Possible uses are up to your imagination, and include merging disparate chapters or parts of an audiobook into a single file, archiving and organizing albums, and creating a single file for easier publishing or sharing on the net.

Ir ecently downloaded an audiobook that was dispersed over 36 or so separate MP3 files. As I started listening I realized that it was quite difficult to keep track of where I last left off and which of the numbered files I had already listened to. Also, it was impossible to get an overall mental picture of how many minutes I had listened to and how many still remain.

This is when I started looking for free programs that can merge audio files into one, and MakeItOne MP3 Album Maker is one of the best that I found. Here’s what I like about it:

1. The merging process is reversible: MakeItOne seems to store the information needed for this within the audio file itself.
2. Preserves audio tags: with the ability to edit this data before combining.
3. Ability to add album art: within the MP3 file itself, from a locally saved image file. Will not fetch from the internet.
4. Nice Interface: with drag and drop functionality
5. Command line interface/scripting option: is available
6. Can split Albumwrap-merged files: which you may occasionally encounter on the internet.
7. Supports VBR: in some fashion. MP3s that are between 96-320Kbps 44KHz 16bit Stereo should play fine, but the duration of the album will be misreporeted. However, to quote the developer’s site, the program’s "support for VBR is no worse currently than any other Album Maker/Joiner/Wrapper Mp3 application." Go here for more info.

The verdict: if you need to merge MP3 files this is one of the best options around. If I could ask for one feature, however, it would be the option to save CUE files, which some related programs utilize. Aside from that I can report this program does exactly what it promises and does it well. Recommended.

Version Tested: 3.4

Compatibility: WinAll. Requires MS .NET Framework 1.1 or higher for XP.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 432K).

A brilliant strangely original app, but also potentially very useful. This blog, for example, is mostly written on a laptop on the bus that I take to and from work, and I often find myself inconvenienced by the unintended Windows startup chime blasting on the bus when I start up my laptop, which I have to wait out and can do nothing about. In other situations I was surprised by the annoying "congratulations, you just won an Ipod" or somesuch voice ads while surfing in cafes or at work, or by the unanticipated introductory music or sound effects from a game that I may have been considering for a review, etc.

More notes on this app:

• How to use: unzip in a place you like and run. All settings are self explanatory.
• Wish list: although not a problem in Windows 7, for XP I would have liked the option to hide the program icon in the system tray.
• Mute/unMute by hotkey: Ctrl+F10 by default. Can be changed at user discretion.
• Size in memory: 9 megs, which isn’t a lot but surprisingly large for the provided functionality.

The verdict: nothing more to say on this one, except that it will become a permanent fixture on my laptop.

Version Tested: 2.0

Compatibility: Any 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 326K).

Your audio library likely comes from a hodge-podge of sources; tracks that you ripped from CDs using different programs and settings over the years, tracks that you downloaded from sites and file sharing services, and tracks that you bought from services such as iTunes, etc. This means that unless you have put in a lot of time and energy fixing tags, normalizing volume, and generally doing maintenance on your audio files your audio library probably has a lot of issues that need to be remedied (including many problems that you were never aware of). This is where MP3 Diags steps is to discover, diagnose, and fix any problems or other issues that your audio library may have.

Problems? What Problems?
The most visible problem are of course tagging and missing normalization data, but there are other, more technical issues that you may not be aware of. MP3 Diags, to quote its website, “is a one stop solution that identifies more than 50 different issues in MP3 files and provides the means to fix many of them”. These (again from the website) include broken tags/headers/audio, duplicate tags/headers, incorrect placement of tags/headers, low quality audio, missing VBR header, missing (or broken) track info/cover art, missing normalization data, and character encoding issues (for languages other than English).

What I like about this program
Is that it doesn’t just diagnose, it includes the tools to fix. However, here’s a specific list of things I like about this MP3 Diags

1. Full fledged Tag editor: which is really very cool. I like that you can copy from one “cell” in its Excel-like grid, then paste into multiple places.
2. MusicBrainz (and Discogs) integration: it includes a full fledged tag editor that can pull data from Musicbrainz and Discogs. (Musicbrainz is a community based digital thumbprinting database that can identify and tag audio files with no tag or filename information).
3. Volume normalization: uses external app Mp3Gain to process and normalize albums, in order to ensure that played tracks from different albums or different source don’t exhibit volumes that are too loud or too low on transition. To enable Mp3Gain download the zipped version of that program nd extract in the MP3 Diags directory.
4. Tooltips: while most of the issues that MP3Diags are technical and in many cases not easily understandable, the program will let you hover over the different columns and get an instant explanation. This makes the program so much more accessible and easier to use for novices and experts alike.
5. Maintains backups of changed files

Wish list (or how this program can be even better):

• A “fix everything” button: as it is there are a number of “action” buttons, and each will perform a certain group of fixes (which are editable in the settings). However, I found myself clicking on these on after the other in order to get all the issues taken care of.
• Search box: although there are many kinds of filters available for sorting through files, it is not possible to filter by typing in a string of text, which I found very strange.
• Column sort: issues found are laid out in a grid, and it was strange to discover that I couldn’t click on column heads in order to sort by these.
• Context menu integration for the tag editor: i.e. the ability to right click on a folder or selected audio files and open these in the tag editor. This is one thing that Mp3Tag does which I love, and I wish this program would do it as well.

The verdict: I’ve seen a handful of programs that scan your audio library to identify quality issues, but MP3Diag is without a doubt in a league of its own. If you’ve every wished there was a single program that can help you identify problems in your audio library and allow you to fix then you’ve found it.

Some caveats though: this program is still in beta so be mindful of that if you encounter any bugs (I didn’t). Also note that what constitutes low quality is user defined in the settings, so change that according to your preference.

My experience with this program is that it works great; however, I often found myself a little … incredulous (may be the word) … that problems were found with audio files that I didn’t think had anything wrong with them (such as containing invalid streams for example). In cases like these, you could either use the auto backup and apply the fix or simply decide to move on. In my case I did the former without adverse effects, and I actually have a high degree of trust that the program “knows what its doing”. Highly recommended.

Version Tested: 0.99.06.042

Compatibility: Windows, Linux.

Go to the program home page for more info; download link can be found here (installer and portable versions available; approx 6.36 megs).

Although there is probably no one left in the universe that hasn’t figured out how to find and download music on the internet, Songr is a nice program to have for the following reasons (consider this the PROS section):

1. It has a nice, compact interface.
2. The fact that it searches multiple sources, acting as a meta-search engine for audio search engines such as Skreemr and others.
3. It can identify songs based on lyrics. Perfect for those times when you have a section of a song echoing over and over in your head that you don’t have the name of and/or don’t know the artist.
4. It can download songs from YouTube as MP3 audio or as FLV or MPG video. (For this, click on the little blue floppy disk icon next to “search by lyrics”).

The CONS section:

• Reliability: many entries in the list of results turned out to be broken links when I tried to download them. And while eventually I invariably found entries in the list that worked, it would be great if Songr could check for and remove broken links from the list.

