But I Want Boards!


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Alright, you've tried out some of the AUDs I've listed (you have, right? ;-)) and you're not convinced. Or you like the AUDs but you still want that crisp, separated sound that only a board can deliver. Fair enough. I can lead you to the AUDs, but I can't make you download.

Although it is no longer allowed to permanently host soundboard recordings of the Grateful Dead on sites where they can be downloaded on demand, there are still many options for the SBD hungry Deadhead. Most of these are of the peer-to-peer file sharing variety, especially bittorrent. There are also other options that hark back to the analog days of tape trading.

Bittorrent

Bittorrent (bt) is by far the most popular method of uploading and downloading Grateful Dead music, both boards and audience recordings. For those unfamiliar with it, bittorrent is a method of file sharing that involves downloading and installing a bittorrent client (program), then visiting a website that hosts torrents of shows uploaded by that site's members, clicking on a download link on the site and managing the download in the bt client. While your client downloads the show, it also uploads the parts that you've already downloaded to other bt users who are downloading the show. In that way the upload bandwidth gets shared out more or less equally among the people downloading the show and the show propagates much faster and more efficiently than relying on one central server that has to bear all the upload burden (as with FTP). Most bittorrent sites also engage heavily in trading Jerry Garcia shows, other Grateful Dead members', as well as many other bands popular during various eras, but mostly of the hippie/jam type. Each of the bittorrent sites have different rules concerning what may and may not be uploaded, ratio of upload to download required (general ettiquette requires uploading at least as much as you download) and requirements to achieve uploader status (that is, the ability to initiate an upload of your own unique torrents). Some also require registering for membership and may have membership limits. At this time the most open site is bt.etree.org, which requires no membership to download and has no ratio requirements.

Popular Bittorrent Sites

Popular bittorrent clients (programs - you need these to use bittorrent)

It's easy to find tutorials by googling "[bt client] tutorial]", but the steps are actually very simple:

  1. Download and install a bt client
  2. Go to a bittorrent site
  3. Click on the download link for the show you want
  4. Your bittorrent client will prompt you to specify the folder you want the downloaded to. The first time your browser might prompt you to select which program you want to open the torrent link with. Choose the bt client you just installed, after which the torrent will open in your bt client.
  5. Don't forget to forward your ports if you're behind a firewall. You can get more information on this at portforward.com
  6. That's it! You'll be downloading and sharing in no time!

Furthurnet

Furthurnet is a live music file sharing network that hews to strict standards to make sure that only shows that have been okayed by the performing artists are shared. That leaves a helluva lotta shows, believe me! You need to download their software in order to access the network. It may take more resources than older computers can spare, but newer computers should have no problem with it.

Snail mail

The boys and girls at the US Postal Service were the lifeline for tape traders way back in the day, and it's still possible to trade shows this way. Not just CDs or DVDs, either - nowadays with storage costing as low as 20 cents a gigabyte, you can send a hard drive of almost any size to someone with a large collection, have it filled up overnight and sent back to you the next day. I've often hooked up a 500 GB or bigger drive to my RAID that someone sent me and the next day had it on its way back to its owner with hundreds of shows on it.

The best way to get in touch with people who have what you want is via db.etree.org. This site lists hundreds of thousands of shows by thousands of artists and lets you get in touch with the people who have them to arrange a trade. If you're just starting out and have nothing to trade, many people (myself included) are willing to do B&P's (blanks and postage), where you send blank media and return postage and the other person returns the media to you with the show(s) on them. My own list is at http://db.etree.org/btet.

There are other ways to obtain Grateful Dead boards out there, but these are the most effective ones. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

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