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Make it Free
 If you had the chance to
compile a wish-list of features for a piece of creative video software I
wouldn’t mind betting you’d come up with something very similar to Freemake Video Converter.
Part of what it does you can guess from the name, it is free, and it’s a
powerful conversion tool, able to handle most common formats (avi, mpg, tod,
mov, dv, rm), mobile phones (3gp, 3g2, 3gp2), Internet (flv, swf, mp4) & PC
(wmv, mkv, qt, ts, mts). It will also convert and rip to and from a variety of
formats, including avi, wmv, mp4 3gp DVD and MP3, and that’s just for starters.
It will upload your video to YouTube, create photo slideshows from digital
still photos, it has basic editing facilities so you can cut out all of the
dodgy bits from your videos then you can use it to burn a DVD, complete with
titles and menus. What more do you need?
18/08/10
VLC Movie Debut
 As regulars will know we’re
big fans of the VLC media player. It not only handles more video formats than
you can shake a stick at, it also manages to play files that other media
players won’t have anything to do with. Now they’ve turned their attention to
the other end of the video movie biz, as it were, with VLMC or VideoLan Movie Creator, a new, well-specified,
free Open Source non-linear video-editing program. At least it will be when it
is finished. These are very early days and it’s currently a pre-alpha release,
which basically means there are still a few wrinkles to iron out, and not all
of the features work properly, but it looks really promising. Even at this early
stage VCL would be interested to hear what you think of it, and if you find any
bugs they would like to know about those too. So if you fancy getting in on the
ground floor of what should be a very interesting project, give it a whirl.
26/07/10
Recent Convert
 How do I convert a file
from one multimedia format to another? It's one of the commonest
questions and when one or the other formats is bit out of the
ordinary the only answer is to trawl the web in the hope that someone has
figured it out. There are a number of one-step file converters around, some of
them quite good, but this one – Xmedia Recode – is
going to take some beating, not only is it really easy to use, it deserves a
prize for the sheer number of formats it can handle. Decide for yourself,
here’s the list: 3GP to AVI, 3GP to FLV, AC3 to MP3, AC3 to WAV, ASF to 3GP,
ASF to FLV, ASF to MP4, AVI to FLV, AVI to 3GP, FLAC to MP3, FLAC to WMA, FLV
into 3GP, FLV to Mp3, DVD to 3GP, DVD to AC3, DVD to AVI, DVD to MP3, DVD to
MP4, DVD to MOV, DVD to SVCD, DVD to VCD, DVD to WMV, OGG to MP3, OGG to WMA,
MPEG to AVI, MP2 to MP3, MP4 to FLV, MP4 to AVI, M4P to MP3, MOV to 3GP, MOV to
AVI, MOV to FLV, WMA to MP3, WMV to FLV, WAV to MP3.
20/05/10
Web Radio Grows Up
 If you have played around
with radio on the Internet you’ll know that it can be a bit hit and miss. Many
web radio station websites are difficult to navigate and finding the ‘listen’
button can turn into a bit of a chore. Internet radio applications also tend to
be a bit clunky and sometimes difficult to use, but don’t give up. Have a look
at Antenna. It’s based on Adobe Air,
and if you haven’t already got it installed on your PC it pays to install that
first – there’s a link to it on the Antenna download page. Once it’s up and running
you can choose from over 9000 stations around the world, listed by national
flag, country and genre – who knew there was a rock station on Christmas Island?
Just click the station – it tells you
the reliability and bitrate of the connection – and a second or two later you’re
tuned in, it’s really that easy!
03/05/10
Mouse Volumiser
 Here’s a pretty and
potentially quite useful little addition to your desktop. It’s called 3RVX and it replaces the boring
Windows volume control with a choice of skinnable designs. The one shown is
called Vista 808 and there are seven others to choose from. Instead of clicking
the titchy little loudspeaker icon in the System Tray you can make it appear
with a user-definable ‘hotkey’, it’s up to you but one of the defaults, Winkey
+ Mousewheel, works for me. It’s really easy to use and highly customisable, so
why not take it out for a spin?