The verdict: a nice program; straightforward and does the job, but with room for improvement in terms of reliability. Regardless, Kudos to the developers for this nice little program.

Version Tested: 1.2

Compatibility: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7. Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 0.45 megs).

In a crowded field of freeware music players what makes this music player/manager notable is the way it marries your music library with a world of information/artwork which it downloads from the internet. More notes below:

• Online integration: esp. with respect to album art and images that represent the band and/or artist you are listening to, which it will automatically download from Last.FM. It will also download and display information such as artist bios, reviews, lyrics, etc.
• The user interface: the interface consists of multiple "panes" that can be maximized, minimized, added or removed, and works very well once you get used to it.
• Advanced search: comes with a very impressive search function. Aside from filtering by specific fields (e.g. artist, title, album, or location) it can also search lyrics, comments,and/or your own personal comments if you have them. Also keeps track of your history and can deliver interesting stats on demand (e.g. top songs, top artists for a specific time interval).
• Tag editing: very powerful. Right click to perform all major tagging operations. For researching track information you can access online reference via right click r(e.g. AllMusic, Amazon, Discogs, etc).
• Video playback: is also supported, although it seems restricted to .AVI (didn’t play MKV or MP4 when I tested)
• LastFM scrobbler: can be enabled in the settings.
• Low memory footprint: at around 25 megs in memory.

What it does not offer:

• No Internet Radio support
• No Audio podcast support
• No Support for hardware devices (i.e. hardware MP3 devices)
• No CD ripping.

The verdict: this is a great little program. It looks good, feels good, and generally provides a great user experience. The downloading of info and artwork works really well and is very well implemented. Recommended.

Version Tested: 0.97.951

Compatibility: Windows XP/2003, Vista.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 2.2 megs).

Applying the correct tags and cover art to your audio library may feel like a never ending quest or even an impossible one; fortunately, however, there are sophisticated tools such as MetatOgger to help with the task. I’d previously written about Mp3Tag, an excellent audio tagging and renaming app, but MetatOgger it notable because it has a couple of interesting functions that Mp3Tag does not, including acoustic fingerprinting and audio tag lookups via its own downloadable database.

This software has a lot of potential, but also needs to iron out some significant kinks. Here’s a list of some of the features that MetatOgger has that I like the most, as well as a list of those I do NOT like so much.

My favorite MetatOgger features (also known as the PROS section):

• Acoustic fingerprinting: is your recourse for audio files that has no information whatsoever (or simply for identifying missing info). Acoustic fingerprinting is a process whereby the software “listens” to the audio and compares its digital fingerprint with the huge Musicbrainz community database. MetatOgger can query this database on demand to instantly populate missing audio tags without user intervention.
• Column-header filters: you can easily not notice that you can perform this really useful function (see image to the right). Would have liked the ability to filter by rules though, Excel-style, such as “all entries that begin with x”.
• Tag from Database: this will prompt the downloading of a massive database which apparently comprises millions of titles. You can then simply do a search, find the album you want, and use the tags found in the database on your local files.
• Lyrics: simply check the songs you want and choose “get lyrics from lyricwiki.org” and voila – your songs will incorporate lyrics inside their audio tags. Useful for media players that offer a lyrics display with playback option.
• Cover art lookups: use the cover art search box to find cover art online. The program gives you a choice between storing the image data in the tag in the file itself, or otherwise to store it in the folder (if in doubt, go with the former). Note that you will need to manually identify the most suitable match from the list of results (the screenshot above shows cover art lookups).
• Allows saving workspaces: which is to say you can decide on which columns you would like to work with and their width on-screen and save that configuration. This turns out to be indespensible.
• Support for a wide range of audio files: including Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Speex, MP3, Musepack, Windows Media, WavPack and Monkey’s Audio
• Preview changes: this is standard practice for apps of this sort, but I will mention anyway that the program allows you to fiddle around with your audio library to your heart’s content, and will only save the changes once you are good and ready and click “save”; until then everything is virtual and un-doable.

My not-so-favorite features (also know as the CONS section):

• The user experience: is not as friendly as it could have been, and may cause some degree of frustration before getting used to. It always takes me too many clicks to check/uncheck the files that I want to work with because it involves using too many right click commands.The various interventions, moreover, could definitely have been made more intuitive.
• It can be slow: navigating is somewhat slow, and saving changes can be slower than you’d at first expect.
• No search box: despite the coolness of column-header filtering, I was surprised that there was no overall filter/search box.
• Cover art: will at times not produce results that are nonetheless easily found in, say, a Google images search. The good news is that you can download these separately and point to them from within MetatOgger.
• No context menu entry: one of the things I like about Mp3Tag is that it adds a context menu entry whereby I can quickly right click on a bunch of audio files and load them into that app to edit their tags. I am wishing that MetatOgger had an equivalent.

The verdict: a very powerful tool that can be immensely useful. I especially like the “acoustic fingerprinting” option and to be quite honest would prefer to access the Musicbrainz database from this program that using Musicbrainz’ own “Picard” app (the latter being rather atypical in its interface and design).

If you are using Mp3Tag or another similar program and are happy with the way it works and feels and it is performing well for you then, you might get a sense that MetatOgger is somewhat clunky or that its not as smooth and intuitive as it could be. However, if you want the added functionality (acoustic fingerprinting, database lookups, lyrics lookups) then MetatOgger is certainly a very nice software to have, and that is why I am giving this one my highest “Freewaregenius Pick” award.

Version Tested: 3.9.1.0

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Seven. Requires MS .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Check out the MetatOgger page (in French, but click here for a Google English translation). The download link is in the blue box, (approx 5 megs).

Songbird is a an open source, multiplatform music player intened to rival players such as iTunes; but does it have much more beyond the basics?

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com]. 

I’m taking a look at Songbird version 1.1.2. Songbird has been out for a while but only reached 1.0 at the end of 2008. Version 1.2 is expected to be out this month adding features like an equalizer and a customizable toolbar. I used to use iTunes and left that after getting sick of the ever-increasing size for updating and bloat. I’m now currently using MediaMonkey and am pretty content with it. We’ll see how Songbird stacks up against the two.

If you’re familiar with other Mozilla products like Firefox or Thunderbird, the install process will feel very familiar. An additional part of the Songbird setup process is locating your media collection and importing it for the first time. You can also set this folder to be monitored for any changes. Along with the import, you can install some add-ons that the setup recommends. You can always add these later but installing them during the setup makes for a much improved first impression. Setup recommends these add-ons: MTP Device Support, QuickTime Playback, Windows Media Playback, SHOUTcast Radio, Concerts (songkick.com), Last.fm, mashTape, 7digital Music Store.I would recommend the MorningPeeps (alarm clock), LyricMaster (lyrics) add-ons as well. They’re pretty cool and add more versatility to the player allowing you to set an alarm with your music collection and automatically pulling down lyrics for your songs to add to the tags. I would recommend a few more plug-ins based on their description but they did not work for me upon installing them; MinimizeToTray (Songbird version) and The Exorcist (remove broken tracks and duplicates) were two that I tried. It seems the Songbird community is not as rigorous as the Firefox community for the reliability of add-ons.

