ZeroPaid.com » Music

American Prosecutors Censor ZeroPaid Reporter!

Drew Wilson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:03:59 +0000

While over one hundred thousand websites and millions of people were taking a stand against a potential American censorship by copyright regime thanks to SOPA and PIPA, ZeroPaid's very own Drew Wilson, for the first time, has officially become a victim of censorship by copyright.

The BBC is reporting that one-click hoster MegaUpload was shut down over piracy accusations. From the report:

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material. Investigators denied a link to recent protests against proposed piracy laws, according to the Wall Street Journal. The US Justice Department said that Megaupload's two co-founders Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and Mathias Ortmann were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand along with two other employees of the business at the request of US officials. It added that three other defendants were still at large. "This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime," said a statement posted on its website.

Back in 2010, when authorities and the content industries were trying to cut off payment processes to MegaUpload, MegaUpload spoke to ZeroPaid, saying in response to being called a rogue website, “Megaupload is a legitimate business operating within the boundaries of the law. In five years of operation we have not been sued by a single content owner. If the RIAA or MPAA would have legal grounds they would have taken us to court by now. We suggest that they attack us within the legal system and stop labeling us until they have something to show.” That apparently doesn't seem to matter much at this point with the owners of the site being arrested and the website forced offline. The question is, where does that leave MegaUpload's users? I, for one, have used MegaUpload to spread my music around. Under my DJ name, DJ Frozen IceCube, I've used the site on numerous occasions to allow access to my own personal music I've made. Examples of this include my tracks Kinda Distracted, Phantoms of London and Constructing Light. All of these tracks and more were posted to MegaUpload - a site now shut down by American prosecutors. For years, I have been following cases of censorship by copyright. I've advocated that copyright abuses are a major problem that shouldn't be ignored. Now, as of today, I am officially a victim of censorship by copyright. While I can easily find other one-click hosters to host my music, that does not fix the underlying issue I now have with American authorities. American authorities, plain and simple, are censoring artists who have legally produced and uploaded their music for free for others to listen to. This action is blatantly anti-competitive in that if I independently upload my music, I am under the threat of having my music censored under the guise of copyright infringement. Make no mistake, I am far from the first victim and I certainly will not be the last. The content industry will not stop censoring legitimate free speech until the competition is strangled and destroyed and only they have the exclusive power to decide who can reach an audience and who can not. To add insult to injury, they will use government resources, and therefore, taxpayers money, to push their anti-competitive agenda. I am Drew Wilson, I am a reporter and music producer, and I am now officially a victim of America's censorship by copyright tactics. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Turntable Plus: Chrome Extension Makes Turntable.fm More Social

Jared Moya — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:17:54 +0000

Google Chrome browser extension adds features to Turntable.fm like expanded chat, and notifications for song or artist keywords, open DJ spots, new songs, and room votes.

Turntable.fm has been all the rage these days, giving music fans a chance to get in touch with their inner DJ. The revolutionary social music platform has turned living rooms and office spaces into some of the hottest clubs in town. “Each DJ takes a turn playing a song and the entire virtual room hears the song,” points out Turntable.fm. “You can vote on whether the song is awesome or lame and if it receives too many lame votes, it gets skipped.” There are tons of genre-based rooms to choose from, and no shortage of users just waiting to share and spin their favorite tracks with others. I've already mentioned how Turntable.fm launched a free app that brought the site to the iPad and iPod, but for PC users already on the site there's an unofficial Chrome extension out called Turntable Plus that adds a number of excellent features that makes the site even more social and addictive. First off is the expanded chat feature.

A sidebar lists all the members of a given room and gives the options to become a Fan, View Profile, Ignore, or best of all, view the Turntable Dashboard Profile that lists every song the person has tagged as "lame" or "awesome" on Turntable.fm. This feature is what makes Turntable.fm even more social than it already is.

Second are the notifications available. A screen popup and sound will tell you when and how each person in the room votes on a song . Their names will also be highlighted red (lame) or green (awesome) depending on how they voted. The same popup allows you to vote on a song without having to return to the site. There's also notifications available to let you know when there's an open DJ spot, a new song being played, or when a particular keyword of your choosing is mentioned (think name of artist or song). So if you're looking to supercharge your Turntable.fm experience I recommend checking out Turntable Plus. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Band of the Day: iPhone App for Discovering New Music

Jared Moya — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:46:13 +0000

iPhone app highlights a different band each day, providing a bio, news, interviews, images, video, and free streaming music.