04/03/10
Speak For Yourself
 If you have a Garmin Sat
Nav and it’s an aera, GPSMAP 620/640, nuvi or zumo series model then you can do
something about those really bossy voices that tell you what to do. It’s called
Garmin
Voice Studio, a free Windows program that lets you replace the built-in
voices with your own, or someone else's. This is the opportunity
to try out your best celebrity or cartoon character impressions, or maybe add a
touch of sarcasm to ‘Arriving at destination’ or ‘Make a U-Turn’. It’s really
easy to use, just repeat the 65 or so words and phrases into your PC’s
microphone, trim off the dodgy bits, upload it to your satnav and experience
the peculiar sensation of telling yourself where to go…
28/01/10
Plinky Photos
 Time for something really
weird. It’s called RGB Music
Lab and its job is to turn your photographs into music… I told you it was
weird, but it’s also strangely compelling, all you have to do is select an
image, set your preferences (instruments, tempo etc.) and Music lab converts
the RGB values and positional data of the pixels in the image into chromatic
scales. The tunes, if you can call them that, are not exactly something you’d
be able to him along to, but there does seem to be a strange correlation
between the mood in the photo and the music, or maybe I’m just imagining it,
either way there are lots of things to tweak play around with and who knows,
with the right picture and the right settings you could have a hit on your
hands…
14/01/10
Twist in the Tale
 It’s almost heresy to grumble about Apple products but I
have to say that iTunes is horrible… It started out okay but the Windows
version at least has evolved in a bloated and unwieldy beast so I’m always keen
to try out alternatives. Sadly they have been very thin on the ground but
here’s one that’s definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for something
simpler and easier to use than iTunes. It’s called DoubleTwist and it
probably won’t surprise you to learn that it’s thrown in its lot with a rival
online music store, almost as famous as Apple, namely Amazon. Headline features
include support for hundreds of devices, including Blackberry, Android GI and
PSP, and of course iPods. Synchronisation is automatic upon connection, there’s
a simple to use file send function and it converts to and from a wide range of
file formats. It falls down on the playback functions, these are quite basic
but for straightforward library management, downloading, uploading and a near
universal device compatibility it’s going to be a tough one to beat.
05/11/09
MP3 First Aid
 How many MP3 tracks have you got on your PC? If you are
anything like me you’ve probably lost count and I’m willing to bet that a few
of them display incorrect track details or won’t play any more because track
info is wrong or corrupted or it could just be that the sound quality is poor.
All these things and more can be put right with a one-stop MP3 repair tool,
called MP3 Diags.
Here’s a quick run-down of what it can do: add/fix track & album cover
info, correct track duration, correct files that cannot be played by some
players, convert non-English track names, add composer name, rename files,
find/fix broken tags, duplicate tags, incorrect tag placement, correct low quality,
restore normalisation data, to name just a few. Obviously It can’t perform
miracles and it’s not going to restore files that are completely kaput or increase
the bit rate but if you have a problem with your tunes it has to be worth a
try, and being free, what have you got to loose?
24/08/09
Desktop Ditties
 After years of struggle I still can’t get more than a couple
of chords out of my old guitar, so I may not be the best person to recommend
anything to do with making music, but if you are of tuneful bent, or just fancy
having a dabble with some interesting software, have a look at LMMS. It stands
for Linux Multimedia Studio, but don’t worry if you’re a Windows user, it’s
cross-platform and there’s a Win32 version at the download site: http://lmms.sourceforge.net/.
If you know your way around commercial programs, like FL
Studio you’ll feel right at home, but for the uninitiated it includes a Song
Editor, Beat plus Bassline editor, Piano Roll pattern and melody editing,
64-channel FX Mixer, instrument and effects plug-ins and it’s compatible with
many industry standard formats and protocols, including SoundFont2 VST, LADSPA,
GUS Patches, there’s full MIDI support and you can import MIDI and something
called Fruityloops Project files. Even I managed to make a bit of a tune with
it, so why not give it a try…
23/04/09
Another Free Audio Editor
 It would take a lot to wean me from the excellent Audacity
audio editor but this new one, called Free
Audio Editor 2009, is definitely going to give it a run for its money. Like
Audacity it combines an easy to use audio recorder with a versatile editing
facility, it supports most popular audio formats and it’s really easy to use
but it also has several useful extras that you won’t find in Audacity. These include
a built-in CD burner, and a Text to Speech converter (using Microsoft’s SAM
voice). That’s all you need to know, so give a whirl and see what you
think.
