Presentation + Questions on scn groups

[GabryJ84]

Good Evening to Everyone!

I'm here because I am solving a 20 years old problem. In 2003 while I was deejaying two kids jumped on the cable slipper I was using to connect the equipment to and crashed my 250Gb hard disk onto the ground. Even on grass, the disk broke and I was asked 1000€ from a recovery company to try to save something. I didn't have money, so the HD is still there, when I'll have enough money I will try to recover some data, at least personal data which I don't have anywhere else.
In 2008 while I was in the process of recovering some of the lost data from multiple sources, I had to format my windows. When I just finished formatting the OS disk, the backup disk fell over and...guess what? Yes...everything lost again.

In the years after these 2 major disasters I begun rebuilding my releases collection, from multiple sources (friends, downloads, etc) and the the moment I'm in at the final stages. I still have, though, some broken releases which I am trying to fix in various ways, depending on the type of problem. (I have ~70 corrupted releases, meaning that even with srrDB the relase wont clean because the mp3 is corrupted somewhere, ~60 empty releases, meaning that the folder only contains m3u, sfv and nfo but no mp3s, ~30 missing parts releases where one or more mp3s are missing, ~10 releases with missing NFOs and ~600 fake releases of which half do have an official counterpart and the other half are self releases or someone other else's unofficial releases).

When all of them will be fixed, I will be in the process of checking all the folder to ensure that every single one is complete, crc-correct and 100% official.

Since I have no clue on which groups are real groups and which ones are fake, I am opening a discussion so that maybe more experienced people can help me to separate shit from chocolate.

So far, I have been able to track down these groups in my folder, and I have been able to understand the following thing:

funteek, hopsis, 149: 100% fake. These releases originate from the Eurofunteek blog which used to release their own releases. Part (1990-2000) are original re-ripped or un-ripped releases which can be replaced, when available, with original ones, part (> 2000) are just re-releases of official ones, which can be re-scened with srrdb.

M4E, M4ECMD: 100% fake. These releases originate from a website called Music4Ever held by someone called DjHerbie. (tnx to rafajuv)

Dj_Classics, Records, Records_INT, Dang3: Fake? NFO seems to be done with Morgoth MP3 Releaser...no informations nor hints. Seem to have released only old tracks.

C4A, SKN: 100% fake. These guys seemed to be mad for 320Kbit files and the releases usually don't (but not always) match with a real discographic release. They can be replaced with original scene releases.

MiM, DAW: 50% fake, 50% original. Mind in Motion and Digital Artists at Work are original. Mp3ItaliaMix and DjAtWork are Fake.

GJ: 100% fake They have been done by someone i know, were meant to be internal and have absolutely no idea how they escaped from his PC unless someone knows some friends of his (which i seriously doubt).

Can someone confirm my assumptions?

I am in the process of getting all of the groups of my releases, when I will have them I'll be able to ask for the existance of more groups. Thanks for now.

[RadioPirate]

About the groups; I can confirm this. Those groups you've mentioned are not scene groups. During my time as a member of a few 0day warez groups I had access to a huge 0day MP3 server with no limits. I downloaded the entire archive back then, from 199x till 2011 and I never saw a release of any of those groups you have mentioned. However I recently gained access to an 0day MP3 server with a huge year collection and they do have releases of those groups you've mentioned. Many of them are just dupes of releases from other groups.

To be honest I really don't care if those groups are fake or not as long as the music is good.

[GabryJ84]

To be honest I really don't care if those groups are fake or not as long as the music is good.

In theory this should be just right, but scene releases tend to be more accurate and unique then non-official ones. For example, funteek re-released lots of already officialy released ones (which can be re-scened) and especially BWA_INT ones. hopsis (which I suspect is another incarnation of funteek) did the same. They are both good for dance '90 releases which official groups are really poor for but even in that case there are official releases for almost 75% of them. I am certainly keeping unofficial releases for music which does not have an official release but in the long term I am willing to replace them with something official when it will come out.

Another thing that I will certainly do is do scrap all 320k relases in favour of flac releases. There is no sense in releasing and keeping 320k releases while a flac alternative is available.

This is just to optimize space and avoid having 3 or 4 times the same content.

[RadioPirate]

I have no idea why they add those releases from the non-scene groups. On a real 0day MP3 server they would have been nuked for being dupes, unless it's a different source like WEB vs Vinyl vs CDM/S. I noticed that IDF has many dupes from IDC releases.

[GabryJ84]

I didn't make a comparison but you have to check if they are higher quality than iDC (for example iDC might be 192 and iFF VBR-x). Or maybe some iDC releases are no more available (like the ones I requested in the appropriate section) and so iFF re-released them.
I don't know what the rules are, if a release disappears from sites, though I know that releases would not be meant to be public, so I don't know if the scene cares if something is no more available, once it has been released.

[rafajuv]

I think M4E its fake! anyone know something about this?

[GabryJ84]

I think M4E its fake! anyone know something about this?

Yes it is! It belonged to releases made by a Forum called Music4Ever held by someone called DjHerbie. So 100% Fake.

EDIT: I updated the main topic so maybe we can use it to keep track of what is original and what is fake.

[GabryJ84]

Any info on Dj_Classics, Records, Records_INT, Dang3?

[xNxRxGx]

i believe DJ_Classics was just classics department of the group DJ, so as legit as they were.. or most groups even

sometimes yes sometimes no we're just suckers for the "smallfiles" and tags