Program Name __________ Free/Trial/Commercial ________ Audio Plug-ins for extra formats, etc. ______ Help Documents / Forums


1. dBpowerAMP _ (Free) ____ Plug-in Codecs _______ dBpowerAMP Support forums

2. WinAmp & Pro _ (Free./.Pro is commercial) ___ WinAmp Plug-ins

3. Foobar2000 _ (Free) _________ Additional components _____ Installation help __ Hydrogenaudio Forums > foobar2000

4. Quintessential (QCD) _ (Free) ____ QCD Plug-ins _______ QCD Forums

5. iTunes (link removed because the iTunes program is now the pits !) _ (barely Free) __ 3rd Party Plug-ins & support programs ___ iTunes ipodlounge Forums __ iTunes Tips __ Windows Tutorial ___ * Recommend you use alternative audio programs. Apple / Mac has become 'greedy' and their iTunes program has been very buggy for past 2 years at least. Please find alternatives to anything owned or run by apple or mac. How to downgrade to an earlier version of iTunes which is LimeWire compatible, and iTunes alternative programs for iPod see post #5 below.

6. Nero Showtime _ (Shareware-30 day trial)

7. MediaMonkey & Gold _ (Free./.Gold is commercial) _ Various MediaMonkey Plug-ins ___ Support _ MediaMonkey Forums


Mac OSX:

1. ToolPlayer _ (Free) _________________________ ToolPlayer support forum
2. Audion & Pro _ (Free./.Pro is shareware*) _____________ Audion Help pages



Audio Editing program: _ Audacity (click on link) _ (Free) __ for Windows, MacOSX & Linux. Can open & export to mp3, wav, aiff, etc. _____ Audacity-logoc.jpg

Bit Rates? _ crazy bitrates? __ 320 kbps is best for mp3 or m4a/mp4. Variable Bit Rate (VBR) is best because the sound frequencies are better balanced compared to information needed to compress them.


Extra comments:
- WinAmp (has media library)
- Quintessential Player (uses playlist)
- Nero Showtime plays both audio and video (Uses playlist)
- iTunes (has iTunes Music folder) can view video also, but needs to be either mp4/H.264 format. How to transfer music to my iPod (& iTunes) {click on link}. iTunes does not support mp3Pro, Ogg Vorbis or Real.
- Foobar2000 can take a bit of time with settings. Best to seek help at hydrogen audio forum & not ask on these forums.

- ToolPlayer is a little and simple music player for OSX with support for many file types, including FLAC, MP3, AAC, Musepack, Monkey's Audio, OGG Vorbis, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, IT, MOD, XM, Games Music and many others. Includes numerous effects like Equalizer, Reverb, Time Stretch, Pitch Shift, Echo. Effects can be exported. ToolPlayer does not import to its own music library or use playlists. It plays the songs from wherever the files are opened directly from, so it's simple in function.
- Audion is no longer developed, however Pro does give support for mp3Pro which iTunes does not. Also supports Ogg Vorbis, WMA, SID. Can export using various formats including Lame & mp3Pro. * Audion Pro is now supposedly free; a free serial number is provided at the top of the download page. It does work on the new mac intel machines.

* VLC whilst primarily a video player, can also be used to play most audio types including audio streaming from sites. VLC is supported on a very wide range of operating systems; Windows, MacOSX, Linux, etc.