Loading blocked audio recordings on VKontakte
I have been a reader of Habr for a long time, but have not yet written a single article. This post prompted me to write this article: Blocking audio recordings on Vkontakte. Restoring the playlist. I liked the methods used by the author to bypass the VKontakte filter, but as a person who has been involved in sound processing and writing music for a long time, I can say that this is not the best decision that can be made in this situation, and here’s why: 1. The quality deteriorates audio recordings, with repeated conversion and deliberate deterioration of quality. 2. Cutting a piece of a piece changes the music. I propose a slightly different approach to solving this problem. Anyone interested in the topic, please see cat. I'll go into more detail about several methods that you can use to bypass the filter, including a method that allows you to download blocked music without changing its content (i.e., completely preserving the sound). All tests were performed in the Audacity program; a song performed by rapper Pitbull and singer Marc Anthony, called Rain Over Me, was selected for analysis. This particular song is suitable for the test for several reasons: it is “banned” on VKontakte, all frequencies are present in its spectrum in full, it has both “quiet” and “loud” parts, which will allow you to experiment with dynamics. First, let's make sure that it is impossible to listen to the audio recording, because... it was removed at the request of the copyright holder:
As you can see, it’s true that the original audio recording has been seized, and when we try to download the same one, we will receive a warning about copyright infringement: Loading the same audio recording, but under a different name, was also unsuccessful. There were no tags in both entries (the original and the version with the changed name). Now let's try to load the same audio recording, slightly changing it in some way.
Ways to bypass the filter
Changing the tonal balance of the entire work, or part of it, that is, processing with an equalizer:
In my opinion, this is the simplest method. Let's look at several cases of using EQ: Here I immediately present the result of what I came to; in fact, I unwisely began to try to “feed” an audio recording with a slightly changed tonal balance to VKontakte, so that it was practically impossible to hear the difference (for example, I used a low-pass filter and high-pass filter with very soft settings - the difference in sound was negligible). VKontakte rejected entries with such changes, but, interestingly, accepted them processed like this: This means that recognition occurs only in the mid-frequency region, high and low frequencies are not affected. The first option is to equalize the entire track: you need to cut out a small area of the mid-frequency range. I tried to apply EQ only to a small section of the track - it didn’t work.
Adding noise
In the comments to the article, user Gorthauer87 suggested “a little mixing of some noise imperceptible to the ear.” The idea is correct; in fact, it was the very first one that came to my mind. The recording industry has long used dithering, which is nothing more than adding noise, although now the noise is going through the stage of noise shaping - i.e. the frequencies most audible to the human ear are removed from it. Adding enough white noise to be heard clearly did not help the audio load. This method is not suitable for us, because if the noise can be heard, then we can assume that the audio recording is damaged and cannot be listened to =(
Working with Track Dynamics
After processing the entire track with a compressor with fairly “soft” settings, the audio recording was successfully loaded. Here is a screenshot of the compressor settings: It is quite problematic for an unprepared listener to hear the difference with the original, but if you listen with headphones or on low-quality acoustics, it is impossible.
"Crown" method
But this method surprised me with its simplicity, while it turned out to be the highest quality of all those discussed earlier.
You just need to add a small piece of an arbitrary signal to the end of the track (after the music has ended). As a result, the useful signal does not change in any way, but the VKontakte website does not try to block such tracks. In this particular example, I added a 440 hertz sine wave to the end of the piece, the duration of the noise is approximately 1 minute. If this article is of interest to readers, then I can take a closer look at each of the methods of downloading music (I guess that the “crown” method will soon be “covered”), depending on the material (classical, rock, pop, electronics). Each of the options will work better on one material and worse on another, that is, in some places it is more noticeable to a person, and in others practically without changing the source. The article turned out to be not as complete as I would like, for the reason that my DAW refused to work and began to throw an error (so I did all the work in Audacity). I assume that there are several more ways that will work: 1. Working with the stereo base (its expansion/constriction) 2. Processing the entire track with a multiband exciter
3. Multiband compression of the mid-frequency range, to a much lesser extent than discussed in the article. 4. Adding a very weak reverberation signal, inaudible to the human ear.
5. Expansion, both single and multi-lane.
If there is an opportunity to work on a powerful DAW, then I will be able to consider these cases.
