Hey guys, here's some info about common files that you can download from the internet, and a little bit about using these files for their intended purposes. If you're stuck on what exactly a file is or how to open it maybe your answer lies ahead. If you dont' find your answer here, then please post in the "Forum". So without further adieu lets get the show on the road!

.flac

Flac files are the preferred format for music sharing on upstate tapers dot org. From the wiki:

FLAC, an acronym for Free Lossless Audio Codec, is a popular file format for audio data compression. Being a lossless compression format, FLAC does not remove information from the audio stream, as do lossy compression formats such as MP3 and AAC.

Like other methods of compression, FLAC's main advantage is the reduction of bandwidth and/or storage requirements, but without sacrificing the integrity of the audio source. For example, a digital recording (such as a CD) encoded to FLAC maintains the quality of the audio perfectly. Audio sources encoded to FLAC are typically reduced in size 40 to 50 percent. FLAC is suitable for everyday playback and audio archival, with support for tagging, cover art and fast seeking. FLAC's open source royalty-free nature makes it well-supported by many software applications. FLAC playback support in portable audio devices and dedicated audio systems is growing.

To play the files, you need to install the flac codec, which can be found on sorceforge.net (click on the link to go directly to the flac download page.) For Windows, Flac Front End is a popular program used to encode and decode flac files. To just play them on your computer, Winamp now has native flac support, and foobar2000 is also popular, because of its multiple format support.

.ffp

These are flac fingerprints, used as a checksum to check and see if the files you downloaded are not corrupt. Use the Flac Front End to check your files.

.md5

MD5 files are another checksum file. To check them, there are plenty of programs. I use md5sum.exe which requires use of the command line, or the MKW audio compression Toolkit which is also useful to create and decode .shn files.

.txt

Txt files contain setlists, recording information, etc about the show you are downloading.

.shn

Shn files are another lossless audio codec, that was once quite popular. To decode them, use the MKW audio compression Toolkit or to play them, there is a winamp plugin for shn files, which can be found here.

.mp3

Mp3 files need no introduction. While not preferred, they are sometimes neccessary.