Why Audio Galaxy Sucks
 

I only use AG when I absolutely need to. (when I can't find a song anywhere else)
Now lets talk about those pop ups on Morpheus :MAD:

this is becoming all too common in all pgms, not just ag or even p2ps. ad-aware is valiantly trying but is falling behind i fear. the more one dives into the sewers of spywareworld the longer it takes to get clean.

i'm getting a secondary pc just to run internet apps and i'm registering as mother george mahatma ghandi-teresa bush. that'll fix 'em! not...

we need a universal reg cleaner that WORKS and anyone can use. better yet, we need an app that prevents 3rd party spyware installation to begin with. i've read some of these deinstall instructions and wow are they convoluted. 90% of the users won't bother and half of the ones that try wind up tanking their pc.:m:

- js.

While I use various p2p apps, Audiogalaxy is at the bottom of the pecking order for my choice of sharing music. Audiognome is still the top app for mp3 filesharing. Morpheus would be better if there were more higher bitrates to be found there.

tgs' pop-up killer that works, bronxie. post #12 i think, from peer-to-peer. if slightly modified, it may be usefull in other apps.

- js.

I still use AudioGnome. No pop-ups; no spyware. For the average 56k user it's the best choice. If I could get a broadband connection again I would switch to Morpeus but with only 4k of throughput their pop up ads take up too much bandwidth.

Audiognome also does well on broadband. I figure many aG users throttle down the the bandwidth to conserve it. I don't limit bandwidth off my pc and it's not unusual for downloads and uploads to average between 30-50k for broadband transfers.

I still use AudioGalaxy and it's still the best for me. I find tons of stuff there that I won't even try to get on Morpheus because you just can't find it. AudioGalaxy's selection is much bigger especially for the stuff I look for.

i don't use kazaa or audiogalaxy or any other p2p garbage that contains spyware. only winmx, IRC, newsgroups and the web

This program piggybacks off AG. No spyware.







http://www.ractive.ch/gpl/

Now I only d/l full albums or full live sets (all at least at 192)
so I need a good working p2p!

Morpheus = very few albums or live sets at high bitrate!
WinMx = being number 143 in queue or busy queueable!
Audiognome = allways (almost) remotely queued!
Audiogalaxy = works fine! No queue, allways find what I´m looking for!
No spyware in my machine.

BTW
Hotline = best right now for appz & full albums/sets!

theflaco

Morpheus and low bit rates?
 

Oscar posted...
Morpheus would be better if there were more higher bitrates to be found there.

You know I've seen this written so many times I am begining to believe its true?

But then how come I got two whole Ambrosia albums, track by track at 320kbits each, Some Steeley Dan (Two against Nature) at 224-256 VBR, maybe its just that the more serious folks use AG and the majority of MP3 micro player users use Morpheus?

Whatever, I have built up and contributed to many hundreds of good quality high bit rate files on Morpheus, so I cant agree totally with you Oscar...



:RE: Snark

Re: Morpheus and low bit rates?
 

Problem is, I don't think everyone realizes that a minor registry fix will free up those higher bitrates. As for finding higher bitrates, for as popular as morpheus is, I would think there would be a larger database of 192k or higher files. I know they are out there because I do see them on morpheus, its just that i would think it would be easier to find more based on the large selection morpheus users have to offer. Other than that, morpheus works fine.

Lose the pop-ups in Morpheus!
 

One trick I used to post in (pre-nuked forums) Morpheus to lose the pop-ups AND kill the annoying ad in the bottom left corner is to add ads.musiccity.com to the restricted sites list in your internet options. For those who have forgotten, in IE go to Tools=>internet options=>Security. Highlight the restricted sites icon and click the Sites button. Add the above address, close all your open dialog boxes and POOF! :CG: No more pop-ups OR left corner banner ads! Remember, this will only work in Morpheus. For all other sites, Pop-up Killer is needed. You can get it here: http://software.xfx.net/utilities/popupkiller/

Morpheus may be all very well for folk who want to download low bitrate Britney Spears songs, but nothing even comes close to Audiogalaxy for acquiring rare imports and the work of less well known artists.

