As its own name suggests, FreeRip MP3 is a CD ripper, which means that it extracts tracks from any audio CD and saves them in several digital formats, so that you can enjoy your music anywhere! FreeRip MP3 also converts music files from one format to another, supports ID3 tagging and displays extended information about your favorite artists.

With more and more multimedia content filling your hard drive, it’s increasingly important to have some way of managing it all. Teen Spirit (from developer Artificial Spirit) is an all-in-one media player and organizer that aims to do exactly this with a focus on usability. A highly user-friendly interface and one click access to album information make this a great application, particularly for music lovers.

If you use Windows Media Player to manage your audiovisual collection then you’ll certainly find Teen Spirit a breath of fresh air. Although the look is not quite so slick and polished, the system for obtaining extra information about a track, album or artist is far better. Teen Spirit works by assigning tags to your music files which are then used to search for the appropriate lyrics and other associated information from several databases including All Music, Net Covers and of course, Google. By casting the net so wide, Teen Spirit tends to return much more extensive results than Windows Media Player. However, be careful with the tags. If they are not specific enough, Teen Spirit tends to retrieve completely the wrong information. Another useful feature is that it stores all this information locally so that you don’t need an internet connection to view album info once you’ve retrieved it for the first time.

Amarok, the awesome music player, only available on Linux and Unix until now is finally coming to Windows. A post on the Amarok development team’s blog, reveals that they have managed to compile the Windows version of Amarok2. We couldn't find any information on whether that meant a Mac version will also be delivered, but still found the time to unearth a good guide to play Amarok on your Mac.

A favourite of Linux users, Amarok is often considered superior to other players like iTunes or Winamp thanks to features like integrated Wikipedia lookup, lyrics downloading and advanced track organisation. It also integrates well with last.fm and plays the whole collection of Magnatune songs. In all, it’s an exciting new program coming to Windows and together with Songbird, could represent the future of music players.

Your ever-growing music collection can get really messy if you don't take the appropriate measures in time. It's a good idea is to use an audio file organizer such as SoundBase. This manager enables you to keep your music collection in perfect order with almost no effort. It supports the most common audio formats and also features a tag editor and an embedded audio player.

This free alternative to iTunes doesn't include access to the iStore, but enables you to manage the contents of your iPod and synchronize it with your computer in an easy, convenient way. You'll be able to copy songs from and to your PC, import and export playlists, find duplicate tracks and retrieve your iPod's information, amongst other nice features.

Adobe Audition started life as a simple audio editor until Adobe saw that the big money was in music creation software. The program is now part of the Creative Suite line as a multi-track recording studio that offers all the refinement you expect in Adobe products but leaves beginners floundering in technical jargon.

First of all, be warned that this is a big download – 470MB to be exact - and the installation is also a long, drawn-out process so don’t be in a hurry to go anywhere when trying this. After the initial installation, Adobe Audition searches for compatible audio formats on your hard drive but asks you which file types you want to associate with it. This part is important to complete, otherwise the program would detect every single sound file on your hard drive - meaning your Adobe Audition library would be a jumbled mess.

The main interface is clean, with the active window highlighted by a red border. Each window is separated by tabs to keep the ‘File’, ‘Effects’, ‘Main’ and ‘Mixer’ sections separate and easy to revert to. If you don’t like the layout then Adobe has provided an ‘unlock panel’ option which allows you to detach and move these windows to a position of your choosing. You can save your own rearrangements as workplace templates according to the type of project you are working on.

We thought that there couldn't be any more interesting news about audio players... but we were wrong. This outstanding application has pleasantly surprised us for its sound quality, ease of use and the nice extra tools included: a tag editor, a sound recorder and an audio file converter. Even if you already have a favorite audio player, you should definitely give AIMP Classic a try. You won't regret it!

Winamp and XMPlay are two solid audio players that, while in appearance are very similar, serve different purposes. We’ve decided to pit the two applications in a little face-off to see how they compare in a number of features like appearance, playback, managing media and extra tools.

