DRM Removal - Comments Page 1

Thanks for the nice list of audio converters and DRM removers. Just one note... WMA Convert Platinum may also be a clone of Sound Taxi. Clever marketeers!

I recently ripped a bunch of CDs using WMP to lossless WMA, before I realized I should have unchecked the "copy protect" button. Now I want to convert all these files for my own use, without spending many hours re-ripping. What about SoundTaxi or TuneCab? Can it do the conversion without losing any quality ?? Thanks.

EDITOR'S NOTE: SoundTaxi offers "CD quality" copying. That may imply some loss of quality, not sure.

Hi Bob
For about the last five years I've been using a free program named HardDiskOGG from http://www.fridgesoft.de/harddiskogg.php The thing I like best about it is the fact that it automatically adjusts the recording volume during the recording. It can also be controlled from a command line.

Thanks!

That's Nice. Now how about how to back up movie DVD's?, and or play them on a Linux computer.

EDITOR'S NOTE: See http://askbobrankin.com/convert_vhs_to_dvd.html

Have never understood the fuss about DRM especially when ripping a CD. Why not use MS Sound Recorder set to record at CD quality (44,100 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo)? You need to have chosen 'what U hear' of course. (accessed by clicking on system-tray speaker)

By default MS SR will only record for one minute. But you can record over any existing .wav file. Or you can record a minute of silence and 'insert' other silent files until you have the required length. If you 'save as' you can use the silent file again.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You can use Seound Recorder, but as you mentioned, it's a bit hokey. And it will only create WAV files, not MP3s.

Hi, You appear to have forgotten to mention one of the best converters which is FairUse4WM, it converts DRM protected Windows Media Player files and is FREE.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks, here's the URL: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=114916

Best not to convert to .mp3 if you are copying a CD because of some loss of sound quality. Also it saves your CD burner the task of re converting to .wav before burning.

If you don't want to mess with Sound Recorder, Audacity will do the job of recording What-U-hear. It will convert .wav to MP3 also. This facility has been available for about five years, to my knowledge.

BTW Sound Recorder will convert to numerous formats and compressions. From 188KB per second to as low as one one KB per second. Still puzzled. Since I have always been able to record any sound my PC plays, what is the point of DRM?

Just FYI FairUse4WM is kind of hard to find.
i got it as a torrent Here
http://www.torrentportal.com/download/1343223/DRM%20Removal%20Tool.torrent

Noteburner - simulates a CD on your hard drive - burn DRM protected files to .wav, ,mp3 etc.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, it's already in the list above...

You can also go to http://musicforte.com and download 5 free songs, and give a listen to the "Haters Need Luv2 Show" @ http://YouRockRadio for no DRM hassles whatsoever.

Many of the people I talk to think Audacity is quite the program, and for the price, I would say they might be right on that one!

Thanks for the information. My manager gave me an itunes gift card for Christmas, and I was baffled about how to get the songs into the ogg format that I use at home on my Linux desktop. I've already downloaded and burned the songs to CD so I can rip them when I get home.

I tried the Audacity suggestion of hitting recording while playing an song in iTunes and nothing happens (as I suspected). This is with the latest Audacity 1.3.3-beta for the Mac.

I don't see how Audacity will record streaming audio as it only has options for "Internal Microphone" and "Line In". Moreover, you can't drag and drop a DRM protected iTunes file (from the iTunes store) and have Audacity import it as it would an MP3 or AIFF etc. What am I missing?

EDITOR'S NOTE: My Audacity v1.2.6 for Windows has Wave, What-U-Hear, Digital In, Midi Synth, Line In, Auxiliary, and Microphone options. It seems the Mac version is lagging a bit.

Disclaimer: I don't do this myself.... If you download music files (mp3, wma) from a p2p program, occassionally Windows Media Player won't play them due to DRM. What I do is simply take the file and convert it with Koyote Soft's free converter. Here's the website: http://www.koyotesoft.com/indexEn.html

It converts just about any type of music file such as m4a files to mp3, wma... whatever you need. I originally got it to convert the iTunes files cuz I dont like iTunes; I prefer to use WMP. But on a whim, I discovered if you get a file that WMP won't play, simply convert it to the other format, i.e. from mp3 to wma or vice versa and - viola! - no usage rights problems.

cool. free the music - ow and audacity works fine for me i have a pc though

Can somebody explain to me how to use FairUse4WM ? I downloaded and extracted it but can't get it to work.

Thanks.

One of the simplest methods is missing -- if you are converting iTunes store somgs, simply burn them to an audio CD in iTunes, then import the CD as MP3 files. Goes much faster than converting the audio stream in real time. =)

EDITOR'S NOTE: That's what NoteBurner is good for -- it eliminates the need to waste CD-Rs in the process.

What about Daniusoft WMA MP3 Converter?
I have used it to convert DRM video and music which seems good.
http://www.daniusoft.com/wma-mp3-converter.html

JHymn (http://www.hymn-project.org/jhymndoc/) will strip the Apple ID and copyright information as well as convert the songs to wav or mp3.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jhymn only works on old versions of iTunes...

Is it possible for Itunes to see that a song you purchased legally was converted to mp3 using one of the above programs? Can they find out?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't think so... iTunes would have to search your entire hard drive for MP3 copies of all the songs in your iTunes music folder. That would be extremely CPU intensive, and would take a long time to run.

So it is possible. Is it better if you take the MP3 copies and put them in a different folder?

EDITOR'S NOTE: They would still be "visible"...