Category Archives: Software

Audioware applications and programs

Foobar2000 ~ Extensible Audio Interface & Player

Posted by tom2tec on

An advanced and evolved freeware audio player for Android, Mac, Windows and Wine. Foobar2000 can be extensively extended, modified and themed.

This is the basic Default User Interface or DUI. You will need to configure and extend the DUI Foobar2000 interface according to your preferences and requirements.

Foobar2000 v2.16 Default User Interface
Foobar2000 Default User Interface

Features:

  • Supported audio formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, CD Audio, WMA, Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Musepack, Speex, AU, SND… and more with additional components.
  • Gapless playback.
  • Easily customizable user interface.
  • Advanced tagging capabilities.
  • Support for ripping Audio CDs as well as transcoding all supported audio formats using the Converter component.
  • Full ReplayGain support.
  • Customizable keyboard shortcuts.
  • Open component architecture allows third-party developers to extend functionality.
  • Multiplatform: Android, Mac, Windows 32|64-bit and ARM (ARM64EC).

Interfaces:

Foobar2000 is not limited to the Default User Interface or DUI. There is an alternative popular interface called Columns User Interface or CUI. CUI is most often used for theming or skinning foobar2000. There is also a Classic User Interface but it is rarely used or referenced.

Links:

Packages & Store Versions:

Official Foobar2000 Forums At Hydrogenaudio:

References:

Foobar2000 ~ The First Steps

VirusTotal ~ Online Security Scanner

Posted by tom2tec on

Please check new websites and scan any downloaded files before you install new software. VirusTotal is a free service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware.

VirusTotal is a website, originally developed by Hispasec, that provides free checking of files for viruses. It uses 55 different antivirus products and 61 online scan engines[2][3] to check for viruses that the user’s own antivirus solution may have missed, or to verify against any false positives.[4] Files up to 128 MB can be uploaded to the website or sent via email ~ Wikipedia

WMP Tag Plus ~ Extends WMP File Formats

Posted by tom2tec on

WMP Tag Plus is a plug-in that integrates seamlessly into Windows Media Player to provide library and tagging support for additional music formats. These formats include FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, WavPack, Monkey’s Audio (.ape), Musepack and MPEG-4. Windows Media Player 11 or higher.

bmproductions.fixnum.org
hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=80263.0

mp3 Diags ~ Diagnose & Repair mp3s

Posted by tom2tec on

MP3 Diags is a GUI-based application that allows end-users to identify issues with their MP3 files, fix some of the issues and make other changes, like adding track information. It also lets you “look inside” an MP3 file.

mp3diags

mp3diags.sourceforge.net

Foobar2000 1.x ~ Installing Analog VU Meters

Posted by tom2tec on

Adding an analog VU meter to the old Foobar2000 1.x Default User Interface

Required component: foo_vis_vumeter

Directions:

  1. Download foo_vis_vumeter
  2. Navigate to File \ Preferences \ Components
  3. Drag foo_vis_vumeter.dll to the component window
  4. Click Apply and then Ok to restart Foobar
  5. Copy any .bin skin files to the …\AppData\Roaming\foobar2000\user-components\foo_vis_vumeter folder (Shift+File>Browse configuration folder)
  6. Select View > Layout > Enable layout editing mode
  7. Right click the tab area in a panel and select Add New Tab
  8. Right click the new tab and rename it “Analog VU Meter” or whatever
  9. Right click the new display area and select Add New UI Element
  10. Select ‘Analog VU Meter’ from the list (Playback Visualization)
  11. Disable layout editing mode

Group Submenus:

Adding a new subfolder to the …\AppData\Roaming\foobar2000\user-components\foo_vis_vumeter folder creates a listing with that subfolder’s name in the Group submenu. ‘.bin‘ meter files in those subfolders are then accessible via the corresponding group submenu.

