Ever wanted to download a torrent from eTree or many of the other sites to get live music from but don't know anything about torrenting?

Ask your questions in this thread.

@bostonron said:

I think a series of PMs might to a better way to go here. Just sayin.

Sure, if someone wants to PM, that's fine too. Yet if someone has a question on torrenting, there's certainly many experts and people who know what they are doing that can jump in and add to the answers and conversation.

This thread was started for a blog post coming tomorrow about Phish AUDs.

ok... well i tried the whole tor thing before but gave up on it... of course i don't think i knew what i was doing to begin with but i was giving it a shot. was torrenting through limewire, and ended up getting a few shows but my biggest problem was how slow it seemed. it took me like a full day just to get the second set of big birch 94'..... do certain files take longer. of if there are multiple"seeds" do they go faster. and might be helpful to define "seed"

@AltimusJones said:

ok... well i tried the whole tor thing before but gave up on it... of course i don't think i knew what i was doing to begin with but i was giving it a shot. was torrenting through limewire

I never used LimeWire but that was not Torrenting. That was P2P. Completely different. Why not try it again. I'd recommend uTorrent for PC and Transmission for MAC. Go to eTree and try a download or two of well seeded shows. Depending on your DL speed with your ISP, you can expect to DL a show in a matter of minutes.

@bostonron, I'm sure the torrents that @tmwsiy is referring to are legit AUDs of Phish and other bands that allow taping, mostly found at bt.etree.org. Yes, we at Phish.net have taken a dim view of those who pirate official LivePhish.com recordings in the past and will continue to do so. However, I don't think I am the only admin who downloads Phish (and other) recordings all the time off of bt.etree.org, and we absolutely have no policy against discussion of such.

As an aside, thanks to all the tapers out there who put in the hard work to make recordings available to those of use who may not have the $ (or permission from the wife...cough...) to buy every show! IMHO, AUDs have never sounded better than they do now.

@ColForbin said:

AUDs have never sounded better than they do now.

I couldn't agree more! I encourage everyone that bumps into this thread to be absolutely certain to keep your eyes out for an upcoming Blog Post on AUD Taping and the fascinating history, culture and people behind that. It's a compelling read for anyone even remotely interested in Phish recordings.

need a good flac converter cuz damn near everything is flac. suggestions?

@spencur6 said:

need a good flac converter cuz damn near everything is flac. suggestions?

@TDS418 hit the nail on the head with XLD if you are on Mac. If PC, I do virtually everything that needs to be done with my music with Foobar. Converting is a snap in particular.

And you do bring up a good point @spencur6: most torrents are indeed lossless. Though there are certainly sites that also offer MP3 & other lossy formats.

Foobar is nice. I use that to play FLAC's directly on my computer. I recently found and love dbPoweramp. It's solely a converter/ripper, but it does it securely with convertion checksums and the works. It also has a sweet IDtag editor that lets you easily lablel files/folders once they are converted. Both have .shn plug-ins available to play shorten files.

I have recently been thinking about seeing if anyone on here would be interested in some a GD vine. You know, I burn some sick lossless Dead and send it on down the list. SBD's are no longer available on archive.org, but it's still copacetic to trade sbd "boots." Not official material of course. Anyone at all interested???

They both work fine. dbPoweramp seems a little more user friendly to me. I do so much converting I bought the reference model of dbPa which has a couple perks, but the free version is fine.

Edit: dbPa is solely a converter. You'll need something like Foobar to play the lossless files directly, if that's something you want

Just to put another option out there: I use Winamp to play FLAC on my laptop and to burn FLAC directly to CD. Works great for me, it's my default media player.

I used to use a free program called FLAC Frontend to convert FLAC to wav. files, Winamp has been easier for me.

Strangely, it seems like most of the older Phish recordings that are being seeded at etree are the SHN format. I can play these in winamp also, but can anyone shed light on why SHN is still being used so much in the Phish community when FLAC seems to be universal everywhere else?

Can someone clarify for me the essential differences between pulling shows from the spreadsheets & phishows vs Torrents from btree? My understanding is that I help the overall scene more going the torrent rout, but I'd like some more details.

THanks,
JT

I've gotten all of my shows through mail trading, the old FTP server set up, and now BT.ETREE.

I use a Mac and can answer any questions people might have about processes and programs.

Collecting Auds is one of my favorite hobbies.

http://db.etree.org/jeremymary

@tmwsiy -- thanks for doing this!!! i've downloaded thousands of torrents, and appreciate your spreading the information!

go LOSSLESS, dear friends!