Only newbies and idiots download Audiogalaxy from the company website - everyone else uses the spyware-free version that's readily available on the net.

Audiogalaxy automated music piracy. Unlike Napster, when you had to hover over every single download, with Audiogalaxy you can queue up 500 songs, go out to dinner, and when you return a good proportion of them will be waiting on your hard drive. That represents a quantum leap forward. Why people still use antiquated programs like Morpheus I'll never understand.

That's not to diss Napster - the program enabled me to get hundreds of songs that I never expected to hear again. But there were many, many artists whose work I could never find on Napster. On Audiogalaxy, I've been able to find every song I wanted, eventually.

I tried Morpheus once. Not one single song was available by any of the artists I searched for. There was nothing but low bitrate files of chart junk.

Audiogalaxy has an incredible selection of songs available and the program makes it possible to specify a bitrate for each file. It's downloading rare Anthony Phillip's songs even as I type.

Let the chart-victims who couldn't care less about quality use Morpheus - the rest of us will stick to Audiogalaxy, thank you very much.

Marius

Hi Marius,

thanks for your post and warmly welcome to the forum! :beer:

I also have some friends using AG and like you they are very happy with the selection. The spyware issue aside, can you as an experienced user enlighten me (and others who are not involved in the AG scene) about what is going on in there? Has RIAA managed to block or filter the shared material in any way? Is there any social life on AG - can you chat with people you are downloading from etc.? Is leeching a problem? I would also like to ask about these 'groups' that a friend of mine mentioned - they sounded like some sort of self-organized user groups to me... if you can tell anything about them I would be grateful. Thanks again for your post, I'm looking forward to your further input! :tu:

- tg ;)

hi Marius & welcome to NU:tu::beer: i'd like to hear more too!

- js.

yes, many songs are blocked on AG - but you can use other programs to get most of them.

In theory you can send a message to a user - I've had mine turned off so long I haven't a clue if anyone ever answers.

Sometimes - but it's pretty easy to see if anyone is sharing.
The best part of AG is exactly what Marius said - finding the rares and uniques that you can't find elsewhere - and being able to select what bitrate you what it at. It might take a day or two to find someone online with it, but AG does that part for you.

Here's a new piece of information to throwing into this whole issue about mp3 bit rates. I've posted this before on the Morpheus forums but no one else confirmed that it also worked for them.

Anyhow, it seems that for me Morpheus is able to find higher bit rates without changing the registry. Buzz might remember me mentioning this, but all I do is click on audio-> "search more options"-> quality-> and then choose 320 for the bit rate. I've downloaded several songs without a problem. Is anyone else able to or is it still only me??

*stunned*

I can honestly say I never even noticed that before.....

Going to try it now.

Thanks for the welcome, TankGirl and JackSpratts. You're very generous - I was half expecting to be flamed mercilessly for daring to criticise Morpheus. :)

In answer to your questions, TankGirl, the RIAA entered into litigation with Audiogalaxy several months ago. Before that very few songs were blocked and there was a simple website hack (now fixed) that enabled them to be downloaded in any case.

Fortunately, I'd grabbed all the more obvious stuff by then and only wanted to download the work of more obscure artists. I say "fortunately", because the rule on AG is that the more obscure an artist is, the less likely he is to be "filtered" (to use AG's euphemism for "blocked").

On the other hand, *none* of Pat Metheny's songs are blocked, and he must be about the most famous jazz guitarist in the world. I've downloaded hundreds of high bitrate files of his songs I think that jazz in largely off the map for the filterers.

In practice, blocked songs can often be downloaded because their titles are misspelled, either by accident or design, thus bypassing the AG filters. Creative searching will still find almost anything.

AG has no inbuilt chat client but I think it's possible to send messages to other users. Certainly, at the foot of every artist's index on the AG website, there's a small text message program where comments and requests concerning the artist can be exchanged. There are also message boards, but the less said about them, the better. :)

Leeching's certainly no problem if, like me, you have fairly obscure taste in music. In any event, you can decide exactly what files you want to share, and how many. You can also throttle the bandwidth that AG uses. I'm not generally aware of who's downloading what from me, and vice versa. You have to go to some lengths to discover such information as AG's a very non-invasive program. It just runs quietly in the background (using almost no CPU juice) while the computer's free to get on with other things.

