Hi folks,

since I'm finally going to have a fast internet connection very soon, I'm getting interested in downloading music.

I downloaded the latest WinMX beta, but didn't get any search results (adding an opennap server list didn't work). I have also tried the latest Morpheus version and was very surprised that it's now Gnutella based - not very impressed in total.

Which tool would you guys recommend? There must be some way of getting fairly high quality music with similar easy as it was with Napster...

CU

Dominic

just grab winmx 2.6 and get a newer server list

www.edonkey2000.com
www.sharereactor.com

programs to recommend?

*edonkey - mostly large files [movies] or whole albums [movies in divx, audio in mp3, mostly] in my opinion the best of the popular p2p networks
http://www.edonkey2000.com/

*further - bootlegs of bands known to allow them and a TON of shows....A TON [lossless=shn, or lossy=mp3]
http://www.furthurnet.com/

*gnutella network [clean lime wire] - a hacked version of LimeWire that kills that adware, spyware, and limits that LimeWire tries to throw at you [try the second link at bottom] you need java for this prog, but it is worth it...tons of users, but file size is much smaller than further or eDonkey
http://gammatron.weblogger.com/2002/01/10
d/l = http://users.pandora.be/karel.boonen/downloads/LimeWire.exe

why a clean version of gnutella network? because previous versions [kazaa, grokster] even included a TROJAN HORSE! their is also a clean grokster to d/l...

xolox is the prefered gnutella client by some [ http://www.zeropaid.com/php/pc_prog.php ]

*direct connect 1.0 build 9 - haven't used this much, but spase [musepack] has a hub for mpc's [which is awesome]. go to the forum for the hub address... http://www.chaostar.org/phorum/
d/l dc = http://www.neo-modus.com/?page=Download


sum:
edonkey for divx movies and "software for educational use" [and believe me, this is the place to go for that...any prog you can think of is on the "donkey"]...further for great bootlegs of bands that allow them in a LOSSLESS format download...gnutella for just mp3's or SMALL files...direct connect for some adventure...

i don't know much about direct connect, but what i do know is that it is DEFINITELY for those with a great connection and willing to share tons of gigs... [i have seen a 20 gb minimum in some hubs] i would definitely try this one out if i had time...

for some personal program hunting check out http://www.zeropaid.com/ it lists the majority of the programs out there, although i don't agree with their "reviews" the files are accessable there...

if i still had my fast cable connection i would be on further right now

Well for the trance, techno, dance fans out there - audiogalaxy is hard to beat - it has pretty much everything including live sets from all the big names from Tiesto to Van Dyk, DI radio the premium house and trance station on the net and others

Works well and though they have started to restrict the number of tracks you can queue at any one time it is really a idiot proof fire and forget system

Regards Bladeraptor

For the .exe - go to www.download.com

http://www.mirc.com
www.easynews.com

A really good alternative to the bloated & resource-hogging neo-modus DC client is DC++ available at www.sourceforge.com . There are some stability issues with it but they are a comparitively minor annoyance.

My personal favourite is gnucleus, fast and efficient, shows lots of info, totally free and no adware or SPYWARE at all. I used to like Clean Limewire but Gnucleus is just so much better....

winmx for hard to find stuff

direct connect for movies and full albums.

Thanks for your replies!

I have downloaded nearly all of the software mentioned, and I like WinMX 2.60 very much so far. (Benjamin, you were talking about the trippymx server list, weren't you?)

I will also give the various Gnutella clients a try.

CU

Dominic

Basicly yes, but in the last month i didn't get as much connections as usual. In the german Chip Forum someone mentioned some programs which could be used to get the newest serverlist.

Try WinMX 3.0 Beta 5, for me it's much better than 2.6:

WinMX 3.0 Beta 5

I have tried the latest beta; it didn't work properly (problems on OpenNap).

Thanks anyway

Dominic

why do you need openNap.

the p2p function is much nicer.

i tried winMX 2.6 and the 3.0 beta and they work well...when the 3.0 becomes standard i will give this a try again...

with any file sharing prog you have to realize that what you are downloading may not be good quality [i.e. xing mp3's, etc.] that is why i don't download mp3's from anonymous file-sharing clients...