16/02/09
Audacious new Audacity
 New versions of favourite programs seem to be coming out of
the woodwork at the moment and one of the latest updates concerns our old
friend Audacity, just about the best audio recorder and editing program money
can’t buy. The beta version of Audacity
1.3.6 has just been released and in amongst the many new features we have
the long awaited FFmpeg support (available as a separate download) which allows
it to import and export a much broader range of file formats, like WMA, M4A and
AC3 audio from video files. There’s something called on-demand loading, which
basically means files can be played and edited whilst they are still loading
and Linked Audio and Label Tracks ensures that label data will be carried across
when cutting and pasting segments of audio, or changing track speed and tempo.
There’s much more, including some bug fixes, so if you’re already a fan you’ll
need no further bidding, and if you haven’t yet used Audacity to record and
edit audio, you are in for a treat!
03/11/08
Switch Formats
 I came across this little freeware utility when trying to
figure out a way of converting an obscure audio recording format into an MP3
track. It’s called Switch Audio Converter and it seems that it can convert just
about anything, though you might need to install a codec if it’s a file it
doesn’t recognise. But even that’s easy and usually there’s a link to the site where
the codec can be downloaded.
The list of formats is a long one, so deep breath, and here
goes: wav (PCM, ADPCM+, aLaw+, uLaw+, and others), mp2+ (MPEG Layer 2), mpga+
(MPEG Audio), au, aif/aiff, gsm, dct, vox, raw, ogg, flac, amr, wma, wmv, aac, (but
not aacPlus), m4a, mid+, act/rcd/rec+ (newer version of format not supported), rm
/ ra / ram+, dvf+ (Not all dvf recorders are supported), msv+ (Not all msv
recorders are supported), dss+ (SP Mode only), sri+, shn+, cda+, mov, avi+, mpg/mpeg+,
m3u+, .pls+. And there’s more but I can see your eye’s glazing over, just take
it as read that if it its out there, Switch can probably convert it.
15/05/08
Kwik Kool Kantaris
 It’s been a while since we featured a media
player but it’s been worth the wait. Hot out of the box is Kataris a free Open Source player based on
a past favourite, VLC, but all you really need to know is that it can play
just about any type of multimedia file, Here’s the highlights: AAC, AC3, AVI,
FLAC, MID, MIDI, MP2, MP3, MPEG, MGEG-AVC, WMV, MOV, MKV, OGG, QuickTime,
Matroska, DIVX, XVID, H264, MP3, WAV WMA and many, many more. There’s also
integration with Apple Movie Trailers and Last FM, plus some really freaky
visualisations.
08/05/08
The Right Mixxx
 I have to say straight away that the last time I did any
DJ-ing, record players still had a 78rpm speed setting. I freely admit to being
a bit out of touch with current trends, but I’m reliably informed that this
free Open Source program, called Mixxx is
just the job for all of you hep cats out there who enjoy mixing your tunes and
generally fiddling around with musical tracks. Key features, so I’m told,
include the ability to read new fangled music formats, like MP3, Ogg Vorbis and
Wave (something to do with turntable speed, I suppose…), it can import M3U and
PLS playlists, whatever they are, and it has Beat Estimation and Pitch Independent
Time Stretch features, which is probably a good thing. It’s compatible with MIDI
devices and the Hercules DJ Console Mk2, there’s a waveform display so you can
see the dynamics of the tacks you’re working with oh yes, and it’s available in
Windows, Mac and Linux versions.
01/05/08
Wild Sounds
 Here’s a brilliant freeware audio recording and mixing program,
called WildVoice
Studio. Ostensibly it’s designed for making podcasts, but it’s far too good
for such a narrow application. Of course you can use it to record your voice,
through a microphone, but it will also record anything you can hear on your PC’s
speakers, but here’s the really good bit. It comes with a library of almost 30 sound
effects, everything from a fart to sawing wood, and you can mix in your own
background sounds or music. Even if you’re not into podcasts this is still a
great way to produce audio recordings, alert sounds for your computer,
answering machine tapes, or just a easy way to make some silly noises…
06/03/08
Quick Free Audio Snipper
 Editing audio files is usually a fairly complicated business but
here’s a really simple little utility that will snip out chunks of sounds with
just a couple of clicks and if you like, convert from one audio format to
another just as easily.
As the name suggests Free Audio
Dub won’t cost you a bean and it won’t tax the old grey cells either, as it
is so simple to use. Just open the track -- it supports most popular formats
including MP3, WAV, AAC, AC3, M4A, MP2,
OGG, WMA -- click the Play button until you reach the start of where you want
to make the cut, click the first scissors icon, resume play until you reach the
end of the section then click the second scissors icon. Click the Delete icon
and it’s done and you can save the modified file with a new name, so the
original remains intact. There, I said it was easy….
