Soulseek

[Noodle Lizard]

It's very good, innit.

I cut off Spotify a year or two ago and have been trying to rebuild my library from scratch. I lost a lot of my CD collection through various moves, and I don't have any way of ripping CDs (much less vinyl) anymore anyway. Soulseek's just been grand.

I don't really see the point in sharing the FLAC files I have, since they're largely sourced from other SS users in the first place, so I've been converting them all into less common formats like ALAC and AAC in case anyone should be looking for Apple compatibility. Getting properly obsessed with organizing and cataloguing too.

I'd like to get more into the "social" aspect of it. I see there are chatrooms, but they mostly seem to be full of racists and people threatening to kill themselves. I read on the old thread that CaB has its own chatroom on there, is that still around?

Soulseek.

[Junglist]

You can add me on there if you want a natter, Sirjur is the username. But as shown in the rave thread it's all old skool rave tapes on my side.

But yeah, its fantastic. If anyone has it set to private holla at them. Some people will stop your downloads unless you share something, anything.

If you have 'requests' message me on there. I can sort most things.

[Dr Rock]

Help yourself to my files username is danav, if you can't find me search for Silverfish This Bug, I'm one of the few users to have that.
Been finding some Italian 60s movie soundtracks, lovely stuff.

[Better Midlands]

Love SLSK, the old faithful. I only use it if I want to grab something in wav or flac  format (probably to sample) nowadays. Still seems as reliable as ever.

[purlieu]

intldebris here, currently on 55,589 files. Lots of movies, TV series, pretty much every audio drama Big Finish have made and a ton of music.

I joined in 2003 when Audiogalaxy shut down and have been around on and off ever since, very fond of the fact that it's been around for over 20 years, feels like a proper relic of the end of web 1.0 but still going strong.

Also slightly bizarre that many of my own albums are on there while records I've bought remain elusive.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I can't believe it's still there. I hope it lasts forever. I do not want to go back to streaming. I almost don't want people to draw attention to it

[ros vulgaris]

It's still a thing?

I might be tempted to set up a new account but it would feel pretty redundant without an iPod.

[Junglist]

It's still a thing?

I might be tempted to set up a new account but it would feel pretty redundant without an iPod.

I still use the Sony NWE394RCEW 8Gb on a daily basis. MP3 fo' lyfe.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Sony mp3 player crew rise up!! got one (can't remember the name of it) with an 128gb sd card attached. fuck Spotify

[jamiefairlie]

It's very good, innit.

I cut off Spotify a year or two ago and have been trying to rebuild my library from scratch. I lost a lot of my CD collection through various moves, and I don't have any way of ripping CDs (much less vinyl) anymore anyway. Soulseek's just been grand.

I don't really see the point in sharing the FLAC files I have, since they're largely sourced from other SS users in the first place, so I've been converting them all into less common formats like ALAC and AAC in case anyone should be looking for Apple compatibility. Getting properly obsessed with organizing and cataloguing too.

I'd like to get more into the "social" aspect of it. I see there are chatrooms, but they mostly seem to be full of racists and people threatening to kill themselves. I read on the old thread that CaB has its own chatroom on there, is that still around?

Soulseek.

" but they mostly seem to be full of racists and people threatening to kill themselves."

Ha ha, that's as concise a description of the web population I've come across, bravo!

I love SS, use it to grab anything that interests me from Uncut each month. Very rarely fails.

[The Mollusk]

Still a very frequent user here. I'll add people here and if you'd like to return the favour I am hankventure.

I remember being quite bereft when what.cd went down - what was that, like 10 years ago? - and then feeling such joy realising slsk was still going. Same interface that it's had for over 2 decades.

Any Android users should note it also has a similarly dependable phone app called Seeker. Very handy since I don't have an external MP3 player (if you're looking for a good local media player with customisability out the arse, Poweramp is excellent). I love the fact that I can be thinking about an album when I'm out and about and can download it just as easy as if I were at home (if signal strength is good enough).

I couldn't find the old chat room when I searched for it recently. @Uncle TechTip can you shed any light?

[BlodwynPig]

I have a couple of 100,000 files but not an audio nerd so largely MP3, which makes me a pariah.

[The Mollusk]

I have a couple of 100,000 files but not an audio nerd so largely MP3, which makes me a pariah.

