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Freeware Files: Five July Upgrades Worth Downloading!

David Murphy — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:00:00 -0500

As we close up yet another month of freeware goodies, it's important to look back and reflect on some of the awesome programs that received a version bump in the past 30 days. It was tough to nail down five free applications that not only upgraded themselves to a new iteration, but ones that successfully packed new and interesting features into their latest builds. There's no overarching theme this week save for that; it's a grab-bag of awesome new software to install. If this lack of a unifying concept horrifies you, don't worry. I'll list out all of this month's freeware roundups below, which you can use as a guide of-sorts to travel back to safer downloading waters.

Audacity

What it does: One of the best open-source audio editors out there has jumped up from version 1.3.7 to 1.3.8--both beta. What's included in the new batch of features? Support for more than 16 channels of audio recording, provided your hardware can handle it. The performance of the app's single-file editing and multi-track editing modes have been improved as well, as has the speed of the app's included equalization and noise removal options. A new interface mode--the "mixer board" view, offers volume-unit meters (VU meters) for each track.

For a full list of updates, click here! To grab the app, click here!

MyDefrag

What it does: Remember JkDefrag? It's gone. The latest iteration of the program, version four, has transformed this previously open-source defragging tool into a closed-source freeware application. And MyDefrag, after sitting in beta for nearly five months, finally launched its official release in early July. The program boasts an improved interface and performance over its open-source predecessor, as well as lower memory use and more helpful documentation. Is it better than the standard Windows defragmentation tool? Run some benchmarks and report back!

Download the app--click here!

Opera

What it does: The semi-popular Opera browser has jumped up to its second version of the Opera 10.0 beta. Aside from widget version support and multi-server updates, a majority of the differences between 10.0 beta 2 and 10.0 beta 1 come in the form of tweaks and improvements to a laundry list of specific items. I'll back the train up even more--what separates the Opera 10 beta program from the current Opera 9 browser? Gosh. Visual tabs, increased configuration options for the browser's "Speed Dial" feature--a Safari-like list of the Web pages you most frequent--as well as automatic updates, crash logging, an inline spell checker, and perfection on the much-dreaded Acid3 rendering test.

For a full list of updates, click here! To grab the app, click here!

VLC Media Player

What it does: This open-source alternative to Windows Media Player is the kitchen sink of features and formats. New to the 1.0.0 "Goldeneye" release of the app includes support for even more HD codecs: Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, and Blu-ray Linear PCM, to name a few. The app also brings instant pausing and frame-by-frame advancement to the table, perfect for those trying to catch every little detail in their favorite sci-fi series of choice. You can live record video in VLC Media Player 1.0.0, and even stream the audio of what you're watching via AirTunes

For a full list of updates, click here! To grab the app, click here!

VirtualBox

What it does: To be fair, the update of VirtualBox from 3.0.0 to 3.0.2 is more a maintenance release than anything else. But what's less important than increasing the performance of a virtual PC application? You can use this open-source app to launch new versions of operating systems inside your primary OS. It's a great time-saver when you want to fiddle with some component of an alternate OS, but don't have the time, space, or desire to split your drive into partitions and install a separate version of said OS in addition to what you normally run. This version of VirtualBox fixes 28 annoying bugs across Windows and Linux platforms, including a nasty one that sucked up your CPU resources when attempting to load a virtual OS from a hibernated state.

For a full list of updates, click here! To grab the app, click here!

July's Mega-Freeware roundup!

Miss any of the freeware roundups this month? Check out this list of 14 other programs that are worth your bandwidth, time, and love:

Freeware Files: Five Instant Messaging Apps (that are better than AIM)

Including: Pidgin, Digsby, Trillian Astra, Miranda IM, VoxOX

Freeware Files: Five Free Distributed Computing Projects for your Idle PC!

Including: Folding@home, Climateprediction.net, GIMPS, SETI@home, Muon1

Freeware Files: Five Portable Software Suites for your USB Key

Including: PortableApps, Lupo PenSuite, MyApps, Mojopac

As always, if you have any freeware or open-source programs that you think rock harder than a reunion of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers excluded), leave me a message in the comments or via Twitter @acererak. You could be featured in a future freeware roundup!

Ask the Doctor: Pluggin' the Analog Hole

The Maximum PC Staff — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:28:22 -0500

On my old Windows XP PC, I used Audacity to record music, etc., from the Internet with great results.

Recently I bought a Dell XPS 420 with Windows Vista 64-bit and now Audacity (or even the PC’s Creative Sound recording software) can’t record any audio. I came across some related forums and tried a couple of suggestions (check disabled items on the Sound properties, etc.), which haven’t worked.

In XP I used the Stereo Mix setting in Audacity but in Vista I don’t have that option. And recording from the mic isn’t an option, either. Is this a Vista “feature”? If so, how can I record audio from the Internet? Vista has grown on me so I’d rather not downgrade to XP.

—Suleman

You’ve got it, Suleman. Recording from the soundcard is disabled in Vista to prevent people from gettin’ music for free by taking advantage of the “analog hole”—that is, recording real-time sound output rather than actually duplicating files.

