Protected WMA -> burnable MP3/WAV
 

I was browsing the 'net looking for a way to do the above and thought I would ask you guys 'cuz I'm not having much luck finding a definitive solution. I want to be able to sign up for a free trial with Napster, exploit the hell out of it by downloading like mad and be able to convert the songs I download to storable/burnable MP3 and/or WAV files. You guys know of a way, or am I pissing in the wind?

Well, I'm actually doing it right now and I do it a lot ... but it takes some work.

There ren't any converters or anything. You have two ways to go about it. You can burn the files to a CD and then extract them / rip them using a special method, I've never used this method ... but I guess it works.

I rerecord the songs back through my sound card using a program called "WavePad", but any sound recorder will work, if you have a full duplex sound card (which you most likely do, assuming you bought your card after like 1997 and it was more than $7). You just set it to record your line-out or, as it's often referred, "What U Hear" (I doin't know why it's spelled that way, but your sound card even refers to it as "What u Hear"). Anyway, you can only record at 1x and it can be sort of annoying, but you end up lkistning to the songs anyway. I don't download as much as I thought that I would, but I still DL about 15 songs a month, which justifies the $12/month fee.

Napster is a little short on choices sometimes, though. They're surprisingly absent of a lot of music that they *should* have.

aNyway, check it out.

Hmm.. ya I've read about that solution and don't particularly want to go that route. I just found this thread, though, and it mentions a program called MuvAUDIO I am considering buying: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....58#post1061467 Apparently, you can convert up to 5 files at a time and it is strictly digital...and it's not in real-time.

It's only 19$ -- what do you think?

Hmmmm... I'd get it if it works. I didn't think there was any way to do it other than recording it.

Actually, I'm going to take a look at it and I'll buy it too if it works.

I just read this on the MuvAudio page:
"MuvAudio takes real-time recording to the next level allowing possibilities never before achieved by either digital conversion programs or real-time recording programs. "

Yeah, ya'll will have to let me know how that works out, if it's an easy way to turn the unlimited music service on napster into a many cds for the go type deal, I'd be game.

I'm about to buy it and give it a shot. I'll get back to ya..

Well, I downloaded the trial and for some reason after I install and open it, the background of the program is black (in the help files there is a blue blackground), making it where I can't read any of the text telling you how to use the program. Any ideas, or anyone having the same problem?

Hmm...maybe I'll fuck with it, I just re-installed the napster plugin to wmp, now I'm downloading the one album I had bought on it.

*edit*
The program itself is loading just fine, I'll try the actual program out in a bit.

Ok, I've gone to the free-trial of the napster to go, downloaded a NIN track, so I could test the program with a DRM-fucked file, and, it worked out just fine. I just loaded up the newly recorded track into nero and checked the properties, and, the DRM tab is completely gone.

Do you have to rerecord the files and name them in real time? As it is now, I use a program called "WavePad" (free) that I just rerecord them and save them as 168bit MP3's.

Can you just set a list and let it play / convert?

Yep, it'll convert playlists of drm'd files. Unfortunatley, there doesn't appear to be a way around the $20 fee, that i've found... :)

I have no problem paying a one time $20 fee to pretty much download as much music as I want for $12/month

Ya, I got that problem with the background worked out and it's working great now. I guess it does convert in real-time, eh?

Hmmm... having a problem getting it running. Is there a place I can download MS .net framework from? I thought that I had the full thing ... but I don't since I formatted.

n/m I'm getting it now.

Wow..this program is definitely pretty damn cool. I read the help file and understand now how it can record faster than real-time...if you set more than one to record they will record concurrently in real-time, and if you have say 10 to record, once one is done another will take its place until there is nothing left to record. The quality is great and even when recording five at a time the tracks don't skip. Free music owns. :)

Yeah, I think I might go with napster now because of this program...first I'm gonna use the trial and see how the selection on there is now, been a couple years since I checked it out.

And, just a note, if you notice some things not producing sound since running muvaudio, you'll have to go to your sound properties and change back the Virtual audio cable selection to your standard sound, that had me confused for a few minutes.

Here's a question on the subject of napster...there's a couple tracks that I've apparently downloaded more than the 3 times allowed, is that limitation still present with the napster to go service?

i cant get that program to work for me or napster.. but in other news every other p2p i have works great and gets around the 20$ fee.