These Utilities and Links have been suggested by users of the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 groups for inclusion here. They are here in alphabetic order and not by any sort of rating system. We have tried to simply describe and not express opinion. Many of the descriptions are simply excerpts from the software's own websites.

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1by1 [MP3 Player] 1by1 is a small, fast and handy player which also provides powerful tools to handle your files and listen to your tracks. FREE  http://mpesch3.de1.cc/1by1.html

Acid Pro [Music Creation] ACID® Pro software is the ideal loop-based music composition and production tool for original music creation. $299.95.  http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/showproduct.asp?pid=928

Agent [Newsreader : Binary Downloader] Agent 4.2 is a top-rated Usenet newsreader. Agent is also an excellent POP email client. Around since 1994 Agent may be the oldest existing usenet client, although frequent upgrades keep it up to date. FreeAgent has been discontinued. $29.00.  http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php

AlbumGrabber [Image tool] Album Grabber is basically a bot that grabs album covers off of Allmusic.com and Google images. FREE  http://bluedragontavern.dyndns.org/albumgrabber/

All2Lame [Encoder front end] All2Lame is a free Windows front-end for the LAME MP3 encoder. It's very easy to use. FREE  http://members.home.nl/w.speek/all2lame.htm

All Music Guide [Website] Source for CD info, track lists, band and musician bios, and generally all else pertaining to recorded music. Huge database, but lots of graphic content and java scripts can make it slow to access with a slow connection.http://www.allmusic.com/

Apollo Player [MP3 Player] Apollo is a music player GUI front-end for Linux. It aims to make it easy to choose and play music, currently MP3s, using a clean and functional interface. No skins. FREE  http://sourceforge.net/projects/apolloplayer/

Audacity [Wave Editor] Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. FREE  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

 Audiograbber [Ripper/Encoder] Audiograbber is software that grabs digital audio from CDs. It copies the audio digitally-not through the soundcard-which enables you to make perfect copies of the originals. It can perform a test to see that the copies are perfect. Audiograbber can also automatically normalize the music, delete silence from the start and/or end of tracks, and send them to a variety or external MP3 encoders). FREE  http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/

Burrrn [CD Burner] Burrrn is a little tool for burrrning audio CDs with CD-Text from various audio files. Supported formats are: wav, mp3, mpc, ogg, aac, mp4, ape, flac, ofr, wv, tta, m3u, pls and fpl playlists and cue sheets. You can also burn EAC's noncompliant image + cue sheets. FREE(optional cardware)   http://www.burrrn.net/

CDex [Ripper/Encoder] CDex is a tool to do all sorts of things audio related. Mainly focused on ripping and converting. Built in support for many encoders although most users of the a.b.s.m.* groups opt for Lame. FREE  http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

CDRCue [Cuesheet creator] CD-R cuesheets are short text files specifying the contents, order, and spacing of your CD-R disc, as you wish to burn it. Almost all major CD-R burning applications support cuesheets. $19.95  http://www.dcsoft.com/products/cdrcue/

CDR FAQ [Website] An excellent source. Useful stop for anybody new to burning CDs of any kind. They have gotten carried away with AdSense ads. http://www.cdrfaq.org/

CDText [Website] Essentially CD Text is a extension of the existing audio CD standard ("Red Book") that adds the ability to store text and graphical information like album titles, artist names, and song titles on a music CD. This website is full of information about CDText.  http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aa571/cdtext.htm

CDWave [Wave editor] CDWave is a program designed to aid in CD-Recordable mastering. It was built for splitting WAV files from any source, like LP, tape or even CD. After recording, you can let CD Wave automatically calculate split points, or you can manually add and delete split points. Uncrippled Shareware: $15.00 to register.  http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/index.html

 CKRename [File Renamer] CDRename is a compact, powerful, highly configurable file renaming utility that features a very intuitive user interface. Odd URL though. FREE  http://www.musicsucks.com/CKSoft/index.htm

