Jon Jacobi

For a program that purports to help you find out what codecs are missing from your system, SuperEasy Codec Checker is woefully inadequate. It knew nothing about codecs even mildly off the beaten path such as OGG, Flac, and even common .FLV--this despite the codecs in question being installed on my system, and the company claiming to support them. Even worse, this free program was buggy, throwing .NET errors and ceasing to display its bitmapped buttons correctly.

Codec Checker's interface is simple, but so is the program.SuperEasy Codec Checker has one possibly useful trick--altering the header of 4CC (a common codec that comes in many wrappers) files so that they appear as a supported file to some early hardware video players. This could be handy for older hardware players, but if your software player is challenged in this regard, it's time for a new one.

I tend to scrutinize free software just a hair more than stuff that's not. And when the logo is something as cute and cuddly as Hamster Soft's, I put that little furball under a microscope. Happily, Hamster Free Burning Studio proved not only competent, but completely innocuous as far as I could tell.

Efficiency is the key with Hamster Free Burning Studio's interface--until you start bouncing between windows.Hamster Free Burning Studio couldn't be easier to install, though you should choose the custom install if you want to avoid installing the Bing toolbar. The license tells you that some non-personal information is gathered and transmitted during install, and only during install. If that bothers you, look elsewhere. At least they tell you about it. Many companies do not. The interface looks nice (you can easily change the default gray to another color), is logically laid out, and places all pertinent functions within easy reach.

FL Studio 9.1 (various pricing, feature-limited free demo) is the latest version of the long-time sequencer and recording app formerly known as Fruity Loops. Despite a slightly non-standard user interface, FL Studio is one of the easier digital audio workstations to use--if you come from a step/pattern-based recording background.

A slick bitmapped interface makes working in FL Studio a pleasant experience indeed.

If you're not a gamer, you probably shouldn't bother with Blindwrite. This program will copy virtually any data CD or DVD, but its real purpose is to back up gaming discs. Under older copyright law, you have a right to one backup of any piece of software. However, the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) says the breaking copy protection is illegal. You can decide on the ramifications of this yourself; however, Blindwrite seems to work pretty well.

Blindwrite has a clean, straightforward tabbed interface that puts all the options: Copy, Read (read to an image file on your hard drive), and Write (write an image to disc) at your fingertips. I had only a few older games with which to test the program, but as I stated above, it worked fine. If you're interested in whether it will copy any particular title, visit the VSO Blindwrite support forum and you will undoubtedly find some pertinent feedback. Keep in mind that some drives have a hard time with some titles while others won't--these are hardware/firmware issues that Blindwrite can do nothing about.

CDRoller purports to recover data from any type of UDF/ISO9660/FAT32 disc that can be written: CD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray. It's always tricky testing recovery programs, especially those that work with optical discs. All I can report is that it worked with several test CDs/DVDs that I keep around for these reviews. The test discs won't load, but they can be read at a low level.

Let's get the eval out of the way up front: Pianissimo sounds great. But there are a lot of great-sounding software piano VSTi's (short for Virtual Studio Technology instrument, a software synthesizer plug-in standard from Steinberg) out there. Some of them with way more than the 80 megabytes of samples that come with Pianissimo. They also generally have a lot more in the way of a cash requirement.

Acid 7 Pro is one of the most powerful pro-level DAW (digital audio workstation) packages on the market. Neither the feature set nor the price are for amateurs--but if you're serious about making and mixing music, this is one of the DAW programs to consider.

There are number of good CD/DVD label designers on the market, but the $22 Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker is a cut above in terms of flexibility, learning curve, and ease of use. Everything you need is either right in front of you or available via right-click context menus. It also supports any number of different jewel cases, inserts, and labels.

You've got to love a software company that would actually name a program Fruity Loops. It's now been renamed FL Studio to rein in the more staid customers, as well as reflect the program's move from a strictly loop-based (arranging looped samples into songs) into a far more versatile sequencing and editing package. But still...you've just got to admire them.

Sometimes I really love my job. Now and then, I get introduced to a program such as Avidemux that fills a long-standing need. Every video editor I've tried to date absolutely insists on completely re-encoding your video even if all you did was cut or trim. Every single one--until Avidemux. If you're saving to the same type of video, it simply copies all the unedited material to a new file. Talk about a timesaver.

I first ran across Foxit Reader while searching for a lightweight alternative to Adobe Reader, which for several major revisions grew increasingly bloated and slow. Foxit fit the bill nicely, though for a few versions I still had to keep the Adobe product on hand for graphics intensive PDF files. Now though, Foxit is the only PDF reader I use.

Musicians love reading from great-looking scores, but programs that produce them (such as Finale and Sibelius) can be quite pricey. LilyPond is a free, albeit much more difficult-to-use, alternative that produces excellent-looking results. The difficulty stems from the lack of a WYSIWYG interface--LilyPond simply interprets text files, which you or others must provide.