These days finding exiciting new music has never been easier. From sites like We Are Hunted to Hypem, Audioporncentral to Gorilla vs Bear, the choices are plenty. But, what about finding new music on the go? What if you want to learn about news bands in-depth? There's a new iPhone called Band of the Day that allows you to do both. "Band Of The Day is a revolutionary new way to discover great music directly on your iPhone," writes the developer. "Built from the ground up for the iPhone it is an exciting and simple way to find great bands from all over the world." Now the only downside is that there's a 99c per month, or 9.99USD per year, subscription fee for the service, but it seems like a small price to pay for what you get in return. So what do you get?

365 Bands a year, 1 Band a Day on your phone
in-depth and exclusive reviews, interviews, bios, and social media buzz about each artist and their music
images, text, videos and streaming music
listen to full-length featured songs by each Band Of The Day artist
curated mix-tape of songs featuring Band Of The Day artists
share songs, videos, bios and reviews with your friends through facebook, twitter or email
share links to each artist with your friends (they can stream some of the music too for free)
participate in choosing the future band of the day by tweeting the band you like with the hashtag: #bod_pc (people's choice)
see what your friends are listening to within the app and connect around fantastic music

"We started with a blank page and asked ourselves what we would want in a daily music magazine, rather than repurposing an existing format. We brought together musicians, writers, designers and the finest developers to build a next generation experience," says 955 co-founder and Chief Design Officer, T.J. Zark. "Meaningful social features allow users to begin to connect and converse about bands, songs, and videos." If you're looking for a new outlet to discover and listen to new artists on the go Band of the Day could be just the right iPhone app for you. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

French Report – Legal Punishment for Filesharing as Severe as Manslaughter

Drew Wilson — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:14:08 +0000

One of the criticisms of copyright laws has, for some time, been that the punishment is far too severe for the crime being committed. This debate is nothing new and it seems to be heating up in Europe right now. One French news site decided to compare the penalties of file-sharing to the penalties of other offenses. The results? They are a little scary.

The report comes from Numerama which was inspired by a recent conviction in Sweden. They asked, if someone could be put in jail for 3 years for file-sharing, what other crimes could someone commit and get either an equal sentence or less? They said (Google translated, original) said that the answers pretty much speak for themselves and I, for one, completely agree. Two things to keep in mind: this is all about French law and the laws are sourced nicely (job well done to Numerama in that department for sure). Here are some of the offenses that could earn you a jail sentence similar to that if you were convicted of copyright infringement on a file-sharing network:

Manslaughter
Repeatedly sending death threats on a transfixed medium
Conducting biomedical procedures on someone without the consent of the patient
Theft
Breach of trust
Some forms of obstruction of justice

Here are some of the offenses that could land you in jail for less time:

Sexual exhibition in a public place
Harassment in order to obtain sexual favors
The desecration of a corpse in a cemetery/attacking a corpse
Third party identity theft (note: this wasn't entirely clear in the translation, but we are presuming that the translation meant "third party" since it simply says "by a third")
The abandonment of a child/infant
Making sexual advances to a minor whether electronically or otherwise (if the minor is 15 years old or younger)
Destruction of other people's property
Serious offenses related to animal abuse

I'm looking through this and I really wonder what is wrong with a legal system that says that if you are caught sharing copyrighted works, you could get a sentence as long as someone who killed someone. I personally can't see how it should be possible in the first place. Still, this has always been an extremely effective way of showing just how extreme the penalties have become for something so trivial as someone having a copyrighted work in their shared directory. I'm a music producer myself and I have always been all for the sharing of my works online for free. I think that even if I were hardcore all for copyright, I would have a hard time, at the very least, trying to explain to the public why someone who made sexual advances to a minor should serve less time than someone who is uploading an album on the Gnutella network. The thing is that with a lot of these offenses in the list are offenses where people are being directly harmed. For me, I don't think anyone could make a convincing case that file-sharing is a crime that is as bad as killing someone. Such comparisons have been made before. One great example in the US was looking at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill - the largest oil spill in US history. According to one report, BP was facing a $21 Billion fine. Looking at the damages for infringement one can find out that the BP fine presented in that particular report can be the equivalent to downloading 140,000 songs or 70,000 songs in the case of willful infringement. In any event, I think for French people, this really does put into perspective how high the penalties are for infringement. The day we start placing intellectual property on a higher level of value than life itself is the day I think society needs to seriously re-look at our values. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Judge Slashes Jammie Thomas Fine to $54,000

Drew Wilson — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:57:25 +0000

The case is at least 4 years old now, but that doesn't mean it's over. Jammie Thomas trial was described as a "first of its kind" trials where a file-sharer was sued for sharing music in the US. Now, a new development has unfolded in this long-running trial which may very likely be seen as a major blow to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

