Www.allmusic.com

[SyrinxGC]

You may agree or disagree with the All Music Guide critics - and so what.

What REALLY make www.allmusic.com interesting for folks downloading music are their exellent artist discographies with track listing for each album - which usually includes the exact length of each track.

Be very careful to check out that the file you want to DL has the correct length. If not - it may be a fake - OR it could be another recording of the same song (f.ex. a live version).

I am a professional musician and have been a collector of music for years! Thanks to AMG (and Kazaa Lite) I have been able to build a really great library of popular music, with the complete discography from artists from Bob Dylan, Beatles and Pink Floyd to ...well, you name it! - and that without ruining my economy! With artists that are new to me, I simply would not know what tracks to look for if it wasn't for AMG.

AMG gives you the complete discographys of most of todays popular artists (at least if they're known in USA), but it is never completely up to date. If you can't find a brand new album - check out the artists homepage (very often www.artistname.com) or check out an internet shop (Amazon, CDnow etc...)

Another tip: When trying to collect all the tracks from a CD - don't rely 100% on the track length - use your ears as well. You will usually be able to hear a if a file contains a recording from the same, or a different recording session than the others from the same album.

Quite often you may find newer remixes of a song as well - again let your ears decide!

When you have finally collected an album, why not make an albumwrap collection of the album - and put it in your shared folder (you'll save a lot of people from having to do the same hard job you did). Search for "Albumwrap" under software in Kazaa (I believe you can even find a keygenerator! For those who struggle to extract some of these "wrapped" albums - the
"Alba Extractor" is much more reliable than the original one.

I hope this is helpful to some of you.

Keep on sharing - that's what this is all about!

SyrinxGC

[summerlinda]

There was a simular thread a few days ago:
Here

AMG is the best, i agree.

No offence but if you really are a serious collector and a proffessional, then why use KL? You usualy get low bitrates [128k] & the tracks come from different rippers, different encoders etc etc.

Check out SoulSeek [look at the pinned thread]

[Afronaut]

Originally posted by SyrinxGC@29 September 2003 - 12:55
...why not make an albumwrap collection of the album - and put it in your shared folder (you'll save a lot of people from having to do the same hard job you did).

I disagree when it comes to Albumwraps, they suck.
What if i need to listen/copy/burn/Tag only one song?
No way in Hell im gonna start editing the whole shabang to get it, it just takes too much time. Other solution could be:
Take them mp3's and pack em with WinRar, or WinZip or similar, if you must keep the whole album as 1 file. Personally i dont do that, but ppl makes Rars out of some artists few albums and seed it on Torrent for example...
Single mp3's are just fine, and i like 'em over 192k too
I've used the Wrapper app. once, didnt like it, thats just my opinion tho',
each and everyone has they own way of doing their "collection"

But bood points about the allmusic.com, been using that alot. Rewievs are tad sucky and they dont have All-The-Albums-Ever-Made but its good anyways.

Cheers:
-GS-

[Benno]

Originally posted by summerlinda@29 September 2003 - 14:44
No offence but if you really are a serious collector and a proffessional, then why use KL? You usualy get low bitrates [128k] & the tracks come from different rippers, different encoders etc etc.

Check out SoulSeek [look at the pinned thread]

I dont have anything reasonable to add so I just back you up, correct as always Linda. B)

[CrumbCat]

www.allmusic.com

10.0 Paws out of 10

Kazaa Lite

3.0 Paws out of 10

albumwraps

0.0 Paws out of 10

SoulSeek

10.0 Paws out of 10

If you are serious about wanting quality music, stay away from KaZaA, and get over to SoulSeek

Go there and read the topic. It will give you all the info. you need to get started.

Tchau!


This reply (or lack thereof) has been brought to you as a courtesy of CrumbCat.
© Copyright 2003 by CrumbCat, all rights reserved.

