Register our hub!

As said above, we mainly care about the quality of the music available on our hub. It means your share must meet very strict requirements. If you want to register our hub please read carefully the guide below. You need to follow every step. Many users use to connect and just ask for an account without having read this tutorial. As we can't explain the rules to every new user manually, We ask you to read alone this guide before asking for an account.

 

1. You must share 15GB of classical music:
- We are conscious that 15GB is a lot. You will probably have to rip (=copy) CDs on your computer. You may also try to download from other networks. Feel free to check out our tutorials to learn how to reach this quantity of music easily. But we would appreciate if you bring some of your CDs, especially the rare and unavailable ones.

 

2. Your music must be compressed only (.mp3, .ogg, .mpc, .ape, .flac):
- This means that no .wav files are allowed, because of their size, which is not adapted to the internet network. If for some reasons you do have interesting .wav files (radio broadcasts, bootlegs) please just convert them to another compressed format. If you don't know how to do or don't want to bother doing it, please remove those files from your shared directory. Please consider that many people here don't know much about computers and won't notice they are downloading a 700MB .wav CD.
- We also try to avoid bad sounding formats like aac, wma or mp3pro. All formats you should use are listed above.

 

3. Your music must be sorted:
- Your classical music must be sorted in one separated folder called "Classical". That way, other users can easily locate the classical music in your list.
- Make at least two directories, one for Composers and one for Performers (in "Performers", put CDs with different composers such as piano recitals for example) - and sort your classical music directories under the proper directory.
- You may also want to sort it into folders like "Orchestral", "Piano", "Strings", "Ensembles", "Opera", ... or even by period such as "Baroque", "Classical", "Romantic", ...
- You may create another directory called "Collections", "Anthologies" for records such as "Greatest pianists of the Century", ...
- You should have only complete cds or at least complete works. Users usually prefer sorting their music "by CD" instead of "by works". Thus we recommend you not to tear CDs apart when several composers or works are on it. You must remove incomplete CDs or share what is missing.

Example:
Sorting: screenshot

 

4. Your music must be labeled:
That is VERY IMPORTANT for the search function:
- Keep a constant scheme for labeling in one specific way. That is better for clarity.
- Please stick to the following naming scheme:

- directory names: composer last name - CD title (performers) or performer - composer - CD title for your performers folder
- filenames: track number. work title - part name.extension or track number. composer last name - work title + part name.extension when there are several composers (eg: in piano recitals)

Little trick: As classical music CDs need long filenames, it is recommended to archive it with the shortest path possible. Windows path's length limit is set to 255 characters. This means that instead putting your cds in: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Music\My CD rips\Classical Music\Baroque\... you should put them in C:\music or C:\Music\Classical. Therefore you will be able to put more information about your records.

- Surnames before names!: example : Bach, Johann Sebastian and not Johann Sebastian Bach
- Composers or piece names in CAPITALS is kind of awkward
- Start your filenames with the track number so that the files are listed in the correct order.
- Please add a trailing 0 to the first 9 of them if there are more than 9 tracks. Otherwise the order will be 1, 10, 11, 12-19, 2, 20, 21 etc
- Give your files meaningful names
- Some people also add a tag at the end of the folder name that informs about the file format and/or bit rate like: [VBR128], [CBR320], ... for mp3, or [FLAC], [APE], [MPC], ... for other formats. This is VERY useful when you care about the sound quality like us. This isn't an obligation but we would really appreciate if you could add such information.
- You could also include .txt, .nfo, .sfv, .md5, .log, cover scans, reviews, biographies and other goodies if you feel like it, it will be appreciated but is not an obligation.

Here are a few examples of what your share MUST look like:
screenshot1 (note the info.txt and checksum.md5 files)
One performer recital: screenshot1 | screenshot2 | screenshot3
One composer, multiple performers: screenshot
One composer, various works: screenshot
CD set: screenshot (note the last tag about encoding in the folder's name)
Complete composer edition: screenshot (note the .sfv checksum file)

Here are a few examples of what your share MUST NOT look like to:
screenshot1 some examples of wrong labeling
screenshot2 another wrong labeling
screenshot3 another wrong labeling
screenshot4 example of a share looking like a complete mess. In other words: don't dare ask for an account with such a share!

 

4bis. Labeling of opera records:
As opera is quite different from classical music it requires a pretty different labeling.
- Please stick to the following naming scheme:

- directory names: composer last name - opera name (main singers, conductor) or for opera recitals singer - CD title
- filenames: track number. work title - part name.extension or track number. composer last name - work title + part name.extension when there are several composers (eg: in recitals)

Here are a few examples of what your share MUST look like:
For standard opera recordings (folder and track names): screenshot1 | screenshot2
For a singer recital (folder and track names): screenshot1 | screenshot2

 

5. About zipped/rarred files:
- Please don't share your cds/recordings zipped/rarred. We don't accept them because they are troublesome on dc: you cannot download one file from several users at the same time.
- On eMule this is different (and eMule has a much weaker share browsing system than dc), so it makes sense that rars/zips are used there.
- Furthermore about rar archives, they can't be played unless you unrar them. Also, they do not really reduce the CD size, considering you have already compressed it with mp3, mpc or ape (with high compression option of course).

 

6. About CDImages:
- A whole cd/recording as one big track or image is not considered ideal here, but if you must, you can share those. If you share such files you MUST have a proper .cue file associated with the CDImage with detailed track names in it using the above mentioned scheme. - It is also appreciated to add a detailed text file with the contents is compulsory in that case (tracks/parts, durations, detailed performers, etc). Also, if you share such CDImages your folder labeling must be perfect and very detailed.

 

7. Please have a critical look at your own share, and follow the OPs suggestions.
We can guaranty that after doing this nasty task you will feel very good and will listen to those recordings more often!
If you have any questions or when you are in conformity with the hub rules don't hesitate to contact us on the hub where you can login as a guest.

 

8. Install the program needed and connect to our hub:
- For those who already know a bit about peer to peer, we use a client (like Kazaa, eMule, ...) called DC++ (direct connect). Check the latest version available here. Once you have installed the application, open it.
- Then go to file>settings.
- In the "Personal information" tab put your "Nick". You must add the prefix [GUEST] to your name so that you can enter the hub. Your nick should now look like [GUEST]Nick.
- You can now go to the "sharing" tab. Click add to share the directory with your classical music.
- Now click "OK". You will have to wait for DC++ to finish hashing your files. It depends of the quantity you are sharing and the global performances of your computer. Note that it might take a few hours for big shares, be patient...
- Once the hashing is over, go to file>quick connect, and type the hub's address: musiqueclassique.no-ip.org
- Now you are in the hub, you need to be registered to be able to download music. Look for #Antechamber_(GUEST-Chat) in the right panel (on the top). Right click and chose "Send private message". A window will popup where you can type your request of being a new member. Then just wait for an operator (OP) to check your list and to register you. Careful, it is possible that all OPs are away from keyboard. If you get no reply be patient or send a new message a few hours later. Don't forget that you must stay connected so that we can contact you. Please consider that OPs are people like you, with jobs, wives, children and that they don't get any money for the job they do. So don't blame them if they are not always online.

Ouch! This have been a lot of work! But trust us, this is the only way to provide decent quality CDs. Thanks to all those requirements you have the guaranty to find many interesting files matching with your tastes. We look forward to seeing you soon on our hub!

Regards,
The Musique Classique hub