I only grab something in FLAC if it's not available in another format. Typically my search filter is set to show only 320kbs MP3. I'm not enough of an audiophile to tell the difference of anything higher than that.

Been downloading a load of Ocrilim stuff recently and some of it I can only find in FLAC. Makes me laugh that someone would think that such purposefully lo-fi recorded music would sound any better above even 192.

[Uncle TechTip]

I couldn't find the old chat room when I searched for it recently. @Uncle TechTip can you shed any light?

I open a room if I'm logged in but always the only one there. I think anyone can start the room so everyone should just set the same one.

If you are tagging files there's a great program called Musicbrainz Picard which will scan your files, look them up in a db by fingerprint or by file names and do all the tagging/CD art real nice.

[SteveDave]

I enjoy the pissiness of people on there "Ummm...you're not sharing anything so I don't think I should let you download my stuff" It's an illegal file-sharing network. I am on the side of right. You are a criminal.

[studpuppet]

I download FLACs, convert them to ALACs for the iPod Classic in my car, and also use them in my Fiio DAP, and obviously share them - iTunes says 938 albums currently, which get shared whenever my laptop is open.

Before I upgraded my HD I had everything on an external drive, and also used to get the "Ummm...you're not sharing anything so I don't think I should let you download my stuff" message a lot, when the disk wasn't plugged in.

[The Mollusk]

It is a file sharing network lads. Don't think you can blame people for wanting to keep the place as active as possible. If it's a problem then just stick your upload speed limit to 0.0001kb/s and you won't even notice when people are downloading from you.

[El Unicornio, mang]

It's still a thing?

I might be tempted to set up a new account but it would feel pretty redundant without an iPod.

Aren't iPods redundant since smartphones have had the exact same functionality for about the past 15 years?

Soulseek is great, there's even a phone app version ("Seeker") in case I decide I desperately need some obscure song while I'm out traveling.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I enjoy the pissiness of people on there "Ummm...you're not sharing anything so I don't think I should let you download my stuff" It's an illegal file-sharing network. I am on the side of right. You are a criminal.

Yeah that's well annoying. Recently had the double whammy of new computer and dead ssd so I was a bit sort of... how can I share files if I cannot accumulate them in the first place lads?

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Okay I need to ask some questions please explain it to me like I'm five. I'm unfortunately locked in to using iPhones at this point but I haven't ever bothered used them as audio players because I kept hearing horror stories about iTunes replacing local files with whatever is on their store? I'm not imagining that am I? This Seeker thing sounds great but can I get a different app to play files? Also is Seeker android only in which case never mind

[Cleveland Steamer]

I love slsk and I can't believe it's still around. It almost feels like if you talk about it too much it might disappear. I e been on and off for over twenty years now and it's still unbelievably good for finding obscure stuff. Great for films too which I never considered until a couple of years ago. It's like a secret little clubhouse for old farts who still listen to mp3s and fucking hate streaming services.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I only grab something in FLAC if it's not available in another format. Typically my search filter is set to show only 320kbs MP3. I'm not enough of an audiophile to tell the difference of anything higher than that.

Been downloading a load of Ocrilim stuff recently and some of it I can only find in FLAC. Makes me laugh that someone would think that such purposefully lo-fi recorded music would sound any better above even 192.

I'm sure it's down largely to my aging + decaying hearing but I can rarely hear that much of a difference between 320 + FLAC anyway. I know this is largely an anti-Grateful Dead forum but it makes me laugh when I see people sharing ancient nth-generation fan-recorded live tapes in FLAC. What is point

[Cleveland Steamer]

The only thing bad about it, we'll two things actually, the above twatty behaviour of entitled dickheads who think they "own" the media they're illegally sharing and will ban you if you haven't sufficiently organised your library or have enough to share (although this type of thing is much much rarer than it was years ago), and the other thing is I keep getting g locked out and have to sign up agian with a different username and share my folders again (although that could be the fault of my shithouse knackered old laptop)

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I love slsk and I can't believe it's still around. It almost feels like if you talk about it too much it might disappear. I e been on and off for over twenty years now and it's still unbelievably good for finding obscure stuff. Great for films too which I never considered until a couple of years ago. It's like a secret little clubhouse for old farts who still listen to mp3s and fucking hate streaming services.