If you are caught sharing music on a P2P file-sharing network, and you go to court and lose, what exactly should the fine be? Citing the minimum and maximum statutory damages doesn't count, the court needs a specific amount. That's become the real hitch for the court system for a very long time now. How does one prove an exact dollar amount that fits the crime of non-commercial infringement? The reality is, and that's been abundantly clear in this case, there is no solid argument to prove that the non-commercial file-sharing causes "x" amount of dollars in damage. In 2009, Jammie Thomas was fined $1.92 million for sharing 24 songs. The fine was not satisfactory for all parties in the case and Thomas appealed. The question of how much the fine should be has haunted the courts ever since. Recently, the EFF pointed to the latest ruling in the landmark trial, citing the following in the judge's ruling:

[A]n award of $1.5 million for stealing and distributing 24 songs for personal use is appalling. Such an award is so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense and obviously unreasonable. In this particular case, involving a first‑time willful, consumer infringer of limited means who committed illegal song file‑sharing for her own personal use, an award of $2,250 per song, for a total award of $54,000, is the maximum award consistent with due process.

It is unclear if the RIAA will appeal this decision and further drag out this case. Major rights holders are pushing to censor the internet to the detriment of internet and national security instead among other things, so the file-sharing lawsuits have really become an outdated practice - even to the record labels by now given their different (flawed) approach to the internet these days. So, whether or not the RIAA will cut their losses at this point or vow to fight on remains to be seen. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Guide: How to Play or Rip Super Nintendo Video Game Music Losslessly

Drew Wilson — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:14:51 +0000

Super Nintendo (SNES) is probably one of the more memorable consoles oldschool gamers might remember. Some games even have some very memorable soundtracks. With this guide, you can get a great nostalgia fix again using WinAmp!

Thankfully, listening to Super Nintendo music is a lot easier than listening to N64 music. SNES differs from the N64 in that N64 music is more sample based. SNES music, on the other hand, is more based on the capabilities of an actual audio chip. The music, therefor, is a bit like MIDI music. It's merely a set of instructions on how the music is to be played. A good way to listen to SNES music is to simply use the SPC file format. This is basically data dumped from the games themselves in to a more convenient format that allows playback. Unlike N64 MiniUSF sets, a vast majority of all the games have an SPC set ready for listening. Great news since that very likely eliminates the need to manually rip each and every individual song because there is a very good chance you can simply find the SPC file for the game instead.