[ezyryder]

Originally posted by CrumbCat@29 September 2003 - 16:29
www.allmusic.com

10.0 Paws out of 10

Kazaa Lite

3.0 Paws out of 10

albumwraps

0.0 Paws out of 10

SoulSeek

10.0 Paws out of 10

If you are serious about wanting quality music, stay away from KaZaA, and get over to SoulSeek

Go there and read the topic. It will give you all the info. you need to get started.

Tchau!


This reply (or lack thereof) has been brought to you as a courtesy of CrumbCat.
© Copyright 2003 by CrumbCat, all rights reserved.

That says it all, perfectly rounded off.

[SyrinxGC]

To Summerlinda:
Thanks for the tip - I didn't know about it. I'll check it out.
I have tried other P2P programs. WinMX has many users with jazz and oldies (mainly "adults"?) - and lots of the albums in albumwrap format.

My reason for choosing Kazaa is the Fasttrack network it is part of. The volume is incredible (at the moment - more than 5000 Terabyte (= GB x 1024) of stuff.

There are so many users online (3,8 mill. at the moment) that there's almost nothing you can't find here. A couple of weeks ago I searched for a CD with cover versions of Leonard Cohen songs done by some VERY "local" norwegian artists. I just started the search before going to bed in the evening - and the next morning there it was - all tracks&#33

In general I'll be VERY surprised if Kazaa haven't found the music I want somewhere. I simply don't know any other P2P source with such a quantity of stuff available!

When it comes to speed - all tracks froma popular CD are usually DL'ed in 30-40minutes. For an ADSL 256k connection, That is a speed I can live with.

Does anybody really know how much time it takes to search ALL the supernodes on the Fasttrack network? Are we talking about days or weeks?

__________________________

To Guitar-Slinger:
You may not have read what I wrote about the Alba Extractor. With that program you can extract all or selected tracks only at least as quick as with an archiver. Besides - if you want to listen to the whole album - you have the whole thing in on practical file!

The most practical side of Albumwraps are the ease of getting a complete album.

I agree - they are not always good quality. It is incredible what people can collect as an album simply because they "though" the songs sounded as if by the same artist.

On the other hand - you may be lucky and find a file containing all tracks ripped by one person - and in good quality (192k+) too.
I mentioned WinMX above - It is part of a more "albumwrap"-friendly net than Fastrack. (try searching with the word "albumwrap" on both networks and see the results in few minutes&#33

SyrinxGC

[CrumbCat]

SyrinxGC:

SoulSeek is THE PLACE to get full albums. Users have organized their collections into individual folders kinda like this:

Folder name:
johnny cash - american iv the man comes around
Inside folder:
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 01 - the man comes around.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 02 - hurt.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 03 - give my love to rose.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 04 - bridge over trouble water.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 05 - hung my heart.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 06 - the first time ever i saw your.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 07 - personal jesus.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 08 - in my life.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 09 - sam half.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 10 - danny boy.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 11 - desperado.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 12 - i'm so lonesome i could cry.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 13 - tear stained letter.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 14 - streets of laredo.mp3
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 15 - we'll meet again.mp3

Folder name:
earth wind and fire - the essential (2cd) (2002)
Inside folder:
cd 1:
000-earth_wind_and_fire-the_essential-2002-aaf.m3u
101-earth_wind_and_fire-mighty_mighty-aaf.mp3
102-earth_wind_and_fire-evil-aaf.mp3
103-earth_wind_and_fire-devotion-aaf.mp3
104-earth_wind_and_fire-keep_your_head_to_the_sky-aaf.mp3
105-earth_wind_and_fire-kalimba_story-aaf.mp3
106-earth_wind_and_fire-shining_star-aaf.mp3
107-earth_wind_and_fire-thats_the_way_of_the_world-aaf.mp3
108-earth_wind_and_fire-yearnin_learnin-aaf.mp3
109-earth_wind_and_fire-all_about_love-aaf.mp3
110-earth_wind_and_fire-reasons-aaf.mp3
111-earth_wind_and_fire-sing_a_song-aaf.mp3
112-earth_wind_and_fire-cant_hide_love-aaf.mp3
113-earth_wind_and_fire-getaway-aaf.mp3
114-earth_wind_and_fire-saturday_nite-aaf.mp3
115-earth_wind_and_fire-ponta_de_aria-be_ever_wonderful-aaf.mp3
116-earth_wind_and_fire-open_our_eyes-aaf.mp3
117-earth_wind_and_fire-got_to_get_you_into_my_life-aaf.mp3

