Audio Formats
MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface
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MIDI.com
MIDI information, sites, files, community, books.
MP3 - MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3
MP3 stands for MPEG-1 layer 3, a format to store music files on a computer disk in such a way that the file size is relatively small, but the song sounds near perfect.
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Fraunhofer IIS-A - Audio & Multimedia (AMM)
Fraunhofer IIS-A has been the main developer of the most advanced audio coding schemes, like MPEG Layer-3 (MP3) and MPEG-2 AAC (Advanced Audio Coding).
MPEG Audio Layer-3. - askMP3 - The MP3 Portal by MPEG.org
MP3 Resources by MPEG.ORG. - Central MP3
Brazilian site dedicated to MP3 information. In Portuguese. - ID3
ID3v2 is the current standard for MP3 information tag, which can reside at the end of audio file, including title, artist, album, year, genre and comments. -
MP3' Tech
MP3 technical information and software. Encoders / Players Download, Overview of the MPEG committee and the MP3 techniques, Audio tests, Patents and MP3, MPEG2-AAC, TwinVQ, Dolby AC-3, Programmer's corner, Glossary, Message board, Links.
Gabriel Bouvigne listening tests for MP3 bit rates quality. -
MP3 Bit Rates and Sound Quality
Selecting Bit Rates for Encoding, Streaming MP3 Audio and Different Bit rates, Constant Bit Rate Encoding (CBR), Average Bit Rate Encoding (ABR), Variable Bit Rate Encoding (VBR). By MP3-Converter.com. - The MP3 Music Webring
- MP3.com
Music difusion site on MP3. - EMusic
Commercial MP3 download subscription service.
MP3 Encode/Decode Software
- The LAME Project
L.A.M.E. - Lame Ain't an Mp3 Encoder
LAME project is the source code for a fully GPL'd MP3 encoder, with speed and quality to rival commercial competitors.
LAME SourceForge Mirror - SourceForge Project: LAME.
Binaries/DLL's (compiled) of the LAME encoder, ready for download and use:- LAME Encoder compilation for Windows by Jerry Baker
- RareWares - MP3 - LAME Bundles and Libraries
- LAME MP3 Encoder by Free-Codecs.com. Download LAME MP3 Encoder.
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Windows LAME MP3 Encoder (mitiok.ma.cx)
Windows EXE and DLL binaries for LAME Encoder and other MP3 information, by Dmitry Kutsanov (aka mitiok). This is the original Russian site, and one of the most reliable for beta and bleeding edge (alpha) versions.
Mirror (jthz.com/~lame) | Original site. - Lame MP3 Encoder Binaries for Windows, Mac OS X (Intel/PPC), Solaris 10 (SPARC)
- Tord's Homepage for BladeEnc
BladeEnc is a freeware MP3 encoder. By Tord Jansson, Sweden. - RealNetworks Xing MP3 Encoder
In August of 1999, RealNetworks, Inc., merged with Xing Technology Corporation, the maker of AudioCatalyst, XingMP3 Encoder, XingMPEG Encoder. -
Chris Myden DAE
Guides for how to create the best MP3s possible, by Chris Myden. -
Google Directory: MP3 Software
Encoders, Decoders, Rippers.
MP3 Player Software
- Winamp Windows Audio Player
- SoniqueAudio Player for Windows
By Lycos Network. -
XMMS - X MultiMedia System
MP3 Player for Linux. - FreeAmp - Free Audio Music Player
Available for Linux (Redhat, Debian, Slackware packages) and Windows. -
MP3ext: MP3-Info Extension
By Michael Mutschler. "Giftware" Windows shell extension for complete MP3 file properties view/edit. -
Daily MP3
Daily updated MP3 software.
MP3 Search Engines
- Fast MP3 Search
Large MP3 search engine by Lycos. - mp3seek.com
- Search engine for MP3 songs
- MediaFind MP3 Audio Search
- The Real MP3 Site Search Engine
- FileFinder MP3 FTP Search
- German MP3 Search
- Audiofind Multimedia Search Engine
- Astraweb MP3 Search
CD Digital Audio (CD-DA)
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CD-ROM Digital Audio (CD-DA) information
By Stewart Addison. CD-DA Introduction, FAQ, Software.
CD Databases
- CDDB
By Gracenote. CDDB² & CDDB¹ database servers services and SDKs. - freedb.org
Ripping - CDDA Digital Audio Extraction (DAE)
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EAC - Exact Audio Copy
By Andre Wiethoff. Postcardware.
Precise CD audio extractor with error recovering. It can generate WAV, MP3 (using LAME or other external program, not included), or an entire CUE image from the CD. It is also able to write (burn) or copy a CD to CD-R/RW.
Features: Hidden sector synchronization (jitter correction), Copy of ranges of music data, not only tracks, Automatic Speed reduction on errors and fallback afterwards, Normalization of extracted audio, Wave sound editor included, freedb support.
Also as exactaudiocopy.de.
- CDex CD Ripper
By Albert L Faber
CDex is a freeware application, which is able to extract audio tracks from a CD-ROM digitally, and save those files to disk as either MP3 encoded files or WAV regular files, as well as convert files between WAV and MP3.