Sounds like you’ve already tried enabling disabled devices, the usual fix, so we don’t have any further advice. On the bright side, music subscription services like Rhapsody let you download from a selection of millions of songs for a small monthly fee (and keep them as long as you have your subscription), while Internet radio stations like Pandora, last.fm, and Slacker.com let you listen for free.

Update - Second Opinion: In April, you advised reader Suleman that there was no easy way for him to use his soundcard to record music from the Internet in Vista (“Plugging the Analog Hole”). Ask him if he has an old PC that can still access the Internet. I use one with a 600MHz CPU, 256KB of RAM, and an 8GB hard drive with Windows XP home. This is quite adequate for listening to music and surfing the net using DSL.

Connect the line-out jack from the Internet computer to the line-in jack of the machine running Audacity. Windows can’t tell whether the analog signal arriving at the line-in jack comes from the Internet, a radio, or an old vinyl LP. --Frank

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.

How To: Mash Up Your Music

Kris Fong — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:30:00 -0500

Radiohead jamming with Kanye West would be an odd pairing on any stage, but in the world of mashups—where the vocals of one song are folded into another—the weirder the combination, the bigger the bragging rights. While the RIAA is determined to put an end to the art form, many artists are releasing a cappellas (vocal-only tracks) and stems (individual tracks of a mix) to support the creative movement. And you can be part of it too.

Pros often look to Sony ACID Pro ($315, www.sonycreativesoftware.com) or Ableton Live ($600, www.ableton.com) to mash up music, but you can do it on the cheap with Audacity, an open source audio-editing app, and your own music. We’ll show you some basic techniques—you just need to find two tracks to work with. Find songs in the same key (like Chris Brown’s “Kiss Kiss” and Puddle of Mudd’s “Blurry”) or ones that have a similar groove and chord progression (such as Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” and Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”). Or Google “a cappella download” to find vocal track downloads (for personal use only) and choose a song in your music collection to pair it with. We always thought 4 Non Blondes’s “What’s Up?” sounded just like Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” so for simplicity’s sake we’ll use these songs for our example.

1. Convert your Files

While Audacity plays nice with WAV, AIFF, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis files, it doesn’t do WMA (Windows Media Audio), AAC (iTunes), or copy-protected audio file formats, so you may need to convert files before you start mashing (if not, skip to step 2). If your song resides on a CD, copy it to your computer as a WAV or AIFF file, using iTunes or any other CD-ripping software. If you have nonprotected WMA files, NCH Software’s Switch is a free utility that’ll convert them into WAV or AIFF. Likewise, you can use iTunes to convert nonprotected or CD-ripped AAC files (M4A) into WAV or AIFF files. However, if you purchased your song through the iTunes Store, you can’t convert copy-protected AAC files (M4P)—sure, it’s easy to burn protected songs to a CD and then reimport them, but you’re not going to read about how to do that here. Nope. No-sir-ee Bob….

2. Put Together a Project

Launch Audacity, choose File > Import > Audio, select your main song file (the one that’ll serve as the crux of your composition; for us, it’s the 4 Non Blondes tune), and click Open. Your song will appear as two (stereo) audio waveforms in track 1. Next, choose Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track twice to add two blank stereo tracks (tracks 2 and 3); these will serve as your composition palettes as you piece together your mashup. Finally, choose File > Import > Audio, select your secondary song (our McFerrin tune), and click Open to add it to track 4.

Then choose File > Save Project. If you press Play (the green arrow button at the top of the window), you’ll basically hear a raw mashup (or more like a munch up) of your music. This probably ain’t gonna sound good; the songs may be in different keys, the tempos won’t match, and the parts you want to align are not going to line up from the get-go. Time to do some fixin’….

3. Fit a Pitch

Next, you’ll need to change your second song’s pitch to fit with the first’s. Audacity’s Change Pitch processor lets you transpose a song’s pitch/key without affecting its tempo. So how do you determine how much pitch shifting is necessary? If you’re musically inclined, determine each key by jamming along on your guitar or synth. You can also try searching for sheet music for your songs (try www.musicnotes.com) to find the key. Or figure it out by trial and error. Click the left panel of track 4 (your secondary song) to select the entire track and choose Effect > Pitch and Tempo > Change Pitch.

If you know what keys your songs are in, choose the appropriate ones from the From and To pop-up menus, select which direction to transpose the pitch—Up or Down—and click OK. If you’re winging it, focus on the Semitones (half-steps) field. Enter a positive (transpose up) or negative (transpose down) whole number and click OK; 12 semitones equals one octave, so try numbers from ±1 to ±11 (the larger the number, the bigger the pitch change—if your songs have too much pitch disparity, the vocal could sound bad). Press Play or the space bar to check your work; if you need to try again, press Control-Z to undo and then repeat this step.