Wow! Thanks for the tip! I'm new to this board and was just kinda surfing around today when i saw this post. I checked out "Furthur" and it's right up my alley. If you know of any other places like that, i'd be REALLY interested. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of the live stuff i've got to share would not be allowed there, but there's a lot of stuff there for the getting.

Another question: What are the opinions here of that SHN format? I'm not at all familiar with it.

It's a lossless format, so there aren't quality opinions. It's just perfect.

As for lossless formats, some would prefer Monkey's Audio because it compressess better and faster, some would prefer FLAC because it's open source. But SHN is a nice format anyway.

Regards;

Roberto.

Shorten is no doubt one of the worst lossless audio compressors now (bad compression ratio), but since it's lossless there's no encoding quality loss. It was one of the first lossless audio compressors and thus is quite popular among certain groups of people.
Read more from "lossless compression" -thread: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/showth...=&threadid=1188

Hello guys !

Do you know any mp3-sharing network, where there is NO xing, NO blade, no 128kbps ? But still a lot of music !
Or even where people share other fomats, like ogg or mpc ?

Anyone got any idea why the java runtime stuff will not work on my computer?

The installation program just initialices and then never gets anything installed.
The exe files can still be found in the "process" tab in the joblist (w2k).


Really anoing.

i my knowledge there is no "high quality" mp3 sharing network.



for mpc sharing take a look at "chaostar.org/phorum". there is info about an interesting direct connect hub...

regards; ilikedirt

do you know about encspot? it's a tool to estimate the encoder used (works pretty good, even while still downloading).

www.guerillasoft.com/encspot

finally: i am a member of my favorite board! it's hard to get there, if you're just reading most of the time... ;D

regards; ilikedirt

re: a high quality mp3 network

the only ways i am aware of that would provide you with the knowledge that the mp3's that you downloaded are of good quality are:

[1] ENCSPOT analysis
[2] d/l'ing from someone you KNOW that uses something like lame --alt-presets

[1] will take alot of time [and in my experience net you with about 50% Xing and 45%FHG and 1% LAME and 4% "OTHERS"

[2] use direct connect [or another program of the same type]. it is a community and chances are, some hubs [such as aqua's mpc hub with "extreme"] demand a quality minimum...

i guess you are just going to have to hunt down those programs individually...but a chat option within the program should be indispensable...

@ joe also

yeah, i was pretty excited when i found further myself...it is very well designed and completely idiot-proof. the only negative aspect [which is actually a great aspect when you think about it...] is that they only allow the sharing of white-listed bands who the "moderator" has seen proof that they allow live recordings [bootlegs]. other than that, the program is AWESOME...

i am just sad that i only found it AFTER i dropped my cable connection...man does that suck for me...

REGARDING SHN:

this lossless format is definitely not the desired lossless format to use in any situation [monkey's audio for windows-only or FLAC for cross-platform] but it is nevertheless LOSSLESS and only requires that you obtain the software to handle it.

besides the drawback of not being the ideal format it IS LOSSLESS and will retain all of the quality of the original .wav...

with that said, for some reason almost ALL lossless file sharing that i am aware of uses SHN and nothing else...which i guess is a good thing when a community develops a standard format...

BTW:

make sure you are using a good cd-ripper to convert your cd's to wav's to whatever it is you like [which should be MPC, you flaccid ninnie! ;-) ] otherwise your compressed files just go to shit...

EAC http://www.exactaudiocopy.de
or
CDEX http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/
CD paranoia http://www.xiph.org/paranoia/
LCDEX http://sourceforge.net/projects/lcdex/

[edited: i forgot that html code wasn't used...]

I'm also not familiar with MPC. I use CDex to rip to highest quality mp3. I also use Sound Forge and Cool Edit Pro when working with wav files -- usually bootleg audio tapes or vinyl -- prior to encoding. I see other forums here regarding MPC and other encoders, and i'm very open to exploring them. However, i want very much to be able to share my files via p2p's like Kazaa and WinMX, so high bitrate mp3's still appeal to me. File size is not really a big concern of mine, but quality certainly is.

