E-Digging 101… Soulseek Tips & Tricks

Soulseek - I have been downloading songs online for a LOOONG time.  Since napster was new (and free), back when Audiogalaxy was an absolute beast, when filetopia was really popping, etc, etc…   Soulseek (A peer to peer file sharing program) may very well be the greatest thing in the world for those that want to just go in and download whole albums, of any genre (not just soul).  So go download Soulseek right now and set it up, it takes about a minute in total and it will absolutely be worth your time.  Here are some tips for power usage on Soulseek…

• Tip 1: Pay up and donate to Soulseek. For $5 a month you gain “Dowload Privileges”, which basically allow you to jump ahead of everyone in line (without privileges) to download tracks.  Without privileges it is possible for you to NEVER be able to download a track from someone, cus privileged people will move ahead first.  So pay up…

• Tip 2: Build up your wishlist. When you add an artist, song, album name to your wishlist, whenever anyone who is sharing a file with that name logs on, it will pop up so you can download it.  It’s like a permanent search feature working for you.

• Tip 3: Build up your friends list. Check out a few of the chat rooms and see who is in there.  If they are in a funk/soul room, there will probably be some people sharing funk & soul records in the room… befriend them.   They have an option to search only your friends’ files.  So make sure to get a lot of the heavyweight sharers on your list.  Also realize that when someone adds you as a friend, you automatically jump in front of EVERYONE (Including those with privileges) when you download something from them. So share good stuff & it will help you download quicker.

• Tip 4: Make sure you share your files. You are allowed to ban users from downloading your files on SS.  For some reason people on Soulseek can be extremely bitch ass when it comes to sharing files and will ban you just cus they don’t like what your files look like.  So be sure to share as much music as possible.

• Tip 4b:  Beware of general bitchassness! You will come across people on Soulseek that guard some of their music like they created it their self, even though they downloaded it from someone else online.  Beware of them.  Also realize a lot of people have rules on how many songs you can queue up at once.  Most only let you download 1 or 2 folders at once.  It’s customary to list your download rules in your “User Info” section.

• Tip 5:  If you end up sampling an mp3, please be aware that there are different qualities of mp3. Ideally you want a 320 bitrate mp3, thats the best out there.  Even some pro engineers I know said it’s not all that bad for sampling purposes.  Personally, I don’t like sampling 192 bitrates or lower.   When you do a search you can click on the Attributes tab and order the files by bitrate, so the nice 320 bit mp3′s will jump to the top of your search.

• Tip 6: Buy vinyl & cd’s Although a good mp3 rip can sound pretty good.  Don’t neglect to buy the real thing.  I ALWAYS try to track down as clean and crispy a version of a sample as possible.  Pretty much everything out there is being reissued nowadays anyway, so it wont be hard to find.  Consider it an investment into your beats.  If you want that extra knock/feeling/sizzle/etc, forgo the mp3 & buy the real deal.