Downloading Music...?Quality?

[TopCatGr58]

Well, since XSMike started a nice musician thread, thought I'd ask a question along the same line....music.

I have a decent LP collection that I have gotten partially converted to CD, but some of my LP's are a bit too worn, scratched, etc., and so to complete a "hits" collection of a particular artist, I'll D/L a few songs from the Pay sites, like Windows Music or iTunes! I then make a backup converted copy of the compressed files into CD audio/wav files onto CD so I can "RIP" and make any combinations I want on any number of CD's I want, or convert them into NON-protected MP3's!!

Anyway, my question is has any body else D/L'd songs from both of these services, and compared the quality? I seem to have been able to hear/discern a distortion affect commonly called FLANGING in songs from the Windows site in WMA format.

So far, the songs from iTunes seem to sound better, the percussion symbols are much crisper and don't have that echoing 'flanging' sound!
T.C.

[81xsproject]

Don't waist your time w/ those TC. A lot of those sites have copywrite protection on thier files. If you want the good stuff (maybe not as legal) pay your $10 a month for ten gigs that build up at easynews.com. You can find ANYTHING on this site. The MP3's are usually high bitrate rips and you can find almsost any software you want; from Norton Systemworks 2006 to Adobe Photoshop 8 CS. It is awesome and I have used it for years.

[Street_Rat78]

Peer to Peer mp3 Swapping...

As far as music goes, I use 360 Share. It's a pretty good interface, and I paid the one time, lifetime membership of $30 and can download as many songs as I want. I've been using it for about 4 months now and so far, there has only been two songs I can't find. I have to say, I'm quite impressed with it. For those of you who used Napster, it's similar to that. You can sort by bandwidth or upload speed, and you can add favorites and browse their files for download.

If you're unhappy with the service you have, I'd suggest checking it out.

[xssiveone]

TC, can't comment on the peer-to-peer sharing as I've not used it, altho a lot of friends do with good results. Music, movies, programs, etc... it's all there apparently.

I have used news groups extensively and had good results with them. Your ISP might even support them, but it's unlikely that you will get complete files from it.


There's also several m/c special interest groups available too.

[JWSanders]

Back during the golden age of filesharing, I acquired a sizable collection of music. Over 4800 songs. When it first started it was amazing...

Be careful of the "one time fee" paid filesharing services. Most are scams. Some have no problem telling you it's 100% legal and such, but they're not. Most use their own written clients (or hacked versions of open-source programs) to connect to the already well-established fileshare networks, and charge you to use something that's already free.

Right now there are only a couple of fully sanctioned filesharing services (Napster, iTunes, etc.) the rest are completely illegal. If you're not downloading protected MP3's, it's illegal, and you run the risk of being tracked by the RIAA.

That being said, there are ways to minimize your risk. The simplest is to remove what you download from your "shared" folder, and just leech. Those that share, especially if it's a lot of files, run a much greater risk of being caught. On the larger filesharing networks, the large majority of the people that are sharing lots of files are overseas. They don't give a crap about U.S. legal BS, so they share blatantly.

Newsgroups are a good idea. You aren't connecting to anyone who may be a RIAA plant, and since you arent sharing directly, you wont be trolled by their bots that hunt through the fileshare networks and collect your ISP information.

Bittorrent is another good method, if not a bit clumsy. I've also has success using Ares and Emule . Emule is really good for acquiring CD's in their entirety. Both are open-source, and completely free.

[mro]

RIAA plant

DRM, (digital rights management) copy protection software is used in the CD's you buy from local store, or music you down load. You can burn or reburn to a CD, then re-rip em to an unprotected format but you will lose sound quality.

RIAA, Sony and probably others use more than "bots". Root and other programs will get down loaded with legal or illegal music. Root and similar programs are hidden files. (booting from an old version of DOS (if you know how to use it) using command lines can show what’s really on your computer.

Sony's little program installs its self and reports back to Sony EVERY TIME you play one of their songs.
PTP/file sharing etc. will down load more than you expect and just because you only do it once does not mean RIAA and others don't know what your doing. Hard disk space is cheep and these guys can afford the best hackers.

Sorry for being long winded and this could go on for ever.

Bottom line, ripping from an uncompressed CD you have is about as good as it gets.


mro

[81xsproject]

peer to peer is where people get caught or tracked by the RIAA. Stick to a news group, I haven't seen one bigger than easy news, and you shouldn't have to worry about the RIAA.

[JWSanders]

Re: RIAA plant

Originally posted by mro
DRM, (digital rights management) copy protection software is used in the CD's you buy from local store, or music you down load. You can burn or reburn to a CD, then re-rip em to an unprotected format but you will lose sound quality.