Exactly how I feel about it. It feels like a secret thing and almost the last thing standing from the old, good internet.

The worst thing about modern computers is that they have fuck all storage anymore because tech companies are pushing everyone into the cloud. I feel like whatever money I used to spend on records now goes on external storage. also: Fuck Spotify. I was actually an early adopter (2008, 2009 ish) but I haven't missed it since I sacked it off a couple of years ago. I just found myself skipping through songs instead of actually listening to anything.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Okay I need to ask some questions please explain it to me like I'm five. I'm unfortunately locked in to using iPhones at this point but I haven't ever bothered used them as audio players because I kept hearing horror stories about iTunes replacing local files with whatever is on their store? I'm not imagining that am I? This Seeker thing sounds great but can I get a different app to play files? Also is Seeker android only in which case never mind

Seeker is only on Android unfortunately. I don't use iPhone so not sure about the music player options on there, I assumed there'd be a bunch of options like Pi Music Player which is my favourite option for Android.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Seeker is only on Android unfortunately. I don't use iPhone so not sure about the music player options on there, I assumed there'd be a bunch of options like Pi Music Player which is my favourite option for Android.

Ah yeah never mind then

[The Mollusk]

The only thing bad about it, we'll two things actually, the above twatty behaviour of entitled dickheads who think they "own" the media they're illegally sharing and will ban you if you haven't sufficiently organised your library or have enough to share (although this type of thing is much much rarer than it was years ago)

As I said above it's almost entirely down to simply turning your sharing on, even if you set a mega low upload speed limit to preserve your bandwidth and even if you have fuck all files to share. Some users have the preference selected to automatically deny you downloading from them if you have sharing switched off. Way back in the day I think I had a couple of actual personal messages from people being snotty but I haven't encountered anything like that in recent years. Just turn sharing on! And if you're not keen on having your entire library available to the world set your shared folder to just one random album or whatever.

and the other thing is I keep getting g locked out and have to sign up agian with a different username and share my folders again (although that could be the fault of my shithouse knackered old laptop)

Seeker on my phone does this almost daily. You don't need to choose a new username, just use your old one. Soulseek doesn't create accounts as such, the name you enter is more just a placeholder so you can reuse the same name over and over if you want.

[Noodle Lizard]

Okay I need to ask some questions please explain it to me like I'm five. I'm unfortunately locked in to using iPhones at this point but I haven't ever bothered used them as audio players because I kept hearing horror stories about iTunes replacing local files with whatever is on their store? I'm not imagining that am I? This Seeker thing sounds great but can I get a different app to play files? Also is Seeker android only in which case never mind

I'm locked into iPhone too. Plexamp is great, it basically allows you to stream from your computer and - get this - download from your computer onto your phone in case your internet isn't all that. You can customize how it does all of this too - my library is almost entirely FLAC, but I can set it to transcode to Opus 128 on the fly to save bandwith or space on my phone if I'm downloading songs for offline use.

It's also got all the same sort of features Spotify has in terms of curating playlists and recommendations etc. if you're into that sort of thing. What I like about it is that it means no faffing around transferring files from my computer to my phone - I can get it on my phone as soon as it appears in my music folder.

If you just want to play files the simple way, Foobar has an app for iPhone which seems fine as a no-frills library which can handle any format.

[PaulTMA]

I don't share anything and it's been perfectly usable for me for decades. Occasional block but you just get it from someone else. It's also slightly fun upsetting hot-headed permanently online types

[Noodle Lizard]

If you are tagging files there's a great program called Musicbrainz Picard which will scan your files, look them up in a db by fingerprint or by file names and do all the tagging/CD art real nice.

Yes, I use this for everything. It's great, but you have to keep an eye on it sometimes - especially when dealing with big batches of stuff. It's irreversible and can really screw up your library if you're not careful.

My "workflow" usually goes like this:

1) download album in FLAC format
2) run through Spek to check the quality - you'll occasionally find low quality MP3s (16khz ceiling) that have been re-encoded to FLAC for stupid reasons
3) run through Picard for tagging
4) enter it into Foobar to make any additional fixes, then use the File Operation feature to batch move/rename/organize into my main music folder with my lovely perfect naming script
5) use MediaHuman to make an AAC 320 copy for my portable hard drive

Might seem a bit overkill, but the idea is to get this right once and for all. Something for my children to delete one day.