Browse Music and Audio Reviews

Browse Music and Audio Reviews

Review: iPhone ringtone roundup
John Brandon checks out four iPhone ringtone makers and reports on the good, the bad, and the noisy.
Review: Studio One Pro 1.0.1
New kid on the block: StudioOne is a powerful new music creation and production app that rivals Apple and Avid offerings.
Review: Word War for iPhone
This game lets you flex your command of English as you and an opponent build words, letter-by-letter, until you can't build anymore. And who knows -- the game just might have some educational value too.
Review: Logic Express 9
Logic Express 9 packs a load of features into a mid-priced digital audio workstation application. As such it may be today's best musical bargain, albeit a sometimes challenging one.
LittleSnapper shines at screenshot management
LittleSnapper is a handy utility for taking screenshots, but it really shines at managing them. It's like iPhoto for screenshots.
Review: iTunes 9
iTunes 9 aims to make it easier for new users to bring in media and start enjoying it, while providing some of the most-requested features for existing users. In most respects, it succeeds, although it's not without drawbacks.
Hands on with iTunes 9
PC World's Nick Mediati takes an in-depth look at iTunes 9.
Review: Logic Studio
Apple’s new version of Logic Studio introduces some significant headline features. There's an entirely new audio manipulation engine, allowing recorded sound to be reshaped in time. New models of amps and effect pedalboards emulate traditional guitar gear and open up new performance possibilities.
Review: Soundtrack Pro 3
From a videographer's standpoint, the new version of Soundtrack Pro constitutes a worthy upgrade. A large number of significantly more efficient features get the same work done faster and better.
Review: Simplify Music 2 for iPhone
Simplify Music 2 for iPhone, the second version of the media streaming software, has added a few new features, but perhaps not enough to be a compelling upgrade for users of the original program.
Review: PercepTool 1.5.5
PercepTool plug-in for Photoshop CS3 and CS4 attempts to mimic your visual cortex in order to make an image look the way your brain thinks it should. In one fell swoop, this plug-in alters the brightness, edges, and contrast of your images.
Review: TweetDeck for iPhone
Now that an update has fixed some stability issues, TweetDeck need only tweak an overly-crowded interface to rival Tweetie and Twitterrific as a top Twitter client for iPhone and iPod touch users.
Plex media center software competes with Front Row
If you have an even moderately large media library and like the idea of having everything neatly catalogued and readily available at the press of a button, or if you simply like watching high-definition movies, then you should try Plex.
Tangerine creates iTunes playlists based on tempo
When you want to create iTunes playlists based on tempo or need to find the BPM of your songs, Tangerine makes the process incredibly fast and easy.
Review: ScriptPal 1.0.2
Using AppleScripts, you can give iTunes features you've always wanted--or never realized you needed. There's just one problem: once you get hooked, iTunes's scripts menu can gets so crowded that it's tough to find a particular script. A solution to this menu mess can be found in Doug Adams's ScriptPal, a nifty iTunes add-on that takes your iTunes scripts and puts them in an attractive, resizable window that floats above iTunes, disappearing when iTunes isn't the frontmost program. ScriptPal provides a number of organizational features, including the capability to place scripts in task-oriented groups.
Review: I Love Stars 3.0
I Love Stars make it easy to rate your iTunes tracks; it even reminds you if you haven't done so.
CoverScout 3.1
CoverScout is a great utility that helps you find and edit album art for tracks in your iTunes library or in any folder on your hard drive.
SongGenie 1.1
If you have a lot of music without tag information, or with incorrect tags, SongGenie can save you the trouble of finding the correct information, as well as the time it takes to enter that information by hand. Just don’t expect miracles.
iClip Lyrics 1.3.3
iClip Lyrics automates the process of getting song lyrics into iTunes.
Safari and iTunes Tweakers
There are a number of hidden settings in the latest versions of Safari and iTunes. These two utilities let you access those settings without having to dive into Terminal.
Djay 2.3.1
Djay is a fun and friendly way to create music mixes and explore the art of DJing.
Review: GarageBand ’09
With each version of GarageBand, Apple tries to explore a different angle, hoping to bring in a new audience. With GarageBand ’09, the new lure is guitar and piano lessons—nine basic lessons for budding musicians as well as a handful of optional artist lessons for learning specific songs by well-known musicians.
Review: Peak Pro 6
The latest version of Peak Pro features a variety of editing and playlist tweaks, new podcasting features, and still more bundled utilities and effects. These additions may please loyal users, but Peak Pro’s core editor hasn’t entirely kept pace with increased competition and evolving workflows.
Review: Simplify Media for iPhone
With Simplify Media, you can take all your music with you wherever you go; the app lets you stream your songs from your desktop computer to an iPhone or iPod touch.
Review: Adobe Soundbooth CS4
Adobe’s audio editing application, Soundbooth CS4, is a compromise. Although it includes more advanced features than the previous version, it’s still not willing to take on the role of a full-blown professional audio editor.
Review: iTunes 8
iTunes 8 isn’t a revolution in media players, but its new features make an already capable application even more indispensable
Review: Hear 1.0
Hear enhances audio by letting you apply a range of effects via a paned interface. It is quite configurable through its 13 tabs, which have controls for modifying EQ, enhancing 3-D space, and applying limiting and compressor effects (for limiting volume peaks and generally smoothing out volumes).
AudialHub 1.07
Looking for an easy way to convert audio files? The folks who brought us the excellent VisualHub have applied their considerable conversion talents to the field of audio with AudialHub.
TypeCast 1.0b
Get your videos and audios in podcast form without actually having a podcast. It's all in a free utility from Red Sweater Software.
Join Together 5.2
This AppleScript Studio application can take tracks you’ve imported from a playlist in your iTunes library and, as the name suggests, join them into a single AAC-encoded file.