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 Desktop
Enhancement
*Top Download*
Want the Coolest
Windows 95 Desktop? Download Drempels free from Geisswerks
and enjoy beautiful swirling patterns on your desktop (just like a
screensaver, but always visible). 9 out of 10 cats find it exceptionally
cool.
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 Audio
Mixing Programs
Time marches
on. Return visitors will notice that a new program has come along
and tipped Multiquence and ddclip off the top spots. You want AUTOMATED
beat matching and handling of MP3 files? No problem. You want to
stream your mixes over the net, live? No problem (apparently, I
haven't used this feature). You want MixMeister. Load up a hard
disk full of MP3 or wave files and leave it for a while to work
out their bpm and visual plot. Drag the songs you want into the
playlist and order them automatically by beat (ascending or descending)
or manually. It will play the mix in real time, providing you are
not trying to beat match long sections of tracks with a big difference
in bpm. If the automatic beat detection and matching doesn't quite
sound right it is also easily altered to ensure a seamless mix.
MixMeister will not do everything you may want in a mixing program,
but if you want something you can set up quickly and leave for a
little while while you attend to your party guests, it might just
be a god send! It is not expensive and one day they might even make
it look pretty. Check out the demo version (no save to mix file
or stream) at www.MixMeister.com
Note that this review was on MixMeister 2 and version 5 is now available.
If the company would like to offer me a comp of version 5 I will
be happy to update these details ;-)
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 Multiquence
is a good little mixing program. It offers some basic digital sound
processing (reverb, flange, graphic equaliser and speed) which can
be applied to individual tracks and work in real time. It also supports
MIDI files and will now also allow mixing of MP3 files. It is from
the same authors as Goldwave. |
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ddclip
also good and had a free version (this has just been taken off their
website in the last month or so). It has a better waveform display
and also basic video editing. The free version only supports 4 audio
tracks and one video and MIDI track. You cannot use more than one
MIDI file in a project.
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For
Editing, there are a couple of programs which are worth checking out.
CoolEdit was a very
popular shareware program that has now been bought out by Adobe. No
longer affordable unless you are very serious about audio editing.
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Digital Sound
Processing Programs
Want to access
CD audio files without all the hassle of ripper? Why not try the
replacement cdfs.vxd
[link is kaput so you will have to try a google search for the file]
which will show CD audio tracks as wave files in any program. Access
them directly with your MP3 encoder! Excellent, and such a tiny
download!
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 For
the ultimate in vinyl restoration, the winner for me has recently
changhed. It used to be Groove
Mechanic, which is still a very good program.
I am now using Wave Corrector as it provides a stable recording
platform that allows timed recording, gives me the best rejection
of clicks and pops with a minimum of artefacts and is priced at
a reasonable level.
I
love transferring LP's to CD and have created this short
tutorial with info about recording and cleaning up the sound
from LP's.
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