Playing SPC Songs

Step 1 - Get WinAmp When testing several methods of trying to get the music to play, the WinAmp plug-in was the first method that we've tested with success in Windows 7. So, you can download and install WinAmp from the WinAmp homepage. Step 2 - Install the SPC plugin The SPC plugin can be found via the this SPC website. It's the first bullet under Windows (we have not attempted the Mac and Linux versions, so this will have to be something you try out outside of this guide sadly. However, these options are available. The plugin is called SNESAmp. Click on that link, then click on "SNESAmp" on the next page. The page will scroll down to the SNESAmp plugin portion where it can be downloaded. Just click on SNESAmp to download the EXE installer. When you've downloaded the EXE file, double click on the file and allow it to run. The EXE file simply installs the necessary plug-in in your WinAmp directory. Just make sure it's pointed to the WinAmp directory. If you've installed WinAmp in the default directory, then by default, the EXE file should already be pointing to the directory. When you are ready, hit "Install" After you are done installing, the next step is to find the SPC sets. Step 3 - Obtaining the SPC Sets Via RSN Files There's two ways to obtain the SPC sets. The long and drawn out way is individually by browsing through the SPC sets, trying to find and download the music individually. Alternatively, and my preferred method, is to download all nearly 2,500 games in one large package. It sounds like a lot, but the package, since this is like listening to MIDI files, is a mere 147MB big. Not bad for thousands of hours of music in lossless format! Since I'm lazy, I'll just assume you've decided to simply download the .torrent. Step 4 - Renaming the RSN files You'll no doubt notice that all you got is a large list of RSN files. In reality, these are really RAR files. You can rename the extension to RAR if you have WinRAR installed and open the files to see the SPC files inside if you like, but just for general listening, this won't be necessary per-se. The other problem you'll no doubt notice is the fact that all of the files are extremely truncated. For example, BoF is actually Breath of Fire. Luckily, there is a utility that actually renames all of the RSN files to something that is way more readable. For this, you need two files which are available on the SNES Music Players website. Scroll to the bottom of the page and under the "Converting SPC files", there's some bullet points with links. we are after the third bullet point. The link contains "Renset v.0.6" and the "latest rsnsets dat file". Download both .zip files. Once you've downloaded both, you need to locate where you downloaded the .torrent to. Open that directory up manually. Now, you need to click and drag the "renset.exe" file to the directory with all of the RSN files from the "renset06.zip" file you downloaded. Now, in the "rsnsets.zip" file, you need to click and drag the "rsnsets.dat" into the same directory you placed the "renset.exe" file. In short, you need "renset.exe" and "rsnsets.dat" in the same directory as all of the RSN files you downloaded. Doubleclick on the "renset.exe" that you've extracted into the directory with all of the RSN files. You'll have a DOS prompt window open up. It may take a moment to read all of the RSN files since it is well over 1,000 files it's trying to read. If it hangs, close the DOS prompt window and stop seeding the files in your .torrent client and try again. Follow the prompts and it'll rename all of the RSN files for you into comprehensible file names. It'll tell you when it's done and you'll be able to exit DOS prompt window. If you are successful, you'll have a file directory that looks like this (paying attention to the file-names more than anything else): Step 5 - Associating RSN Files With WinAmp Easy step, especially if you've had WinAmp for a while. while easy, it's also an important step for easy playback in the future. Right click on any RSN file you have. Now, click on "Open" (should be bold and the first option if it's not already associated with another file type. If it is associated with another file type, then "Open With..." will work instead) Either way, you'll see a window similar to this: Click on the little arrow that my big red arrow is pointing at. You should see a list of programs. All the programs should be in alphabetical order, so you'll probably find WinAmp towards the bottom. If you don't find WinAmp, then click on the "Browse" button. In a default WinAmp install on Windows 7, you'll find it in "C:" > "Program Files (x86)" > "WinAmp". Doubleclick on "WinAmp.exe". This should make WinAmp pop up in the list of "Other Programs" list. In that list, click on WinAmp and click on "OK" The little WinAmp logo will appear within the files logo of all of the RSN files. Double click on any game to test to see if you are successful all the way up to now. If you successfully followed all of these steps, a list of songs will appear in WinAmp and being playing the first song of the game. All of the games in the game you chose to try will appear as a playlist. It'll look something like this (We're testing the game "Battle Cars" in this case): Now we're talking! A quick trick if you want to listen to a specific song only. Click on the song in the list, click on the "REM" button on the bottom of the list, then click on "Crop". You'll only have that song left in the playlist alone.

Ripping SPC Songs

Step 1 - Locating the Ripping Option in the Preferences This part of the guide presumes you've followed the first part of the guide successfully. Doubleclick the song you want to rip in the playlist. When you hear it play, hit the stop button so you know you've got the right song. To make sure you only rip one particular song, click on the "REM" and "Crop" on the bottom of the playlist. Click on the little symbol on the top left hand side of WinAmp. Then click "Options", then "Preferences" I've highlighted this below: In the new window, there's a list of options on the left hand side of the window. Scroll down to the bottom until you find "Plug-ins". Under that, select "Output". In the list on the right hand side, click on "Nullsoft Disk Writer" Now, click on "Configure" I've highlighted this below: In the new window, the only thing you should be concerned about is where you want to save the WAV files to. Click on the file directory button if you want to change this as I've highlighted below: Browse to the directory you want to save the files to if you have chosen to change this directory. Now, just click on "OK". Close the "WinAmp" preferences. You are now ready for ripping. Step 2 - Ripping Simply press the play button. You won't hear anything, but you'll be able to see the scrubber go across at a fast speed as if a song is playing. When it's done, you should have a nicely rendered out WAV file in whatever directory you have chosen. Now, remember, if you want to go back to just listening to these files, you have to change one option back. Go back to the preferences by clicking on the symbol on the top of WinAmp, click on "Options", then "Preferences". Then, in the new window, click on the OutPut option again if you are not already on that. Now, simply click on "Nullsoft WavOut Output". Close the window and you should be able to listen to the music again just like before. If you don't complete this part, you'll just keep ripping whatever is dropped in the playlist instead of just listening to it normally. Now that you have the WAV file, you can do whatever you'd like with it. As an added bonus, there's no loss of quality that one would otherwise get if they were to get the same song in MP3 format or ripped off of YouTube videos. That's always a bonus. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Guide: How to Rip N64 Video Game Music Via Audio Logging

Drew Wilson — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:29:04 +0000

We've already discussed how to get N64 game music with the MiniUSF format (and included an FAQ as a bonus. However, not all music on the N64 can be obtained this way. Today, we'll introduce a second line of attack at getting N64 music - audio logging.

