Free Audio, MP3 & iPod Programs

More Than Just a Music Player & Media Organiser

Formally called Teen Spirit, is a simple to use player that can be used to build playlists, organise your tracks, and fetch additional album or artist information. The full interface can be minimized to tray so that it doesn't get in the way. It can remember your favorite tracks, and I particularly like the way the random selection works.

There are lots of other players out there, some with many more features, but this one has sufficient options to make it a great audio player, has a nice interface with all of the necessities without being over complicated. Basically, it does what it was intended for extremely well. Has some ID3v2 tagging support, can fetch lyrics, artist and album art, basic and advanced search, will catalogue and play back your avi and mpeg video, aswell as display visualisations - full screen too. On top of that it has some games built in that allow you totest your knowledge of your own music collection!

This is definitely my player of choice - easy to use, easy on resources, unobtrusive if you want it to be, or 'in your face' when you need it (Like on my TV) !

 

Organise and Tag your Audio Files

This is a very comprehensive music organiser, tagger and file renaming program. It has support for; mp3, ogg, mpc, ape, flac, aac, apl, wv, mp4, ofr, and spx. Some of its many features include: Rename files, update Tags, restructure files on hard disk, create/merge play lists, encode-decode (LAME [MP3]/Ogg Vorbis/MpcEnc), export/import to/from file, use freedb.org & allmusic.com for music data, and catalog all music in a library. You can also embed lyrics, and artwork should you want to, or play your files back in the internal player with built in 16 band equalizer.

In all honesty, I didn't find it as intuative to use as some I have tried, but don't let this put you off if you are serious about your music collection. After using the Godfather for a while I wouldn't go back to using anything else due to its massive range of features.

If you do need some additional help you can find a tutorial by Tadhg Pearson here that should help to get you started. There is also a forum linked from the main site where you may ask questions or get any additional help should you need it.

An Attractive, and Simple to Use Audio Transcoder (Converter)

Convert from one audio format to another with this competent transcoder, it's as simple as that!

Currently supported formats include:

AAC, MP4, M4A, FLAC, LPAC, WAV (uLaw, aLaw, PCM, GSM, VOX), OptimFrog, WMA, WavPack, Monkeys Audio, MP2, MP3, MP1, Shorten, OggVorbis, TAK, TTA, Speex, MPC, MP4 Lossless (ALS), G721.

GermaniX Transcoder also supports tagging, including lyrics and images, and has a built in player so that you can listen to or preview the ausio you have just converted for example. The program also offers CD grabbing (copying), file renaimg and cue cutting, which can handle cutting large MP3 files into tracks or smaller pieces. All in all it is a very useful audio tool.

To get to the download of this software you have to register with the site;

Hi, if you wish to download our software, you have to register. We do this for spam and traffic protection. After you have registered, you will see a new button "DOWNLOADS" in the navigation bar on top of the site.

An alternative program to Germanix is for transcoding only, is: MediaCoder - Audio Edition

  

An Open Source Podcast Sceduler & Reciever

Juice allows you to subscribe to a podcast feed or subscription address and it will automatically download any new episodes as they become available, this is particularly useful if you decide to listen to many podcasts as it saves you from having to visit each website and download the show manually.

Juice also comes with its own built in directory of Podcasts. Although this only covers some of the most popular podcasts, it is a good starting point if you are interested in seeing what podcasting are all about.

Obviously, you can add podcast feeds that arn't in its own directory by just adding the feed address. You can also schedule how often sites are checked for new podcasts (from every 30 minutes up to every 12 hours), and also the path to your favorite player (so you can listen to what you downloaded!). If a podcast should fail to download, then Juice will try and download it again for you, so you shouldn't miss a show!

 

Listen to and Record Internet Radio

This is definitely the best freeware Internet radio program I have used. Its a very small download, easy to use, excellent station choice, and also has the ability to record what you are listening to. There's 100's of preset stations, which can be browsed by genre, or country for example, and it doesn't intrude after starting as it can be minimized to the tool tray. Is able to stream most major broadcast formats including Shoutcast and Icecast MP3, Icecast OGG Vorbis, WMA and AAC.

 

Balances the Volume of Your MP3 Files

If you've ever had to keep turning your music up or down because different tracks are louder or quieter than the rest, then this download can solve it. MP3 Gain analyses your tracks and resets the output (called normalisation), so that the volume of each MP3 sounds about the same. It does this without resampling the MP3, so there is no loss of quality either.

 

Manage Your iPod Files

Floola is a standalone application that can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation. It supports all common tasks including; music transfer, playlists, podcasts, lyrics, artwork, videos, and more! If you don't like or need the iTunes software, then this is definitely a good choice.

If you just need something to convert audio or video files for your iPhone or iPod then I recommend you try MediaCoder iPhone / iPod Touch Edition

 

Audio Editor with VST Support

Wavosaur is an audio editor, for editing, processing and recording sounds, WAV and MP3 files. Wavosaur has all the features to edit audio (cut, copy, paste, etc.) produce music loops, analyze, record, batch convert. Wavosaur supports VST plugins for extra effects, ASIO driver, multichannel wav files, and real time effect processing. Will do bit-depth conversion, resampling, and can record straight from your soundcard input (line in, mic input). This means you can pretty much record anything you can hear from your speakers.

Although still in quite early development it is already giving established programs such as Audacity a run for it's money. Currently though, even though Wavosaur cannot mix multiple tracks like Audacity, for individual files I prefer Wavosaur because of the VST support as there are many very good free VST plugins available for download from the Wavosaur site itself or FreeMusicSoftware.org which is a great resource.