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If you ever tried your hand at transcribing audio to text you're probably familiar with rewinding and playing back passages over and over again. What if you could slow down that audio file without altering the pitch to make it easier for you? Well if you're a Mac users, you're in luck as JS8 Media has developed a handy utility able to alter the speed of audio files without effecting it's pitch.

AudioLobe 3 is a light weight application that you can use to speed up or slow down your audio files. All that you need to change the speed of the audio is to move a slider back and forth. No programing or entering percentages. Just drag a slider from left (slower) to right (faster).

If you're working on a difficult passage you can set AudioLobe to loop that region and it will continue to play it back till you're done. This feature comes in very handy since it loops the section for playback so you won't need to press the rewind button over and over again allow you to concentrate on what is being said.

In our testing we found the audio quality very acceptable as the altered file still had a natural sound to it. We also appreciated the included Bass and Treble controls as that helped us focus on the speaking voice by dialing in the correct amount of low and high frequencies.

You can download a demo version of AudioLobe directly from JS8 Media. A full version is available for $20 and supports the saving of the altered file so that you play it back later without having to adjust the speed again.

So if you've been looking for a way to slow down voice dictations so that you can transcribe easier AudioLobe might be the software for you.

The built in speakers that come with Apple's notebooks are fine for most basic audio tasks. And if you want better sound you could hook up a set of external speakers. But external speakers aren't always an option and that shouldn't mean that you have to give up on better sound. With Hear, you can add some slick audio processing to make your notebook speakers sound bigger than what they really are.

Hear uses digital signal processing (DSP) to shape the audio coming from your applications (iTunes or DVD player) giving them a much needed boost in equalization and reverb allowing your music or movie to sound its best with the notebook speakers.

To make things easy, Hear has packaged a variety of presents to get you going. If you're the tweaking type, you can adjust the knobs and faders till you get the sound you're after.

In our testing we found the processing fine for most audio content and really enjoyed the phantom center channel option giving a weighted anchor to all the movies we watched.

Hear isn't only for your built in speakers, it also works great with headphones or external speakers. But if all you have is the notebook built in speakers, Hear will definitely make them sound better.

We're not gonna pretend here, it's not easy to get different songs mixed together. So when we heard about MixMeister and it's automated mixes we were intrigued.

After selecting the songs you would like in your set, MixMeister will automatically determine the tempo as well as the key the song is in. From there, arrange your songs in the order you would like them played as well as their mix points.

Now here is the best part of the program, MixMeister will automatically sync the tempos of the 2 songs together so that when the mix occurs the beats are matched up seamlessly. MixMeister will also handle the fading from one song to the next and what you end up with is a perfect mix each and every time. We were absolutely floored when we heard our mixes as each song was perfectly synced up to one another.

MixMeister comes in several different versions ranging in prices of $50 - 400 and is available for both Windows and Mac operating systems. Unfortunately, the $50 Express version is only offered in Windows format. Those with Macs will have to spring for the $200 version.

[Thanks, Koan]

VirtualDJ is one of many mixing applications out on the market today. But what separates it from the rest is that it combines some nice features to help beginners as well as pros get the most out of their mix.

The greatest feature we like about VirtualDJ is that it displays the actual waveform of the music. This allows you to see the musical beats, giving the user greater accuracy when mixing two songs together. Also you can see breaks in the music, which gives you some key points to where you might want to mix in another song.

In addition, VirtualDJ also tries to figure out the tempo of each song and gives you indicators along the bottom edge of the waveform that act like visual aids to help you mix. And if you just can't get both songs playing in tempo, it also provides you with a sync button that will stretch the new song to fit the tempo of the current song.

We did notice that the accuracy of the tempo matching feature depends largely in part to the type of music. Your standard disco style beat gives more accurate results than one with more a more complicated drum pattern as it tend to throw off the system.

Other notable features include a built in sampler so that you can make loops on the fly, audio effects, scratching via the virtual turntables and cue points. These cue points are saved to a VirtualDJ file, so that each time you load up a specific song you can go directly to the cue point saving time in locating certain parts in the music.

VirtualDJ is available for both Windows and Mac operating systems and should be seriously consider for those wanting to dabble in electronic mixing.

Ever created a PowerPoint that everyone in your organization wanted a copy of? Sure you could go ahead and clog up your corporate email server with the 200MB + file or you could just convert your PowerPoint to a smaller flash file with iSpring and publish it to an internal or external website (slideboom account required) for others to view.

Converting your PowerPoint presentation to a flash movie couldn't be any easier as the iSpring installation puts the conversion buttons right in your PowerPoint menu bar. In addition to the one click conversion iSpring also allows for some customization such as generating HTML codes, looped and automatic playback, slide advance via mouse click as well as changing the duration of the slide.

iSpring comes in 3 flavors ranging from the free version which we tested on up to the Ultra version which allows the creation of E-learning content to additional playback controls. In our testing we found the free version more than adequate for most PowerPoint presentations.

So before you send that PowerPoint thru your company email, try converting it with iSpring instead.

If you've ever played a musical instrument the concept of playing in key is nothing new. But what about DJs? Are there lessons out there that go over majors, minors or even basic chord progressions? Having 2 songs mixed in key gives the impression that the songs were made for each other.

MixedInKey has developed a software for DJs that will analyze your songs to determine what key they are in. That way when you are building your set you can select songs that where performed in the same key or a complementary key.

In order to have your mp3s analyzed add them to MixedInKey. From there, the software will determine its key and display them according to their Camelot Sound keycode. Add songs according to their keycode using your favorite mixing software and start mixing.

We had our reservations about this program, fearing that all your mixes will be in the same key leading to one boring set. But the system itself, teaches you musical concepts and if you follow the system you can move from one key to the next to add chord progressions to your mix.

MixedInKey is available for both Windows and Mac and cost $58.

In no way does TapeDeck claim to replace Garageband, Logic or any other full blown audio recording application. TapeDeck just does one thing, record audio from your built-in mic or any other audio input to virtual cassette tapes.

The application resembles a cassette tape recorder and the interface is as intuitive as it gets. Because of this, TapeDeck lends itself well to impromptu interviews, dictations and lectures. TapeDeck even allows you to transfer recordings to your iTunes library.

Tapes can be color coded and labeled to make them easier to find in their virtual storage rack. And just like recorders of the past, you can select recording qualities of High, Medium or Low. These settings translate to different bit rates and the amount of disc space your recordings take up. In our tests, the lowest setting was more than adequate for dictation and everyday use.

There are a few gripes we had with TapeDeck. First, each time you press record, a new "tape" is used. There are no way to continue from a previous recording. While some may see this as a safety measure, what if you wanted to continue a recording and not have it spread across a couple of tapes?

Another issue we had was with the search function. Labels and liner notes are fully searchable from within the application but only the labels are searchable via Spotlight. Maybe we're asking for too much but we love our Spotlight.

TapeDeck is definitely a great application and the issues we have are definitely not show stoppers. Plus the mechanical transport sounds it makes alone is well worth the asking price of $25.

• Differential and incremental backups
• Restore individual files and folders
• Compatibility with Windows Server 2003
• Shutdown the PC after backup
• Email notifications

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