20/12/07
Free DVD to MP3 Ripper
 Over the past few months I’ve had a lot of people asking me
how they can extract the soundtrack form a DVD so they can listen to it on a
MP3 player or iPod and my usual response has been to play the disc back on a PC
and use the most excellent Audacity freeware editor/recorder to capture the
audio, then export it as an MP3 file. It works well, bout now there’s an even
easier way a freeware utility called Free
DVD MP3 Ripper. It couldn’t be simpler, just pop in a DVD, select the part
of the recording you want to extract, click the RIP button and away it goes.
It’s quick, simple and free and ripping movie soundtracks probably breaks all
sorts of copyright laws, but if it’s your DVD and it’s for your personal use
only, we won’t tell anyone…
19/11/07
 iPod Tune Grabber
If you own an iPod you’ll know that you are tied to iTunes
to get tunes in and out of your player. There are alternatives, but generally
speaking it’s a bit of a restriction. Here’s a program that will allow you to
download music from your iPod to any PC, and no need to get involved with any
new software, the program is stored on the iPod itself. It’s called Babya
iGrab and all you have to do is download the program (it’s freeware) and
copy two small files to the root directory of the iPod. To get at the tunes
just plug the iPod into any XP or Vista PC, open the iPod, click on the iGrab
icon and it will display all of the
tracks stored on the player. Select the ones you want, click the Grab button and
send them to a nominated folder on your PC. It makes no changes to the iPod so
it’s safe to use.
01/11/07
Free Audio Editor
 Regulars will need no reminding that Audacity has long been
my audio recording and editing program of choice but I have to admit to being
quite smitten with EXPStudio,
which is also free, and has a similar line up of facilities. These include
being able to edit audio files using like a chunk of text, using cut and paste
techniques. It will record anything passing through your PC’s speakers, save
audio files in a wide range of formats (Compressed WAV GSM, ADPCM, DSP, U-Law, A-Law and others, MP2, MP3,
WMA, Ogg Vorbis, AIFF, AU, MPC, VOX, RAW, PCM, U-Law, A-Law,G.726, G.723, G.721, to name
just a few). There’s a good assortment of effects, like Voice Changers (male-female/female/male,
chipmunk, Zeus…) plus the old stalwarts, fade, flange, phase, reverse, reverb,
expand, compress, tempo and many, many more. Audacity still has a slight edge
with its multi-channel facilities, but for quick and simple edits it’s just the
job.
18/10/07
Morph Your MP3s
 There are a zillion MP3 player programs and most of them do
a pretty good job, but here’s something a bit different. AV MP3 Player
Morpher lets you fiddle around with your tunes, you can adjust the tempo,
change voice frequency – a must for Chipmunks fans – there’s even a ‘Cher’
mode, for the classic vocoder effect. There’s also a Robot sound, you can
change instrument sounds remix voices and on the paid-for version you can rip
and burn CDs, cut and paste chunks of music, play up to 12 songs at the same
time and extract vocals. Even so the free version has more than enough features
to keep you amused and although you have to send off for a registration key,
there are no catches.
12/09/07
Windows Media Player
Mini Mode
 If you use Windows
Media Player (WMP) to listen to your MP3 tracks then here’s a neat little
feature that you might have overlooked. Right-click on the Windows taskbar select
Toolbars then Windows Media Player. That’s all there is to it and the next time
you open WMP just click the Minimize button and a small control panel, also
known as ‘Mini Mode’ appears docked onto the taskbar.
Here’s a bonus tip
for WMP 11 users, available for download now and included with Windows Vista.
This sets WMP to always open in Mini Player mode when you click on an mp3 file.
Go to Now Playing > More Options and select the Player tab. Check the item
‘Start the mini player for file names…’
and in the box below replace the default text (voiceatt.wav – for
automatically opening voicemail attachments) with ‘.mp3 (without the quotes).
You can also set it to open when you click on files in a particular folder. For
example, if all of your MP3s are stored in a folder called Music on the C: drive,
just put ‘C:\music’ in the box.
09/07/07
Join the Jet Set
 I know, there are more free multimedia players on the market
than you can shake a stick at and some of them excellent, and here’s another
one to add to the list, though JetAudio Basic
is a bit special. To begin with it has built-in CD burning and audio recording utilities, and it’s
also a dab hand at converting audio files from one format to another. It’s
compatible with a wide range of audio and video file formats (AVI, Audio CD,
MP3, MP3Pro, OGG, MPEG, MIDI, RM, WMA, WMV, and WAV, to name just a few).
