What.CD interview and how it compares to Waffles

**MjWoNeR** · 12-08-2008, 04:43 PM

I just failed for the second time the What.CD interview.
I have to admit the first time I failed at the first bunch of questions since I had no clue, but it was fun anyway.

Today though I reached the end and failed. I am not a complete noob when it comes to transcoding but I mostly do video so it is ok, I know I am not near to an expert in audio transcoding. But I noticed something.

What I noticed was the amount of knowledge required to be just a member there.

Does What.CD worth all the trouble in getting all this knowledge that I will never use, to just download some music?

By the knowledge required from normal leechers it comes to mind that if I do study and do pass the interview I might not find what I want. Which is the biggest library of music torrent.

So to recap, for someone that wants high quality mp3s and the largest library of music possible is What.CD the way to go or Waffles?

**kukushka** · 12-08-2008, 04:48 PM

one site doesn't cancel another. but generally, content wise, what.cd is 50% bigger. about interviews. they are just trying to bring ppl with knowledge of a potential uploader. why the hell do they need a bunch of leechers?

and idk, seems to me it should be quite hard not to pass an interview, i saw there are even links to guides at the topic

**Funkin'** · 12-08-2008, 05:01 PM

It's all just a matter of opinion. What/Waffles are both very nice sites. But in im opinion, What is the "better" site. It has more content and Gazelle is so nice. If you're having such a hard time passing the interview, then just read up on whatever questions you have failed. Encoding music and transcodes really isn't a difficult subject. It may just be intimidating at first if you know nothing about it.

And by the way, if all that you're looking for is high quality mp3's, and Waffles doesn't have the album that you want, then just use Soulseek or RS forums(I don't even use What/Waffles anymore, only Pedro's when looking for some lossless). You're pretty much guaranteed to find whatever you're looking for with either of these two methods, and in various bitrates. And best of all, no seeding. It's something to think about if you can't make it into What.

**Popov** · 12-08-2008, 05:02 PM

yes. It IS worth it. What.cd is probably the best source for audio. No mather if you like FLAC or V0, there's everything !

**ben99** · 12-08-2008, 05:06 PM

the test is really easy, you must not know anything about transcoding and all that good stuff...

**MjWoNeR** · 12-08-2008, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by kukushka

one site doesn't cancel another. but generally, content wise, what.cd is 50% bigger. about interviews. they are just trying to bring ppl with knowledge of a potential uploader. why the hell do they need a bunch of leechers?

and idk, seems to me it should be quite hard not to pass an interview, i saw there are even links to guides at the topic

Because statistically the majority of users in a tracker are leechers other wise it does not work. And because I simply do not want to be an uploader at What.CD anyway. All I want is the biggest library of music torrents.

Originally Posted by Funkin'

It's all just a matter of opinion. What/Waffles are both very nice sites. But in im opinion, What is the "better" site. It has more content and Gazelle is so nice. If you're having such a hard time passing the interview, then just read up on whatever questions you have failed. Encoding music and transcodes really isn't a difficult subject. It may just be intimidating at first if you know nothing about it.

And by the way, if all that you're looking for is high quality mp3's, and Waffles doesn't have the album that you want, then just use Soulseek or RS forums(I don't even use What/Waffles anymore, only Pedro's when looking for some lossless). You're pretty much guaranteed to find whatever you're looking for with either of these two methods, and in various bitrates. And best of all, no seeding. It's something to think about if you can't make it into What.

Well reading and learning a few things only to pass the interview and forgetting them right afterwards is an easy thing to do. I was just wondering if it really worth the trouble.

If being a leecher there requires so much knowledge I would expect them not to have 100.000 members to request every hidden type of music there is available all over the planet.

Can somebody say how many members they have and how many torrents uploaded?

Originally Posted by ben99

the test is really easy, you must not know anything about transcoding and all that good stuff...

You are kidding right? They asked me if I have ever seen a spectral comparison lol

**killercam101** · 12-08-2008, 05:11 PM

If you're into mainstream music I don't think it matters which site you join you can even consider stmusic. But for rare music I guess its best to ask which site has an uploader who uploads the type of music you like. People say what.cd is 50% larger than waffles..but whats the point if you're not finding what you want.

waffles :Registered users 34,760

tX · 12-08-2008, 05:14 PM

Enabled Users: 72,383
Torrents: 329,114

And just so you know, the interview isn't meant to be hard AT ALL. If you go in unprepared, then yes, you won't be able to answer anything. The idea is you read up on encoding 101 so you can survive at the site, without doing some stupid things like uploading trannies or mislabeling formats

And worth the trouble? Depends. For me, yes. But if you don't listen to much music, it probably wouldn't matter to you anyway.

**lhnz** · 12-08-2008, 05:18 PM

If you care for obscure/rare music, in high quality and with multiple formats, then What.CD is definitely the way to go. It also has an active community and a very active development, so it's even just fun to visit and gawk at the new features and the discussions.

To be honest, however, in order to use the site for a large amount of time you're generally going to need to upload so this so called "useless" knowledge really isn't as useless as you think it is.