The groups exist mainly to facilitate the sharing of copyright files. Apparently, they're able to do this with impunity. I've never joined any of the groups because I've never had any problem getting the files I wanted.

Generally, AGs attitude seems to be: "If we don't see it, we don't care what you get up to". It would be very easy to block every song by a particular artist if they really wanted to. I think they've even accepted the fact that thousands of people use the spyware-free Audiogalaxy, available here:

http://home.flash.net/~critter/Audio....08WUpdate.zip

and here:

http://koxx.da.ru

Or it may just be that to make a fuss about it would only draw attention to the junk that comes with the official .exe. I notice they lost no time in removing the particularly noxious form of "scumware" that occasioned this thread, as soon as it began to attract negative publicity. It's no longer part of the download.

Few AG "updates" (spyware updates, in effect) are compulsory nowadays, and as soon as one appears that is, it's immediately reverse-engineered and posted in a spyware-free version on the MP3 newsgroups.

Check out the AG website if you're interested. You can use the search engine to get an idea of what's available without actually downloading the client.

Just make sure you're actually *inside* your tank if you go anywhere near the message boards. :)

Marius

Thanks for the detailed AG info, Marius & Malk! :tu:

- tg ;)

you can edit your registry to remove the bitrate limit. I forget exactly how, but I'm sure you could find out with a quick websearch or on #help at chat.musiccity.com

hi pnm, welcome to nu & peer-to-peer!:beer: here's your reg entry - be careful:

Registry settings for Morpheus can be found at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Morpheus and the keys below that.

In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Morpheus there is only one option you can change ... LimitBitrate. Setting this to 1 will limit the bitrate to 128 kbps, like Kazaa. Setting to 0 will set the bitrate back to normal. (320 kbps limit).

- js.

#help at chat.musiccity.com
 

That is always a fun place to find an answer. :PO: Some days the Mods are too busy arguing with each other or with others just in there to chat. Sometimes you see people get so frustrated asking for help they end up getting booted for excesive repetition.
:help: :help: :help: And yet at other times your in, get an answer, and your on your way.:tu:


Oh, by the way, welcome to our happy little home pnm :GU: :WW:

Here's How:
Start>Run>Regedit>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Morpheus\


There is a key that says LimitBitrate on the right of your screen. Double click on it, and where it says "Value data:" there is a space below it. Change that value to 0 if it is a 1, and then 128 kbps limit is gone, Then you can then search and find mp3's with the higher bitrates.

You know about the hacked version of Morph, refosearch. I found a file in the install directory - morphfix.reg
here is the content:


REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Morpheus]
"LimitBitrate"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Morpheus\Advanced]
"MaxSearchResult"=dword:000001f4


I think if you create a new text document and copy the above lines in it and save it as whatever.reg - then click on it, should do the trick. Btw, I'm not very computer literate - before the hacked version I followed instructions (like that of Jack's) - so it is only my guess that it does the same (+ removes the search results cap?)

Best wishes.

Hi Smoketoomuch,

computer literate or not - warmly welcome to the board! Enjoy your stay at Napsterites Underground! :beer:

- tg ;)

Have you ever got the Max Search Result to ever Max out? I don't think it really works. I have tried this countless times and never get more than 111 searches for what I believe are common files. Even with a value of 1F4(base 16) which is 500 (decimal), I never get more than 111 finds on any search. I just leave that value at 64(b16) or 100(b10).

Besides, in the max search in options/advanced, it does not like the value over 100 anyway and if you click on that box for any reason, it will force you to put a value 100 or less so that you can close that option.

As a matter of fact, when i leave the value at 100, I still can get 111 searches on a common file. Strange, but true.

notmuch search results
 

Thanks for the warm welcome TankGirl. Unfortunately I haven't much time these days to check in regurarly, but I read trough the threads, and well, what can I say, I would give you Nobel prize for being good people if I could. All of you a SHARED one.
Oscar, you were right. It must be coincidence, but now I'm getting fewer results.;(

Best wishes

:shk:SmoketoomucH:shk: