na641.com

Font rendering is always a sticky issue for power users. Cleartype, freetype, etc.; every user has their preference. Some even swear by no anti-aliasing, which is something I’ve never understood. Regardless, if you are a fan of OSX’s font rendering, this is just the tool for you. GDI++ overrides windows default font rendering giving you a more OSX/Linux type rendering. It does this using the Freetype engine Linux users have come to adore.

I found this great utility over at Xenosium. Please note that this is not the homepage of the utility, but only where it was found. The homepage is in Japanese and no longer being maintained. As such I will not link to it.

Usage:

1. Extract the .rar file
2. Run the included GDITray.exe
3. Select an ini file, and select apply now

As the app is in japanese, reading the included documentation is pretty useless. Settings are controlled via .ini files, included in the ini folder. There is a custom ini file, created by xenosium, that will probably work best for you.

Download: GDI++

I’m particularly interested to here your thoughts on this one. Love it? Hate it? Let me know

Chances are you either listen to internet radio or knows someone who does. How about Last.FM? Myspace? While the source quality of music from these sources can be questionable, the ability to download that music would be an undeniably handy resource.

Free Music Zilla, by Innoshock, is just the tool for the job. Despite the name, Free Music Zilla is a simply wonderful little tool that is long overdue. Fans of internet radio will wonder how they lived before this app existed. While not all sites are supported, the most popular, including Myspace, Last. FM, and Pandora, are. Small, lightweight, and functional regardless of browser… what could be better?

From the site:

Key Features:

• No limit download!
• Download music from Last.fm™, IMEEM™, Pandora™ and more social music!
• Support all web browser like IE, Firefox, Opera, Maxthon, Avnta, Netscape!
• Super light, micro-sized and resource-friendly!
• Free! No adware! No spyware!

Unfortunately this app is Windows only. No clue if a Linux/OSX version is in the works, but we can always hope.

Download: Free Music Zilla (Windows Only)

If you are a fan of electronic music or live sets, you have more than likely encountered what i like to call the amorphous blob mp3. Often time these large, monster-like mp3s, will come with a .cue file. Originally intended for burning to cd-r, these .cue files detail the individual track information contained within the larger track. Rather than burning to cd, these cue files have a much more appreciable purpose: chopping the mp3 into the individual tracks as god surely intended.

Enter mp3DirectCut, a lovely little utility for just this purpose. Interestingly, finding the right tool for this job is not as easy as I originally thought. It took quite some time to find an app that did this, and did it well. Free of malware, adware, or bloat, mp3DirectCut is a dear favorite app.

From mpesch3 audio tools’s mp3DirectCut page:

All you need to cut your mp3
mp3DirectCut is a fast and extensive audio editor and recorder for compressed mp3. You can directly cut, copy, paste or change the volume with no need to decompress your files for audio editing. This saves encoding time and preserves the original quality, because nothing will be re-encoded. The built in recorder creates mp3 on the fly from your audio input. Using Cue sheets, pause detection or Auto cue you can easily divide long files.

Features:

• Non-destructive cut, copy, paste
• Volume change, fade, normalize, pause detection
• mp3 recording with ACM or Lame encoder
• Fast mp3 visualisation and easy navigation
• Supports Layer 2 (dvd/dvb audio)
• ID3v1.1 tag editor · ID3v2 tag keeping
• Cue Sheet support
• Auto cue (track dividing by time values)
• Track splitting with filename and tag creation
• Trim · Crop · Fast play · Loop play
• VU meter, bitrate visualisation
• High speed recorder · Command line usage

It is important to note that while I only use this app for the cue file support, it has numerous other features that hopefully others may find useful.

Download: mp3DirectCut (Windows Only)