Legal Downloads from The European Archive

RJR · January 23, 2011, 04:17:53 PM

I found this site just two days ago and it is a treasure chest for those of you who love the early master musicians of classical music. So far, there are 842 recordings available.

Here are some tips to downloading:
1 Click on the green bar of the lp you want to download.

2 It will send you to another page where you will find different formats to download your file:
FLAC, Ogg, mp3, mp3 vbr. I chose FLAC because it seems to work every time.

3 Highspeed internet is a must

4 I use Winamp because you can embed FLAC Ogg and other plugins in it

5 Go to Winamp plugins and download Jasper der Gronde's Line Out Plugin, close Winamp, then install the plugin. With this plugin you can set your own download folder. For some reason Winamp sends the temp files to my C:Documents/Temp Folder and I haven't figured out yet how to change it. No matter if you have have lots of C drive space. If not, then you'll just have to clean up after you're done.

6 Click on the FLAC button for each track and then click yes when Winamp pops up and asks where you want to save the file. The Line Out plugin will take over after that and quickly process your file. Each file has its own number. Some will say track 1, or whatever, twice. I think somebody was suffering from eyestrain and forgot to move up a number.

7 That's pretty much what you need to know. There are lots of goodies there. It's legal, free and probably more will follow in the future. I hope. A question of copyright. The album covers can also be saved. Some of them are in German, if you sprechen sie deutsche.

Knock yourself out! I am.

PaulSC · January 23, 2011, 04:38:13 PM

Do you mean this?

http://www.europarchive.org/index.php

If so, then those of us in the USA may not benefit, due to variations in (c) law: "Due to copyright issues, the items in this category cannot be displayed in your jurisdiction."

At any rate, it sounds like a wonderful resource for those who can access it!

PaulSC · January 23, 2011, 05:15:01 PM

Bump? Did I guess the right website? Is access blocked for others here in the USA?

RJR · January 24, 2011, 09:42:15 AM

Quote from: PaulSC on January 23, 2011, 04:38:13 PM
Do you mean this?
http://www.europarchive.org/index.php

If so, then those of us in the USA may not benefit, due to variations in (c) law: "Due to copyright issues, the items in this category cannot be displayed in your jurisdiction."

At any rate, it sounds like a wonderful resource for those who can access it!

Yes, that looks right.
They make it very clear on one page of their site that their downloads are copyright free and legal. Sorry if the USA doesn't see it the same way. I'm in Montréal, Canada. Guess you'll have to move. Or link to me somehow. There are about 35 pages of lp downloads=842 and counting. I don't plan to download every file available, but I have already processed a gigabytes worth into mp3Pro96 format. It takes up a lot of bandwidth, so I'm taking a break for the next four days. All the files are Mono, naturally. Most of the files are German, Dutch, British, Spanish, French and Czech recordings. Some American too. Just downloaded Ormandy Deb Iberia this morning.

RJR · January 24, 2011, 09:48:15 AM

Quote from: PaulSC on January 23, 2011, 05:15:01 PM
Bump? Did I guess the right website? Is access blocked for others here in the USA?

Yes, you did. Sorry it doesn't work for you so far.

RJR · January 25, 2011, 03:51:48 PM

Quote from: PaulSC on January 23, 2011, 05:15:01 PM
Bump? Did I guess the right website? Is access blocked for others here in the USA?

If you ever have any luck getting through here is another tip:
If you have a specific composer in find you can type the name of that composer and you will be sent to a page, or pages, where all that composer's recordings are available, instead of browsing willy-nilly from page 1 to 35 like I did in the beginning.

Mr. Darcy · January 26, 2011, 10:10:50 PM

Is this the American alternative?: http://www.archive.org/. I know I've found some nice suff here...

RJR · January 28, 2011, 06:31:32 AM

Quote from: Mr. Darcy on January 26, 2011, 10:10:50 PM
Is this the American alternative?: http://www.archive.org/. I know I've found some nice suff here...

No, not really. But it certainly is an interesting site. Many more categories than The European Archive, which, as I mentionned before, contains (so far, more to follow) 842 famous and not so famous recordings (mainly European) made in the 20s, 30s and 40s (some 50s, I think) whose copyright has expired. I got Horzowski playing Bee's Op 106, Maria Yudina, the same, Kubelik Dvorak's New World, Monteux San Fran Bee 2nd Symphony, and on and on. Walter Bee Missa Solemnis. There are some early Szell and Ormandy recordings as well. Too many to list here. Beethoven, Bach, Schutz, Mozart, Haydn, Purcell, Debussy, Ravel et al.

Brian · February 05, 2011, 06:22:45 AM

Some good stuff in here, but the website is obnoxiously bad for me right now. It takes about ten minutes for any page to load, but there's no guarantee that they ever will; I'm getting lots of errors about XML database sheets and some of the album covers didn't download. Pity - I want to hear this stuff!

What Ravel did you find, RJR? When I searched for Ravel only one LP came up!

zmic · February 06, 2011, 01:51:25 AM

On www.archive.org there's some nice stuff if you do a search on "transfer by Reeder"

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=transfer%20reeder%20%20AND%20mediatype%3Aaudio%20AND%20mediatype%3Aaudio&page=1

currently listening to:

CANTELOUBE: Songs of the Auvergne
Madeleine Grey, soprano
Recorded in February, 1930
FIRST RECORDING

knight66 · February 06, 2011, 01:59:59 AM

From the UK and therefore at least Europe the following is an interesting source of full opera performances covering a 50 year or so span.

http://www.operatoday.com/content/repertoire/

Mike

RJR · March 21, 2011, 06:03:06 AM

Sorry that I haven't been prompt in replying, Brian. When some of the people who replied to my tip said that they couldn't connect because of US internet laws, or some such, I thought my tip was a lost cause. You're right, though, there is only one Ravel recording so far. There are several Debussy, Fauré, Saint-Saens. Just type the name of the composer you're looking for at the top of the page. For some reason, The EuropArchiv changed their jpeg format. Now the album covers are in php. Although it's less convenient, they still work if you want to download album covers. I use Winamp diskwriter to download the files in FLAC format. Be sure to check your temp files somewhere in C:, they can really start to pile up.

Florestan · March 21, 2011, 07:10:37 AM

Quote from: knight66 on February 06, 2011, 01:59:59 AM
From the UK and therefore at least Europe the following is an interesting source of full opera performances covering a 50 year or so span.

http://www.operatoday.com/content/repertoire/

Mike

Terrific link, Mike! Thanks a lot for sharing.