Time To Mix Some Music!!
Written: Nov 16 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Does a great job turning cd tracks into mp3 or wav files
Cons: other than the fact that it doesn't burn the tracks back to disc, NONE!
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| gym-378's Full Review: Audiograbber |
Okay...so I bought this new truck and I was so stoked about the fact that it had a six-disc CD changer. Little did I know what a pain it would be to switch the discs whenever I wanted some new tunes. You see, my changer is mounted underneath the driver's seat so the only way I can (safely) change the discs is to pull over, get out, push the seat all the way forward, change the disc and then get back on the road. So I decided the best thing to do was to create a bunch of compilation CDs that had my favorite songs and that way I could put the player on random disc/random track and not have to worry about changing the discs so often.
Enter AudioGrabber.
This cool little utility lets you turn all your favorite songs into MP3 or .wav files and then you can use your favorite burning software to create a nice new compilation CD.
The Installation
First of all, AudioGrabber is free from http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html . You can simply download the setup file, and run it and away you go. Setup took less than five minutes and required no special configuration.
The Software
There really is no way they could have made this software any easier. Just put your audio CD in the drive and AudioGrabber reads the information from the disc. If you are connected to the Internet, you can click the CDDB button and AudioGrabber will download the names and track length of the CD tracks from the Internet CD Database. Next, just check the box next to the song that you want to grab and then click the "Grab" button. AudioGrabber then turns the cd track into a .wav file or MP3 file, depending on your choice of format.
The Use
As I indicated, I use AudioGrabber mainly for creating compilation discs. This is great because the software reads the music data from each CD digitally so you won't lose any audio quality. However, you can also record those old records and cassettes directly into AudioGrabber though the line-in input of your sound card. I am thinking about recording some old-time radio shows that are only on reel-to-reel and seeing how they come out. Since AudioGrabber offers audio "normalization", which evens out the loud and soft portions of the audio track, my hope is that AudioGrabber can help increase the volume in areas where the sound may have faded without disrupting the audio quality.
The Pitfalls
As with every great piece of software, there are a few things to look out for. First, be aware that .wav files can take up a huge amount of space. If you are storing music files digitally, I highly recommend that you do so in .mp3 format instead. If you are using a .wav file for video editing, etc... make sure you turn the .wav file into an .mp3 when you are done.
The only other pitfall is that you need to be aware that AudioGrabber does not burn cds. Once you have grabbed your tracks and turned them into .mp3 files or .wav files, you will need another piece of software like Nero BurningROM, Adaptec's Easy CD Creator, or Golden Hawk Technology's CDRWIN to burn the tracks back to a compilation CD. In future releases, I hope to see this feature built into AudioGrabber.
Overall
For what AudioGrabber was intended to do...grab audio, it does an outstanding job. Especially for the low, low price of FREE! I highly recommend that anyone wanting to create their own compilation CDs check out AudioGrabber!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
gym-378
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Location: Kansas City, MO
Reviews written: 198
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Motorcycles, Computers, Gadgets, Cars, Books, Just about everything you could write on.
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