CoolEditPro (now AdobeAudition) [Music editing] Adobe® Audition™ 2.0 software is a professional audio editing environment. Designed for demanding audio and video professionals, Adobe Audition offers advanced audio mixing, editing, and effects processing capabilities. $349.00  http://www.adobe.com/special/products/audition/syntrillium.html

 CoolPlayer [MP3 Player] Small and fast freeware skinnable mpeg audio player. Uses MAD decoder.FREE.  http://coolplayer.sourceforge.net/

dbPowerAmp [Ripper/encoder] dbPowerAmp calls itself the "Swiss Knife" of audio. Basic (free) program will rip, convert, and do some other things with audio. More features available for upgrade pricing. Site also has a ton of codecs available for download. FREE (basic) with Optional Power Packs $18 and UP  http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

EAC [Ripper/encoder] Exact Audio Copy is a program used to copy audio data from an audio CD to a stereo WAV file. Uses DAE to get a perfect digital copy and will do a check to verify that copy is perfect. Will also write a log file that shows this for sharing. Will function as a front end for either the Lame .dll or Lame .exe to make MP3s from the wave files. FREE  http://www.exactaudiocopy.org/

EAC Advice [Website] Website with much good advice about making high quality MP3 files with EAC. Also has some downloadable presets for EAC which eliminate the user having to set up the program for themselves. Worth a look.   http://www.bestmp3guide.com/

EasyMP3 [Ripper/encoder] Ripper/encoder. Website says it is intuitive, powerful and fast with jitter correction and ID3 tagging.$19.95.  http://www.proteron.com/easymp3/

EncSpot [MP3 Checker] EncSpot is an application which reports useful facts about your mp3 collection. The most famous feature is its ability to guess which encoder was used to encode each file. It will also give you a general idea of the audio quality of the file. FREE   http://www.download.com/EncSpot/3000-2169_4-10062007.html

Flexible Renamer [File renamer] A file/folder renaming utility, which can use Wildcard or Regular-Expression and Tag-information (MP3, EXIF). Free.  http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA014830/english/FlexRena/

Foobar2000 [MP3 Player] Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats. FREE  http://www.foobar2000.org/

GoldWave [Wave Editor] GoldWave is a top rated, professional digital audio editor. It contains many great features, and is a favorite tool of many vinyl rippers. $45.00  http://www.goldwave.com/

GrabIt [Binary Downloader] Multi-threaded Binary Downloader. Now has search features and more. FREE  http://www.shemes.com/index.php?p=features

 Gravity [Newsreader : Binary Downloader] Gravity is a very powerful and configurable newsreader that was released by its former owner as open source a few years ago. Since then some folks have made improvements, particularly in the area of using it for viewing and downloading binary posts. Lots of tutorials and helpful information on this website. Gravity is, however, getting pretty long in the tooth. FREE  http://lightning.prohosting.com/~tbates/gravity/

Hydrogen Audio [Website] Forums, forums and more forums. Lots of highly knowledgeable (and highly opinionated) discussion of all aspects of digital audio.  http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?

ID3-TagIT [ID3 Tagger] ID3-TagIT is a program for editing, adding, or deleting ID3 tags in MP3 files. Single file and batch editing are both supported. Able to read information from the directory structure and put it into the tag, organize files into folders, handle several comments and genres in the ID3V2 tag, get tag information from a FreeDB Connection, has some analyse functions, libraries for your genres and artist and some transfer and copy functions for the tags.FREE  http://id3-tagit.pluemper.name/

ISOBuster [Data recovery] IsoBuster is a highly specialized yet easy to use CD and DVD data recovery tool. It supports all CD and DVD formats and all common CD and DVD file-systems. Some featuresFREE Full functionality $29.95  http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/

LAME [MP3 Codec] Lame is pretty universally accepted as the best MP3 codec available. It is free and it has been extensively tuned and re-tuned for quality over any other consideration. Some recent versions have added more speed and user friendliness but Quality still remains the most important factor with the volunteer development team. FREE:
Info page:http://www.roemersoftware.com/help/index.html

