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PC Utilities: AudialsOne review

"Record music from the Web, discover new artists and build up your digital music collection through this powerful application"

"Record music from the Web, discover new artists and build up your digital music collection through this powerful application

There are thousands of online music stations streaming content over the Web for free, and AudialsOne 3.0 can help you turn these streams into .mp3 files stored on your PC. It offers a broad range of additional features too, including the ability to remove DRM restrictions from audio files, convert between formats, track down tunes on the Web, and subscribe to podcasts.

Much of AudialsOne´s work can be done automatically - simply point it towards a genre of music, and it will look for compatible radio stations and download content as it´s streamed over the Web.

Switch to the Mediaraptor section and you can look for a particular song that you´re after or artists you´d like to hear more from.

Down the left-hand side of the AudialsOne interface you´ll find coloured tabs relating to the three key components of the software - Radiotracker, Mediaraptor and Tunebite. Underneath each one you´ll find a description of what the component does. On the right is a straightforward media player, where you can play your .mp3s and view tracks that have been recently ripped by the software. Each component features a series of tabs, so it´s worth exploring the interface finding out exactly what functionality is available before you start in the ripping process. In just a few minutes, you can have a sizeable collection of songs to listen to, and if you come across music that can´t be played, the Tunebite component can perform the required conversion. Down in the lower right-hand corner you can edit the tags and album art associated with each track by clicking Edit ID3, and the program can be enhanced further using plug-ins available on the official website.

With so many options on offer, there are a lot of different ways to configure AudialsOne. A number of key settings appear on the main interface itself - you can restrict the amount of bandwith used by the software, for example, if you´re worried about the program hogging your Internet connection. To bring up a seperate, more detailed dialog, click the Options button in the lower left-hand corner. It´s possible to configure where your music is saved, as well as the streaming sites that AudialsOne looks at. Under the Synchronise tab you can set up the software to copy over ripped songs to an attached portable player.

Record music from internet radio using AudialsOne:

1. To get started, open up the Radiotracker tab on the left-hand side. Choose the genre of music you´d like to capture from the drop-down list at the top, selecting a sub-category, if required. Click Start Autorip to begin looking for compatible stations on the Web.
2. AudialsOne will begin searching through the virtual airwaves for stations that match your criteria, and when it finds a suitable selection it will begin recording tracks to the hard drive, together with artist and song title details. To conserve bandwith use, you can limit the number of streaming stations.
3. As tracks are saved, you´ll find them appearing in the player on the right-hand side. To start listening, simply double-click on a song title. It´s also possible to listen to any of the current radio streams by clicking the Play Station button. To cancel the ripping process, click Stop Autorip.

With so many options on offer, there are a lot of different ways to configure AudialsOne."

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