Why Audio Galaxy Sucks

[Marius]

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

[TankGirl]

Thanks for the detailed AG info, Marius & Malk!

- tg

[pnm]

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

[JackSpratts]

hi pnm, welcome to nu & peer-to-peer! 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.

[BuzzB2K]

Originally posted by pnm
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

That is always a fun place to find an answer. 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.
And yet at other times your in, get an answer, and your on your way.


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

[zombywoof]

Originally posted by pnm
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

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.

[Smoketoomuch]

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.

[TankGirl]

Hi Smoketoomuch,

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

- tg

[zombywoof]

Originally posted by Smoketoomuch
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.

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.

[Smoketoomuch]

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

SmoketoomucH