Music ripping and downloading.....

[Art]

Two questions here:

What is the best freeware/shareware CDA to MP3 ripper you guys know of?

And, is there a reliable place to illegally download music like Napster used to be :).

[Prosperity]

Limewire is reliable

[Bang]

I like Limewire.. it finds things for me the other ones can't seem to get.

~Bang

[richard saunders]

Limewire also...

You can find all the video mixing/burning software you need on there as well...w/serial numbers ;)

[nyskinsfan56]

For the ripping...cdmaster32 isn't half bad. www.zittware.com

[Prosperity]

Originally posted by richard saunders
Limewire also...

You can find all the video mixing/burning software you need on there as well...w/serial numbers ;)
plus movies, and almost any applications.
I got photoshop there. Great place for sharing.

But I have to give a warning, I tried to download the new star wars and it turned out to be a virus and had to reformat my computer. I should have known better, but ever other movie I downloaded worked fine...

[Brother Redskin]

you should check out download-doctor.com they have a bunch of shareware programs.

[Phat Hog]

Originally posted by Liberty
Limewire is reliable

How would you rate Limewire against WinMX? Just curious (assuming you have tried WinMX).

[Prosperity]

Originally posted by Phat Hog


How would you rate Limewire against WinMX? Just curious (assuming you have tried WinMX).
Haven't trien WinMX

[Grumpy Vet]

I have a neighbor that uses Kazaa lite (older version) w/o any spy ware in it......She loves it....works like a charm.

[richard saunders]

I would rate Limewire above WinMx...

I might be a moron, but WinMx was a little confusing with the different colors. I couldn't tell which ones had users and which didn't?

I've always gotten everything I've needed from limewire.

[bird_1972]

When I used Kazaa, my comp got so f-d up with viruses/spyware, that i had to delete the hard drive and reinstall everything. It was a huge pain in the a@@.

Is Limewire generally free of any such problems? I've also wanted a reliable new way to download music but am afraid of the ramifications for my computer.

[Grumpy Vet]

From what "Penelope" tells me - there is Kazaa and there is Kazaa Lite. The former one has all kinds of nasty spyware and nonsense......The latter is a stripped down clean version.

Of course, anytime someone were to use such a program, "Penelope" tells me that a good Virus protection software that is up to date is essential.

[chomerics]

Art, all the programs mentioned are for the Gnutilla (sp?) network I believe. They all work pretty much the same, some may have a different feature or two, but the nuts and bolts are there. One thing you DO have to look out for is spyware.

Kazza used to be the crem de-la crem of spyware and it would install a pleathora of progies you don't want. Kazza lite was supposed to eliminate the spyware problem of Kazza, but it is a little bit harder to find.

OTOH, if you are talking about just transferring CDA tracks from an existing CD to MP3 format, then you can use musicmatch. . . http://www.musicmatch.com/

It is a free player with CD ripping capabilities (CD to MP3)

[DJCrash34]

I use Ares to download music, works really well, quick downloads and i can usually find whatever song i'm looking for

[Destino]

Windows Media Player has a great CD ripping function. I use it all the time. As for the illegal stuff, I wouldn't know, I buy mine from itunes and similar programs. Not that I care about the legality of it, but I like the high quality, high speed, and the peace of mind knowing I'm not killing my PC.

[Grumpy Vet]

Originally posted by chomerics
Kazza used to be the crem de-la crem of spyware and it would install a pleathora of progies you don't want. Kazza lite was supposed to eliminate the spyware problem of Kazza, but it is a little bit harder to find.

I think "Penelope" has one of the latter versions......

[Mr. S]

i use CDex to rip from cd's to mp3. It works pretty well, apparently you can put in album titles and song names too so you dont have to enter them in the tags.

I still use kazaa-lite. I feel it still has the best selection for a non torrent type file sharer. Limewire never seemed to have the connection I wanted, especially at college when the network suddenly becomes whatever anyone else on campus had who shared through limewire. Same experience with any gnutella network based program.

Now, I have heard good things of Soulseek and E-Donkey, I have to give them a whirl sometime soon.

[stevenaa]

So how do you download from limewire and not get caught by the music police?

[NoCalMike]

Downloading MP3s from mIRC is easy and the transfer rates are super fast.

[Art]

As for legal sites, what is generally seen as the best legal place to download music? Is it Itunes? I'd be mostly interested in an odd mix of old school rap, R&B and classical strings :).

[Spaceman Spiff]

For mac users, Acquisition is a good one.

However, I recently had a problem with my Mac, so I took it to the store to get it fixed. While I was getting it fixed, I got to talking to the guy who works there. Now, not how reliable this is, but it wouldn't suprise me....

He told me that music companies are getting so pissed about illegal downloading that record companies are releasing mp3's that have a hidden virus in them. Perhaps virus isn't the best way to explain it, but it's the only way I can think to relate. Anyhow, he claims that these mp3's that are leaked act like a grenade; after say, 3 months on your computer, the time release goes off on the mp3 file and will royally screw your harddrive.

Again, not sure how reliable it is, but the dude was a computer freak, he seemed pretty in the know. Just a story I thought i'd pass along.

Still downloading though :)

[MrSilverMaC]

Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff
For mac users, Acquisition is a good one.

However, I recently had a problem with my Mac, so I took it to the store to get it fixed. While I was getting it fixed, I got to talking to the guy who works there. Now, not how reliable this is, but it wouldn't suprise me....

He told me that music companies are getting so pissed about illegal downloading that record companies are releasing mp3's that have a hidden virus in them. Perhaps virus isn't the best way to explain it, but it's the only way I can think to relate. Anyhow, he claims that these mp3's that are leaked act like a grenade; after say, 3 months on your computer, the time release goes off on the mp3 file and will royally screw your harddrive.

Again, not sure how reliable it is, but the dude was a computer freak, he seemed pretty in the know. Just a story I thought i'd pass along.

Still downloading though :)



Hateful, hateful bastards!!!!!



I'm running on my mac and I use limewire.


Thats how I got my word, excell, and powerpoint.

[Art]

I think someone mentioned once using something like Limewire and simply putting Extremeskins or ES or XS or whatever, in the title of each song, so we all knew it was safe :). We oughta do that :).

[TK]

Originally posted by Art
I think someone mentioned once using something like Limewire and simply putting Extremeskins or ES or XS or whatever, in the title of each song, so we all knew it was safe :). We oughta do that :).
That was Tommy The Greek. And it was with Kazaa Lite ++.

[Obibyn23]

Try this place out....

http://cdzinc.com/albumindex.html

You will be surprised at the amount they have. Some things they don't have, but it's rare if I can't find what i'm looking for.


Its in 32k and 16k

BTW I have used this site for awhile, and have never had a problem. Definetly check it out.

[TK]

Art, check your e-mail.
:)

[Gamebreaker]

I've had Kazaa Lite, WinMx and Limewire all at one point in time. Here's how my experiences with the three went:

WinMx - I got this after the whole Napster fiasco. I loved it for a while, then after 6-7 months I couldn't find songs anymore. I would put in the simplest artist names, like 50 Cent, and I would get nothing. Before that happened, I was already thinking of switching to Kazaa Lite because I couldn't download programs or video with it.

Kazaa-Lite - Don't confuse it with the older version of Kazaa. It is a stripped down version which isn't even authorized by the Kazaa creators. It protects your hard drive from downloading known spyware that the original Kazaa allows and viruses. You can get anything you want with this one, programs, videos, anything. Yet I had some gripes when I would try to download a song and I would get nothing, just a waste of bandwith. For instance, I would try to get a song and when I play it, it's dead silence for 15 minutes. Just weird.

Limewire - So I get Limewire and now I have no problems. Anything I need is available, I downloaded a whole version of Office XP with no problems. I get all the songs I want, anytime I want. I'll admit Kazaa-lite has better options for playlists and so forth and I think it may be safer from spyware. Viruses shouldn't be a problem, and it even alerts you when a file you try to download is corrupted.

Hope that helped out some.

[TK]

Originally posted by Gamebreaker

Kazaa-Lite - Don't confuse it with the older version of Kazaa. It is a stripped down version which isn't even authorized by the Kazaa creators. It protects your hard drive from downloading known spyware that the original Kazaa allows and viruses. You can get anything you want with this one, programs, videos, anything. Yet I had some gripes when I would try to download a song and I would get nothing, just a waste of bandwith. For instance, I would try to get a song and when I play it, it's dead silence for 15 minutes. Just weird.


That's not Kazaa. That's the record industry putting phony tracks out there. Usually a months after an album is releashed, you can then find it on Kazza as someone else has had to go buy it & rip it & then upload it.

[Gamebreaker]

Originally posted by TK-IV II I

That's not Kazaa. That's the record industry putting phony tracks out there. Usually a months after an album is releashed, you can then find it on Kazza as someone else has had to go buy it & rip it & then upload it.

Ah, thanks for shedding some light on that. :)

[CrazyJoe92]

I have used a program called Ares you can do more than one search at once and can find just about anything

[pez]

I use torrent sites.... client = bittorrent

[Leonard Washington]

the new kazaa 2.7 can do torrents as well as normal p2p.

