THE RULES:

1. You are not allowed to upload copyrighted material. 
ie If you made wav, shn, mp3, flac or any other type of audio file from studio CDs that you purchased at record stores or via record store websites.  FTP site operators take copyright infringement very seriously.  The FTP are patrolled often (by multiple people) and any copyright infringing material is immediatly deleted.  Please don't waste time and threaten the FTPs existence by uploading copyrighted material.  We are thankful to the band that allows us to tape trade and we would not want to this in jeopardy.  

Copyrighted Material includes not only CD Albums but CD Singles, Promo CDs, LPs, 7" Records, 45 rpms,  and Vinyl. I know stuff like "Zaireeka" may be out-of-print, but as we have seen they eventually repress them.  Do not upload them!

A word on promos. Many times promo albums can include the exact same audio as the official releases.  Please do not share those. For example "The Live Sessions" 8 track promo CD has the same tracks that are found on many of the 2002 - 2003 CD Singles for the "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" Album.  ...Also, they are copyrighted works...

But in rare cases a track may be different, a radio mix, remix, or unreleased.  This is a fuzzy area. The band isn't making money off promos and it doesn't compete against their in store albums.  I will check in with a few insiders with the Lips and see what policy the FTPs should take on with promos.  Upon the band releasing this material on an official album, it will be deleted from all FTP sites.

2. This FTP is for Live material only. It can be stuff you taped, the Lips taped and gave to 
fans, or it can be bootlegs that you bought (at one time where it wasn't enforced!) or it can be something a friend taped, or someone else's tape...you get the idea. BUT, don't get the not so bright idea  to share live albums or live tracks because those fall under copyright protection. Most of the stuff available will vary in quality because they are mostly audience recordings.  Sometimes you will come across some DAT or MiniDisc quality recordings. Other times there will be decent cassette tape recordings. Overall, I find Flaming Lips bootlegs to be very enjoyable.

One asterik here. The Flaming Lips have performed with Robin Hitchcock, Sparklehorse (Mark Linquos), The Chemical Brothers, Justin Timberlake, Beck, Chrome Cranks and Cardinal.  I do not know their personal or record companies policy on tape trading or bootlegging.  It is best to not upload those files to the FTP sites.  

3.  Please use SHN encoding for 16 bit / 44.1 Khz wav files.  Please use FLAC encoding for any other higher bitrate and sampling rate such as 24 / 96.  Thank you!

3. If uploading a new show, please make an accompaning text file with the band's name, date, location, venue name, setlist, and recording and transfer equipment.  Please include your name and e-mail contact in the text file so that others may contact you with questions.  Label the file as follows Band Name - Month-Day-Year - Track #.  If the recording was from Radio or Television, I usually add "TV" or "FM" to each file name because they may play a live show on the same day.  And, please put each show in it's own properly named folder. Make sure to include the checksum file (Md5).  Make sure to place that new folder in the appropriate main folder, such as "demos" or "Live."

4. Please name your folders "FL-Year-Month-Day." For example "FL-1993-10-08."  Please use exact audio copy for making .wav files from your CD-Rs.  You can download it from: http://www.etree.org/eac.html.  I would suggest naming each wav file like so: "FL-1993-10-08-Track- 01."   Next, you should use MKW's Audio Compression Tool to compress your .wav files into lossless .shn files.  You can download this free program from here: http://www.etree.org/mkw.html.  

5. When encoding wav files into shn, please generate a MD5 checksum file. This will allow users who download the shn to verify the file size is correct and the data has not been corrupted during transfer.  I don't find it neccessary to generate seek tables. You will just have one MD5 file that will be inclusive of all your files in your shared folder. It automitically updates itself any time new shn files are created.

6. Please do not hack the FTPs, disrupt the FTPs, deface this website or otherwise destroy this group effort.  Please do not edit, manipulate, distort, etc. circulating shn files. If you do, do not continue to share those  altered files. If you want to share them still, make a notation of the change in the file name. For example, you could place "(normalized)" or "(25 % bass reduction)" at the end of each file name. If you use a different extraction program you could put that in paranthesis like so "(Easy CD Creator)" or place the information in the text file.

7. If you download a show and modify the sound quality, please do not upload your modified copy.  If you do, please make a note of it in the folder name.  Please also make a note of your changes in the text file that you circulate.  Tell us what programs you used and any technical specifications of your editing.  Finally, change the name of the files to have something like "(cleaned fuzz)" at the end of each file name so that the hub will not mistaken the new files for being the same as the original files, which would cause confussion for downloaders and the FTP itself.

8.  Please do not delete files in the FTPs.  Most times, this feature will only be accessable to the owners and moderators.  As forementioned, the owners and moderators will police the FTP sites and delete all copyright infringing material (regardless of format) found within.  Renaming, organizing, and other tasks is best left to the owners.  If you've got any ideas on better structure or want to become a moderator, please send an e-mail to me.  Thank you.

Downloading & Installing a FTP Browser

1 I have found Smart FTP to be a pretty stable FTP broswer (http://www.smartftp.com).  I beleive their free download is a 30-Day trial.  After that, get out your wallet.  If you prefer, check download.com for FTP Browsers and select one that fits you best.  But, once again, I recommend Smart FTP.

2 Its pretty simple.  After you launch it for the first time, it will have you do a settings set-up.  I suppose the only thing of technical noteworthyness is the ASCI vs. Binary setting when it comes to downloading.  I find leaving it on "auto" is just as good as setting it on binary.  If your concerned, do some more reading on the subject.

3 In the approximate place you would find a website address bar, lies 3 boxes.  One for an address, one for a username and one for a password.  Fill them in and press enter while your cursor is in the last box (or go to file > connect).  Once "inside," you can browse files, download and upload (send files). It is rather easy to figure out, but if you need help read the client documentation.  

4 Make sure you have hard drive space for your downloads.  If you're also a memeber of the HUB, consider keeping your shn files on your hard drive for sharing.  

Contact

Technical Help: Ryan Mulberger