MiniUSF sets are an excellent way of getting music losslessly from N64 games. However, there is no complete archive of every N64 game soundtrack available in this format. In fact, some sets aren't even properly named or timed in some cases even if a set for a particular game exists. There is an alternative option for getting the audio, but it involves a little more work. Audio Logging Audio logging is different from doing a sound chip rip. A sound chip rip records sounds produced by your computer. While there are many instances in which a sound chip rip is one recommended way of obtaining music, ripping music from an N64 emulator in this fashion is not. The simple reason is that emulated N64 games tend to introduce a large amount of skipping. Whether this is because the video is slow in the emulation process or your computer is simply not fast enough, a sound chip rip will most likely result in a very poor quality version of the track you are after. So what is audio logging? Audio logging is a feature in the N64 emulator known as Project 64. What it does is take all audio from the emulator and logs it. If the video is slow, or emulation otherwise introduces numerous skips, audio logging will actually remove those skips as it's going, thus, increasing the quality of the music in the final file. In short, it obtains the audio within the emulator, practically skipping the process of the audio reaching the sound chip on your computer. The only downside to this is the fact that audio needs to play at least somewhat correctly in the game in question before you can log the audio. If the game in question doesn't have a supported plug-in for the audio, then this process won't work. Fortunately, there is a very select few games that still have this problem. Step 1 - Getting the Emulator You need the Project 64 emulator to accomplish this task. For that, you need to download and install the emulator. This can be found on official Project 64 download page. Step 2 - Obtaining a ROM Emulators do not come with the games usually. So if you have a particular game you want to rip the audio from, you need to track down the ROM in question. We'll let you figure out how to get it. Step 3 - Open the Rom and Getting Ready for Audio Capture Once you get a ROM, create a directory and place the ROM inside somewhere on your hard drive. As long as there's a fixed folder on your hard drive that the emulator can read, you should be fine. Just know how to browse to it in your emulator settings. Double click on that ROM. Once the game is running, click on "Options" in the emulator menu and select "Configure Controller Plugin": You should see a new window with a list of controls. These are the controls that correspond with N64 input controls. Some of the controls on the left of each box is short form, so just remember: L is Left, U is up, D is down and R is Right in all but the cases in the bottom left quadrant of the window. Each box shows you what key on the keyboard corresponds to that standard N64 controller input. If you'd like to change any of these values, click on the small box on the right of the value you want to change and press that key on your keyboard. You should see the value change in the larger box between the N64 button and the clickable box. As an example, the following is the relevant portion of the screen for the "B" button typically found on an N64 controller: Once you are happy with the controls, you can hit the "Save Profile" button. You'll be saving this in a file so the emulator will remember the control functions next time you want to open the emulator. Now, the next thing you want to do is locate the song in question in the game. Fortunately, many games have an audio options menu which allows you to play the song in question. If the game you want to rip the music from has this option, go to the audio options. In our example, we'll use a game I personally spent way too much time playing years ago - Destruction Derby 64. In this example, the first thing we did was turn to turn down all the sound effects to nothing so that there are no extra sounds heard - remember, audio logging records all sounds, not just the music. The next thing we did was select the first track as the track we want to log. Since we want to log the first track, we've selected track number two so that track 1 doesn't play right away as we can see here: Now, we are set to log the audio! Step 4 - Logging the Audio The next step is to simply go back in to "Options" This time, we want to select "Configure Audio Plugin": This will open up a new window which is really mostly just about the audio logging feature: The "Sync Game to Audio" is about one of the few options you have for experimentation purposes. Sometimes, the audio isn't quite right, you might get better logging results if you tick this option. By default, this is unticked and it's probably fine unticked. For experimentation purposes, I've ticked this option. Volume really is just how loud the audio will record at. Most of the time, it's fine the way it is, but if you experience any distortion from the audio being too loud in the logging, you can turn this down in a later attempt. If you are ready, then click "Start" This will bring up another dialogue box asking you where it wants to save the WAV file. Just name the file and save it somewhere on your hard drive where you can find it later. Hit save when you are done naming and finding a place for that file. Now, in the remaining dialogue box, hit "Close" When the emulation is resumed, this will start the logging. I quickly selected "Playsong 1" in the game to start the song I wanted. This is the tedious part of the process. Since it is logging the audio, you are only going at a 1x speed - meaning you are recording as fast as you are listening to the song. For most video games, most songs have an intro part, then it starts looping through the rest of the song. Wait for the song to fully loop once and wait a few seconds after it loops again. When you do this, you'll have a fully captured song! Go back in to options and "Configure Audio Plugin" In the new window, click on the "Stop". This will terminate the audio logging. Click on "Close" to get out of the dialogue box. Minimize the emulator so that