Grateful Dead

...shall we go, you and I while we can... ...except the unasked ones.The bottom line is you have to open a single port in a universe that involves 60,000 to 80,000 of them. You are probably using Make Firewall Exceptions in your XP security center already. All that a file sharing system does is open 1 port, and utorrent can randomize that port daily, so it's always different, it can also encrypt incoming data, so no one knows what your sharing (called privacy). In two years of doing this, I've never run into a hacking problem myself, nor have I ever heard of one. I was the one who described it as "good manners". Deadheads should love this... you share back to a "ratio" of 1, meaning you give back as much as you took to others. BTW, I think "brain freeze" on this happens to a lot of us. DON"T FREAK OUT...remember a time when you learned something a little complex that really added to your enjoyment? Maybe you have to go back a ways, but you did it and you felt great about it! I got a computer with a comcast connection,and causually playing with it, I had the basics down in a month.It was the first time I ever used a computer for anything except word processing, and I'm no genius in this department! One more thing, this IS NOT ILLEGAL...it involves the sharing of uncoprighted material for personal enjoyment and not for sale. In fact, in the torrent commmunity, the ethic is to ALWAYS buy the copyrighted version of anything that torrented that the band releases.It's just a great way to get shows without dealing with lousy copies, the vagueries of the U.S. Mail,ect. Okay, that's more than you asked,Marye...if you want to check it out, I'm happy to help you get started.

Try this unit....either phono records or tapes...right into your USB port....been using one for about a year for both records and tapes and it performs beautifully....see it here: http://www.mcminone.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=MCMProducts&category…

this is really a lame question, as I've only looked at the sites in question briefly before going into brain freeze, but responding to something somebody said way up the thread-- Do bittorrent and the other filesharing sites basically require you to leave an open connection and let people download files from your local machine? Somebody described this as "good manners" and it strikes me as the security problem from hell. But then I'm not running a server. Please clarify, I'm cluless. Thanks!

There are some real sentimental attachments to some of the cassettes. Lots of love went into making them back in the day and there is something to be said for keeping that particular version of a show that you went to the trouble of trading for. Especially in the days before all the internet and computer stuff. I would for example try to fill every possible minute of a tape with fillers and played around with painstaking fade ins and fade outs all done by hand. All that work makes the tapes that much more special and unique. While the internet has allowed for an increased availability of shows, I think people take for granted that in the old days to get shows was really something special and something to cherish. Now it is almost too easy and I believe that certain things that were unique to each show are lost by the shear numbers of what is available. That being said, all this music is truly a gift and a lifelong hobby that I've enjoyed and will keep on enjoying.

Thanks, Mr.Fantasy.....unfortunatly most of mine are all 90's so the struggle to edit continues,plus....and I know it's a sin, a majority of my tapes are 2nd set only. But it is kinda fun to try to put the puzzle together so to speak. But, I'm having fun and really that's what it is all about.keep on truckin!

...shall we go, you and I while we can... I'm always interested in how the band actually played it and how the sbd or aud recording of the show sounded. I still maintain that using the torrent approach not only does this, but gives you a wider range of show choices. And, if you have a high speed connection and a good internal burner, it's not too hard to get it going.Remember that folks have gone a long way to get the best possible recording of these torrented shows for distribution.

Fred, The majority of what I am transferring is 110's.... ....I don't know about your particular recording habits....but it seems like the Dead never filled up an entire 110 with one set.... ...easy solution.... Two Cd's per show. That is how I do it. Plus having that "Set break" gives me a chance to check out the next set to see if I need to tweak my EQ any (Because my original recordings ((My dads tapes)) almost always have different levels from first to second set). Of course some level differences between separate tapes of the same show could have been the original mixing done by the Dead. I.E. At set break Bobby might have said...I want my vocals raised/lowered or Jerry could have wanted more Phil (God knows why...) Make us SNAPPY!

Yes, that all sounds very nice, but how much real control do you have over your music? And aren't you limited by your computers hardware/interfaces at some point? I put my Cd's onto my computer after I make my Master copy. But I don't like the idea of only having my archives stored on PC only...in case of a crash. That makes me NERVOUS! Make us SNAPPY!

I've found the old fashioned way is best, but VERY time consuming. I ran a tapedeck through a graphic EQ then into a cd burner. You do have to listen to the tape and make breaks for track listings, but if there are a bunch of songs running into eachother,I'll just let it go and there is a problem with editing. Most of my tapes are on 90 mins, cd's only go up to 80 mins , so you have to do some editing if you want to fit all onto a disk. however my sound quality did not suffer as bad as i thought it would. My problem is having to lug around 500 or so tapes. If there is an easier way, I would love to learn how to do it.

I used Final Vinyl on my Mac(available at an Mac Store). You can run a tape player into computer via USB port. Once the show is loaded you can create individual song files out of the whole show. Transfer these files into Itunes. From there you can create CDs and also have a back up on your hard drive or external hard drive depending on where you store your music. Really easy to use and sounds great. I am up to about 250g on my external drive with ability to play over stereo at home or transfer shows to Ipod for road trips.