CDex Sourceforge Mirror - SourceForge Project: CDex. -
Audiograbber
Grabs digital audio from CD's with a simple and nice interface. Freeware. -
LameFE
Lame Front-End. LameFE is a powerfull frontend for LAME: CDRipper (with batch processing), Extendable through plugins, Winamp plugin support, Ogg/Vorbis, Monkeys Audio, Wave, Cuesheet, FreeDB and much more.
Open Source, Windows. SourceForge Project: lamefe. -
CD DAE
CD DAE is a CD ripper with an option to verify extracted files. Freeware Windows software for download, by Nero / CD Speed 2000. -
WinDAC - Digital Audio Copy
DAC for Win32 / DAC for DOS. By Christoph Schmelnik. Shareware. -
CDDA Paranoia (Linux)
Cdparanoia is a Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA) extraction tool, commonly known as a 'ripper'. The application is built on top of the Paranoia library project. Paranoia III is Linux only. Paranoia IV (cdparanoia alpha 10 and later) is a port to other UNIX flavors and uses a substantially revised infrastructure.
Audio Software
Digital Audio Editors
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Audacity
Audacity is an audio editor open-source (GPL), free, for Windows, Linux/Unix and MacOs. You can record and play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files, and more. It is able to edit sounds using simple and fast features like Cut, Copy and Paste, with unlimited Undo, mix tracks together, and apply special effects. It also has advanced features, built-in and VST plug-in effects.
SourceForge Project: Audacity. -
dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC)
dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC) is one of those must have utilities, indispensable for converting audio files from one format to another. From the standard installation dMC can convert to and from Wave, Mp3 and from CD Audio (CDA) files. Windows Media Audio (WMA), Ogg Vorbis and many more types available as add-ons. All 100% free. Volume Normalization, ID Tag preservation & Editing, Windows Explorer integration (Info pop-up tips, Convert To right-click menu), Fully compatible with Windows 95/98/ME NT4/2000/XP.
Codec Central: add-ons for dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC) or Audio Player (dAP), providing additional formats for audio reading (Decoding) and writing (Encoding). - BeSweet
An awesome 'all-in-one' tool for audio transcoding. By DSPguru.
BeSweet lets you convert audio files from one format to another. Supported formats: MPEG (MP3, MP2, MPA), AC3 (Dolby Digital), WAV (Multichannel 5.1, Stereo, Mono), AIFF, Ogg Vorbis; also VOB (DVD) and AVI containing the above audio formats.
Mirror: besweet.notrace.dk.- BeLight - Kurtnoise13's Light GUI for BeSweet
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Shibatch Audio Tools
High quality free audio tools.
SSRC - Shibatch Sampling Rate Converter, made by Naoki Shibata, who is one of the big gurus in the LAME MP3 encoder developement team. - Sonic Foundry
Vegas Audio, Sound Forge. - GoldWave
GoldWave Digital Audio Editor. -
Adobe Audition
Software for sound editing. Former Cool Edit Pro, acquired from Syntrillium Software in May 2003. - SurCode
Dolby Digital, DTS & MLP lossless encoding.
Audio APIs & Programming Libraries
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WaveMix
WaveMix - DLL created by Microsoft to mix two WAVE files in realtime. This is a slightly updated version of the DLL that Microsoft distributed, maintained by CompuPhase.
Download: WaveMix toolkit v1.80. -
libsndfile
Libsndfile is a C library for reading and writing files containing sampled sound (such as MS Windows WAV and the Apple/SGI AIFF format) through one standard library interface. It is released in source code format under the GNU Lesser General Public License. The library was written to compile and run on a Linux system but should compile and run on just about any Unix, as well as Win32 (MS Visual C++) and MacOS (Metrowerks CodeWarrior).
Speech Software
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Festival Speech Synthesis System
By Centre for Speech Technology Research, University of Edinburgh. -
Microsoft Speech Technologies
Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1 - Win32 Speech API (SAPI). - ReadPlease
Free software that lets your computer talk. For Windows. - IBM ViaVoice for Windows and Macintosh
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Text to Speech Software
This software reads text words to you with different voices you may choose. It also allows you to convert text into a MP3/WAV audio file.
Audio Libraries & Original Compositions
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Sonhos & Sons Studio
By Marcus Viana, Brazil.
Creation and production of jingles and soundtracks for multimedia, VTs and radio spots, films and documentaries. -
AA Media Music
Contact:
AA Media Music is a service that offers high-quality, downloadable music loops and specializes in creating original royalty free music and sound design for all media formats. - Media Tracks
Contact: Brandon Holbrook
Royalty free production/commercial music for all types of media. Royalty free means only a one time fee. Tracks are available in RealAudio preview and for online buy and download in compressed MP3 format. Complete software/instructions for decode your tracks into WAV/AIFF format are included for both Mac and PC. -
Vari-Media: Sound Design
"Original music to push your presentations to the limit"
Contact:
Royalty free original music for use in all types of multimedia. Samples are presented in Real Audio and Cd-Quality MP3 downloadable sound fines.