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New MusicStacker Software Disables DRM on Napster and iTunes Music Files

By Alexander Grundner | January 23rd, 2006 Interest Level: SMOKING HOT


apple itunes graphicWhoa, Man. Now here’s an app that I’m sure will be a big hit. MusicStacker is an ingenious utility that transcodes DRM wrapped audio [correction: captures audio from DRM wrapped music -- view details from the developer] into DRM free MP3s (via noDRM). When transoding, which the author likes to call “remastering,” MusicStacker does three things: 1. Converts protected audio to MP3, 2. Transfers ID3 tag data, 3. Places newly created tracks into a user’s directory of choice. What’s more, users can select whole directories for one-click conversion. Price: $15.99.

Warning: By using this product you are breaking the contract agreed upon with your online service provider(s), which could potentially result in legal action if caught. However, some might look at the functionality of this product as an exercise in their fair-use rights.

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Short URL: http://bit.ly/9MfYlJ [+]  Filed in: Software  
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Alexander Grundner is the Editor & Publisher of eHomeUpgrade. He has been following "Digital Home" developments since 2003. He's also a fan of cross-platform, open development software and industry standards related to media, networking, and the web. You can catch his daily tech musings on Twitter: @agrundner.
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  • Direct from the developer via email:




    Hi Alexander:






    In some way you are correct that there is a chance for degradation. But there are steps to eliminate this degradation. First let’s identify the source of possible degradation and the solution will follow.





    Source of possible degradation:<ol style="list-style-type: decimal"><li>The soundcard is a source of degradation if the output is analog. But for the most part it is not noticeable; most soundcard know have very good quality.</li><li>The output format that you select is a source of degradation. Selecting output of MP3 will introduce quality loss.</li></ol>




    Eliminate any degradation:<ol style="list-style-type: decimal"><li>Use a sound card that has SPDIF Out; use Musicstacker to select capture from SPDIF Out. When Musicstacker capture from SPDIF out there is no loss of quality since there is on DA/AD conversion it is all digital not analog. Most new Sounblaster soundcard have SPDIF Out capability. There are also some cheap soundcards that have SPDIF Out as well.</li><li>Select WAV as the output format. When you select WAV as output there is no compression of data as in the case for MP3.</li></ol>




    Doing one or both of the eliminate step above will incrementally eliminate any degradation.





    Musicstacker does not disable DRM in the original file; that would be breaking the law.





    Let me know if you have any additional question.





    Regards
  • It's not clear if it transcodes the audio (that's the impression I got) after disabling the DRM, or if it works like Total Recorder, by ripping the audio stream from the sound card (which I hope it doesn't because that definitely degrades the audio quality). I'm going to shoot off an email to the developer and get confirmation.
  • Lol. It transcodes them? Most likely recording them off the Sys Mixer, right? This isn't news, I hate to be the one to say. :eek: You can do this with Total Recoder, Audacity, etc. I'm sure it also includes great features like seconds of dead-audio before there recording software picks up. :D




    There "remastering" doesn't do a thing for audio quality, it sounds like it just does it all-in-one. Not worth a penny, and really not worth whatever they charge.





    Why do people pay for low bitrate lossy encodings, then transcode them to even lower quality using another lossy codec? :confused:





    Chris
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