Parameters:

Right mouse click on the meter display:

  • Layout submenu / Horizontal or Vertical / Dual or Single / Mono / Lock Aspect Ratio
  • Select skin

Preferences > Advanced > Display > VU Meter:

  • VU meter sensitivity – Default left and right preamp (db): 20 and rise time(s) 0.20s

Mouse wheel (hover over meters)

  • Adjusts meter sensitivity

Resources:
Analog VU Meter Skin Gallery
Updated version for Foobar2000 2.x

My Current Foobar Interfaces ~ Default User Interface (DUI)

Posted by tom2tec on

Four Panels & MusicBrainz Releases
Four Panels – All Music Review
Four Panels with Dynamic Range & Waveform Seektable
Four panel - EsPlaylist - Analog VU meters
Default User Interface (DUI) – Four panels – Playlist Organizer (foo_plog)
Four panel - EsPlaylist - Analog VU meters
Four panels – EsPlaylist – Analog VU meters
Four Panels - SimPlaylist - Visualizations
Four Panels – SimPlaylist – Visualizations
Six panel with lyrics
Six panel with lyrics and 4 star or better playlist
Four Panel - Seektable Waveform
Four Panel – Seektable Waveform
Six Panel - SimPlaylist - Default analog VU meters
Six Panel – SimPlaylist – Default analog VU meters
Six panel - Spectrogram
Six panel – Spectrogram
Current 4 Panel DUI
Four Panel – Playlist Organiser Script

EAC ~ Additional Command Line Compression Options For FLAC Encoding

Posted by tom2tec on

My current EAC FLAC command line

EAC / Compression Options / External Compression / Additional command-line options:

-8 -V -T “ARTIST=%artist%” -T “TITLE=%title%” -T “ALBUM=%albumtitle%” -T “DATE=%year%” -T “TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%” -T “GENRE=%genre%” -T “COMMENT=%comment%” -T “Performer=%albuminterpret%” -T “ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%” -T “COMPOSER=%composer%” -T “CRC=%trackcrc%” -T “FREEDBID=%cddbid%” %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS=”%lyricsfile%”%haslyrics% -T “DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%” -T “TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%” -T “TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%” %hascover%–picture=”%coverfile%”%hascover% %source% -o %dest%

References:

EAC and FLAC ~ Hydrogen Audio Wiki

Recommended Audio Software

Posted by tom2tec on

The Best Of The Best List

Accuraterip ~ Accurate DAE (Digital Audio Extraction)
AcoustID ~ Identify & Fingerprint Songs
Ampache ~ Freeware streaming music server
Audacity ~ Freeware audio editor & recorder
AudioShell ~ Freeware Windows audio tag integration
BatchEncoder ~ Freeware Audio Encoder Frontend
Boom Audio Player ~ Foobar2000’s simpler sibling
CDBurnerXP ~ Freeware CD & DVD Burner
CUETools ~ Freeware cue file tools
DADA Auto-Rating For Foobar ~ Automatically rate your music
DRC (Digital Room Correction) ~ Advanced equalization
EAC (Exact Audio Copy) ~ Advanced freeware CD ripper
Equalizer APO ~ Advanced Windows Equalization
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio CODEC) ~ Open lossless audio format
Foobar2000 ~ Advanced freeware audio player
Foobar2000 @ Deviant Art ~ Skins & themes
foo_discogs = Foobar2000 + Discogs ~ Advanced file tagging
freeDB ~ Set up freeDB access Search FreeDB
KeyFinder ~ Freeware musical key analyzer
LAME ~ Freeware mp3 encoder
MP3 Diags ~ Freeware mp3 file repair tool
MP3Gain ~ Freeware mp3 volume normalization
Mp3tag ~ Freeware metadata tag editor
MusicBrainz Picard ~ Tag songs with MusicBrainz metadata and cover art
MuseScore ~ Music composition and notation
PlexTools ~ Plextor’s CD ripper
PowerShell Audio ~ PowerShell-driven audio interface
ProjectM ~ Advanced music visualization
ReplayGain ~ Advanced gain equalization
ReplayGain & Foobar ~ ReplayGain within Foobar2000
ReplayGain & Foobar under Linux ~ RPG with Wine & Foobar2000
Room EQ Wizard ~ Room equalization analysis & compensation filters
RightMark Audio Analyzer ~ Freeware Audio Hardware Analyzer
SoundHound ~ Name that tune
Sox ~ The Swiss Army Knife Of Sound Processing
Teac Editor / Teac Player ~ Hi Resolution Audio Editor & Player
VU Meter ~ Freeware Standalone Analog Volume Unit Meter
WinAmp Repository ~ NullSoft WinAmp archive
Windows DirectShow Filters – Use FLAC & OGG in Windows, freeware
WMP Tag Plus ~ Extends Windows tag support, freeware