Lossless audio [Website] Some folks have decided that quality is much more important to them than any file size savings or space savings such as those realized by mp3 encoding. For these people, lossless compression codecs are a very logical way to go. This page at Radified.com is a good start for explanations and options.  http://mp3.radified.com/lossless.htm

MAC (Mpeg Audio Collection) [Organizer] MAC is designed to organize your audio file collection. It is fast and easy to use, scans selected drives for supported audio files and lists them in an Explorer-style tree-view interface. You can retrieve all information about your audio collection and you can play files as well.FREE.   http://mac.sourceforge.net/

MAD front end [MP3 Decoder] Graphical front-end for the MAD decoder. Decode your MP3 to high quality wav files.Free.  http://members.home.nl/w.speek/mad_frontend.htm

 MP3DirectCut [MP3 Editor] mp3DirectCut is a small tool for editing mpeg audio directly. You can remove parts, change the volume, split files or copy regions to new files. All without the need to decompress your mp3 into pcm/wav. This saves work, encoding time and disk space. And there is no quality loss through any re-compressions. FREE.  http://mpesch3.de1.cc/mp3dc.html

MP3Ext [Organizer : ID3 Editor] MP3Ext is an extension for the Windows Explorer. It enhances it, so you can get information in many ways, perhaps the most interesting is that it installs a different icon for varying bitrates of MP3 so you can see at a glance what bitrate your files are. Also displays tool-tips and a property page which allows you to edit one or a whole playlist full of ID3 tags.Free.  http://www.mutschler.de/mp3ext/

MP3Gain [MP3 Editor : Normalizer] MP3Gain analyzes and losslessly adjusts mp3 files to a specified target volume. It does not simply do peak amplitude normalization. Instead, it performs statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear. Uses Replay Gain specification so all changes are completely reversible. Free.  http://sourceforge.net/projects/mp3gain/

MP3 Tag Editor [ID Tag Editor : most audio] MP3 Tag Editor (AKA MP3-Tag) edits tag information in single files or entire folders of MP3, OGG, WMA, ASF and other formats. It can even use the FREEDB database to fill in tags based on album and track length. Free to try, $29.95 to buy.  http://www.mp3-tag.com/

MP3TagStudio [ID3 tagger, organizer, MP3Editor] Powerful tagging and renaming program. Also trims, organizes, creates playlists, repairs headers and more. Uncrippled shareware
Registration$19.00  http://www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/

MPTrim [MP3 editor] Used to be called MP3Trim. Small utility that trims silence from the beginning or end, does fade in and fade out and adjusts volume of mp3 all without decoding/re-encoding. Free.  http://www.mptrim.com/

 MusicCutter [MP3 Editor] MusiCutter is mp3 and ogg vorbis joiner/cutter that works without need to decode and re-encode. Cut points can be imported from cue sheets, XMCD file or even plain text files. Some posters use this utility to cut large seamless rips into individual tracks, then post them with a cue sheet so they can be reassembled by the downloader to produce seamless audio CDs from them. Free.  http://musicutter.szm.sk/

MusicMatch Jukebox 10 [MP3 Player : Ripper/encoder : Burner : Organizer : Tagger : Subscription Music Download service] "Full featured" audio program. Plays, rips, organizes, tags, burns, looks up cover art, etc. Some considered it indispensable, some considered it "bloatware". Version 10 is a huge step backwards. It annoys you to upgrade. It annoys you with its playlist-centric design. Use your ears and some careful listening to your own rips to make your choice. The Plus version costs $19.95. http://www.musicmatch2008.com/

Nero [CD Burner : Ripper/encoder : Organizer : Digital photo slideshows] Popular burning software just keeps adding features. $63.99.  http://www.nero.com/enu/index.html

NewsLeecher [Binary Downloader] Newsleecher is a Usenet downloading (leeching) application. NewsLeecher can download from multiple usenet servers at the same time, using up to 99 download threads per server, and will download file parts spread over different servers. Maker claims superior speed. Various Pricing Free to try. $19.99-$29.9 plus subscription.   http://www.newsleecher.com/