@joechip (and all) -- .shn is an old format which predates .flac -- i've never compared file sizes, but to my thinking they both work perfectly...the old dead world was all .shn

and, repeat after me...again,

thank god for tapers, seeders, sharers, AUDs and the hub...god bless tapers, seeders, sharers, AUDs and the hub...

@meanpete said:

Beware the virus...

Well, I really wouldn't recommend downloading from unknown sites and just hitting Google results, or downloading from PirateBay, but I've never heard of one single issue with torrents hosted on eTree.

Crap, I clicked on this thread title cuz it said "for beginners"....

Vbrmp3, flac, lossless, seeders, FTP, shn, xld dbpa..... Ctl+alt+del, I'm going back to the spreadsheet!

Oh, I thought this was tormenting for beginners. Oops, wrong thread.

@Multibeast_Dave said:

Crap, I clicked on this thread title cuz it said "for beginners"....
Vbrmp3, flac, lossless, seeders, FTP, shn, xld dbpa..... Ctl+alt+del, I'm going back to the spreadsheet!

@sprachtor said:

Oh, I thought this was tormenting for beginners. Oops, wrong thread.

Not at all! Myself and a couple others seem to be following thread and are eager, able and willing to answer any questions you have about torrrenting and the subsequent (likely) lossless files you will get from eTree and other sources. If after reading the article yesterday about Phish Taping doesn't absolutely fire you up about all the great sources out there and make you want to dig in, I don't know what will.

It's super easy once you've downloaded a show or two...

1) Download either Transmission for MAC or uTorrent for PC
2) Ensure you are connectable by making sure uPNP is enabled on your router
3) Can g1o here to see if your port is open properly: http://www.canyouseeme.org/
4) And can go here http://portforward.com to get instructions for your router to open ports
5) Find a show at eTree to download
6) Download the torrent (which is simply a small file)
7) Open the torrent with your client
8) Tell your torrent client where you want to save the files
9) Sit back and watch as your files complete!

That's it!

Couple of notes and FAQ:

Q) I can't figure out how to open my port, can I still torrent?
A) Yes, but it will be much slower. Many people who get frustrated with torrenting speed likely do not have their port open.

Q) What happens when the files are completely downloaded?
A) By torrenting courtesy, you should continue to seed what you download until you at least share the same amount of data you downloaded. So if the show is 500Mb, to get a 1 share ratio, you should seed until you have uploaded 500Mb.

Q) Can I change the files after I download them?
A) If you change the directory name, file names, tag them differently, etc., you will no longer be able to seed as thy have to match perfectly.

Q) How long will it take me to download a show?
A) Completely depends on several factors: Are you port forwarded properly? What is your DL speed from your ISP? How many people are seeding the show?

If your port is open, you have good DL speed, and decent amount of seeds, you can expect to DL a show in a matter of minutes.

Q) Is torrenting legal? Won't my ISP hate me?
A) Torrenting is just like email. If you email legal files from GMail, there's nothing wrong with it at all. IF you email child porn, then it's not cool and you could land in jail. Same with torrenting! Keep it legal (eTree) and there's nothing wrong with it! I have uploaded 2TB of data and downloaded 500GB in the last six months...all from legal sources.

Q) I am still confused. I'd love to have access to the treasure chest of free, legal music that is available but it's all still Greek to me!
A) That's what this thread is for! Ask your questions or PM me if you are too embarrassed to ask a question here that you think is stupid....but remember just like your teacher told you: the only stupid questions are the questions not asked!

Great question. Virtually all players can play FLAC files natively with the exception of iTunes. (which is one of the many reasons I don't use that)

So sure, get some great desktop speakers and use Foobar for PC or Songbird for Mac for example and listen right after downloading. For car, sure burn CD's or convert to MP3 and put on your ipod.

great -- thanks

@Poster_Nutbag_is_Dead said:

When you torrent you are downloading music for free that you should have otherwise paid for. When you torrent Phish songs, you are essentially stealing from the band.

All those microphones behind the soundboard are free to download and listen to. Torrenting isn't taboo in any way, as @tmwsiy has so eloquently explained. Currently you can download copies of every date in Phish history, with new ones being added everyday.

Two Quick questions: 1. Mp3's aren't in Torrents ,right? They're converted into Mp3's?
2. About how much space does an average show take up?

@tmwsiy, thank you very much. However, the space is too much. But, again, thank you for answering and for all you admins do on .net.

My internet service provider has been an active part of anti piracy as their campaign against such. And I do not think they are the right people for the job or they would get less subscriber if they continue such work.

Does using the torrent count as piracy? I am very much familiar with it and have been using it since time in memorial but I was never caught. Though there are a couple of friends who warned me about this already.