Songbird uses tabs like Firefox and allows for a lot of configuration. You can open separate web pages in these tabs which might allow further integration with the player. It also has an about:config page like Firefox for advanced tweaking. Of course, the standard configuring with an interface is also available and allows for a lot of customization.

Songbird comes with a built-in tag editor and much of these can be automatically populated through the various plug-ins. You can rate songs and add all the metadata you want including your own comments.

One of the coolest features of Songbird, in my opinion, was the Smart Playlists. You can have a playlist randomly populated based on different filters and criteria. If you want to listen to something but you’re not quite sure what you’re in the mood for this can definitely help narrow down your music collection.

If you’d like to change the look of things around Songbird, you can change the theme, or Feathers in Songbird terminology.

I was pretty impressed with the import process. It imported more than 4500 tracks in less than 30 seconds. You can use Songbird to play DRM titles if your machine is already authorized. Unfortunately, to authorize your machine that likely requires you to download and install the client for the other systems.

With a 13 MB download, Songbird measures in on the light-weight side of things compared to the ever-increasing 64MB iTunes 8 download. When running, Songbird brings with it a 70MB process and feels snappier than iTunes and MediaMonkey.

All in all, I’d still recommend MediaMonkey over either of the others. MediaMonkey has its own dynamic playlists to stack up against Songbird’s Smart Playlists and I really make use of MediaMonkey’s ability to auto-organize files by different tag attributes, particularly genre and artist. That’s just my opinion though. When the price is free, give them all a go and see which you like best. Songbird will likely continue to be developed and bring a lot of cool features with it, so it will be worth keeping an eye on.

Version Tested: 1.12

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista.

Download Songbird from Mozilla (approx 13 megs).

I must admit that I almost passed over this program for a number of reasons: the “Express” (i.e. free) version has two paid counterparts, and it requires registration with a valid email to get a free license key; plus there are a number of good, free, screencasting freeware (e.g. CamStudio, Debut Video Capture), as well as well known web services like Wink and Jing.

However let me tell you from the get go that this software is simply excellent, and is in fact one of the best free programs in it’s class. It provides some excellent options than most freeware programs I’ve used do not, and it is a well thought out, well designed software.

Top 10 12 things that I really like about BB Flashback Express:

1. Change resolution while recording: you can capture the whole screen or part of the screen and the software can automatically resize the output to a pre-set resolution. For example you can capture fullscreen and set the output size to, say 640×480 and not have to worry about resizing it later on.
2. Can record moving graphics: from the options, you can specify whether to use the normal capture driver (for regular screen activity) or GDI/DirectX, for moving graphics and animations. I successfully tested capturing full-screen games; the results for both 2D and 3D graphics were excellent (although I did witness some choppiness with the 3D graphics, but am unsure as to what degree the settings I used contributed into this).
3. Can capture fullscreen, a user-defined region, or a specific window: I particularly like the third one (locking on and capturing a specific window); very useful when demo-ing software and for some reason most free screen recording programs lack this option.
4. Can record videocam input: how cool is that? I don’t have one so I did not test this.
5. Can create AVI’s, FLV’s, but also SWF’s: The latter is notable in that BB Flashback Express provides the option to create an interactive video (see below).
6. Can create interactive events inside a video: specifically when outputing to SWF, you can define “mouse click” events to stop/continue the video
7. Autoscroll (keep mouse in or near center): if you decide to export only a smaller subset of your movie (for example export a movie captured at 640×480 at, say, 320×240), you can ask BB Flashback Express to track the mouse and export the area around it. Which is to say you can keep the mouse at or near the center.
8. Cursor highlighting: you can highlight the mouse and mouseclicks so that they are emphasized on the screen (very useful for demoes). You can even edit exactly what the highlighting will look like (see image to the right).
9. Export specific range/frames only: although this free version does not allow you to edit the video directly, you can make a note of your desired beginning and end frames and enter those into the “wizard” that pops up on the export process.
10. Automatically upload to Youtube/web page: with your YouTube username and password. Or it will provide HTML and embed code to easily insert videos into your webpage.
11. Hotkeys: allows you to define hotkeys for use
12. The interface: can reside in the system tray or, interestingly, as a cool-looking strip in the taskbar.

Differences between free and paid versions: paid versions allow you to add text to your videos, to edit them visually on the timeline, and to export in more formats. There are other differences listed here. A nice set of features, but you can find freeware programs to substitute for them if you need to.

The verdict: simply terrific. One of the best in its class.

Version Tested: 2.6.1.1122

Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista; 32 and 64 bit.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 7.2 megs).

This article will describe an easy, straightforward way to convert DVD videos, including commercial/encrypted DVDs, into any of a handful of popular video formats; specifically iPhone/iPod/PSP (MP4 or M4V), as well as AVI. It will use two freeware titles in the conversion process: Handbrake and DVD43.

If you’re looking for an extremely easy and relatively fast method to convert your DVDs into video files for use on your computer or in your portable device then read on. The method described here is notable for the following reasons:

1. It is written in English (not geekese) for the layman and advanced users alike.
2. Unsure what decisions to make? Do not worry; I will suggest decisions for you based on my favorite configuration (see “important note” below”).
3. You will be able to convert commercial/encrypted DVDs (or at least 99% or them).
4. You will NOT need to rip (i.e. copy) your DVD to your hard drive first. Conversion will be done straight from your DVD, which means that (a) you will NOT need 5-8 gigs of free hard drive space to rip your DVD onto, and (b) you will save the time that otherwise would be spent waiting for the ripping process to finish.
5. Uses all freeware programs; Handbrake and DVD43. Both are excellent and have been around for a while. Handbrake now comes with all codecs/filters needed for the encoding process, so you will not need to install any codecs or filters separately.

Important note: this article will describe an example where I convert a DVD to iPhone MP4 format using a handful of settings that I like to use; however, I will also indicate what to do if converting to AVI as well. Also note that at any point you could customize the settings as they come along to something that may be more to your liking.

Download and install Handbrake and DVD43. Note, however, that if you do not intend to convert commercial DVDs (i.e. if you are converting DVDs that are copy protected) you will not need DVD43 and you can skip it altogether (and jump to step 3). Also note that both of these programs are 100% free. DVD43 will require a restart after installation. 

Step2

Run DVD43 (it automatically sets itself to start with Windows, so its probably already running; you can change that if you like using a program like Starter). You will see a yellow smiley in the system tray indicating that DVD43 is running. Insert your DVD into the drive; after some processing, the smiley icon will turn green, indicating that all is well and that DVD43 is successfully decrypting the DVD.

