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November 1, 2006 Music and Video on the Go Many of us want to take our music and video, information and entertainment with us wherever we go. We’ve found two programs that make it easier to do that, whether you use an iPod, video iPod or other MP3 or portable video player.
MP3 Maker 11 deluxe (Magix, Windows, $29.99) is an all-in-one music and audio management program that offers a wealth of features to help keep your music collection well organized and accessible. A forte of the program is playlist creation. These playlists can range from those containing all the tracks from one audio CD to a complex mix of tracks selected from various sources such as audio CDs, downloaded Internet music, podcasts or Webradio. The program supports a wide range of music and audio formats, including MP3, WAV, WMA, ACC and OGG. MP3 is a favorite because, being a common compression format, it allows you to store more music in a given space than other formats. As a useful feature, MP3 Maker ll deluxe will interconvert the various formats for you. For example, put an audio CD in your computer’s CD-ROM drive, select one or more tracks, and the program converts the music to a MP3 format and stores the files on your hard drive. This process is commonly called "ripping." After a while you’ll find your hard drive full of music files from various sources, stored hither and yon. Here’s where the program helps get your music collection ready to travel. Select or drag-and-drop tracks from a files/folders explorer window and add them to a playlist window. Once the tracks are listed there, save the playlist with its own name (such as spooky mix or slow dance mix). Then you can load the playlist into your MP3 player or burn it to a CD-ROM or DVD and listen away. You can later edit the playlist if needed to add or subtract tracks. Or let the Auto DJ feature arrange your tracks for you according to genre and/or tempo, automatically adding appropriate transitions, occasionally changing tempo to match the next track and more. Then save this mix as a playlist. The program allows access to an on-line database of song information for thousands of selections. In the above example, just before you’ve ripped your audio CD and while the tracks are still visible in the explorer window, select "Title Info;" the program then connects via Internet to the database and retrieves song title, artist, length, genre, tempo and more info for those tracks. This info is then written as an "ID3" tag and saved with the track. The ID3 tag info can then be used to sort your library of songs by the specific info. The tag can be edited. In addition, you can categorize your music by assigning a custom category to each track. A few preset categories are included, but you can add others such as Norma’s Favorites, wild party, quiet night, holiday songs and so forth. More than one category can be assigned to any track. Once categorized, you can list just songs assigned to a category and put them into a playlist for saving, loading, burning and/or playing. Included in the program is a Music Editor that allows you to remove sound anomalies, add effects and transitions, time stretch and much more. A special surround sound effect designed for use with headphones is included as well as optional access to podcasts and Webradio services. Help comes from several video tutorials, on-line help and a 155-page PDF manual on disc.
Movies 2 Go (Magix, Windows, $29.99)lets you easily convert and transfer videos and slide shows from a variety of formats into MPEG4 or other formats supported by mobile devices such as video iPods, smart phones, PSP, PDAs or Pocket PCs. Three steps: import, edit, export. Transfers can use data cable, Bluetooth or infrared. You can capture non-copy-protected movies from a VHS or DVD player and personal videos from your camcorder. Once captured, you can edit the videos to remove commercials, rearrange scenes, add transitions, create special effects, add titles and more. The video/movie editor uses four tracks for easy editing: one for the video, one for the sound, one for titles and the fourth for other additional material to be added to a scene. You can save the finished product in an appropriate format and load it into your mobile device to enjoy on the run (no videos while driving please). In addition, the program can act as a digital video recorder (DVR) and record TV from your computer if you have a video card installed. Movies 2 Go gives you access to the Magix on-line video service, where you’ll eventually find more than 300 free family-friendly videos such as non-copyrighted movies, classics, documentaries and more. You can upload your own home video creation for others to enjoy if you want. The combo of MP3 Maker 11 deluxe and Movies 2 Go provides you with all the tools you’ll need to organize, create, and load music, videos and more for your mobile enjoyment. |
