.-_-----------------_-. || free music 08 -ad || |---------------------| | _ ?. _ | | {_} ) {_} | |\ 90 \ | | - .-----------. \ | |_o_/.-o-------o-.\_o_| ?-------------? "easy like with cassette .." C O N T E N T ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > CONCEPT + DETAILS = CPU & memory = internet connection = harddisk space + music players - linux ( xmms ) - windows ( winamp ) = music stations + recording - audacity ( win & linux ) + ripping - linux ( lame ) - windows ( cdex ) + burning - windows ( Deep Burner ) - linux ( k3b ) > OUTRO ~ THANKS CONCEPT ~~~~~~~~~ Hi people, here is a little paper which will tell you how to get your favourite music for FREE from the internet in a legal way. It is very simple done but i write this paper because i met some people who didn't knew how it can be done. In short form: we have and/or need: - fast CPU & enough memory to manage recording and ripping - high speed internet connection for our internet radio streaming - big harddrive for our MP3 recordings and temp data - very good recording tool for windows and linux: "audacity" - ripping tool for windows: "cdex" or linux: "lame" - web streaming player for windows: "winamp" or for linux: "xmms" - music station: "shoutcast.com", "sky.fm", "di.fm" or what you like - burning tool (to make audio cds): windows: "Deep Burner", linux: "k3b" All software mentioned is by the way completely FREE to download and use. Have a nice reading and enjoy FREE_music. -- ad DETAILS ~~~~~~~~~ CPU & Memory -------------- It is recommend that we first have a *fast* CPU ( Central Processing Unit ), i would say at least 800Mhz - 1Ghz. Specially recording and ripping needs a lot of power by the CPU. And of course we need also enough resources of memory ( RAM [ Random Access Memory ] ) to handle the recording and ripping. I would say at least 256MB RAM but 512MB or above 1GB RAM is better - more is always better in that case, sure. If you are not sure if you have enough then try it out for yourself and then maybe consider if you wanna buy an upgrade - it is it worth believe me. Internet Connection --------------------- So we need the highspeed internet connection for a fast connection with our internet radio, most internet radios are for fast connections. 96kb, 128kb, 160kb, 192kb and 256kb streams have a good quality. With an analog modem connection you can't listen in such a quality, analog is very slow and there can also be a buffering while you listen even in a quality which is 32kb, depends also on the streaming server which is sending you the music data/packets. Harddisk Space ---------------- We need a big harddisk where "audacity" will store recording data in a temp directory. At least 20 GB space i would say but this is your descision - how much you need or how much you have. Then we need also space when audacity makes a "wav" file from the temp data and then of course space when we rip the wav file to a MP3 file with "lame" or "cdex". Music Players --------------- To play our internet music we need a player who supports this. - LINUX: For linux we have a good player called "xmms". XMMS is installed by default in many operating systems, f.e. knoppix ( "knopper.net" ). But you can get "xmms" also with an "apt-get install xmms" in your favourite linux shell/console. ( you need root to do this ) - WINDOWS: For windows we have "winamp" ( "winamp.com" ) which in my oppinion is the *best* FREE music player for windows. The installation of winamp is easy, just follow the instructions. When we open an internet music stream normally one of your MP3 players will open it automaticly. Or your operating system will ask you what kind of software you wanna open / start to open the internet music stream. Music Stations ---------------- You can use a searchengine to find internet music / radio streaming stations that playes the music you like - just enter into the engine: "$your_fav_muic internet radio" where "$your_.." stands for "your favourite music". For example: "rock internet radio". Or you can just go to "www.shoutcast.com" to enter there for what you search. I think shoutcast.com is the *best* place to search for internet streaming radios. "www.sky.fm" and "www.di.fm" ( Digital Imported ) are also 2 *very good* sites with *lots* of *different* music radios from nearly any style. Just click on the ".pls" file for the specially channel and your MP3 streaming player will open automaticly. You can also download the ".pls" file to your desktop / computer and then open it by yourself in your MP3 player - then press play. Many of these radio stations are commercial FREE and have a high quality of what they play - high quality content. Recording ----------- For recording our music while it plays we use "audacity" ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net ). You can use it for windows and linux. Installation is easy again, follow the instructions. But you have to set your temp directories in the settings / configuration of audacity. In case you use another disk or partition for your recordings and file you must give this path to audacity. Otherwise maybe you have not enough free space for your temp data and export ( to wav ) files. And i recommend you to set the record to "stereo" instead of using "mono", so using 2 channels instead of 1 mono channel. Stereo of course sounds much better than mono. And the rest is easy i would say. It is easy to use. Maybe you have to set the device from which you record too in linux, windows should make that without any changings. For the rest you just have to use the RECORD button , the STOP button and the EXPORT function to make a "wav" file. Next step is to rip this wav file that we get a MP3 file then. Ripping --------- Ripping just means we make a MP3 file from a "wav" file in our case. The size of the MP3 file is much smaller than the size of the wav file of course. A two hour recording in wav format is over 1GB big. - LINUX: So our next step like said is to rip the wav file. For linux we use the tool "lame". If lame is not installed on your linux system you can get lame like "xmms" before: "apt-get install lame" in your shell should make it. To rip the wav file we we just type also into our shell: "lame -b 192 file.wav file.mp3" That's all. 192 is the quality ( 192kb ), file.wav is our wav file and file.mp3 is our mp3 file which we will get after the ripping. "file" you have to replace with your own file name for wav and mp3. - WINDOWS: We use the program CDEX to rip our wav files under windows. ( "http://cdexos.sourceforge.net" ) What we have to do here? Installing again of course, easy done. Then we have again to enter our paths. The path where the wav files are and the path where the new made mp3 files will be put in and of course the ripping quality. That's all. Then you just have to push the "wav to mp3" button .. Burning --------- If we wanna burn our MP3 files normally as data or if we wanna make an audio CD with them we need a burning program. Again we have one for linux and one for windows. - WINDOWS: For windows we can use the program "Deep Burner" which you can download here: "www.deepburner.com" - LINUX: And for linux we can use the program "k3b" which is also very good and also installed in knoppix for example. To get "k3b" we use again our shell and type: "apt-get install k3b" Not much to say here. OUTRO ~~~~~~~ Yeah. That's it. A small little paper but with this way you can earn a lot of the pleasure of FREE music on a legal way. Even the *newest* music and songs you can get over this way because many stations play just the newest stuff - for example "hits", "hitz", "charts" or "TOP $number" radio stations. Many stuff is also mixed so you get *unique* recordings of every style you have recorded. Most stuff is also *live* so you have live mixes too with that way. It is like recording radio with a cassette recorder on a tape ... THANKS ~~~~~~~~ Big THANKS goes out to G O D, JESUS & Heaven for all i got from *YOU*. [ EOF ]