Troubleshooting step 2: if the green smiley doesn’t appear (or you get a message saying cannot decrypt), try the following

• Exit DVD43, take the DVD out of the drive; re-insert the DVD, run DVD43. Wait for it to re-process.
• If the above doesn’t work, try rebooting, then repeat the steps above.
• In some cases, DVD43 will simply not succeed because it cannot beat the protection (I haven’t ever come across this, though). If this happens, it would be for brand new blockbuster type movies whose encryption may be too new. If your DVD is not new and/or is some obscure title, the problem is likely not be the encryption; focus on troubleshooting other issues.

Run Hanbrake. Click “Source” in the top left and select the correct DVD source.

Go to the “Title” dropdown and select the title that you are interested in converting. Most DVDs will contain a handful of titles (these include the movie itself, previews, menus, interviews, behind-the-scenes extras, etc.) The DVD I am using for illustration contains no less than 28 different entries (see screenshot).You can convert any content you like; but you’ll have to figure out what’s what.

A really simple way to identify the title to select is through the displayed time duration. In my example here, it is obvious that the movie is “Title1″, since its time duration is 1:29:27, so that is the one I select.

For TV series or other DVDs that contain more than a single title of interest, your guiding principle would be the same: it will be fairly easy to identify the episodes because they will run 30-45 minutes or so each and they will have more or less the same duration.

Step5

In the “presets” area on the right hand side, select “iPhone & iPod Touch”. If that’s not the format you want, you can do one of two things; either (a) select that format for now; you will get to change specifics later, or; (b) find and select the format you want from the available options.

I strongly suggest (a), such that what you will see will correspond to the screenshots provided here.

Click “browse” next to the box labeled destination, find your desired destination folder, and type in your desired filename (and extension). Or use the file format dropdown to make sure you’ve got the correct output format.

A note on formats: MP4 and M4V are the same format (M4V simply denotes that this MP4 file is a video file, but is often not recognized by some media players). Note that iTunes will recognize both, but I personally prefer to use MP4.

AVI Format: if you want to get an .AVI format file, make sure to specify AVI in this step, using the dropdown.

Step7

Next, in the “Picture Settings” tab, move down to “Width/Height”. If you have an iPhone/iPod touch or a newer generation iPod type 640 in the left (width) box. Leave the “height” box blank. This will prompt Handbrake to calculate the height for your video based on the correct aspect ratio of the title, and your resulting video will look right and will not be lopsided or resized incorrectly.

This is the only input you will make in this tab. Leave everything else alone.

Important note on width=640: the reason I use this value is that the resulting video will play nicely and at an excellent quality both on most iPods/portable devices as well as on the computer (i.e. I like to create one file that will work everywhere, and will look decent on a computer screen).

Note, however, that although iPhone/iPod Touch and all newer generation iPods (5G onwards) can accept video sizes up to 640 pixels, iPhones/Ipod Touchs will only display this video at a resolution of 480 pixels wide, while older iPods will only display a resolution of 320 pixels wide. Pre-5G iPods cannot handle video files with 640 pixels resolution at all, therefore if you have an older device than a Fifth Generation iPod you must use “320″ as the width value rather than “640″.

Here you have to do 3 things:

1- Set the target size in megs (under quality). Here are some guidelines

• For a “normal” feature film use 700 megs. Your video will be of excellent quality and if you want to burn it to CD to get it off your hard drive it will fit on a single disk.
• For typical TV series episode use 230 megs (such that you could fit three on a single CD) or 350 megs for better quality (and you could fit two episodes on a single CD). I usually go with the former, and typically the quality is excellent.

2- Under “Advanced Encoding Settings” check two-pass encoding. This will make for a better quality video but at the expense of longer processing time. Do it!

3- Select video codec using the dropdown

• Select MPEG4-Xvid. Yes you could use Xvid to encode MP4s, which some people do not know; you do not need to use H264 (although yes H264 it is much much more common for MP4s – you can use H264 if you want to).
• For AVI files: use Xvid, plain and simple, if your intended output is an AVI file.

Leave all else as is.

1- Go to the Bitrate (Kbps) column and use the dropdown to select 160 Kbps. This is the maximum quality that the iPod can use and I always select it; I advise you to do the same as believe you me there is NOTHING more annoying than trying to watch a video on a portable device in a public place where the din of outside noises is more audible than the audio from the video that you are trying to watch.

2- Subtitles:

• If you do not need subtitles (i.e. the audio is in your language), do not select or check anything and skip to Step10 …. or
• If you think there may be scenes in a foreign language, but the video is mainly in the language you want, select your desired language from the dropdown and click on “Forced Subtitles Only”. This will result in burned-in subtitles only for those scenes that may require it.
• If you are converting a foreign film, and/or you want subtitles visible on-screen at all times, then select the language you want from the dropdown; in this case do NOT click on “Forced Subtitles Only”

Note on subtitles: any subtitles created with Hanbrake will be permantently “burned into” your video. Handrbake does not produce a seperate subtitles file.

This one is easy; uncheck the “Create Chapter markers” box.

Unless of course you want chapter markers displayed for some reason, inwhich case keep it checked. These markers will be displayed on-screen in the same way burned subtitles would. Moreover, if you want to you can edit/customize the “labels” that you want to display for each chapter marker under “Chapter Name”

You are now ready to start the conversion process. You can do one of two things

1. Start the process (go to step 13)
2. Add another title or titles for “batch encoding”; i.e. have Handbrake schedule another conversion or conversions to be executed back-to-back after this one.

Batch encoding allows you to schedule another conversion or string of conversions to be performed serially one and after the other.

In the process described here, for example, you could batch-convert multiple titles that exist on the DVD such as multiple episodes or extra materials that you are interested in.

How to do it: click “Add to Queue”, then select a new title to convert from the title dropdown, enter a new destination file, and customize the settings for the new title as per the steps above. Press “Show Queue” to review the list of conversions that you have scheduled.

Once you’re ready to start the process, go to Step13.

Note on multiple episodes/TV series: the beauty of scheduling multiple episodes/TV series in batch is that for each title that you add to the process you do not have to change any of the settings (assuming you want the same settings to apply to all episodes). All you would need to do is select title > enter a new destination filename > add to queue, and keep doing this until all episodes on the DVD are covered.

Step13

Click on “Start” in the upper left to start the conversion process.

A DOS window will appear which reveals what is going on under the hood. The time this will take to finish will vary depending on the titles you are converting and how powerful your system is. On average I would say it takes 2.5 hours per movie.

Happy Converting  .

If you’re a musician or just curious about creating music, and if you’ve been looking for a viable freeware/open source alternative to paid music creation software then take a look at this one. LMMS (short for Linux MultiMedia Studio, but yes it runs on Windows) is an ambitious open source project that, although still in its early stages, nonetheless manages to deliver a complete music authoring platform that comprises the following:

• A sequencer: including a bassline editor as well as a so-called Piano roll for editing/creating patterns and melodies.
• Software sound synthesis, mixer, and effects: with 64 FX mixer channels, audio sample playback, and the ability to implement any number of effects.
• Support for a wide range of technologies: including SoundFont2, VST(i), LADSPA, GUS Patches, and full MIDI support.

