# Music Downloads



## Guest (May 10, 2007)

After 2 yrs I am at last connected to Broad Band, can anyone suggest any good sites where I can download some music, free stuff for a start, until I get used to it, and English instructions.


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## Handel (Apr 18, 2007)

I usually buy my music in stores so I can't help it with that. Sorry.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Hi Andante,

For public domain scores, there is this site: http://www.imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page. Since having found this site, I may never have to buy music again. Hope this helps.


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## Guest (May 10, 2007)

Krummhorn said:


> Hi Andante,
> 
> For public domain scores, there is this site: http://www.imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page. Since having found this site, I may never have to buy music again. Hope this helps.


Thanks Krummhorn, looks very interesting and I will try it but what I had in mind was recorded music, as I have never d/loaded recordings, I am keen to give it a try


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## Frasier (Mar 10, 2007)

The trouble with web downloads is that they are relatively low-fi. They sound different - sometimes bad, sometimes just different. 

A program on TV recently made this point because there's some new system either that restores a lot of the lost sound lost in the compression process (a laugh because the information must be made up if it was lost in compression). Or it compresses in a way that preserves more of the transients/bass etc.

The presenter claimed that mp3 and itunes processing loses some 90% of the information compared with a standard CD. That's probably close to true. You can't compress 600MB to 60MB without losing something! 

So I would sooner borrow a CD and copy it onto a blank "Audio" CD, perfectly legal because the price of a "CD for Audio Use" includes a royalty fee to entitle the user to make one copy for personal use.

I certainly don't believe in illegal downloads/copies, being a musician myself.


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## Evan Roberts (Apr 20, 2007)

With a modern encoder, most people would find an mp3 at 192kb/s to be indistinguishable from an audio cd, what's called the transparency threshold. The music I've downloaded from the internet has been encoded at about this level, and sounds fine to me.

Personally I would like to see the music industry funded by the state, and music supplied at material cost. But as this isn't the case I feel there is an obligation to support the industry by buying CDs and going to concerts, not that you should need an excuse to go to see live music anyway.

Until you are ready to buy the music on CD, I would recommend http://www.classiccat.net/ which provides links to thousands of free legal recordings of classical music all of which have been encoded at 128kb/s or better.


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## Keemun (Mar 2, 2007)

Most _legal _free classical music downloads I have seen are from orchestras' websites. I don't remember many of them, but here is one that I bookmarked: Columbia University Orchestra


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## Manuel (Feb 1, 2007)

Try Karadar.com. They have lots of mp3. The greatests works by the most famous performers. And the transfers are very good.

Once you access www.karadar.com you can search for the mp3 files. But to download them you need to access their _compilator_ (CoCoA), and get the files from that website.

This one is in russian, but I navigate throughout it without problems. http://classic.chubrik.ru/
(You may use a download manager, like GetRight, to make things easier).

ftp://clms.da.ru:21099/ (password: oth, username: oth). Lots of mp3 and some videos of the basic repertoire.


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## Handel (Apr 18, 2007)

It's not a download, but you can listen for free excerpts (25% of each track) on Naxos website. For a small fee (20€/year), you can listen the complete tracks.

Before, it was bar open (all tracks for free) and I discovered a lot of music through that.


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## Guest (May 10, 2007)

Evan Roberts said:


> With a modern encoder, most people would find an mp3 at 192kb/s to be indistinguishable from an audio cd, what's called the transparency threshold. The music I've downloaded from the internet has been encoded at about this level, and sounds fine to me.
> 
> Personally I would like to see the music industry funded by the state, and music supplied at material cost. But as this isn't the case I feel there is an obligation to support the industry by buying CDs and going to concerts, not that you should need an excuse to go to see live music anyway.
> 
> Until you are ready to buy the music on CD, I would recommend http://www.classiccat.net/ which provides links to thousands of free legal recordings of classical music all of which have been encoded at 128kb/s or better.


I am not trying to get some thing for nothing, I have approx 1000 CDs @ a cost of NZ$35-$40 each well over $35,000, I also go to at least 5-6 concerts / yr, so I do my bit, I realise that the quality is going to be poor from the net but I want to play with my new toy, 
*Manuel,* will try your suggestion, I have a smattering of Russian, but unused for 40yrs also mp3 and ipods are a thing that I have not yet come to terms with 

*Evan* just tried your site, very impressive, thanks.


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## Manuel (Feb 1, 2007)

> Manuel, will try your suggestion, I have a smattering of Russian, but unused for 40yrs also mp3 and ipods are a thing that I have not yet come to terms with


If you use Internet Explorer, when passing the cursor over a link, the status bar by the bottom of the page shows the address in regular characters (not cyrillic). That may help.


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## Guest (May 11, 2007)

Manuel said:


> If you use Internet Explorer, when passing the cursor over a link, the status bar by the bottom of the page shows the address in regular characters (not cyrillic). That may help.


Cyrillic is not a problem but my vocab has shrunk over the years, as do other things if you do not use them,  lol. but thanks


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