RIAA, Sony and probably others use more than "bots". Root and other programs will get down loaded with legal or illegal music. Root and similar programs are hidden files. (booting from an old version of DOS (if you know how to use it) using command lines can show what’s really on your computer.

Sony's little program installs its self and reports back to Sony EVERY TIME you play one of their songs.
PTP/file sharing etc. will down load more than you expect and just because you only do it once does not mean RIAA and others don't know what your doing. Hard disk space is cheep and these guys can afford the best hackers.

Sorry for being long winded and this could go on for ever.

Bottom line, ripping from an uncompressed CD you have is about as good as it gets.

mro

The process you are talking about is a rootkit, which Sony installed on many of their copy-protected CD's. You had to run the execuatble content of the CD (the built-in CD player software on the disc) in order to get it. Because of the uproar, Sony released a patch that caused many people problems. They still haven't fixed the problem completely. Rootkits have been around a long time. They are a technique that has been employed by virus writers for several years now. The uproar centered around the fact that this came on a fully legal commercial CD.

There is a program that can find most rootkits, including the one Sony put out, called Rootkit Revealer. The process for removing them can be complex, and is not recommended for less knowledgable users. If you have one and don't feel comfortable about delving into the nasty internals of Windows, your best bet is to run your restore CD if you have one (wiping your system), or reinstall Windows to a freshly formatted hard drive.

Unless your using Windows Media Player, you have little to fear from non-protected music files having executable content. And even then, only .wma file are suspect, and only if you are unpatched. It's very rare. Both Windows Media Player and the .wma format are crap anyway. I wouldn't recommend using either....

You cannot recieve executable content from an unprotected .mp3 file. Period.

Downloading software is a different issue altogether though.....buyer (or non-buyer, as it were) beware!

[TopCatGr58]

Appreciate all of the info guys!! I'm familiar with the Newsgroups, but don't like to wade thru all the posts, and even though I have Cable access, my ISP doesn't support the newsgroup server like my other access....internet and email, so it's quite slow!

I'm getting my tunes from the "LEGAL" paysites, but mostly as a last resort. I have my LP collection that I'm still converting/Ripping in REAL TIME into my computer's sound card Wav Editor-recorder all of the songs I want from them, especially the longer Album cuts that either aren't on CD's, or even available on CD at all!! I'm able to use my Wav Edittor to cut out the larger Snaps and Pops. I don't like using comb pop filters, they diminish the clarity and dynamic range of the wavs! My Sound card is ONLY a 16 Bit, but that's what most CD's audio files are formatted in! I've been told about those fancy EXPENSIVE 32 bit sound cards and programs that are supposedly able to better filter out background rumble and hiss and such from LP recorded Wavs, but mine works for the quality I want!

If there's a CD I DO want, I can usually find it cheap on Ebay!

BTW, I use Exact Audio Copy for my ripping, it's usually able to process ANY CD and rip. I haven't bought any NEW CD's of any NEW artists for many years, so I don't think I've encounted any DRM encoded CD's. I have bought the SWMBO several, will have to try them out to see how they RIP!?
Rock On!!
T.C.

[JWSanders]

Hey TC, you can pick up an Audigy MP3+ pretty cheap now. They are 24bit encoding with 100DB SNR, which makes a HUGE difference on ripping and in playback of compressed audio. I've had good success with mine converting cassettes to .mp3's and still retaining a level of quality. It even has an integrated Firewire port, for pulling hi-speed data off devices that support it.

My computer here is essentially my stereo system, and has been for years. I use a 5-channel 100W Surround sound speaker system on my PC, and it nearly rivals my JBL home theater system at 500W. I can patch the PC to the JBL though, and shake my house's foundation, if I so desire.

[JWSanders]

Oh, I forgot to mention, there is another open-source program for ripping CD that works AMAZINGLY well. It's called CDex. It can hammer on badly scratched CD's and still get all the informtion off of it. I have been able to recreate several of my CD's that were barely playable before into fully workable discs once again. Some of them took two hours to extract because of all the damage, but most of the songs were nearly as good as new afterward.

You can get it here.

[thumperjsa]

Hello guys. Something audio related.

Just wanted you to know that I just got back from CES.

Creative labs has an awesome new soundcard out called the X-Fi XtremeMusic.

I would highly recommend it if you want real quality sound out of your PC. They had an great demo that you listen to different games, music and sounds through headphones and it doesn't sound like headphones. It sounds like true surround sound like you can really hear audio from a 6.1 system. I planned on buying one at the show price of $79 plus shipping but I never made it back to the booth.

You can read more about it at x-fi xtrememusic. I saw them on Ebay for about the same price as the show special.