I am not a musician and will admit that I am not the most qualified person to evaluate this software. I have some experience with sequencers that goes back to the days of music trackers on the Commodore Amiga computer, but the landscape has changed radically since that time. I therefore turned to my friend Ala Diab (which I will refer to using his online moniker, Diablo), an accomplished musician who has performed his brand of computer-driven blend of cotemporary experimental Arabic/electronic music in multiple venues across the Middle East and Europe. He played around with LMMS, and I had the following conversation with him afterwards:

Me: tell me what you like about this program.

Diablo: that it’s free :). It also supports a lot of plugins and standards. I like that it supports VST; a lot of apps lacked support for a scoring section and VST, and that was their Achilles heel.

Me: can you say a bit more about VST?

Diablo: VST is a plugin standard for DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), created by Steinberg. LMMS program also supports LADSPA, which is the open source answer to VST that appeared on Linux first, and now moving slowly to other platforms.

This program supports both. It definitely has a lot of potential. It’s copying quite a bit from Fruity Loops. They’re using the tracker model, pattern and ordering based, to sequence the patterns into a song, just like Fruity Loops. In the interface there are direct rip-offs from Fruity Loops.

Me: that’s good, right?

Diablo: yes and no. They didn’t go all the way with it. I dislike floating windows in music software, like LMMS has. Most of the great ones give you everything in one screen. The interface needs a lot of massaging and to be more intuitive. Fruity Loops, for example, has everything in one window, or even Ableton Live which is the golden standard in integrated interfaces. It would take me twice the time than FruityLoops if not more to build something interesting. I don’t know which window is for composing vs. stacking effects and synths vs. mixing and mastering.

Me: is the interface that much of an issue though? Wouldn’t you eventually get used to it?

Diablo: it is significant. If I’m previewing a sound from a synth I don’t want the sound to go off if I accidentally change the window and try to look for the one to highlight.

Me: any other thoughts on LMMS?

Diablo: I think the sound engine is still clunky.

Me: what does that mean?

Diablo: you know how sound is played through the sound card? I think LMMS has its own little virtual driver. I can’t see my sound card when I go to the setup. Also I didn’t know whether I could record sound on it, which is also important. Unless I’m going to use a sound editor, it would be nice to be able to do everything in one place.

Me: to make samples?

Diablo: to just record. Let’s say you’re working on a song and you want to add vocals; I didn’t see a facility to record sound from a Mic.

Me: you would want to add vocals straight onto a project like that?

Diablo: yeah. FruityLoops does it; so does Live and other competitors. But maybe that’s expecting too much, after all it is a free product. But look at near free products like Reaper ($50 for non commercial license), or Zynewave Podium (also $50), they’re very polished and inexpensive. Or you could get the excellent EnergyXT for under $100. You don’t have to shell out $500 or so for an Ableton Live or FruityLoops.

Me: So what advice would you give the developers of LMMS?

Diablo: I would put a lot of effort on the interface, make it clear and clean, put everything in one window, don’t make the user look for stuff. I would even make strict rule on what appears where on the screen, like for example if you double click on a plugin it appears in the same location on the window and if it’s has a bigger layout, add a slider.

But I realize that it’s version 0.4, so it’s still early in the development process, and so far they’ve got a great start.

The verdict: if you’re looking for a free alternative to professional music sequencers/multitrackers such as FruityLoops, LMMS may be exactly what you’re looking for. Bear in mind that at ver. 0.4.x its still somewhat early in its development, but what there is so far covers all the bases that you would expect, and is quite an accomplishment. Check it out!

Version Tested: 0.4.3

Compatibility: Windows, Linux.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 15 megs).

So you’ve accumulated 100 gigs+ of MP3’s, which you’ve spent hours and hours fixing and tagging, normalizing, categorizing into genres, and downloading album art for. Perhaps you can now see the light at the end of the tunnel; that maybe some day soon this project might actually be completed. But for now tell me this: with all those gigabytes of music why are you listening to the same two dozen tracks over and over?

Of course there is nothing especially remarkable about those two playlists. Rather, it is the wading through the daunting sea of MP3s that is overwhelming. How to decide what to listen to when there are so many options? One is to not choose at all and simply use the “random shuffle” option in your media player. The only problem here is that you would rather not mix your Rock with your Jazz and Audiobooks and your Christmas music. What you need is an intelligent playlist creator that generates playlists based on a handful or rules, and Random Mixtape Maker is one of the best “smart” playlist creators that you’re likely to come across. More notes on this program below:

• User Interface: is tab-based and intuitive, no learning curve to speak of. You will figure it out within minutes.Right-clicking on the list of results will bring up more functions that you can use to refine and manipulate them further.
• The playlist: you can specify the desired time duration or the max total size in megs of the files on the list (in case you wanted to burn to CD). You can also specify minimum and maximum allowed song durations.
• Blacklist: add files and folders to your blacklist to exclude them from consideration. Very handy, especially if your music library is organized using a folder structure.
• Must-have and linked songs lists: if you have some songs that you simply must have in your playlist you can add these to the “must have” lists. Also allows you to set up “linked songs” whereby if song A happens to be selected to the playlist the program will set it’s linked song to play straight after.
• Keywords: you can tell Random Mixtape Maker to consider certain keywords in the metadata or, if the lyrics if your audio files contain these. You can also set it to use keywords exclusively when making selections. I will report that this function did not seem to work for me (see “wish list” section below).
• Other options: you can check the file formats you want included from a list (e.g. MP3, FLAC, OGG, etc). You can also set a ceilings for the number of songs allowed from each artist
• Randomize: you can load and randomize playlists on demand.
• Output: creates m3u playlists or can export the song list or path(s) to a text file.
• Portable: unzip and run.

Wish list (or how this software can be even better)

• Better “Genre” filtering: strangely, I was not able to blacklist a genre/genres, which I would have thought to be a very obvious function (e.g. exclude the “spoken word” genre from the playlist whenever you encounter it). And although it allows you to set up to 5 genres to mix-and-match, it does not seem that you can restrict the playlist to these genres. Lastly, genres are selected through drop-downs with generic, pre-determined selections; it would be better if the program did a scan first, determined the genres available in your selected folders, and used those to populate the list of possible genres.
• Keywords: did not seem to work properly. Not sure if it is looking for keywords in the comments section or if it reads the ID3 Tag fields. In my test requiring a term (e.g. “love”) produced no results, even when many song and artist titles had that term within them.
• Scans all your defined folders, even blacklisted ones; even when it will not use those in your playlists. I noticed this after blacklisting a large folder recursively that the program seemed to go on and scan anyway.

The verdict: this program is excellent. It will allow you to create coherent playlists that simply make sense (and that may allow you to experience your music library in a whole new light). Will also allow you to create playlists that that would fit CDs or other types of media. Overall an excellent tool to have. If you hadn’t thought about using this sort of “smart” playlist maker before give it a try; you will be happily surprised with the results.

[Note: found this on the wonderful Donationcoder]

Version Tested: 1.8.28.77

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 450K).

