grateful dead dick's picks

If bucks are really tight, you might consider seeking out torrents of GD shows - there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of soundboard-quality shows in circulation right now. Just get a torrent client (BitTorrent or Azureus), do a Google search for "Grateful Dead torrent" and start downloading music - FREE.

Dick's Picks are usually okay, but many of the soundboards referenced above will blow them away...

-RW-

i hate to admit it, but i am not too download savvy. do i become a "member" of azureus and go from there? or do i need to find a "client" how does the downloading for me. it's a bitch to be the dumbest kid in the smart class.

in the meantime does anyone have any hot shows on the dix pix universe?

It's not too hard if you pay attention [smile].

1) Get a bit torrent client. I use Azureus. The bit torrent client is the program that reads torrent files and then downloads the music files you want.

Azureus: http://sourceforge.net/projects/azureus/

Once you'e downloaded and installed Azureus, you now need to find a torrent file of a show you'd like to download. Go to bt.etree.org for those, they have a TON of GD shows:

List of GD shows: http://bt.etree.org/index.php?cat=8

I selected the 3rd show in the list because it's a soundboard and was done by Charlie Miller - he really knows his stuff. Grateful Dead, Soldier Field - June 25, 1992: gd92-06-25.dsbd.miller.32496.sbeok.flac16

To the right of the show name, you'll see a little icon that looks like a floppy disc. Clicking this will allow you to download the torrent file of the show. Click it. You can now save the torrent file to a folder on your PC, I have one called Torrents.

Once you save the torrent file, you can then click the Open button on the dialog. This will cause Azureus to start and will "feed" it the torrent file. Simply tell Azureus where you want to store the downloaded files - you might want to create a folder called Grateful Dead and save them there.

The downloaded files are usually in some kind of compressed format, usually FLAC or SHN. You can either play these files using WinAmp or convert them to WAVs for burning to a CDR.

WinAmp: http://www.winamp.com/

I use dbPowerAmp to convert my FLAC or SHN files for burning: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

Install dbPowerAmp and the FLAC and SHN plug-ins and you're good to go. Convert the FLACs or SHNs to WAVs and use any CD burning program to burn 'em.

Yes, you will have to do a little bit of reading, and you will mess up a bit here and there. But the payoff is SO great that it's definitely worth the effort. I currently have over 100 GD shows that sound terrific and cost me virtually nothing.

-RW-

Tda44:

Downloading is the way to go, definitely. There are some tremendously good sounding shows out there for free (better than many of the Dick's Picks I have). The place you want to go is here:

http://bt.etree.org/

At the top of the page, there is a link to download a BitTorrent client (called Bit Tornado). After that and a high speed internet connection, you are all set.

It is very worth your time to check out how this works, and you can get all the info you need at this site. Presently there are a few hundred GD shows available, and you can read the comments to see how they sound and what the performance is like. Great tunes for the price of a blank.

You shouldn't have much trouble getting free downloads by following Rlwainwright's advice, but if you feel the need to spend money, there are also downloads available through the Grateful Dead website: deadnet.com as well as the Apple iTunes store. If you go via iTunes be aware that you can only get it in a lossy format, ie., it won't be as good as Flac. I've heard a few of the official downloads and a couple from circa 1976 and 1977 were pretty good shows (depends what you like though). Or, if you want to buy my cassette tape collection, send me an email. I don't listen to my tapes anymore, lack the time to transfer them to digital, and was thinking of trying to sell them on ebay. Probably have about 50 plus shows, give or take, many are audience tapes though there are some decent soundboards in there too. Just don't know what to do with them these days since I don't even have a cassette player except in my car. Anyway, good luck and let us know what shows you find and like.