There’s a whole bunch of special effects (reverb, wide, speed, x-bass,
cross-fade etc.) to play with, synchronised lyric display, it’s Vista
compatible and there’s an MP3 tag edit, but don’t just take my word for it,
give it a test drive!
25/06/07
Lightweight MP3
Recorder
 As regular visitors
will know I’m a big fan of Audacity, just about the best audio editor and
recorder there is, and I’m not about to change my view, but there is a new kid
on the block that’s worth keeping an eye on. It’s rather clumsily called MP3 My MP3 Recorder, and like Audacity it’s
free and will record just about anything that you can hear through your PC’s
speakers, be it the noises Windows makes, to DVDs, CDs and streamed Internet
Radio. Once the recording has finished you can export the file to MP3 or wav
format. You can also change the colour and appearance with downloadable skins.
It doesn’t have the advanced editing capabilities of Audacity, so it’s not
really fair to compare the two, but if you just want a quick and simple MP3 recorder
it’s definitely worth a look.
06/06/07
IPod to PC Transfer
 As iPod owners know
only too well getting your tunes off the player and on to your PC can be a bit
of a pain. Of course you can sync your library using iTunes but physically
copying tracks is another matter. There are a number of laborious manual methods,
but here’s a little freeware program that does it all for you. It’s called iPod to Computer Transfer, and it does
exactly what it says. It supports playlists, there’s an auto update feature,
you can search for tunes and it is compatible with all recent iPod, Shuffle and
Nano models. The only limitation is that the free version will only let you
copy a single track at the time, if you upgrade to the Pro Version (it costs
£8.00) you can copy as many tracks as you like.
16/05/07
Take Care of Your MP3s with the Godfather
 It’s okay, the mob isn’t about to make you any offers you
can’t refuse for your bootleg MP3s, but you might want to let The GodFather look after
your collections. It’s a freeware program, designed to manage all types of
music files, and if you are anything like the rest of us, your hard drive is
probably stuffed full of them, but why do they need managing, I hear you ask?
Simple, your collection is probably in a bit of a mess, with mis-named or
mis-spelled albums and tracks, some of the info files or ‘Tags’ are probably
wrong. Of course you can do all this manually, one at a time, but The Godfather
makes it much easier, and lets you do it in batches. It can also help you
catalogue your library and there’s a powerful search facility and a built-in
player. Overall, not a bad deal for free!
27/04/07
Song Lyrics, The Evil Way
 How many times have you tried to lamely sing along with a
tune playing on your PC without really knowing the words? Yes, I know it’s easy
enough to look them up on the web, and some music files have the lyrics
embedded, but for all those other occasions when you just want to know the
words try Evil Lyrics.
It can be set to open automatically with all popular media players. As soon as the track starts playing Evil checks the
name of the song then in a flash, downloads and display the lyrics on your
screen.
27/09/06
PC Playback on your
Radio
 How would you like to
playback tunesstored on your PC on your home hi-fi? If the PC and hi-fi
are in the same room, or you have a laptop, then it’s not too difficult to hook
up the PC’s audio out to the hi-fi’s audio input using a stereo connecting
cable, but there’s an easier way.
Last week at my
local computer fair I picked up a wireless ‘sender’ designed for portable MP3
players, iPods and the like, for the princely sum of £7.50. Judging by the
number of different models on sale I’m guessing we’re about to be flooded with
the things.
It’s basically a low
power FM stereo transmitter, for sending sounds from an MP3 player to a nearby
radio -- they’re a handy way to play your digital tunes through a car radio,
for example. Well, they work just as well with the tuners in hi-fi systems, and
the audio outputs on PCs, and the quality is not half bad.
Technically they’re
still illegal but plans are afoot to amend the law (or at least turn a blind
eye to them). The range on my cheapie sender is around 10 metres, enough to
hear the PC in an upstairs bedroom on the living room sound system. The widget
is battery powered, and they last for ages, but you can cut running costs to next
to nothing with an adaptor or by using rechargeables. Now how about a USB FM sender for PCs Mr cheap n' cheerful gadget maker?