NewsReaders [Web site] Links to many newsreaders. Some comments, some other links, but mostly links to newsreaders. Parts are getting pretty dated.  http://www.newsreaders.com/win/clients.html

NewsRover [Newsreader : Binary downloader] Powerful newsreader/downloader program. Frequently updated to keep up with new developments. Currently supports yEnc, .nzb files, .rar combine/decode all internally. Also has search function that will search for mp3 or any other attachment across multiple news services even if you aren't subscribed to them. You can also program it to check for files fitting your criteria at intervals you specify and download them if they are on your servers. $29.95.  http://www.newsrover.com/

Newsgroup server comparison [Web page] Good comparison of usenet service providers. Rated according to clearly defined criteria so you can decide which one fits your needs.  http://www.newsgroupservers.net/

Newzbin [Website] Usenet Indexing and search service. Listings of what is currently available on Usenet. The main (and still free) feature of Newzbin is to provide you with detailed list of what is recently posted to Usenet. Web Site: Paid premium account needed to access some advanced search features.  http://www.newzbin.com/

Nomad News [newsreader] Usenet News Browser & Automated Retriever for Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP. Originally created by DMP Software sometime around 1999. Includes yEnc decoding. Free.  http://www.nomadnews.com/

 OldVersion.com [Web site] "Because newer is not always better." Large (and growing) archive of older versions of many popular programs.  http://www.oldversion.com/

Oscars Renamer [file re-namer] Oscar's Renamer takes and enhances the idea of editing files in directory in a full featured Text editor and then writing all the changes at once into the files. Easily create macros to do repetitive tasks. Free.  http://www.mediachance.com/free/index.html

PowerGrab [Binary downloader] Binary grabber from the guy who developed PowerPost. Kind of old. Development is final with Version 2.0. Free.  http://sourceforge.net/projects/power-grab/

PowerPost 2000 [Binary poster] Binary posting utility that has long been the standard for Windows. Its source code was used to develop a yEnc version. Free. 

Power-Post 2000: http://usenethelp.codeccorner.com/files/PowrPost_jw_c_20020716.zip
The yEnc version: http://powerpost.cjb.net

QuickPar [PAR2 Creator] Quickpar is a utility for creating Parity Volumes using the Reed Solomon algorithm. For details of the algorithm used, see the parchive website http://parchive.sourceforge.net/ at SourceForge. Parity Volumes may be used to verify that a set of files have not been corrupted, or to reconstruct damaged files (providing that you have a sufficient quantity of Parity Volumes to match the missing or damaged files).
QuickPar uses the PAR version 2.0 specification. FREE  http://www.quickpar.org.uk/index.htm

Quintessential Player [MP3 Player : Organizer : Ripper/encoder] A full-featured digital jukebox, with straightforward interfaces for playing, recording, and organizing your digital music collection. Version 4.5 adds video support, new plug-in types, new skinning features, improved CD ripping and encoding, simultaneous audio playback while ripping CDs, and an updated interface.Free.  http://www.quinnware.com/

Radified Guide [Website] Lots of information. Lots of links. Lots of guides to ripping and encoding digital audio..  http://mp3.radified.com/

RazorLame [encoder front end] Simple and easy to use GUI for Lame. Does batch encoding, makes setting parameters a snap even for the novice but allows the experienced user complete control. Latest version is 2 years old. Free.  http://www.dors.de/razorlame/index.php

ShufflePlay2 [MP3 organizer] ShufflePlay is an MP3 file manager, playlist manager, player-front end, and database utility integrated into one fully featured package. Updated version ads ID3V2 support.$10 Donation.   http://www.fliptech.net/shuffleplay/

Slyck.com [website] Thorough and detailed guide to using binary groups. Not completely specific to the mp3 groups but still has lots of good information and is presented very clearly with lots of screen-shots and links to other information. .  http://www.slyck.com/ng.php

