AudioGrail is an audio organizer and tag editor with a rather unique interface and some cool mass editing tools. Format support includes MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC, APE, MPC, and WavePak--but oddly enough, not WMA, despite using external programs that generally support the format for playback.

AudioGrail's interface took just smidgen of getting used to. I appreciate that when a program is supporting over 30 languages there's a need to keep things simple, but slightly more verbose labels would help. On the other hand, I did like the large icons for such tasks as tag editing and playback, as displayed prominently in a pane on the right side of the window. Imported files are categorized by artist in a directory tree on the left side of the main window.

AudioGrail's overall capabilities are nowhere near as robust as iTunes or Windows Media Player. However, it offers useful mass editing tricks that its more popular cousins could take a lesson from, such as standardizing the case of file names and tags (first letter caps, all caps, no caps, etc.), mass tag removal, duplicate file searches, and a search for incomplete tags. It will also export an audio or data job for burning to CopyToDVD, if you happen to own that program.

As a freebie, AudioGrail offers some unique functionality. I don't think it will wean many users off of WMP or iTunes, but as an adjunct it's definitely worthwhile--especially if you're organizing a collection of new files that lack tags and the like. An "Expert" version that lets you operate on unlimited files for mass editing tasks (the free version allows 30) with priority support costs $20.

Note: This link takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

--Jon L. Jacobi