Program Name __________ Free/Trial/Commercial ________ Audio Plug-ins for extra formats, etc. ______ Help Documents / Forums


1. dBpowerAMP _ (Free) ____ Plug-in Codecs _______ dBpowerAMP Support forums

2. WinAmp & Pro _ (Free./.Pro is commercial) ___ WinAmp Plug-ins

3. Foobar2000 _ (Free) _________ Additional components _____ Installation help __ Hydrogenaudio Forums > foobar2000

4. Quintessential (QCD) _ (Free) ____ QCD Plug-ins _______ QCD Forums

5. iTunes _ (barely Free) __ 3rd Party Plug-ins & support programs ___ iTunes ipodlounge Forums __ iTunes Tips __ Windows Tutorial ___ * iTunes program has been very buggy for past 2 years at least.

6. Nero Showtime _ (Shareware-30 day trial)

7. MediaMonkey & Gold _ (Free./.Gold is commercial) _ Various MediaMonkey Plug-ins ___ Support _ MediaMonkey Forums

8. aTunes - Open source app. Plays lots of audio formats including FLAC, WAV, MP3, OGG formats. Looks similar to iTunes. Requirements: Java 1.6, MPlayer. More information.


Mac OSX:

1. VOX _ (Free) __________________________________ VOX support forum

2. Audion & Pro _ (Free./.Pro was previously shareware, now free) ____ Audion Help pages

3. XLD Lossless Decoder: Lossless audio decoder for Mac OS X _ (Free) __ (arguably the best perfect rip program available for the mac. As good as the very best Windows rippers or converters recommended by audiophiles.)

4. Switch Audio Converter _ (Free / Pro) ___________ (see site for support options) ______ * (versions for Mac, Windows & Linux)

5. Max _ (Free) __________________________________ Max support forum

5. xAct _ (Free) _(Find download link top of that page.) _____ shntool documentation

6. aTunes - Open source app. Plays lots of audio formats including FLAC, WAV, MP3, OGG formats. Looks similar to iTunes. Requirements: Java 1.6, MPlayer. More information.


Linux:

1. aTunes - Open source app. Plays lots of audio formats including FLAC, WAV, MP3, OGG formats. Looks similar to iTunes. Requirements: Java 1.6, MPlayer. More information.






Audio Editing program: _ Audacity (click on link) _ (Free) __ for Windows, MacOSX & Linux. Can open & export to mp3, wav, aiff, etc. _____

Bit Rates? _ http://www.gnutellaforums.com/downlo...-bitrates.html __ 320 kbps is best for mp3 or m4a/mp4. Variable Bit Rate (VBR) is best because the sound frequencies are better balanced compared to information needed to compress them. And VBR has no need to use high bit rates to encode sound when silent or during a basic simple tone, but encodes at higher bit rates when needed. LAME MP3 is by far the best type of MP3 encoder.


Extra comments:
- WinAmp (has media library)
- Quintessential Player (uses playlist)
- Nero Showtime plays both audio and video (Uses playlist)
- iTunes (has iTunes Music folder) can view video also, but needs to be either mp4/H.264 format. How to transfer music to my iPod (& iTunes) {click on link}. iTunes does not support mp3Pro, Ogg Vorbis or Real.
- Foobar2000 can take a bit of time with settings. Best to seek help at hydrogen audio forum & not ask on these forums.

- VOX (previously called ToolPlayer) is a little and simple music player for OSX with support for many file types, including FLAC, MP3, AAC, Musepack, Monkey's Audio (APE), OGG Vorbis, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, IT, MOD, XM, Games Music and many others. Includes numerous effects like Equalizer, Reverb, Time Stretch, Pitch Shift, Echo. Effects can be exported. VOX does not import to its own music library or use playlists. It plays the songs from wherever the files are opened directly from, so it's simple in function. Vox can export to AIFF & a few other formats.
- Audion is no longer developed, however Pro does give support for mp3Pro which iTunes does not. Also supports Ogg Vorbis, WMA, SID. Can export using various formats including Lame & mp3Pro. * Audion Pro is now supposedly free; a free serial number is provided at the top of the download page. It does work on the new mac intel machines. Still a great player/encoder even now!
- Switch is more of a converter but also a handy player. Versions for Windows, Linux & MacOSX. It can play & convert a wide range of audio formats. One version is free, the other pro is commercial with a few extras you would never use. Supported formats: wav, .mp3, au, aif, gsm, dct, vox, raw, ogg, flac, amr, wma, wmv, aac (not aacPlus), m4a, act/rcd (newer version of format not supported), rm/ra, mov
- Max is a CD audio extractor and audio converter. 20 compressed and uncompressed formats including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless, Monkey's Audio, WavPack, Speex, AIFF, and WAVE. Full tag editing abilities. Works well with iTunes. It is not a player per se, rather an audio utility.
- xAct is a free audio ripper & converter for MacOSX, FLAC, MPEG-4 (AAC and Apple Lossless), MP3, APE, WavPack, Shorten, AIFF, WAV, etc. CD extraction via cd paranoia. Can author a DVD-Audio Disc image for playback in a DVD-Audio compatible player. Split or join APE or other format albums with cue.
- XLD uses CD extraction via cd paranoia. Multiple formats to convert to or from: FLAC, mp3 (LAME), MPEG-4 (AAC and Apple Lossless), AIFF, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, WavPack, Wave64, PCM, APE splitting via cue file. Disk reader profiling & testing, logging, etc. High quality encoding.

* VLC whilst primarily a video player, can also be used to play most audio types including audio streaming from sites. VLC should be able to play all kinds of audio files you find on Gnutella network. If VLC cannot play an audio file, chances are the audio file is fake or corrupted. VLC is supported on a very wide range of operating systems; Windows, MacOSX, Linux, etc.

QuickTime playback of Ogg and FLAC files - Xiph-QT Codec. There are also svn releases which are slightly newer. Read XiphQT FAQ about iTunes compatibility. I do not think the newer iTunes versions are compatible with the XiphQT codec, but at least QT 7 player still seems compatible.

Information on Uncompressed Lossless (WAV/AIFF), Compressed Lossless (FLAC, etc.), & Lossy Audio formats (mp3, m4a, etc.)

Audio formats you should not download or share: WMA (What you should know about WMA Files), RA, AU. MIDI is questionable also. Due to their design, these kinds of audio file formats on the Gnutella network are generally potentially carrying viruses or are fake.

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