Hi,

I wanted to know if someone could give me some information on Soulseek Records' membership for downloading legal mp3's. What source do they use for mp3's? It was mentioned here that they use original masters. Would that be MFSL/DCC/MasterSound type cd's, or is it something else? What kind of music do they offer?
I went to Soulseek's web page, or so, I thought it was the correct page, but didn't see any mention of the sources they use for music. Please send me a link to their sign up page.
Thanks for any info.. -Rob-

soulseek is basically electronic, chillout, experimental eletronic, etc.

i would guess the masters come from either a CDR or maybe an FTP transfer of the wave files to the person who encodes everything. ask there, they have their message boards.

Soulseek Records is no "Publisher" in the usual sense. Its just a method for a gang of semi-pro artists to showcase their releases. Most of the records also do not need to be "bought" but instead are free legal downloads (although you sometimes also can order them on cd). There is also no "mastering-process". Just imagine you're an amateur musician, create a nice album of music on your pc, then arange the release with the SR-gang and voila, new release on soulseek record.

So, the real answer to "what kind of master do they use?" is "No master at all, because there is no mastering-process".

Concerning the quality of the sources: the bottlenet usually isn't the "source" which is used for encoding (usually a wav is used - or the artist does the encoding him/herself). Instead, the bottleneck is the equipment and source-samples of the artists themselves - expect anything from high-quality samples to low-bitrate mp3-samples used in the tracks.

So, to make a long story short: SR is showcase for amateur- and semi-pro-artists, and acts as a "shield" for the soulseek-network (it doesn't give good press sueing a network with serves as distribution-method and gathering-place for independent-artists).

Oh, and - never start aguing with their admins or mods concerning audio-compression-technology - truth and facts wont help you against admin-power and ignorance.

- Lyx

i don't know why you're calling them "semi-pro" musicians because i heard a lot of soulseek releases and in many cases their stuff is better than what signed for-profit artists release. and some of the artists there are indeed signed to record labels.

i believ whe use the word pro is in the way its really ment to be.
A person who is doing it for the pay off.
The opposite would be a amatuer who is a person who is doing out of intereset.

It was probally not used in the more usally (but wrong) way... as as way to express quality.

exactly, i meant it in terms of hardware(most of those artists use quite low-end equipment - which doesn't automatically mean its bad - quite some masterpieces have been created with simple tools), production-process (mastering, etc.) and if one just does it as a hobby, or as a job.

So, it was in no way meant towards composing-skills, but instead production-quality and if its a job, or more like a hobby.

- Lyx