it pauses emulation (and you year nothing). Step 5 - Testing and Editing the Logged File It is highly unlikely you'll be able to get a perfect logging of the song right off the bat, so we'll need to do some quick editing of the song. First, of course, open the WAV file in any music player you use to listen to music normally and give it a listen to see if it sounds OK. Don't worry if there's a little bit of extra sound at the beginning, this can be edited out. If it sounds good to you quality-wise, you can go on to the next part of this step, otherwise, you can go back and re-log the song using different settings we mentioned earlier. In our case, it sounded good. Editing out the beginning of the file is very easy. You can download a free application called Audacity. If you don't have Audacity, this can be downloaded and installed from the official home page for free. Once you have Audacity installed, have it open. Click on "file" and "open": Browse to the WAV file you created when you logged the song of your choice and open it up. In our case, our logged file will look like this after it is opened: Use the zoom tools I've highlighted in the screen shot and zoom in a little and scroll to the left side of the file. We're going to take care of that legacy sound. After you zoom in, hit the play button and listen to when the song you want starts playing. Pay particular attention to the little line as it moves across as this will help you determine where to edit. When your song starts playing, hit the stop button, noting where the song you want starts. Use the tool that looks like an insertion point (highlighted in picture) and highlight the area that is not the song you want like so: Since this is a bit of a picky process, you can simply move your cursor to the edge of the highlighted area (where the blue stuff is, not where the numbers are) and click and drag to expand or contract the highlighted area to make finer adjustments. Click play. It should only play the highlighted area. I like to go a little bit after the beginning of the song I want to check and make sure I'm editing all of the legacy sound out and stretching it back to the point where the song begins. Once I have it down to the very moment that the legacy sound ends, I click on the cut button (the button with the scissors right next to the master button) This will delete the highlighted area. Play it back and see if it sounds right. If it doesn't sound right, you can always hold down "Ctrl" and hit "Z" on your keyboard to bring back the deleted area for any additional attempts you need to make. If it sounds good, you should only hear the song you want beginning. We are almost there! Next part is determining where the song begins to loop. For that, you need to listen to the first little bit of the beginning of the song. Then, go to the end of your file and listen to the last minute or so. When does the song sound exactly like the beginning? In my case, there was an affect added at the end of the song, so it actually loops right at the symbol crash after the highlight point I've inserted in the picture (the line in the blue stuff): The next part is a lot like editing out the beginning, only now, we are inserting a fadeout (why we wanted to wait a little while after the sound looped when we initially logged the file). A fadeout is simply making the music seem like it's fading out in to the distance and going quiet. This makes the song not seem like it's just cutting out and makes it sound like a professional recording. To accomplish this, we want to highlight the area that is merely looped portions of the song (again, using that insertion point looking tool like we did before). Lucky for us, it doesn't matter as much if it's exact. Chances are, you won't notice it fading out too early if you are using the zoom tools to be reasonably accurate. You'll probably have something like this: Now comes the easy part. Click on "Effect" in the toolbar and click on "Fade Out" This will create a fade out effect within the highlighted area. The result should look like this: Now, deselect the area by clicking anywhere in the blue stuff and we're done editing! Step 6 - Saving the File Audacity likes saving it in its own file format, but chances are, we need to save it to a format that is compatible with other programs. You can save the file in the Audacity project file format, but that also takes up disc space. Besides, you can always open up the WAV file in Audacity at a later time anyway if you want to do some more things to the file. So to save it in WAV format, just click on "File" and "Export": Save the file wherever you like on the hard drive. In fact, I highly recommend saving over top of the old WAV file you used to log the original audio. This will also save on disc space. If you choose to do so, you'll be asked if you want to replace the file. Select "Yes". Another dialogue box will appear. You can insert metadata here like artist and track name, but I just hit "OK". If you close Audacity, you'll be asked if you want to save the file. This will create some project files on the hard drive if you choose yes, but since I won't be using this anymore in Audacity, I just click on "No" to save on disc space. Now, you'll have two WAV files. The new file you created and a legacy file. The file that ends in "-old" (or "-old.wav") is actually the original WAV file when you first started. I personally choose to delete the file - again, to save on disc space. Some Final Thoughts This is a time consuming way of obtaining music from the game. Not all games have the option to go in to a menu and select the song you want. Sometimes, you might have to simply go to the level in question and log the file that way. You might be forced to have some beginning sound effects and you might even have some other sound effects polluting your logging. This is why it's best to just stick to MiniUSF files if they are available as this is just direct data from the game instead of an audio log. Still, with a combination of this guide and the MiniUSF guide, you should have access to just about every song ever made for the N64 with only a very rare exception. Happy listening! Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Spotify Launches in the US