15/09/06
P.S. Thanks to Gareth Hicks for letting me know that such a device does exist, it's called the Linex USB FM Transmitter
One Click Volume
Control
How annoying is the Windows volume control? Yes, I know
some of you are lucky enough to have fancy keyboards with volume control
functions but the rest of us have to click on the little speaker
icon and fiddle around with the slider. Not any more, I’ve been playing around with a
little freeware utility called Volume Tray. The icon appears in the System Tray
and all you have to do is hover the mouse pointer over it then click the right or
left mouse button to raise or lower the volume. It’s highly configurable and
does all sorts of other tricks, like setting hot keys for volume and mute,
changing its appearance and making noises as you change the settings. Try it
and you’ll never go near that darned speaker again!
05/07/06
VOLUME
LEVELLING FOR AUDIO PLAYBACK
Don't
you just hate it when you’re playing back audio files using Windows Media
Player WMP), having to continually fiddle with the volume setting because some
tracks are louder than others? Well,
WMP 10 has a built in facility that lets you ‘level’ the volume of all of the
tracks in the library. It has to be set up, though and to that go to Search on
the Tools menu (or press F3), browse to the folder containing your audio files
then underneath make sure that ‘New files and all existing files (slow)’ and
‘Add volume Levelling for all files (slow) are both checked (If the latter
option isn’t shown click the Advanced below). Click the Search button and
volume levelling info will be added to all MP3 and WMA files.
For
WMP to make use of this facility go to View > Enhancements > Show
Enhancements and on the toolbar that appears use the left or right arrow to
select ‘Crossfading and Auto Volume Levelling’ and make sure ‘Turn on Auto
Volume Levelling is displayed. If you burn music tracks to CD then you can use
it to ensure that recorded tracks are all at the same level as well. You’ll
find this option under Options on the Tools menu, select the Devices tab,
double click your CD/DVD writer drive and select the Quality tab and ensure
that ‘Apply volume levelling to music when it is burned’ is ticked.
22/06/06
SOUNDS
UNECESSARY?
Do you really need to hear
the Windows jingle at start up, and what about all of those other pings and
dings? System sounds swallow up a disproportionate amount of your PC’s
resources, especially during boot up, when the CPU, hard drive and memory are
really busy with other, more important tasks. Unless you have an unquenchable
urge to hear the Windows tune every time you switch your PC on then you might
as well switch it off, and maybe save a second or two in the boot up time.
While you are at it you might want to get rid of some of the other spurious
noises you PC makes, by going to Sounds and Audio Devices in Control Panel.
Simply highlight the event you want to silence and select ‘None’ from the drop-down
menu then click OK to exit the dialogue box.
SOUNDING
OUT YOUR PRINTER
The
growing popularity of Wi-Fi and home networking means that a lot of people now
share their printer amongst several users. Unless you are in the same room as
the printer you have no way of knowing if the job has finished or not; Windows
to the rescue. One of the available, but unused sound options is a Print
Complete alert. To enable it just go to Sounds in Control Panel on the Start
menu, select the Sounds tab and scroll down the list to Print Compete. Choose
your sound from the Sounds drop down menu and test it by clicking the
triangular ‘Play’ button. Click OK then have another look through the list for
any other events that you want to assign a new sound, or change the existing
one.
Tip-in-a-Tip.
You don’t have to use the Windows default sounds. You can easily make your own,
using the Sound Recorder utility and a microphone (Start > Programs >
Accessories > entertainment). Just save the *.wav file in C:\Windows\media
and it will show up on the list of available sounds.
RIPPING GOOD FACILITY
If you haven’t upgraded your
Windows Media Player (WMP) for a while then you might want to think about
downloading WMP 10 (free from the Microsoft website). As you may know WMP can ‘Rip’ or copy tracks from an audio
CD and copy them to your PC’s hard drive. Until now it has done so using the
proprietary Windows Media Audio (*.wma) format but now, in WMP 10 there’s an
option to rip tracks to the hugely popular MP3 format, and there’s no need to
install any third-party add-ons or plug-ins, it’s built-in.
Just pop in your audio CD,
select the ‘Rip from CD’ when the Windows XP AutoPlay message box appears and
click OK. To switch from the default wma to MP3 ripping go to Tools >
Options, select the Rip Music tab then on the Rip Settings drop-down menu
select MP3, set the compression level (‘Smallest’ 128kbs is fine for playback
on a personal music player), choose the location where you want the files to be
saved then click OK.