[codeorama]

Originally posted by Art
As for legal sites, what is generally seen as the best legal place to download music? Is it Itunes? I'd be mostly interested in an odd mix of old school rap, R&B and classical strings :).

iTunes is the best ripper/player IMO because you can easily convert stuff to MP3 or what ever format, but the iTunes store puts the songs in a locked format so that you can't put them in an mp3 player and I don't think you can burn them on a cd either, but someone may correct me.

[Destino]

Originally posted by codeorama


iTunes is the best ripper/player IMO because you can easily convert stuff to MP3 or what ever format, but the iTunes store puts the songs in a locked format so that you can't put them in an mp3 player and I don't think you can burn them on a cd either, but someone may correct me.

You can burn them onto a CD and from there use Windows Media Player to rip them to MP3. Or you can download certain software that let's you remove the security from the files directly.

[stevenaa]

I've heard that http://music.msn.com/ is good also and they have live albums that aren't released on CD's. Never downloaded any, so I can't personally testify.

Now, to my original question. How do you download music without worry of getting caught?

[Mufumonk]

Originally posted by codeorama


iTunes is the best ripper/player IMO because you can easily convert stuff to MP3 or what ever format, but the iTunes store puts the songs in a locked format so that you can't put them in an mp3 player and I don't think you can burn them on a cd either, but someone may correct me.

You need 2 applications to take care of this. JHymn (http://www.hymn-project.org/) to unlock the song and dBPowerAMP Music Converter (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm) to convert the track to whichever format you want to use (mp4, mp3, wma, flac, etc....). From there, you can burn any iTunes purchased song to CD.

[Destino]

Originally posted by Mufumonk


You need 2 applications to take care of this. JHymn (http://www.hymn-project.org/) to unlock the song and dBPowerAMP Music Converter (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm) to convert the track to whichever format you want to use (mp4, mp3, wma, flac, etc....). From there, you can burn any iTunes purchased song to CD.

You don't need any of that to burn a cd. itunes will burn cds using any music you purchased. The software you have there is so that other programs may use itunes music for cd burning, or to convert any of it to mp3.

[Mufumonk]

Originally posted by Destino


You don't need any of that to burn a cd. itunes will burn cds using any music you purchased. The software you have there is so that other programs may use itunes music for cd burning, or to convert any of it to mp3.

I'm unsure how you were able to do this. Any track you purchase from iTunes is protected and from my experiences will not burn to CD regardless of the application you are using till you scrub the file.

[Kilmer]

CDeX and the local library ;)

Although tons of stuff can be had through Bit Torrent. I use Azureus, but I really don't think risking a fine is worth it when I can get just about anything I want at the local library. CDeX does a real nice job even with some pretty banged up disks.

I mean I have Nero Ultimate Edition but still prefer using CDeX.

[SkinsD]

I use allofmp3.com - It's a russian company that sells music online. Basically you pay two cents per mb. If I want to download a doors cd which is 100 mb I pay two dollars for it. It isn't free and probably isn't legal but it is very reliable (unlike file sharing programs) and has an incredible selection.

[Fred Jones]

I use torrent sites.... client = bittorrent

If you look hard enough, you pretty much can get anything you want on one of the torrent sites. You just have to find someone willing to upload the file if you are looking for something uncommon or old.

[SkinsD]

Originally posted by Art
As for legal sites, what is generally seen as the best legal place to download music? Is it Itunes? I'd be mostly interested in an odd mix of old school rap, R&B and classical strings :).

If you want to stay legal I'd use Napster (they are legit now). If you join, I think it's 15 bucks a month - you get unlimited downloads as long as the artist oks it (most do). Basically you can stream the song anytime you want, but obviously you have to be sitting at your comp to listen. Otherwise any song is 99 cents. I'd say Napster is better cause itunes doesn't offer streaming songs. Either way both services have a lot of music but seemed to have very little of what I wanted to listen to.

[Destino]

Originally posted by Mufumonk


I'm unsure how you were able to do this. Any track you purchase from iTunes is protected and from my experiences will not burn to CD regardless of the application you are using till you scrub the file.

Open Itunes, create a playlist, in the upper right hand corner while viewing the playist is a icon clicking it will start the burning cycle.

[Mufumonk]

Originally posted by Destino


Open Itunes, create a playlist, in the upper right hand corner while viewing the playist is a icon clicking it will start the burning cycle.

And it grays out any *protected* song when doing so.

[Destino]

Originally posted by Mufumonk
And it grays out any *protected* song when doing so.


make sure your import setting are set to default. If you set them to "mp3" or something else it will tell you that there is nothing listed that can be burned to a cd.