Drew Wilson — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:18:05 +0000

Reports are surfacing that Spotify, a popular legal streaming service offered in Europe, has traveled across the pond to set up shop in the United States.

There's an interesting report on CNet that says that Spotify is now being offered in the US. Apparently, there is three different ways to use Spotify. The first is that one can use the ad supported streaming side which is free. For $4.99 a month, users can stream with no limits and no ads. For the premium package, it's $9.99 and, for that, you don't need an internet connection to listen to the music and the music is at a higher quality. One can say that this is a positive development in that consumers in more countries are being offered more choices beyond BitTorrent and that there is some incentive to use legal services. On the other hand, it's not as though this service is entering an empty market. It will have to find a way to carve out an audience against services such as Pandora and Last.FM - both services being offered in the US already to name just two. So, it will no doubt be interesting to see how well it can integrate itself in to the market. One advantage that Spotify might have working for it is that some people in the US actually used Spotify by bipassing the geo-restrictions via proxy servers. So some people in the US might already have used it for some time now before they could officially use it. So it's developed a following even before it has had a chance to officially be in the market - something that could help it expand it's audience in its early days. No doubt, this will be an interesting player for some to follow. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Report – CRIA Goes Through Name Change

Drew Wilson — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:42:06 +0000

It may have been the most controversial name in the entire copyright debate, but a report is saying that you won't be able to call it by its standard name anymore. The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) has reportedly changed it's name to Music Canada.

Back room deals, hundred dollar a plate dinners, attempting to sue customers, threatening websites on questionable legal grounds, trying to import the DMCA to Canada, sued for billions for commercial scale piracy of music, tried to import a three strikes law in Canada, threatening politicians with deadlines to implement laws it wants, holding companies at ransom as a pressure tactic to implement a Canadian DMCA (i.e. Pandora), and having Canadian record labels abandon it for strategic differences. Indeed, the CRIA has made numerous headlines - many for all of the wrong reasons. For many, in Canada, CRIA was little more than the Canadian arm of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) whose influence comes from primarily and, almost exclusively, the big four multinational record companies. Salvaging the public relations reputation of such an organization might seem to be a lost cause by now since their record sometimes sounds more like a rap sheet than a list of accomplishments. For some, this latest move pretty much was an admission of that. According to BillBoard magazine, the organization has decided to scrap its own name. The report says that the new name will be Music Canada. From the report: "CRIA has been very focused on copyright reform for many years and we fully expect that our efforts will be rewarded with a modern copyright framework in Canada," Henderson told Billboard. "But our role is also evolving and it was felt that in order to best support our members as they rebuild the marketplace, we needed an invigorated brand and direction. "Music Canada will champion the music industry, beginning with a new music portal that is a very positive reflection of the music community in Canada and will become a comprehensive resource for those inside and outside of our community." According to the CRIA-issued press release, this music portal is the first effort of Music Canada. Beyond the music industry, it is expected to provide information and resources to its partners in government, media and business. "Consumers will also find valuable information guiding them towards effective and legal ways to access and use music," it states. If their word is anything to go by, it is a very different attitude from before where CRIAs stance was essentially that no marketplace can flourish unless copyright laws are in place to their liking. As a case-in point, Pandora said that licensing barriers have blocked their efforts from entering Canada which, at the time, debunked the myth suggested by CRIA that it was copyright laws stopping Pandora from entering Canada. Russell McOrmond, in the mean time, wasn't really convinced about the prospects of a change in policy. He commented on the move noting that many controversial organizations changed their name in an effort to cast off bad publicity:

CANCOPY became Access Copyright, and I expect them to change their name again. This name change was spin by an increasingly controversial organization, trying to shed some of the negative feelings associated with the previous name. I suspect the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada became Re:Sound as part of the lobbying by "makers of sound recordings" (recording labels) to suggest they are equal or even "superior" copyright holders in the larger music industry compared to actual authors (composers). Saying they are only "Neighbours" to music copyright holders (composers) clarified their intended subservient position in the music industry.Having the lobbiest representing the major foreign record labels calling themselves "Music Canada" is a mixture of both dishonesties. It is a name change from a controversial organization, which will distract people with short memories. The name also invalidly suggests they represent the "Music" industry in "Canada". This organization doesn't represent the music industry, but the decreasingly relevant subset known as the recording industry whose interests often conflict with composers and performers who make up the critical parts of the music industry. This organization is also predominantly foreign -- they don't represent Canadian interests so much as representing foreign interests to Canadians.

