Open-source and free software

Diamond · June 07, 2007, 03:53:38

cdrtfe - Win32 frontend for cdrtools. Burns data CDs/DVDs, audio CDs, video CDs/DVDs, creates/writes ISO images and can also rip audio CDs to a few different formats.
I've been looking around for a powerful, free and accessible burning solution for quite some time. Right now I'm really liking this little program.
http://cdrtfe.sourceforge.net/cdrtfe/index_en.html
Mini Recorder - Audio recorder that runs completely hidden or from the system tray and can be stopped/started with assignable global hotkeys. The sound device for recording is selectable and it autogenerates file names based on the current date/time.
I don't know why this little gem isn't more popular.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=182265

Diamond · June 07, 2007, 04:07:02

I forgot about these two utilities that I came across while looking for something to synchronize files and folders.
DSynchronize
http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/
SyncEXPERT
http://syncexp.com/

Saga Musix · June 07, 2007, 10:15:36

I don't knwo if you appreciate "house advertising", anyways, i'll just post my link

http://sagagames.de/?programm=vchip
vChip is a "Virtual Chip", you are able to create your own chip samples. vChip supports WAV import / export, it also has its own file format, different waveforms and presets, a "DJ mode" is coming soon, and many many more features. The program is English, though my website is German only.
Direct download link:
http://sagagames.de/download.php?file=vchip

Sam_Zen · August 25, 2007, 00:21:48

A freeware extractor of samples out of .SF2 files : Xtrakk

OggDropXPd is a tool for encoding WAV to OGG and for decoding OGG to WAV.

FlacDrop is a tool for encoding WAV to FLAC and for decoding FLAC to WAV.
This one has a GUI, but the execution is DOS-based.

aGIANTpupafish · August 26, 2007, 14:31:32

Paint.net is pretty damn good.

Tis like paint.. but better.

http://getpaint.net/

Sam_Zen · September 18, 2007, 23:13:48

A freebie to recover lost files : Restoration

And a 'Keyboard Usable MIDI Drum Machine' made by an old friend of mine : Beats Me

Diamond · October 23, 2007, 00:37:08

Aura - Ambient Sound of Virgin Forest
http://www.umopit.ru/AuraEng.htm

Diamond · December 07, 2007, 18:33:37

ClocX - Free analog clock for Windows desktop
Has a fairly powerful alarm feature
http://www.clocx.net/
DVD Flick - For converting and burning many video formats to a video DVD
http://www.dvdflick.net/
eTextReader - Supports text, RTF, HTML, Microsoft Word files and several other formats
http://www.fellnersoft.at/eTR.htm
FreeCommander - Powerful file manager for Windows with customizable keyboard shortcuts
There's a portable version for USB flash drives too.
http://www.freecommander.com/
IZArc - The Ultimate Archive Utility
Also has a portable version available.
http://www.izarc.org/
PopSel - Small utility for creating customizable pop-up menus which can launch programs/URLs, open folders and so on
http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/
Combined with a hotkey manager like Hot Key Plus
http://www.brianapps.net/hotkeyplus/
it makes for a very powerful launching environment.
Programmer's Notepad - Nice Programmer's/general purpose editor with customizable keyboard shortcuts
http://www.pnotepad.org/

Sam_Zen · January 18, 2008, 06:50:46

Some mentioned before, but I gathered four utils with the same 'dropper' dialog for WAV conversion to and from :
OGG - FLAC - MP3 - WavPack

Plus another, opensource, multi-format converter : WinLame by Michael Fink.

WinLame input formats :
AIFF - AU - AVR - CAF - HTK - IFF - MAT4 - MAT5 - PAF - PVF - RAW
SD2 - SDS - SF - VOC - W64 - WAV - WAVEX - XI - MP3 - MP2 - MPG
OGG - FLAC - MOD - IT - S3M - XM - WMA - M3U - PLS - CUE

WinLame output formats :
MP3 - OGG - WAV - WMA

WinLame CD rip : only to WAV

Diamond · January 18, 2008, 07:21:04

Speaking of converters, I've looked at quite a few myself recently. Here are some of the more useful ones I've discovered.

Free Audio Extractor - Extract audio tracks from most popular video formats and save them to MP3, WAV and AC3
http://www.x-kit.com/audioextractor.htm
PowerEnc - CD ripper/converter which is reasonably portable and can convert between several popular audio formats
http://www.benware.de/index.php?site=main&language=english
Efficient WMA MP3 Converter - Supports most of the conversion features of the previous two combined, but wasn't as speech friendly so not quite as useful for me.
http://www.wmamp3-converter.com/
MediaCoder - An almost universal audio/video transcoder
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

Sam_Zen · January 27, 2008, 04:13:34

* The Lame Encoder Front End v 1.0. Very detailed modifications can be made. A ID3v2 tag editor.
Didn't made a profound test so far. But promising. By Jacek Pazera.
http://www.louigiverona.com/webarchive/samzen/download/LameFE.7z
A remarkable button in the Options tab : "Delete all registry keys created by program and exit".
I wish, more progams would have that option.

* The Free Uninstaller. Not only an alternative for the Programs Add/Remove function. There are more of that.
But, besides any changing, it can show very detailed information about the relations with the registry.
http://www.louigiverona.com/webarchive/samzen/download/free_uninstaller.7z

* Hex2Dec of Sysinternals by Mark Russinovich. I made two batchfiles to be placed in some dir of the system-path
(read the txt-file), to be able to type from any spot : 'd2h 2008' to get : "7D8", or vice versa with 'h2d..'.
http://www.louigiverona.com/webarchive/samzen/download/hex2dec.7z
This works with Win2K. I don't know about the behaviour with XP, let alone Vista.

* An M3U playlist maker with the same batch-technique
http://www.louigiverona.com/webarchive/samzen/download/make_m3u.7z

Saga Musix · February 11, 2008, 11:40:42

icoFX is a free, yet powerful icon editor. I've seen many icon editors before. those which had the same great features were commercial apps (i liked IconCool, but it's very buggy) and those which are free often are just very basic. this icon editor is free and professional: multiformat icons, extracting icons, nice drawing tools and many more things are top-notch.

bvanoudtshoorn · February 11, 2008, 12:28:51

@Jojo: Have you also looked at the Gimp for icon editing?

Saga Musix · February 11, 2008, 15:24:38

i really can't stand gimp's interface and IMHO specialized editors for icons only often work better than those designed for other formats.

Sam_Zen · February 13, 2008, 03:26:03

Notification:
In the course of time I placed a lot of links in all kinds of threads on this forum to files to be downloaded.
As I did with replacing all my MP3 files by the OGG format, I'm now busy to do the same with all my ZIP files.
These mainly concern software or information.
They will be upgraded to the 7-Zip format (.7z extension) because it's also open source.

It's hard to do for me to update all threads I posted on this forum, to correct those links in the page data.
So my advice for the moment: if some DL can't be found, try the new file-extension.
TC can handle this format, otherwise get the 7-Zip packer here (860 KB)