Increase Sound
Recorder Recording Time
The Windows Sound
Recorder is quite handy but it is limited by a maximum recording time of just
60 seconds. However, there is a workaround that can extend its recoding time to
as long as you need. Make a blank recording, save it and call it
‘blank’. Now go to in Insert File on the Edit menu, select blank.wav and make a
new recording, this time the length will increase to 2 minutes; repeat the
process as many times as necessary to get the length you need. You might want
to make a couple of copies of your blank.wav file, for later use. When you’re
ready select Open on the File menu, choose blank.wav and make your recording.
SMALLER, SMARTER VOLUME CONTROL
When you double-click the little speaker icon in
the System Tray (next to the clock display) the main Windows Volume Control
panel opens but it’s quite large and blanks out a sizeable chunk of the screen. If
you want to make it smaller, so you can keep it on the screen, then just click
Ctrl + S and it toggles to a smaller display, and stays that way whenever it is
opened. To revert back to its normal size simply hit Ctrl + S again.
CUSTOM TUNES
If you are bored with the
cheesy tunes, ‘pings’ and ‘ta-da’ Windows sounds create your own from snippets
of audio CDs, played in the CD-ROM drive. Load the CD and open the Sound
Recorder by clicking on Start then Programs, Accessories and Multimedia (or
Entertainment in Windows 98). Play the CD (the Audio CD player is also in
Accessories > Multimedia/Entertainment), and click on the Sound Recorder red
record button. You may need to adjust the level or enable the input from the CD
player from Volume Control on the View menu on CD Player. Sound Recorder can
also add special effects (echo, play backwards, change speed), and edit the
sound (Delete Before/After on the edit menu). When you are happy with it, give
it a name and save it in the Media folder in Windows. It can then be easily
accessed from the Sounds utility in Control Panel and assigned to an event of
your choice. Remember, no public performances if you're recording Copyright
material!
CREATE YOUR OWN SOUNDS
Why not create your own
sounds? All you need is a microphone; plug it into the ‘mic’ jack socket on the
PC’s sound card or audio input. It should be on the back of your PC, close to
the speaker plug. Find the sound recorder utility, it’s in the Multimedia
folder in the Accessories directory. It’s easy to use, just like an ordinary
tape recorder; full instructions are in the associated help file. When you’ve
recorded your sound give it a name. From the File menu choose ‘Save As’ and put
it in the Media directory in the Windows folder, then go back to the Sounds
icon in Control Panel and assign it to the event of your choice.
SOUND CHECK
To check that your
microphone is working go to Start > Programs > Accessories >
Entertainment and click Sound Recorder. Click the Record button and whistle or
speak into the microphone and see if the ‘oscilloscope’ display reacts.
Click
Stop and play back the recording to confirm all is well. If it doesn’t work
double click the loudspeaker icon in the System Tray (next to the clock), a
microphone level slider should be displayed; set it halfway and make ‘Mute’
isn’t checked. If you can’t see the Microphone slider select Options >
Properties and click the check box next to Microphone on the list of
‘Controls’.
VOLUME TIPS
You will often find that
you want to change the volume of your PC’s sound system; however, the volume
control is not very accessible on a standard Windows installation. Normally
most users get to it via the View menu option in CD Player (Start – Programs –
Accessories – Multimedia – CD Player – View – Volume Control) but there’s a
quicker way, and you can have it permanently on the taskbar if you so
wish. From the Start menu click on
Settings, then Control Panel and the Multimedia icon. Click on it and select
the Audio tab. About halfway down there’s a small box marked Show Volume
Control on the Taskbar. Check the box and it’s done. On the far left side of
the taskbar you will see a small loudspeaker symbol; when you click on it a
volume slider and mute switch will appear on the screen.
CD START MENU
If you’re in the habit of
playing audio CDs on your PC it’s a good idea to put the CD Player on the Start
menu. From the Start menu click on
Settings then Taskbar and select the Start Menu Programs tab. Click on the Add
then Browse buttons and look for the Windows folder. Double click on it to open
it up then move the horizontal slider along until the CD Player icon appears.
Highlight it, click open, then next and select the Start Menu folder at the top
of the file tree. To complete click next and then Finish.