4. Check the Time

Most likely, your two songs won’t have the same tempo, but they don’t need to be completely in time with each other—just on the parts you want to work with. Audacity lets you change a song’s tempo without affecting its pitch, so you won’t have to worry about your singer sounding like the Chipmunks… or Tay Zonday. With track 4 selected, choose Effect > Pitch and Tempo > Change Tempo.

If you don’t know the BPM (beats per minute) of your songs (see the Quick Tip), you’ll have to wing it; in the dialog box, use the Percent Change slider to either slow down (slide left) or speed up (slide right) the tempo. The more you slide, the more you’ll affect the timing, so gauge your songs and prepare for some trial and error. Click OK to make the change and check your work. If things don’t line up very well, undo your deed and try again.

Quick Tip:

There are books for DJs that list the BPM of thousands of popular songs; search for “BPM List” on Google Book Search (http://books.google.com) to see if your song’s BPM appears in the generous preview.

5. Sample your Song

You’ll now sample the vocal parts in your second song that you want to pair with the first song; since our songs share the same chord progression almost throughout the song, we’re going to alternate the vocals in the verses. Click the Solo button on track 4 so you hear only that track and then click the Zoom In tool repeatedly to see more waveform detail.

Next, select the Selection tool, drag it across either waveform where you think your desired vocal part starts and ends, and press the space bar to hear your guesswork. To get those start and end points exact, hover the Selection tool over the left side (start point) of your selection until it turns into a pointing finger, click and drag to the left or right to reset the start point, and press the space bar to hear your progress. Once you nail the exact start point, do the same to the right side of your selection to reset the end point. Then copy your selection (Control-C), click track 3 at the point where you want this sample to begin, and paste (Control-V). Repeat for any other desired parts.

6. Place and Pace Parts

To move things into the proper place, click Solo on track 4 to unsolo the track and then click Mute. With the Selection tool, click the area before any vocal snippet in track 3 and press the space bar to start playback from that point; listen to how the new vocal sits on top of your core song. To move the region, select the Time Shift tool and drag the region until it starts exactly where you want it. If the timing is a bit off, use Change Tempo on just that region to fine-tune it. If you want to get a little funky with the vocal delivery, do a little slice-and-slide to change up the pace; take a listen to the vocal and pay attention to its waveform peaks, which represent percussive attacks (such as vocal utterances, drum hits, and guitar strums). Zoom in and locate the words and associated peaks that fall off the beat. Then click the wave directly before the peak, choose Edit > Split, select the Time Shift tool, and nudge the right side split a tad to the right to pace it later in time.

7. Switch Up the Structure

To prevent your sampled vocals from clashing with the original, you may want to replace sections of your first song with an instrumental version taken from a different section (such as an intro or instrumental break). First, solo track 1, use the Selection tool to select the section you want to replace, leaving a little extra behind on the start and end points for blending, and choose Edit > Split Delete to delete it (or select Edit > Split New to preserve the unwanted selection in a new track, which you can use as a scrap bin). Then select the replacement section, taking a little extra beyond the start and end points for blending, and copy and paste this into track 2 below the hole in your timeline. Unsolo track 1, mute tracks 3 and 4 so that only tracks 1 and 2 are enabled, and play back your work. Move the region if needed so that it syncs up with the song.

To make the edit less noticeable, apply a little fade-in/fade-out to your overlapping edit points. Select the end point overage in track 1 and choose Effect > Utility > Fade Out, then select the start point overage in track 2 and choose Effect > Utility > Fade In. Now click anywhere before the edit point and press the space bar to check it. Do the same for the ending edit, except fade in the track 1 restart point and fade out the track 2 region ending.

8. Clean Up and Blend Parts

Finally, do some cleanup to reduce or remove any extraneous instrumentation in your mashed-in vocal parts and blend everything together. While it’s almost impossible to isolate a vocal completely from its instrumental accompaniment, there are things you can do. Try using the EQ to turn down the frequencies outside the vocal range—solo the track, select the region, choose Effect > Filter > Equalization, select the Graphic EQ button, notch down some frequency sliders, and click Preview to hear your progress.

However, depending on the instrumentation, this might not be very effective. Another way to do this is to remove the instrumentation between each vocal utterance—solo the track, zoom in on a region, select stuff between two vocalizations, choose Edit > Split Delete to remove it, and repeat as needed. To ease any abruptness in your edits, try using the fade-in/fade-out technique on your region snippets. When you’re satisfied with your mix, select File > Export to save your project as an audio file in your preferred format.

Dos and Don'ts

Find songs with long intros, solo breaks, or a cappella passages, as these offer the greatest mashup opportunities.
Avoid choosing songs that vary greatly in key, as too much pitch shifting can make vocals sound horrible.
Use EQ and volume levels to bring more clarity to the parts you want to emphasize, tone down the stuff you don’t, and balance things together.
Don’t focus on just the vocals; you can create some interesting mixes by layering instrumental parts together.
The age-old K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) rule applies—toss in too many melody lines at once and your music will lose focus.
Experiment and have fun! There is no right or wrong way to mash up songs, as long as it sounds good to you.