Scene only

[Talim_]

My 2 cents:

Scene pre dbs are full of spam, dupes, bad echoes, p2p releases. It's not really the fault of these public pre dbs. They aren't sanctioned by the scene. The scene has gone to war with them at times and tried to shut them down. Therefore their sources of data aren't always of the highest quality. They take what they can get. Often sourcing from IRC pre announce bots. When their sources go down they end up with incomplete dbs. When their sources announce crap they end up with crap.

As we get further into the future it's harder to tell what is a scene release and what isn't. Take for example EOS. A long running IRC group that I ripped some of my CDs for back in 2002 or 2003. They also had a run as a scene group. I asked their leader the reason for the change and he specifically stated pretty much what I wrote in the first paragraph. Their releases kept getting added to dbs and I guess they decided if it's going to happen it's going to be on their own terms. Some 20 years on how is it possible for someone without a memory of what that group was at specific points in time to discern the difference? Rips from groups like EOS, iRO, etc aren't scene but they follow the standards for the most part. Many of the albums they ripped were first done in the scene's 128/160k days with primitive encoders that sucked. Maybe it's better if people request internals from real scene groups instead, it's definitely easier to track them down than some 20 year old IRC group crap, but as long as people aren't flooding 20 of these requests every day it doesn't make me mad.

The iDF stuff seems to be of good quality and much of it is rare music that the scene never touched. Zaglebiak has arrived here and he is filling requests for his non scene rips tagged -ZgbK and the circumstances are similar. I think as long as people are not abusing the site spamming requests for this stuff it's a worthy addition.

[euphoricvocals]

My 2 cents:

Scene pre dbs are full of spam, dupes, bad echoes, p2p releases. It's not really the fault of these public pre dbs. They aren't sanctioned by the scene. The scene has gone to war with them at times and tried to shut them down. Therefore their sources of data aren't always of the highest quality. They take what they can get. Often sourcing from IRC pre announce bots. When their sources go down they end up with incomplete dbs. When their sources announce crap they end up with crap.

As we get further into the future it's harder to tell what is a scene release and what isn't. Take for example EOS. A long running IRC group that I ripped some of my CDs for back in 2002 or 2003. They also had a run as a scene group. I asked their leader the reason for the change and he specifically stated pretty much what I wrote in the first paragraph. Their releases kept getting added to dbs and I guess they decided if it's going to happen it's going to be on their own terms. Some 20 years on how is it possible for someone without a memory of what that group was at specific points in time to discern the difference? Rips from groups like EOS, iRO, etc aren't scene but they follow the standards for the most part. Many of the albums they ripped were first done in the scene's 128/160k days with primitive encoders that sucked. Maybe it's better if people request internals from real scene groups instead, it's definitely easier to track them down than some 20 year old IRC group crap, but as long as people aren't flooding 20 of these requests every day it doesn't make me mad.

The iDF stuff seems to be of good quality and much of it is rare music that the scene never touched. Zaglebiak has arrived here and he is filling requests for his non scene rips tagged -ZgbK and the circumstances are similar. I think as long as people are not abusing the site spamming requests for this stuff it's a worthy addition.

If everyone is fine with it I am too. If it gets to being an issue you can sound the alarm and let me know in a PM.

[aGGyunit]

I agree with Talim_ .

I'd rather have a non-scene release of something than nothing at all.
Music for life!

[Perplexer]

It sucks that non-scene groups bother with scene file/folder naming conventions. It just adds to confusion. They are usually clueless about everything else like encoder and its settings, URL requirements, and general etiquette. As a result you get a scene-like release which is actually compiled from multiple sources and often re-encoded, ending up in a fake release you actually don't want if you're a serious collector (although if you're that serious you should probably switch to FLAC). I know I wouldn't want some release compiled of tracks taken from compilations and tagged as "CDM" in my collection. P2P releases are full of this crap.

iDF rells are also very often questionable, at least many old ones I have seen. They re-encoded a lot of them from unknown sources (including iTunes AAC) and released them as 320 kbps MP3, and when you look at the spectrogram you can often see a 16 KHz cut-off line. Yikes. And their WEB release NFO URLs often point to Discogs / Vinyl releases so you don't know where the files actually came from. While it's better then nothing, it's good to be aware of these drawbacks and know that there is usually a better quality release to be had.

[lay_low_leva]

For example, if you see a 320 kbps CD/vinyl release, you know it's non-scene, because scene allows only VBR physical rips.

Do not forget that these rules do not apply to _INT releases

[Perplexer]

I want to show you guys one example I just came across, between an iDF "web" release and iDC web release:
[External Link Removed for Guests]

It's supposed to be the same release, but listen closely to tracks 3 and 4 (first 5 seconds or so). You will clearly hear that iDF is actually vinyl rip and iDC is a real digital release.

This is a nice example of fakes from non-scene groups!

[rafajuv]

One question, whats means "_int" in some releases?

Its true perplexer, i verify and this tracks of iDF its vinyl rip.

[martins1982]

One question, whats means "_int" in some releases?

Its true perplexer, i verify and this tracks of iDF its vinyl rip.

iNT means Internal.
When a release group is said to go “internal”, it means the group are only releasing to their members and site ops.

[omarijamarija]

(although if you're that serious you should probably switch to FLAC)

If what's being serious means collecting high quality music you shouldn't had ever started with scene at all. FLAC section (at least imo) was created in order to save a dying spirit of MP3 scene now flooded with low-effort WEB releases. According to Moore's, disk space is getting affordable more and more, in an exponential manner. In result, we're experiencing many upgrades in terms of digital media quality standards, including music. People now can afford storing music in a high quality, but I don't think that was a main motivation behind starting FLAC section. There are other communities, much more concerned about quality by imposing rules like strict ripping method requirements, attaching log files etc.

To me, the value of scene releases is trackable history they're coming with. It's fun to read some inside drama or grumbling at the rip source in nfo. Years ago, in the scene golden age, while it was being a primary source for dozens of other file sharing communities, many pirated media made its way to the internet through it first. I think, that cases of albums being leaked into the internet days before street release date are notable. Those files actually carry some historical value and they're worth archiving.

Last but not least, the fun of doing an internet archaeology. But definitely, absolutely not quality.

[beyondlazy]

Hi all where can I find rnb/ hip hop new and old mp3/ flac scene only. Looking to start a collection any help will greatly appreciate thanks.