with a decent EQ. What I feel is bad and discarded you may like simply because it has a higher bitrate or it's mono and you like stereo. Since there is no definitive set in stereo out there I go for stereo with a higher bitrate unless it is total crap. I also haven't had a chance to check much of the "Discarded Set" He himself said that he picked some lower bitrate and mono cuts over higher bitrate and stereo cuts because they sounded better. I want to check and see what sounds better to me. --------------------------- R
Thank you, Rik! This will definetly help me to get over the dark days! :)
They are all good Luke. Some are quite low bitrate and others are 320K, but they are all more than listenable and if you look at the log, excluding my set the 2 folders comprising the main set are pretty comprehensive of the show. You have a great Holiday. We are a little bleak here, my wife's MS is at a point where on Monday we are calling in the visiting Nurses again. She is so weak and unsteady that she has trouble sitting up and she walks like a drunken Sailor. She is having trouble with doing her personal care too. I am disabled and I can only do just so much before I am in severe pain, so we have decided to get the younger professionals in here again and see what they can do to help. Have a great Holiday whatever your chosen belief system is. --------------------------- R
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