Let’s start with the installation process. XMPlay beats Winamp hands downs here simply because it doesn’t need any installing. Once you’ve unzipped the application it’s on your PC. For that reason you can perfectly carry it around on a USB stick and install it on any PC you use. However, do keep in mind that Winamp does also install very quickly.

While the two applications have similar, multi windowed interface, Winamp might have the edge in appearance. The program is slightly more polished and all the windows can be dragged together. Also, while both programs can be customized, it seems Winamp has much more skins to offer, and these can also be tweaked by adjusting alpha blending or color themes. The XMPlay window is a bit smaller and less polished and doesn't let you modify skins.

As far as DJing programs go, they don’t come much more user friendly than HipHop eJay. The problem with most of these programs is that they seem to offer you all realm of mixing possibilities but you need to be Fatboy Slim to have any clue how to operate them. Whilst lacking advanced controls, HipHop eJay 6 makes it so easy that even the slowest learners will feel like Grandmaster Flash.

The improvements over its predecessor are mainly an increased number of samples and a few instrument variations, including new snare drum beats and piano loop combinations. HipHop eJay 6 also sports a sleeker interface that’s less cluttered, although requires more rifling through menus as a result. Samples have increased from 3000 to 4000 and there’s a few new wizards to guide you through your first scratches. There’s also a new 'Mophonix Supabass' amplifier to make your bass lines sound 'phatter' than ever.

The layout is conventional enough - a pair of decks separated by a mixing console jammed with samples. However, the key element is the layered timeline that runs along the bottom – in much the same way as in a video editing package – where you can drag and drop the various blocks. This simple timeline makes constructing tunes a breeze. For instance, you can drag a drum beat into the first audio track and then complement it with a guitar in the second, a scratch on the third etc. You simply hit play and in an instant, you’ve got something that sounds like T-Rex meets Run DMC.

I must admit I'm not very fond of audio editing tools. Mixing music has never been my cup of tea, so when it comes to testing an audio editor, chances are I end up more confused than satisfied. However, this isn't the case with Audacity. To begin with, this editor is free source and supports MP3, two features which usually don't meet in this kind of application. Secondly, it's easy to master, even for newcomers. And finally, there's a wide range of filters and special effects you can apply to your music so that you easily achieve the desired effect.

Audacity doesn't stand out for its interface. At first sight one wonders if this program is really going to be that easy to use. In fact, the interface sometimes makes it really hard to work with your tracks, especially when you zoom in on them for a more comfortable editing session. Besides this, I found myself constantly right-clicking on the working area and the tracks too, waiting for some handy context menu to appear but nothing came out.

With Windows Media Player (WMP) 11 Microsoft aims to counter iTunes’ dominance. The interface has been beefed-up, usability has been enhanced and Microsoft has worked at turning its flagship media application into a full multimedia center, linked to online stores and compatible with mobile devices. We take a look at its new features.

The first thing that will strike you when you start up WMP 11, is the complete revamp of the interface. No more deep blue, the whole application is now dark and shiny and you can customize it by selecting a hue of your choice. The left side is a drop down pane for your library, the centre displays your lists and the right side is used to create playlists which you can rip, burn or sync with a mobile device.

Compared to version 10, we feel that Microsoft actually made an effort to simplify the whole interface and give you more ways to browse through your media list, whether by using the drop down menu or the quick rollout line on the top left. The “play” and “previous” and next” buttons are now nested at the bottom of the interface and have a jazzy glow whenever you roll over them. Microsoft has finally succeeded in integrating a good search function into its WMP interface. As you type the name of an artist or title the application will bring up the results in the main window.

A few years ago, if you wanted to broadcast your own radio show you would have needed all manner of antennas and radio equipment, along with a licence (or the guts to transmit without one). Nowadays anyone can become a radio star thanks to the rise of podcasting technology. With the major media players now joining cutting-edge tech sites in the podcasting revolution, there’s plenty of competition around, so producing a broadcast that sounds slick and professional is essential.

As its name suggests, ePodCast Creator has been specifically designed for users who want to make their own online audiocasts. The application allows you to create, edit and manage podcasts on the fly, with a set of tools that let you record and mix audio from a variety of sources.