Sound Forge [Music creation : editing] Sound Forge® software is the tool of choice for media professionals who want to create and edit digital audio files with absolute speed and precision. $299.95.  http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/soundforgefamily.asp

 TAG&Rename [ID3 Tagger/renamer : Organizer] Tag&Rename is a very popular tagging utility. It works with every kind of sound file imaginable. Trial version of Tag&Rename has limitations: nag-screen and 30 day trial period. $29.95  http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm

TagScanner [Organizer : Tagger : Renamer] TagScanner is a multifunction program to organize large music collections. As the website says: "Мощная программа для организации и управления музыкальными архивами." (Powerful program for organizing and managing music archives.) It can edit tags of several progressive audio formats, rename files based on the tag information, generate tag information from filenames. Also you may get album info via internet music database freedb.org. Supports ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis comments and APEv2 tags. Worksheets technology. Powerful TAG editor with batch functions and special features. Playlist maker with ability to export playlists to HTML or Excel. Built-in player. Free.  http://www.xdlab.ru/en/index.htm

The Gimp [Image editing] The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. Used by some to create CD or CDR covers. Free.  http://www.gimp.org/

UltraTagger [ID3Tagger/renamer : Organizer] Full featured ID3 tagging shareware utility. Does freedb lookups for albums, rewrites tags from file info, renames files from tags, and many more features. $18.00.  http://www.ultratagger.com/

VBRFix [MP3 editor] Reconstructs Mp3 files removing unwanted data Recreates VBR Tag with seek information if it's VBR Can remove ID3v1, ID3v2, FHG, VBRI tags Free.  http://www.willwap.co.uk/Programs/vbrfix.php

Vinyl to MP3 help [Web site] Web site with much helpful information for those wanting to turn a vinyl album or whole collection into MP3 .  http://www.delback.co.uk/lp-cdr.htm

Vinyl to MP3 help (more) [Web site] Another web site with much helpful information for those wanting to turn a vinyl album or whole collection into MP3 .  http://www.a-reny.com/iexplorer/restauration.html

Wikipedia MP3 Page [Web site] Wikipedia MP3 page…informative lots of links Cost (optional).  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Quality_of_MP3_audio

Winamp [MP3 Player : Ripper/encoder : Organizer] Long a favorite mp3 player for Windows, Winamp lost some fans when its parent company was bought by AOL. Still available free. New full versions play audio and video, have a music library, visualizations. Pro versions also rip audio, and burn CDs. Basic versions FREE Pro version $19.95  http://www.winamp.com/

Winface [image creator] Program to make XFace icons for use with some newsreaders. Free.  http://www.xs4all.nl/~walterln/winface/

XNews [Newsreader : Binary downloader] Free and powerful binary downloader and newsreader. Has a very loyal group of users. Interface is a bit different from other readers but those who take the time to get to know it seem to really like it. Regularly updated. Free.  http://xnews.newsguy.com/

yEncPowerPostA&A [Binary Poster] PowerPost-A&A is a custom version of Power Post 2000 with many additional features. Features: yEnc posting, .nzb support, par2 creation, .sfv creation, .md5 creation, multi-threaded posting. FREE.  http://powerpost.cjb.net/

ZINA [MP3 player : streamer] Zina (Zina Is Not Andromeda) is a graphical interface to your MP3 collection, a personal jukebox, an MP3 streamer. It can run on its own, embedded into an existing website, or as a Postnuke/PHPNuke/ Xoops/Mambo module. It is similar to Andromeda, but released under the GNU GPL. FREE.  http://sourceforge.net/projects/zina/

 

DISCLAIMER and SUGGESTIONS
These are all programs that are currently being used by contributors to or downloaders in the a.b.s.m.* groups. There are other programs available that do the same or similar things. If you have a favorite that you don't see here please let us know and we will try to include it.

Email here with any suggestions for programs you think would be worth adding. Post suggestions to the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.d group also.

Neither the writer of this page nor any other users of the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 groups can take any responsibility for any damage resulting from the use of these programs or links. They are being used safely and productively by contributors here, use them wisely but use them at your own risk.