If you are familiar with the music sharing sites mentioned above you’re probably thinking that Freezer is very good news indeed. This program was apparently written to prove a point; to quote their site “[it] was built as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that whatever effort is made to prevent songs downloading, those sites are still very unsecure concerning the way musics are diffused”. It continues …”the [proof of concept]will probably be extended to more sites, as it is based upon an inherent flaw they all have in their streaming scheme.” More notes on this program:

• How to use: you need to (1) start the program and keep it open, (2) change your browser proxy to the one specified by the program (more on this here and below), and (3) to surf over to any of the supported sites and launch a song. A “save file” dialog will appear whenever a song is about to be played, allowing you to save (or not). More info on how to use here.
• Portable: no installation. Just unzip and run.
• Managing proxies: if changing your browser proxy manually doesn’t seem very practical, you might want to take a look at IE proxy changer or Advanced Proxy Manager (for Internet Explorer) or QuickProxy for Firefox.
• Supported sites: Imeem, Deezer, and Jiva.fm are documented; however, the instructions in the program dialog itself read “surf on your favorite HD radio site … the program will do the rest”. Not sure which other sites Freezer will work with, but I did try it with Last.FM and Pandora and it did NOT work; moreover it does not work with non-encrypted sites that do not use anti-leeching protection such as MixTurtle, Songza, etc (I guess since the program wanted top prove a point, there was no point to prove there ).

Wish list:

• Flashing the save song dialog on screen while the song played, or adding it to a list that can be downloaded afterwards. Currently, you will not hear the song until you have selected whether or not to save it to your hard drive, which can be a problem if you are unsure whether you want to download or not.
• Adding sites such as Last.Fm and Pandora
• Incorporating some sort of automated proxy management in the program itself.

The verdict: a very nice little program; I especially like that it is a small 70K download that can be unzipped and run without installation. Switching proxies can be a bit annoying to deal with unless you are using a proxy manager that will make proxy switching quick and easy. If you want more downloading options on more sites you might want to take a look at Orbit Downloader, which will download from these sties mentioned above plus many others.

Version Tested: 1.4

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 70K).

I really like to see album art popups on screen (preferably in the system tray area) that show at-a-glance the track that’s currently playing . I find this feature to be a curious omission in iTunes. Regardless, exTray provides this and does a very good job! Here are more notes on this software:

• Desktop popups: you can get album artwork popups, track info popups, or both, and can make any or both of these “sticky” or fade them away a few seconds after showing up. Additionally, ExTray also provides a “Float Art” option; this one floats an album art image on screen (in it’s original size) that the user can move around or manually close (I didn’t care much for that one, to be honest).
• exTray in the system tray: aside from controlling the desktop popup behavior, the system tray icon is similar to the iTunes icon in that it can launch iTunes, toggle next/back/shuffle, can access your playlists (see below) and can be used to assign ratings to tracks. Note: you might want to remove iTunes’ icon from the system tray to save space, since exTray most of the things that iTunes’ system tray icon can do anyway.
• Keyboard hotkeys: you can use exTray to assign keyboard shortcuts to do the following: play, pause, next, back, rating up, rating down, and album art popup. Works well, although I personally wish that (a) you could enable a subset of these hotkeys at will rather than all or nothing, and (b) that a combination of special keys could be used to activate (e.g. CTRL+Shift) rather than just one (currently gives you the choice to activate using CTRL, Shift, and Alt).
• Customizability: exTray is highly customizable, from the background used for the popup messages to the position on screen, height, width, delay, scroll delay, scroll direction and font used, etc.
• Playlists: you have to enable this in the “advanced” tab, but once you do you can have scroll through and access your playlists from exTray’s icon in the system tray.
• Exporting/importing iTunes data: a function which I did not test personally. If you are looking to export your track ratings, play counts, and last play dates to another machine then look no further than exTray, because it can do exactly that.
• Memory use: approx 9 megs (very reasonable for an application like this).

The verdict: although there are a number of programs that offer the same function (including CD Art Display and MoreTunes, which also have the distinction of working with any media player), if you use iTunes then you definitely should check this program out for the following reasons (a) exTrays’ popup messages/album art look pretty cool, (b) are highly customizable, (c) the program has relatively low resource consumption, and (c) overall it is a very solid product (and free).

Version Tested: 1.0.144

Compatibility: WinAll. Requires iTunes.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 2.8 megs).

I’ve always had an interest in the various software that can remove DRM protection from MP3s, and with iTunes becoming the biggest music retailer in the US I am sure that a lot of people out there would love to find a solution for stripping DRMS protection from their purchases. If this applies to you I present the very strangely named yet rather brilliant “DVDnextCOPY iTurns Manager” (and yes it actually is iTurns, not iTunes, no typo there!). I tested this program on DRMS protected MP3s downloaded from the iTunes store and it worked brilliantly. Here’s more info on this program:

• How it works: it takes advantage of the option in iTunes to burn DRMS protected audio files to CD. It will install a virtual CD-writer driver on your machine that you burn to instead of your actual CD writer, and subsequently captures the data then re-encodes it as a normal MP3 (without the need for an actual physical medium).
• Tags/metadata: are fully preserved in the resulting MP3, including album art.
• Requirements: iTunes has to be installed, and it has to cooperate; (i.e. it has to play the DRMS protected songs). You cannot simply remove the DRMS protection of a track that, say, is copied from a friend’s computer as your iTunes will not play those to begin with.
• Re-encoding: be aware that your music will be re-encoded rather simply being stripped of the DRMS (output file format supported is MP3 only in the free version). The good news is that all information is digitally transferred rather than re-recorded, as the case would be in a straight recording program like Mp3MyMp3. If you like to get as close a copy of the original as possible you can make the re-encoding settings as close to the original audio file as possible.
• Legality: according to the developer’s site, this program is actually perfectly legal and does not violate copyright law. This is because DVDnextCOPY iTurns Manager does not actually alter or strip the DRMS protected files from their protection, but rather uses them to encode new files. The tracks also need to be legally yours in the first place as confirmed by the fact that your iTunes will actually play them.
• Difference between the free and paid versions: the paid version offers a range of possible output formats in addition to MP3 (MP4, WMA, OGG), offers various audio CD burn options, direct support from the developer, playlist creation, and a number of other options. Interestingly, it will run even if iTunes is not installed, presumably to allow for the creation of DRMS free files virtually burned from other players not just iTunes, although I am not sure about that point. As far as I am concerned the paid version really does not add that much more value, as there are many excellent freeware software for audio format conversion and burning to CD (e.g. Xrecode, Pepsky, BonkEnc).

The verdict: this program just works! It provides a single-step process that automagically generates DRMS-free copies of your protected tracks in short order, does this fairly quickly and without affecting the audio quality. Kudos to the developers for coming up with such a creative and innovative solution that not only circumvents the DRMS protection but is perfectly legal to boot.

