Downloads and Resources Discussion and help thread

[~smack]

Any problems or questions can go here, or you can pm or email me. Please be sure to read the Rules and Guidelines.

[Afro Joe]

dB PowerAmp is a really good audio convertor and cd ripper. it supports loads of different formats
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm - website

[~smack]

Cheers mate, it's added.

[krashd]

that's a brilliant wee program with the best codecs in it, I use it all the time.

on a download level I use 3 programs, each with a different use.

azureus (amazing torrent client, but requires java to be installed first): best option in my opinion for accessing torrent files and as anyone knows, if you want something at the best speed possible, and it's popular enough to be listed then there's a torrent for it. azureus adds the ability of an emule or kazaa kind of feel to torrent downloading, with columns, trackers and even an upload ability where you can seed stuff to friends or just make your stuff known to the torrent community.

kazaa lite k++ v2.4.3 (kazaa lite was created by some coders who hated kazaa's inclusion of bonzai buddy, gator and other useless shite spyware, these days even kazaa lite requires a fee to download but the last and best free version was 2.4.3 but even that is slowly being hounded off the net by the kazaa corporation): kazaa is easily the simplest download program, you just search & click. it is useful for just about any kind of music and most other little files and has a fairly good download rate for most things.

emule plus (a version of emule that was created by the emule community to have all the things people thought emule should include) again, my opinion at the best edonkey client - emule is easily the slowest of these 3 programs but seems to always find somewhere within it's network that really, really obscure file that nowhere seems to have. I use it for everything from gaming files to songs kazaa can't find, but it just tends to take 2 or 3 days to Download stuff


I've tried a tonne of different programs like dc++ (all the best stuff is on the biggest hubs, you need like 160gb of pure music/movies to even gain access to them, all the shite stuff is on the smaller hubs, so you still need atleast 40 to 80gb of pure downloadable media just to get humperdink's greatest hits.) and i've tried stuff like imesh, audiograbber, winmx and soulseek and tbh most seemed to me to be either fiddley beyond control to setup, awkward to join a server or channel or just plain shite. though i did like winmx for a time and i do have a few friends that swear by soulseek, yet i've never seen it running :cheese:

[Keerin]

I've been reading about DIy Record Labels and the music business in general and the mst helpful site was a UK site set up by a gentleman called Rob Cumberland. His site is called Bemuso

It really is a great site.

I didn't know where this should be posted so This looked like the most appropriate place.

[RiseAgainst]

Soulseek is great once you set up port forwarding on your firewall.

Gets about 80% of what im looking for.

eMule is great for obscure TV episodes and stuff too.

[krashd]

My 3 downloaders haven't changed a bit in the past 3 years, other than having to track down an 'old' version of bearshare nowadays. I still use Azureus for pure brute speed, so long as the file you are looking for is popular enough to be uploaded and kept running by a few people then Azureus (or any other torrent client) will get it to you in the quickest time. Kazaa (or any of it's clones) is still the best application for grabbing small files quickly, such as individual songs but it is now a little corporate, requiring sign-ups and account creation*. But if you google for 2.4 and get one of the 2.4.x variants you can access the bearshare network anonymously. And finally eMule Plus is my choice for accessing eDonkey/Gnutella networks, which as I said above/years-earlier has rediculous waiting times but is guarantee'd to have the most obscure files you are ever likely to find - eMule/eDonkey will find it, it's on there.


*As anyone may have noticed, the RIAA and MPAA are seeking prosecution more and more of downloaders as well as uploaders, so now even if you aren't hosting thousands of files you are in danger of prosecution if you download too much too. This is where a Bearshare where you don't have to sign up and create an account is a must have. I only use bearshare maybe once every few weeks to grab a song I've heard on the radio but for those that download religiously you really don't want to use a program requiring an account sign up.

As ever, the above is information for people intending to download legitimate media, if you wish to use these programs for anything but, then it's down to you.

[kj]

Azureus is brilliant. It's what I've been using lately for a lot of stuff. It's one of the easiest to use also.