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Audio and Music Software in general
by Seven17
I have long been an avid user of Audacity because it's free, simple to use, and it's not trying to be dynamic or sleek. In fact, it hasn't updated it's user interface in many many years. That's a good thing because if you're editing on the fly you need to know where everything is. So what Software does this compete with, and what's your ... budget? Audacity isn't for everyone, but it does cover most people for personal use.
- Budget? -
Audacity is designed for those on a budget. If you don't want to pay for anything, Audacity is open source and comes in disc form when buying recording products like the Citronic USB Convertor for phono outlets, but can also be downloaded. Google Audacity and click I'm feeling lucky. You'll get straight to the site.
- Effects? -
If you're really into the professional effects and Nyquist effects then you'd be better going for Adobe Audition. This is also better for voice recording too, as Adobe allows you to fine tune pitch better than audacity. Audacity has lots of basic effects such as Amplify and Bass Boost but you can run out of good effects quickly.
- Interface? -
If you're looking for something sleek, snazzy and good looking, Adobe is best, Audacity is worst, but if you're good for roughly £40 you can get Sony's Sound Forge Audio Studio 10 which looks absolutely beautiful and does still get regular updates and new software releases. The top end stuff costs around $400+ though.
- Audio Player? -
Those who want to use audacity to create a waveform of their song or use it as a video player will find it very easy to use but trust me it's not up to scratch for the job. Rekordbox from Pioneer essentially gives you an interface similar to that of a Pioneer CDJ 900 minus some of the cool effects, but this allows you to keep all your tracks in an easy to use interface and allows to edit on the fly. Best of all, it's free.
Overall it just depends on what your needs are and what you feel comfortable with. If you're a beginner don't jump in at the top of the market first. Get Audacity free then work your way up. If you're a professional, Audacity wont be for you, it lacks all the features needed to fine tune, and for vocals i'd go straight to Adobe Audition.
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BBC iPlayer
by bettyboop2002
BBC iPlayer is a feature on the BBC website which allows you to access TV programmes that you have missed. You can also listen to radio programmes you might have missed or listen to the radio stations live on the iPlayer website and it's all free.
You can visit the website and watch or listen to programmes using many devices ... which can access the internet including mobile phones, games consoles, TV's, computers and tablets.
You can either browse recently added or most popular programmes on the website. If you know what you are looking for you can either find it by clicking on the categories (including news, sport, weather, drama, documentaries and childrens) or use the search box to look for the title of the programme you are looking for.
Some programmes are available to watch or listen to very soon after they have first been broadcast and others may take a few hours to be able to watch on iPlayer. Each programme is only available for about a week to view online, but you can download them to your device which means they will be available for 30 days. There is a good choice of programmes to watch on iPlayer, but some BBC programmes won't be available on iPlayer because of viewing rights.
There are many BBC channels you can watch programmes for including BBC 1,2,3&4, CBBC, BBC news, BBC parliament and BBC Alba. HD channels are also available for those with compatible devices.
When watching a programme you can adjust the volume, pause it and move a slider to any time you wish so if you only wanted to watch a certain segment of a show you can do this with ease without having to watch the whole thing. You can also watch the shows in a window or a full screen.
I have used iPlayer a few times now, I find it fast to find and load the programme that I want to watch and find it good. Sometimes there is a small amount of buffering, this depends on your connection, I find it good at home, but a bit slower when using wifi in certain places.
I don't use iPlayer that often, only when I have forgotten to record something which will not be repeated. With various websites and catch up services available these days I wouldn't say that this is any better than others. It is only available in the UK, so if you feel the urgent need to use your hotel wifi in Spain to catch up on Eastenders for example, the chances ar you will be told it is not available in your area. Also, as the programmes are only available for a week if you are away on holiday it may not still be there to watch when you get back.
BBC Iplayer is a useful app but with most set top boxes having a recording ability and increasing popularity of remote recording I don't think it will be needed for much longer.
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BBC iPlayer
by catrocks03
Me and my boyfriend are actually cancelling our Sky subscription this week as we've realised we don't watch TV- live TV that is. Our Xbox has BBC iPlayer, 4od, Channel 5 catch up, Netflix and Youtube. Anything we want to watch we can watch via these programmes on our Xbox. This is useful for my 20 month old too, he has a few programmes ... he loves- rather than tuning in when theyre on TV I can just select them from BBC iPlayer.
BBC iPlayer has a few platforms- I use the online version- www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer and also as I mentioned the Xbox version.
On both platforms the main colour scheme is black, pink and white. The layout is somewhat different in comparison- it is suited to the device you'll be using to browse this- a mouse or a controller.
You can select programmes in a few ways:
- Search bar
- Browse through the Featured or Most Popular categories
- Through a genre selection
- Via an A-Z list (online version)
- Via choosing which BBC channel it was aired on.
Some programmes you can watch via the online version as they are being aired (they do say you need a TV license to do this although they can't check this.)
You can't yet watch programmes live on Xbox. I find programmes tend to appear 30-60 minutes after they've finished airing, occasionally a tad longer.
Not everything is shown on BBC iPlayer- films and non BBC programmes (e.g American Dad) won't be shown.
If you have slow internet you may also suffer with buffering. If you're using BBC iPlayer on a computer you can get around the buffering problem by downloading iPlayer Desktop on your computer and can then download programmes from the iPlayer website. You'll then be able to watch them once they're downloaded on your computer.
BBC iPlayer means I never have to worry about missing any of my favourite TV programmes (Eastenders in particular) and Tyler can watch Something Special (a favourite of his) at any time of day. You can pause, rewind and forward programmes. If you stop watching a programme halfway through then come back to it they remember the point you were at.
A great (and free) service!
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