This is good news to me because I never would let myself buy any audio tracks from iTunes as a matter of principle, because of the DRMS protection, and now I feel that I can if I want to (to test this software I downloaded a free single of the day type of thing, which “happily” for my purposes was DRMS protected).

Version Tested: 1.5.4.2

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista. Requires iTunes.

Go to program page to download the latest version (approx 5.7 megs).

If you need a program that can split large MP3 or OGG files, look no further than Mp3splt-gtk. What makes this program noteworthy is the number of different ways that it offers to determine split points inside your audio file. Here are more notes on this program:

• Split by autodetecting silences: you will need to provide the parameters for this such as the threshold level to mark a "silence", the cutpoint offset (0 is the beginning of the silence, 1 is the end), minimum silence length to detect, how many silences to process, and whether to remove the silences between tracks. It actually is quite easy and intuitive; you’ll be on your way the first time you use this method.
• Downloading album info from the internet: (my favorite feature) if what you are splitting is a commercially available recording you can simply search for the audio/album you want to split in the "FreeDB" tab and select the correct match from the list of results. Mp3splt-gtk will use the downloaded track length information to determine the split points, which you can then audit and/or modify if needed in the "splitpoints" tab. This is also a great way to import tag info into your split files.
• Create, view, and edit splitpoints: you can do this visually from the "player" tab (press the play button to get your audio file to load and play your file using the internal player; can also use SnackAmp as an external player). Or you can click on the "Splitpoints" tab and create or edit split points there by typing in or editing time values (by minutes, seconds, and hundred fractions).
• Split by CDDB or CUE files: if you have access to these Mp3splt-gtk is able to use this information for quick audio file splitting.
• Wrapped files: can process files created with Albumwrap or the open source MP3Wrap (these programs can convert multiple audio files into a single file while enabling playing the components individually and maintaining tag information).
• Split by fixed time segments: also supported.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

• The option to autodetect silences and create split points without actually splitting (i..e. stopping short of splitting, but creating splitpoints in the "Splitpoints" and "Player" tabs). This will give the user the opportunity to audit these by listening to the result and/or edit them before actually splitting.
• Visually representing the audio waves in the "Player" tab, in the style of a sound editor such as Audacity. A little bit of eye candy that could be a really cool addition (although I would settle for just implementing the first point of the wish list above).

The verdict: if you are looking for a program to split MP3 and OGG audio files Mp3splt-gtk is one of the best free programs out there and certainly one of the most feature-rich and most innovative. Highly recommended!.

Version Tested: 0.5.2 (Windows).

Compatibility: WinAll, Linux, MacOSX

Go to program page to download the latest version (approx 17 megs).

Ever wished that you could raise/lower or mute your PC volume using hotkeys and/or the mouse wheel? With 3RVX you can do that and more. This program is similar to programs such as Volumouse, VolumeTouch, and MKN Volwheel; however 3RVX has a definite edge in both customizability and in it’s “coolness factor”. This program is not just designed to offer on-the-fly volume control but also to represent this through some nifty on-screen (skinnable) visual elements. More notes on this program below:

• The hotkeys: are freely customizable; and, moreover you can add as many as you want that perform any single action (e.g. if you like you can have two sets of keyboard shortcuts plus, say, a keyboard/mousewheel combo to mute the volume).
• The system tray icon: functions as a visual volume gauge that displays the current volume level. To avoid having multiple volume icons in the tray you might want to suppress the original Windows system tray volume icon (see “removing Windows’ volume icon” below.
• On-screen volume control: a “volume gauge” will be displayed on-screen whenever you change the volume using 3RVX’s hotkeys. The image to the right shows 4 different versions of this in action (4 different skins). Note that this is customizable in terms of location on-screen and in terms of the location on-screen (including which monitor it should be displayed on).
• Skins: 3RVX’s visual elements (the system tray icon, the pop-up volume gauge, and the volume control slider) are all customizable.The program includes seven visual styles to choose from (with the option to download and/or create more).
• Removing Windows’ volume icon: go to control panel then click on sound and audio devices. In the “Volume” tab find and uncheck “place volume icon in the taskbar. See image to the right.
• Memory consumption: around 4 megs in memory, which is simply excellent for a program like this (esp. as it requires .NET Framework, which sometimes causes unpredictably large memory usage – none of that here!)

The verdict: combine the sheer practical usefulness of hotkey-enabled volume control with sleek, skinnable visuals and controls and a small memory footprint and you get 3RVX. This program is a winner, and of the three similar freeware volume utilities mentioned above it is my clear favorite. Highly recommended.

Version Tested: 2.2 b

Compatibility: WinAll; no info on Vista. Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

Go to the developer’s download page to download the latest version (approx 2.04 megs). More info here.

I found this little gem over at the Donationcoder forum. It’s a little Autohotkey-based app that displays a semi-transparent “Mute On” message on the desktop whenever the PC volume is muted. Yes my friends (to borrow from John McCain) the days of panicking because of not knowing why there’s no sound coming out of your computer are over. More notes:

• EXE provided: you do not need to have Autohotkey installed; an executable is provided on the Donationcoder forum page (or you can download the Autohotkey script).
• Full vs. Lite: two versions provided. The full version is a larger download and allows you to change the placement of the message on your screen and to tweak the font style. The lite version doesn’t.
• How to use: create a new folder where you would like the app to exist and copy the exe into it, then run (the “full” version of the app will generate 2 contingent files). You now have an additional, new volume icon in the system tray. Next to remove the original windows icon go to control panel > sound and audio devices properties and uncheck “place volume icon in the taskbar” (this works on XP; not sure about Vista). You can add OSD-Mute to the startup folder to make it start with Windows (I use freeware Starter to manage my startup items).
• Behavior: muting the volume will result in a “Mute On” message on the desktop that will display on top of other normal windows (although not games that display full screen). Left clicking on the volume icon will display the volume control dialog just as it would with the default windows icon, while right clicking will produce a context menu with options to change placement, tweak font, or exit (at least in the full version).
• Memory consumption: approx 6.5 megs (for the full version), which is not a lot but seems like more than it where it should be. Remember this is an Autohotkey app (and whats a meg here or there amongst friends?).

The verdict: I really like this one. The “Mute On” message on the desktop is both practical and unobtrusive; you will find it extremely useful whenever you are suddenly wondering why you cannot hear anything coming out of your speakers.

Version Tested: v3

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the Donationcoder forums to download the latest version (approx 416K for the ’Full’ version).

Stitcher

The principle behind this site is rather simple: bring together a number of quality internet radio news sources in one place, organize them by topic, and allow the users to customize and personalize them. Here are more notes on this service:

• Radio news providers: as of this writing they offer a very respectable list which includes ABC, Associated Press, BBC, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNET, CNN, Cosmopolitan, ESPN, Fox, Financial Times, NBC, NPR, The New York Times, PBS, People Magazine, Reuters, TechCrunch, The Onion and The Wall Street Journal.
• Account creation: you can use Stitcher without registering for an account (which requires a valid email); however you will need one in order to customize stations, save favorites, or use it on your iPhone.
• A “social” service: you can give a news item a thumbs (this helps influence the items that Stitcher serves you in the future). You can also bookmark a news item as a favorite or quickly email/share it with a friend.
• Beta release: this service is still in beta and in my opinion the user interface needs to evolve significantly (see the ’playlist’ section in the ’wish list’ below for more).