@ joe

i would HIGHLY recommend that you check out EAC. it provides a more accurate cd rip when used right and should offer all of the aspects of CDex that you like...

if you have been in search for high quality audio compression, i think you found the right place...

i believe that the issue of "which is the superior compression format" is a non-issue, at least at HA.org...almost all will tell you that:

MPC is the best format for quality above ~160kbps, with NO support
OGG is the best format for quality below ~160kbps, with the HOPE of support
MP3 is the best format for compatibility, with low-quality but GREAT support

the mpc community is growing, as well as the ogg community...so i would seriously consider either of those as an alternative [i can't believe i said "alternative"] to LAME MP3

the only drawback to MPC [which is well-known] is that it completely lacks support [of hardware players] other than that, it is by far the best format to use...and if you need file-sharing, then direct connect will allow you to share [upload/download] mpc files with a large community [aqua]

you need to realize that it took the internet's popularity to boost mp3 from a seldom-used format into the gigantic black hole it is today...give mpc and ogg half that time and i guarantee that the compatibility issue will be null...

however, if you are still bent on using mp3, then lame --alt-preset extreme is what you should be using [opinion] and for the same bitrate/size you get an MPC --extreme or --insane [tweaked] file with an incredible increase in quality...

once i found mpc it seemed kinda ridiculous to go back to mp3, unless i was encoding something for a friend of mine...but in those cases, it took me forever to convince them to use lame instead of Xing, and i think they would hate me forever if i made their lives more complicated than they think it already is...which is kinda humorous to me...

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. That was very helpful. I encode via CDex with Lame at pretty high bitrates -- usually vbr's averaging around 220 or a cbr of 320. I've tried to configure EAC once, with a tutorial mind you, without much success, so i went back to CDex.

However, you've convinced me to give MPC a go. I'll check the other boards here for the answer or you can post again:
1 - where do i get it, and
2 - what do i play it on (winamp plugin, i hope)

Thanks again, i really appreciate your help. If you are any indication of the attitudes of most members here, then you are absolutely correct in saying that i've "found the right place"

for most of the files you will need, and a quick run down of why you'll need them check out MUSEPACK.org at:
http://members.aol.com/pumpkinz99/

the current maintainer/developer of MPC is Frank Klemm. His website is THE resource for information on mpc, as well as the fact that all software [encoder/decoder/replaygain] for mpc will show up there first, considering he is the one creating it...
http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/

a great resource for various audio compression programs is rjamorim's site [a member of this forum] which is
http://www.inf.ufpr.br/~rja00/

i just threw together a site, which is completely inferior to a hole in the wall as of now, but i hope to work on it some more, soon...
http://xmixahlx.cjb.net

you will need the plugin ".90k" for winamp. it works very well. there is also a plugin for Media Jukebox - alot of folks use the beta8 version of that...hence the need for a primary plugin. NOTE: many other audio players will work exceptionally well with the winamp plugin...such as XMplay [which i like to use sometimes] you can find the plugin and all downloads at Frank's site, Musepack.org, or my site...

en-/decoder and winamp plugin can be found at www.musepack.org.

regards; ilikedirt

Trippy has been off the air for a couple months now. Try this. It creates new nservers.dat files. Works GREAT for 2.6:D

http://napmx.darkservers.net/

Yeah, Benjamin has told me about it via ICQ already. Thanks anyway, kennedyb4

Dominic

I know that feeling. I think EAC is too clunky and difficult to configure and I'll avoid it until the usability issues are fixed. I have used CDex in paranoid mode to rip hundreds of albums and really can't recall the last time it has produced a file with clicks, pops or other annoying sounds. It's been very reliable, unlike EAC, which draaaaaags when it employs error correction.

i love it...

how off-topic do you think we can get this thread to go? without it being moved, of course...

Ha ha! Yeah, i didn't think about it but i guess i did kinda monopolize the thread for a while and steered it off course too. But thanks for everyone's help. I'm really enjoying the board and i hope i can offer something here in return.