BETTER SPEAKERS
Your multimedia PC has a
sound system that is capable of hi-fi performance but you're never going to
realise anything like the full sonic potential of audio CDs and games with
those speakers… The speakers supplied with most PCs have the acoustic
properties of baked bean tins. If you've got a redundant hi-fi system or some
half-decent speakers lying around, try connecting it to your PC and hear the
difference! The soundcards used on most PCs have an amplified output and can
drive speakers directly. Suitable leads are available from electrical accessory
dealers. Make sure the speakers are at least a foot away from the monitor
screen, otherwise the speaker magnets may cause colour staining on the display.
TAILOR YOUR SOUND
Windows 98 and ME have a little
known speaker configuration utility that allows you to tailor the sound of your
PC according to the size and type of speakers. Go to Start > Settings >
Control Panel and select Multimedia, make sure the Audio tab is selected and
click the Advanced Properties button. On the Speakers page Desktop Stereo
Speakers will probably be selected, but it's surprising how many laptops have
that setting too. Try some of the other options – you may have to reboot for
any changes to take effect -- and the differences can be quite small but it's
well worth trying. Whilst you are at it you may want to look at the Performance
tab and if your PC is a relatively speedy model with a plenty of RAM, move the
two sliders to the maximum setting.
Next, go to Add New
Hardware in Control panel, double click Add, then Next, followed by No, then
Next and in the Hardware Types box select Sound Video & Game Controller.
Click Next again and Have Disk. Use Browse to find your copy of Speak.exe and
click OK. Select Sound Driver for PC Speaker and click OK, then Finish and when
prompted re-start the PC. You will find
the controls for the PC speaker in Multimedia on the Control Panel; on the
Devices tab click the Audio Devices branch and Audio for Sound Driver for PC
speaker and then Settings. On Windows 98 you'll find it on the Advanced tab.
SEEING SOUND
Here's a nifty freeware
program that turns sounds on your PC into visual displays. Although the Sound
Frequency Analyser download is only 31k this powerful little utility shows both
the amplitude of sounds passing through your PC as a constantly changing
waveform, and as a colourful Fourier Transform, which represents the spectrum
of the frequencies contained in the sound. Even if you're not interested in the
science and mathematics of sound analysis it's fascinating to watch the
patterns on your PC screen. Sound Frequency Analyser is a zip file and it can
be downloaded from: http://www.relisoft.com/freq.zip
SOUND CARD ANALYSER
The quality of your CD
recordings is dependent to some extent on the capabilities of your PC's sound
card. Sound Card Analyser is a small program the tests the performance of your
PC's sound system, measuring frequency response, dynamic range, noise levels,
cross talk and distortion. It's simple to use – all you have to do is connect
the sound card's input to the output and click the Run Test button – and it
generates a comprehensive report, complete with comments and impressive-looking
graphs. Sound Card Analyser is freeware, the program's 'zip' file is quite
small (454kb) and it can be downloaded from: http://chronos.cs.msu.su/~andre/alex/scan20.zip
TALKING PC
Does your PC talk to
you? If it does, and you haven’t got
Windows XP or installed a speech synthesiser program you might need help, but
if it remains stubbornly mute, and you’d like it to read back your word
processor documents, emails or web pages then have a look at a shareware
program called TextAloud. It’s a sophisticated text to speech program and the
delightful ‘Mary’ will read anything you paste into the Windows Clipboard or
type into the text window. If you’d prefer to listen to another voice, or even
another language there’s a good selection of free add-ons from the TextAloud
website. The program file is 4.2Mb and the trial lasts for 20 days but it’s all
yours for a registration fee of around £15. More details and the link to the
download can be found at: http://www.nextup.com/
Here’s a useful freeware
program, for anyone who listens to music on their PC and has scrabbled around
with the mouse, trying to mute the sound or lower the volume when the phone
rings. Global Audio Control (900kb) assigns simple keyboard shortcuts to all of
your PC’s audio controls, it’s a real time-saver, you’ll wonder how you ever
managed without it. Suitable for Windows 9x/NT/2000 it can be found at: http://www.globalaudiocontrol.cjb.net/
WIN AMP ADD ON
This freeware program is
an add-on for WinAmp, but it’s also available as a stand-alone program that
works with Windows. G-Force is similar in concept to the ‘Visualisations’ in
Windows Media Play 7, except that the pictures and patterns it generates – that
gyrate and pulsate in time with the music -- are about a hundred times more
dazzling and colourful. Be warned, it’s hypnotic, and works best on reasonably
quick PCs, preferably 500MHz or faster.
G-FORCE, 2.1Mb, Windows
95/98/SE/ME/NT/2K, freeware
http://www.55ware.com/gforce/
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