Conclusion
I am not a supporter of copyright infringement, since I myself am involved in creating music, but I believe that the situation with copyright in our time has gone beyond all acceptable limits. Prohibitions and restrictions are only temporary solutions that will not eliminate piracy; it is necessary to solve the problem completely, stimulating alternative means distribution of music.
In reality, which of those people who suffered from the deletion of VKontakte audio recordings will go to the store and buy a CD? Or will they buy music online? *A sample audio recording was taken from the website youtube.com, where it was posted in the public domain by the copyright holder. The audio recording was used solely for research purposes.
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More details
Site problems
1. And the sixth reason, which we, ordinary users, unfortunately, are unable to influence is problems with the site servers themselves, because they store very large amounts of information, which is sometimes difficult for technology to cope with. Do not rush to contact support, as most likely they have already been notified and are trying to correct all errors and inconveniences as quickly as possible.
It’s very good if you solved the problem when an error occurred while loading an audio recording. Remember that this is the most common, very small problem that should be correctly solved once, put an end to it and forget it forever!
After updating the official VKontakte mobile application to version 3.0, users had a “small” limitation, which became available to users of smartphones on iOS and Android. Many have already guessed that the restriction concerns the time spent listening to music in the background.
.
Now in the VK mobile application there is a limit on listening to music - 60 minutes per day
, which they later want to reduce to
30 minutes
.
In order to remove the restriction, you must subscribe to a monthly subscription for 149 rubles.
That is why information on how to listen to music on VK without restrictions is very necessary. Therefore, we tried to collect for you all the most relevant and useful information on this issue.
More recently it became known that there are also free methods
bypass this limitation (thanks to smart users).
At the moment, 3 such methods are known. So, if you need to know how to remove restrictions
on background music listening, read:
Article update dated 11/09/2018:
In addition to the following
methods that still work, we wrote an article for you about that and save it in the device’s memory for further offline listening. You can also simply listen to songs without restrictions. All the details are in that article.
Article update from 05/05/18:
Perhaps many have already guessed, but for those who have not yet, I would like to tell you about a small life hack
.
In order to continue listening to music after the restriction message appears, do the following
: go to settings, in the auto-lock screen section, check the “
Never
” box so that the phone screen is not blocked and the music does not go into background listening mode.
Next, so that the phone’s battery drains much, much slower in this mode, we set the screen brightness to minimum
and continue to enjoy the music on VKontakte.
Yes, perhaps not everyone will like this method of bypassing music restrictions, but the main thing is that it solves it, and this is the most important thing. For example, if you listen to music in the car, then it will really help you continue listening to your favorite music.
Article update from 11/21/17:
How to download blocked music on VKontakte
Home » Instructions and lessons » How to upload copyright-infringing music to VK VKontakte has implemented many different filters that block certain actions and, as a result, interfere with the full use of the resource. These filters also include processing of downloaded music. In some cases, an audio recording, at the request of the copyright holder, may be withdrawn from public access and not available for listening, and if you try to upload it again to your list of audio recordings, it will still be automatically deleted. In this article I will tell you what methods you can use to download blocked music so that it remains unchanged and is not blocked by the administration. Some try to solve this kind of problem by changing the format or name of the composition, but unfortunately such manipulations do not help and blocking still occurs. But this is not a problem, because there are a number of methods, and about one, probably the simplest, read on. This method will require the presence of one program - Adobe Audition, which can be downloaded from the link below. This program was created for various conversions of music tracks. In our case, we will only change one parameter.
- Launch the installed program and load the previously downloaded track into it.
- Now you need to go to the “Effects” menu, then “Time and Pitch” and select the “Stetch and Pitch” tool.
- In the window that appears, you need to set the “Pitch Shift” parameter to 0.02 (as shown in the screenshot) and apply the changes.
- Now you can save the song and safely upload it to your VKontakte page.
DOWNLOADAdobe Audition
Popularity rating: 1490 • Date: 1-08-2016, 12:25
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How to upload music to contact if it violates copyright?
- It helped the first time, but it didn’t work the second time!
- Alas, as soon as you start downloading music from sites, you automatically become a violator of copyright and related rights! To avoid this, a complex but legal procedure is provided: you find the copyright holders (not the fact that these are necessarily the authors of the musical works) of the songs you are interested in and enter into appropriate agreements with them for the use and further dissemination of the result of their intellectual activity (if they are the authors ) and agree directly with each person on the amount of remuneration for transferring the corresponding rights to you. Or maybe they will agree to transfer these rights to you free of charge, that is, for nothing!