cd 2:
201-earth_wind_and_fire-september-aaf.mp3
202-earth_wind_and_fire-serpentine_fire-aaf.mp3
203-earth_wind_and_fire-fantasy-aaf.mp3
204-earth_wind_and_fire-ill_write_a_song_for_you-aaf.mp3
205-earth_wind_and_fire-drum_song-aaf.mp3
206-earth_wind_and_fire-in_the_stone-aaf.mp3
207-earth_wind_and_fire-cant_let_go-aaf.mp3
208-earth_wind_and_fire-after_the_love_has_gone-aaf.mp3
209-earth_wind_and_fire-wait-aaf.mp3
210-earth_wind_and_fire-you_and_i-aaf.mp3
211-earth_wind_and_fire-let_me_talk-aaf.mp3
212-earth_wind_and_fire-and_love_goes_on-aaf.mp3
213-earth_wind_and_fire-you-aaf.mp3
214-earth_wind_and_fire-lets_groove-aaf.mp3
215-earth_wind_and_fire-fall_in_love_with_me-aaf.mp3
216-earth_wind_and_fire-side_by_side-aaf.mp3
217-earth_wind_and_fire-boogie_wonderland-aaf.mp3

As you can see, the Entire Album is shared, with every track properly tagged.

No need for an albumwrap, since you have the ability to download the entire album into it's own folder - very convenient, and IMO, the only way to go.

You should give it a try, it will be time well spent.

This reply (or lack thereof) has been brought to you as a courtesy of CrumbCat.
© Copyright 2003 by CrumbCat, all rights reserved.

[ezyryder]

I just am not fond of Kazaa for music, I always end up getting poor quality, mixed birates and non-full length files. For the large part, I usually don't find what I want unless it's popular, and when it is, I find that I have to re-download several tracks due to the large precentage of them being fakes. This is only my experiences, perhaps you have been luckie, or your tastes in music apply more to the kazaa users.

[SyrinxGC]

Crumbcat wrote:

SoulSeek is THE PLACE to get full albums. Users have organized their collections into individual folders kinda like this:

Folder name:
johnny cash - american iv the man comes around
Inside folder:
johnny cash - american iv (the man comes around) - 01 - the man comes around.mp3

Very impressive. Is there some kind of search function as in Kazaa?
I checked out the Pinned Klf Musicworld New release list.
It seems I have to reveal my real age here. I feel like granny (45y) here.
I am most of all interested in pop and rock history - and in complete discographies.
I'm looking for old stuff, at the moment artists who started their career in the 50s or 60s!
I'm have no doubt I can find some of this music on Soulseek - but unless there are many members like me there, I doubt I'll find absolutely EVERYTHING.


ezryder wrote:

I just am not fond of Kazaa for music, I always end up getting poor quality, mixed birates and non-full length files. For the large part, I usually don't find what I want unless it's popular, and when it is, I find that I have to re-download several tracks due to the large precentage of them being fakes. This is only my experiences, perhaps you have been luckie, or your tastes in music apply more to the kazaa users.

I don't disagree. There is propably as much crap on the Fastrack network as good music - in other words: Quality sucks but the quantity is incredible

Very often I'll have to download a track several times before I get the recording I'm looking for - but when (as far as I know) the only alternative is to order the CD, or in many cases - buy expensive vinyl from specialists I accept the crap I get - delete and enjoy the good stuff! Since I've been told music copyright people reads forums like this, I won't tell exactly how much good quality music I've DL'ed so far. Let me just say that I won't have to repeat any of the music before christmas if I listen 16-18 hours per day. B)

SyrinxGC