We like the way the program embraces the spirit of podcasting by keeping things pretty straightforward. Unlike many audio-editing applications, the interface is clean of clutter and consists of clearly -labelled playback and record panels, along with two timelines displaying the waveforms for the cast’s voice and music. Thanks to the ‘Music Segments’ menu, you get instant access to the music clips you’ve imported, which can either be dragged and dropped onto the timeline, or accessed via hotkeys.

There are a number of video editing packages out there, from the simple Windows Media Maker to industry standards like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut. Sony’s contribution is Vegas Video and it offers an original take on the editing genre. Vegas actually began as an audio editing app and it shows – the entire feel of the program is more like an audio editing program than conventional video editing programs. On the plus side, Sony has emphasised giving users the greatest control over soundtracks and audio tracks to ensure that your film sounds great.

Sony Vegas Video 7.0 includes an entire suite of tools – Vegas itself as well as DVD Architect 4 to help you burn films and Dolby Digital AC3 coding software to enable you to offer broadcast quality sound in your productions. Vegas allows you to edit DV, HDV, SD/HD-SDI, and all XDCAM formats in real time and even give them surround sound. As HDV starts to become more popular, the ability to edit this particular format means that for some users, it’s their preferred editing package by default.

Whilst iTunes is the dominant audio program for those with iPods, it can be rather limiting when it comes to managing your device. As a result, some users are turning towards a free iTunes alternative called Floola. Although it lacks a link to the iTunes store, most users find it not only works faster between your PC or Mac but offers much greater freedoms as far as managing your iPod goes.

All you need to do before using Floola is configure your iPod for use as an external hardrive. You can find out how to do this on the Apple website. You can either install Floola on your desktop or run it directly from your iPod. You should then be able to copy files to and from your iPod but if you’re experiencing any problems, Floola even features an bug fixing tool. It also supports podcasts so you won't miss out on your favourite broadcasts. The fact that it can be installed on your iPod also means that if you’re constantly using it between two computers, it definitely makes life a lot easier.

Be warned however that this program does have a tendency to hog your resources and on older machines, it may well slow down your system considerably outweighing any transfer speed benefits it may offer.

If you’re still not convinced, check out this screencast to learn more about how Floola works.

Most of us who own an MP3 player or play digital music on a computer will admit that it’s possible to get a little precious over your audio collection. There’s something very satisfying about having a hoard of music with the correct track and album names for each song. Not only does it look a lot cleaner in your player, but it makes it a darn sight easier to organize your collection and manage playlists. Ensuring that all the tags in your audio files are correct can be a daunting task, but there's plenty of software around that will make a much quicker job of it.

mp3Tag is one of the better tag editors around, allowing you to edit the metadata (the information about a track’s name, size, album name, artwork, etc.) with a good degree of autonomy. The app lets you rename files based on this tag information, replace characters or words from tags and filenames, import/export tag information, and create playlists. It carries out its duties and does the job very well too. For instance, the program has a much cleaner interface than many of its rivals and is smaller to boot, making it very quick and responsive.

If you find that you have a lot of different audio formats on your machine that you want to keep in check, then mp3Tag is perfect. It supports virtually every major audio file type, so you can edit tags for Ogg, Musepack and AAC/MP4, besides from regular old MP3s. The program isn't just a tagger, as it also includes cutting and joining functions that perform pretty well.

Perhaps the biggest boon though is the inclusion of a link-up with the online FreeDB database to import tags from the appropriate album, spelling a swift end to those MP3 albums you get with track names like ‘track01’, ‘track02’, ‘track03’, etc.) While the data returned from the FreeDB is sometimes erroneous, it’s generally pretty good (though probably not quite as quick as the import tool in Tag&Rename).

It’s fair to say that mp3Tag is one of the clear leaders in its field, and considering it’s a freeware app, it’s well worth downloading if you want to clean-up your music collection. Tag editing is very quick and once you’ve given your audio the mp3Tag treatment, you should find it so much easier to organize your tracks.