I personally find myself agreeing with McOrmond here. I find it highly unlikely that an RIAA lobbyist group in Canada would suddenly flip a switch and move on to actually selling music rather than constantly lobbying the government to change the laws so that they look like the highly flawed laws of the United States. Given the most recent push to get a "6 strike regime" in place in the US, such a thing, I would imagine, would be too tantalizing for CRIA to pass up; saying, "Look, the US changed their system. Everything the US does must be good and we need to do whatever the US does!" One thing is for sure, I don't see it being impossible that Canadians will be trying to stop this new organization called "Music Canada" from getting ISPs to implement a three strikes regime in the next year or so. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

How to Play Music from N64 Games Losslessly (FAQ)

Drew Wilson — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:29:40 +0000

Previously, we posted a little guide to show you how to play music from Nintendo 64 games losslessly. However, there are still some questions you might have with regards to the process or maybe you have come across a problem somewhere along the line. So, we put together this complimentary FAQ that might answer some of your questions.

I want to listen to (insert game here), but I don't see it anywhere in the miniUSF directory, what gives? Not all games have been "ripped". Some may be unrippable for the time being. In other cases, the people who rip the music might be too busy with other things these days. I get an error that says "Unable to open item for playback (Object not found)", what's going on? This error is typically caused by the ".usflib" file being missing. This file is a critical component of playing miniUSF files. It should be included in every .7z file available on the USF website. Think of the files as a piano player. The USFlib file is merely a piano that contains all of the sounds contained within the game. The MiniUSF files are the scores which essentially are all the notes needed to play the music. Without the piano, you can't play music and without the scores, you have no idea what notes to hit. It's a similar idea to these files. The USFLib contains all the samples (drum hits, samples, etc.) and the MiniUSF files are the necessary files to make the music work. This is also why you can't just open up the files within the 7z file because it's searching for that file in the same directory. So, make sure all associated miniUSF files are in the same directory as the corresponding USFLib file. Hey, that sounds cool! I'm a musician and I want to use some of those samples, how do I get them? The short answer, apparently, is that you can't. There's no known way of simply ripping the sample for musical composition. I did all of what you asked and it gives me error messages when I try to play the files, what gives? Try shutting down FooBar 2000 and starting it up again. That worked for me. I downloaded the music from another game and all I see are "parse(whatever)" instead of actual names of the music. Where's the music? This simply means that they were not tagged. This all stems from the fact that some of these are called "preliminary rips" where the only step so far was to "rip" the data from the ROM image. Some of these files end way too early. What gives? That means the files weren't "Timed" yet. There is a fadeout inserted at a predetermined time, but no one has gotten around to making sure the actual loop is fully played out before the fadeout. Again, probably a preliminary rip. Some of these games include "unknown" files, what's that about? The audio is obtained by "ripping" the data from the ROM image. This means that every song that is inside the image is retrieved. Sometimes, the games came with music that is never used in the game. It is only from ripping the ROM image that these "unused" songs come to be. There's a game that I want to listen to, but it just gives me error messages. Why? Some files are preliminary rips. Sometimes, that means they don't work period. The only real way to know for sure if the files work is to test them out. Not every single game featured exactly works. I want to put some of the music into a YouTube video, but the files are not compatible with my editing software. How can I use these files for something other than simple playback? Open the file up in FooBar 2000. Right click on the file in the FooBar 2000 playlist and hover the mouse over "Convert" Click on the "..." option to open up a conversion menu. By default, you should be set to convert to WAV (which is compatible with many pieces of editing software) Under the "Output Path, you can manually set where you want the files to go or, by default, let it ask you where the files are to go. In the end, you should have a WAV file ready to go. It takes forever to put the seek bar to a particular spot on the song! The MiniUSF file is not actually a recording of actual audio, but rather, a file with note data instead. This may be why there's a delay when you try to skip ahead to a certain part of the song. I know my way around hacking and I think I can do some work on this. Where do I go? USF Central links to a forum. You can either browse around USF Central for more information or talk to others in the forums to see if there are any ways to help. Is this truly "lossless"? N64 games use a lot of compression in the first place, however, the audio you get from the USF files is, to our knowledge, lossless because it's playing back the direct data that would otherwise be used in the game. So, unless the audio is available in CD format, this is as lossless as it gets in terms of quality. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.