Articles in Audio
ExTray is a free iTunes plugin that brings pop-up album art, track information, and iTunes controls to the tray menu. It also optionally provides iTunes and volume controls via keyboard hotkeys, and provides a function whereby you could export your track ratings, playcounts, and last play dates and import them into another machine.
DVDnextCOPY iTurns Manager is a free program that can convert iTunes DRMS protected tracks to normal unprotected MP3s. It installs a virtual CD-writer driver and takes advantage of the option to burn tracks to CD in iTunes in order to capture and re-encode protected audio files to normal MP3s.
Mp3splt-gtk is a free multi-platform tool that can split large MP3 or OGG files without re-encoding. It offers a number of different ways to do this, including autodetecting silences, using a a local CDDB or CUE file, and downloading album and track length info from freedb.org . Other options include splitting by fixed time segments and unwrapping Albumwrap or MP3wrap files.
3RVX is a free program that offers volume control through hotkey and/or middle mouse wheel combinations. It also visually represents the volume levels and volume changes on-screen and in the program’s system tray icon.
OSD-Mute is a tiny free app that displays a semi-transparent “Mute On” message on your desktop whenever the system volume is muted.
Stitcher is a web service that brings together a number of internet radio news podcasts, creates virtual stations by topic, and allows users to customize stations and bookmark favorites, etc. Stitcher is also available on the iPhone.
Totally Free Burner is a CD/DVD burner with a nice, minimalistic interface and an excellent range of features.
Xrecode is a free audio file conversion program that supports a wide range of formats. It can also perform CUE splitting of audio files as well as an experimental feature that detects automatically silences to split a large audio file. Xrecode is optimized for converting multiple files in parallel in systems with muli-core CPUs.
ATunes is an open source program that combines a powerful, full-featured music player with a Last.fm-powered recommendation engine. Available features include CD ripping, internet radio, audio podcasts, smart playlists, support for portable audio devices, and others.
Album Art Downloader XUI is a free program that can download and save album art into your music folders. It is designed to scan your albums for missing album art and perform simultaneous multiple searches in batch. It also offers shell integration for quick album art lookups on the folder level.