In a way, you can create something similar to Stitcher using a local podcasting client where you set up and download podcasts from your favorite internet radio news providers, however, there are reasons why you might want to log into Stitcher instead, as follows:

• Browsing by topic: each topic (or “channel”) seems to be organized around a set of “keywords”, and the user is able to edit these or add to them in order to change them or create custom channels. Although having the topics is cool, I am not quite sold on the value off adding keywords to topics, and it is not explained on the site. Also, strangely, it does not seem that you can create your own topics from scratch (am guessing that this is just because it is still in beta?).
• Serendipity: i.e., the possibility of discovering some cool radio show that you wouldn’t necessarily have known about before.
• Search: search across all of Stitcher’s radio news providers for something specific that you are seeking. Very cool, but the results found for some of the searches I attempted where at times underwhelming.
• Iphone support: if you have an iPhone, you can log into your account and access your favorite channels and radio news sources, which is really cool. (Of course it is unlikely that you will be able to stream internet radio fast enough to listen to without interruptions unless you are in range of a WIFI network, but still an exciting service to have for iPhone owners).

Wish list (or how this service can be even better):

• The playlist: in addition to the whatever is currently playing, Stitcher will auto-create a playlist of 5 items that are visible to the user. You have to remove these individually from the playlist in order to have them replaced with other items. It is not clear to me why Stitcher doesn’t show as large a playlist as a user would want. Also, not sure why its not possible to get more info on an item in the playlist (until it gets to the top of the queue).
• Filtering: this is badly needed, because Stitcher will serve news stories which at times are a few days old. I would like to be able to specify that I only want new stories that were created today or in the last 48 hours, etc.

The verdict: if you are addicted to news radio, as I am, and want something to listen to while you work or do other things you will probably like Stitcher. Try it out and see for yourself.

Version Tested: the site as of 8/16/2008.

Visit Stitcher.

A nice surprise, this one. Totally Free Burner offers a set of features that will cover most people’s CD/DVD burning needs. It also offers a sleek design and nice look-and-feel as an added bonus. Here are more notes on this program:

• Automatic data verification: for all burning operations.
• Bootable: can create bootable CDs and DVDs (see image to the right).
• Technical specs: an impressive array of configurations supported; “all current hardware interfaces (IDE/SCSI/USB/1394/SATA)”. Multi-Session or Disc-at-Once mode for all formats; any combination of UDF/ISO9660/Joliet bridged file systems, and UNICODE support.
• Burns Audio CDs: supports mp3, wav, ogg and wma files. Does not rip audio cds (use the free BonkEnc or Exact Audio Copy for this).
• Burns disk images: supports ISO and BIN/CUE. Burns images on the fly without first staging locally on your hard drive.
• Burns video CDs: from Mpeg1 VCD files.
• Burns DVDs: for both data and video DVDs. For the latter it can burn from local DVD files or ISO. Supports using UDF format, for compatibility with hardware DVD players.
• Drag and drop: [updated Aug 14, 2008] as of the just released ver. 4.0, supports drag and drop files and folders (a good thing, since adding files and folders individually through the two seperate dialog buttons is not very practical.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better):

• On the fly disc copying: would be great; also ISO image creation from files/folders.
• Support for “new” media: namely double density DVDs and Blue-Ray. Not sure if these are supported; could not find any documentation.
• Support for overburning: as above, not sure whether or not this might already be supported

The verdict: a very nice, clean and simple burning program that offers a good range of functions (and looks great).

Although this program has a lot to offer as is, I couldn’t help but feel that with a couple more options it could have been significantly better (keeping my fingers crossed for files and folders drag and drop). This is a good idea and will give this program a boost given the many excellent freeware CD/DVD burners out there.

Having said that, this program will cover the CD/DVD burning needs of the vast majority of users and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Version Tested: 4.0

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.11 megs).

I’ve reviewed a number of audio conversion programs here, but was sufficiently impressed with Xrecode to want to write about this little gem as well. What I like about this program is the simplicity of the interface coupled with some serious power it packs the hood (as well as the CUE splitting, which I occasionally sought out). I am also intrigued by the audio file splitting based on the automatic detection of gaps/silences in a big file. Here are more notes on this program:

• The user interface: employs a simple drag and drop interface for files or entire folders. You can keep adding files/folders by dragging while pressing CTRL. Settings and other dialogs are very nicely couched into the interface such that they are only seen if and when they are needed.
• Supported filetypes: can convert to/from any of the following formats; MP3, WMA, OGG, APE, FLAC, WavPack, AAC, and WAVE.
• CUE Splitting: simply drag the CUE file into the interface and watch Xrecode do its magic.
• Split by silence: this experimental feature allows you to set (a) the volume threshold, as well as (b) the length of the gap in seconds that the program will look for to pinpoint gaps between songs. This means that getting an accurate split will likely require some experimentation on you part, and whether or not all songs will be split off accurately is a big question mark.
• Testing “split by silence”: in my experience this feature did not work at all for Jazz (splitting a John Coltrane album into a few dozen songs instead of 6), but did fairly well with a Tori Amos album, albeit chopping one of the tracks in two a few seconds into the song (the rest of the tracks, however, seemed to be split correctly). All in all I would recommend trying this option out but, if it doesn’t work, I do not recommend spending too much time with it and instead to save your time and energy and do the splitting manually (with a program like Audacity or MP3 Directcut).
• Tag info: conversions retain tag information (I tested this on a couple of format conversions).
• Parallel processing: you can set the number of files to process simultaneously in general, or you can do it in “advanced” mode where you set it for each file type. Parallel processing worked really well on my core duo (a 17 file conversion just zipped through at 3 simultaneous files). The website states that users might want to experiment to see what’s optimal for their system.
• Other features: conversion from the command line interface, Unicode support. Supports 24Bit encoding (OGG, FLAC, APE, WavPack and WAV) and 32Bit encoding (OGG, WavPack, FLAC and WAV).

Wish list

• FLV support. Increasingly important these days.
• Support for Apple/Itunes formats: M4A, MP4, M4B (note: if you need to convert to M4B audiobook format check out MP3 to Ipod Audio Book Converter).

The verdict: there are many excellent freeware audio file conversion programs (Pepsky Free Audio Converter, Mediacoder Audio Edition, Any Audio Converter, BonkEnc, and others). What’s interesting about this one is (a) it is a well designed, streamlined tool, and (b) it has some innovative features with respect to splitting large audio files. It also is a pure converter that does not come with a CD ripping/burning component, which could be either a good thing or not a good thing, depending on your needs. If you are looking for a good pure audio converter by all means give this one a try.

Version Tested: 1.95

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 1.81 megs).