Music

8 Powerful Mac Audio Tools

David Appleyard on March 17th

For many people, the audio functionality of their Mac is something that just works – there’s no need to mess with it, and no real requirement for anything more advanced. If you’re willing to spend a few minutes looking at what’s on offer, however, you may well stumble upon a few apps which can really enhance your experience of music and radio.

This roundup will take a look at a variety of different tools allowing you to better record audio, try an alternative to iTunes, listen to satellite radio, have your Mac speak to you, or stream music around your house.

LineIn

This tool allows you to play sound coming in through a microphone or any other device plugged in to your Sound In port. It’s not functionality enabled by default in OS X, and is useful in more scenarios than you’d think.

Price: Free
Requires:Mac OS X 10.4.0 or later
Developer: Rogue Amoeba

Audio Hijack Pro

Essentially allowing you to record any audio you can hear on your Mac – whether from iTunes, Skype, Online Radio or a Microphone. Great for digitizing old analog music or creating podcasts. Loads of features for manipulating audio once it’s recorded as well.

Price: $32
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4.0 or later
Developer: Rogue Amoeba

AirFoil

Airfoil

Airfoil allows you to send any audio to AirPort Express units, Apple TVs, and even other Macs and PCs, all synchronized at the same time. It’s brilliant for setting up a music system throughout your house.

Price: $25
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4.0 or later
Developer: Rogue Amoeba

Text to Speech

Make Your Mac Speak

Not an application, but a really useful tip (and one we’ll probably expand upon here in the future). Your Mac is able to do a really good job of speaking any text you select, upon typing a pre-defined key combination. Very useful for listening to an article whilst doing something else.

Price: Free
Requires: OSX 10.5 for the ‘Alex’ voice
Developer: Apple

EasyWMA

Provides a very simple and relatively inexpensive tool for converting wma, wmv/flv audio, real media, asf and ogg vorbis files to aiff, mp3, m4a or wav. A huge range of formats are dealt with, and it’s a solid tool for moving all your music into a consistent iTunes compatible format.

Price: $10
Requires: Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later
Developer: Patrice Bensoussan

Audacity

A fairly powerful tool for recording, editing and converting audio. You’re able to cut and splice tracks to remove certain sections, and it’s particularly good for creating ringtones outside of iTunes.

Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Developer: Open Source

Pulsar

With Pulsar and an XM or SIRIUS online account, you can access a bunch of online satellite radio for free. If you prefer a live stream of music to a podcast, it’s a great app to have a play with. You can try it out for an unlimited number of 20 minute periods for free.

Price: $15
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5.0 or later
Developer: Rogue Amoeba

Songbird

Songbird is a fully fledged iTunes alternative, complete with a music store, Last.Fm support, inbuilt web services, and iPod support. If you’re looking for a more customizable experience with your music library, Songbird provides a decent option.

Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or later
Developer: Open Source

Conclusion

I hope that the list of apps above show you a range of new tools which you haven’t come across before. The umbrella of ‘audio’ is absolutely huge, and I fully appreciate that there are hundreds of apps which could be featured here. It would be brilliant if you could leave your thoughts and application suggestions in the comments for use in a future article.

Have fun, and enjoy the music!

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Chet
March 17th
Reply

There’s also Fission by Rogue Amoeba for mp3 splicing etc.
and there’s the app called Switch by NCH Software, it’s a free conversion tool from any file to any audio file you want. Hope this helps!
digitalmonkey
March 17th
Reply

I use WireTap Studio from Ambrosia. I like it quite a bit. Very easy and intuitive. The HUD is small and doesn’t take up a lot of screen space. Can record pretty much everything. There are many options for the export and many effects to enhance your audio plus many useful audio editing tools. You can record steam music from the web and send it to Itunes as well. it’s $69. Kind of on the expensive side but it’s an option, if you want to check it out.
Sim
March 17th
Reply

How about Spotify (http://www.spotify.com), listen too almost any music you can think of free and legally. iTunes Killer I reckon.
Benoit Rondeux
March 17th
Reply

Hi! Thanks for this article but I would have also mentionnend SoundStudio 3 from Freeserve which is a great alternative to Audacity. http://www.freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=5012&view=overview

I use it since 2 years for quick but non dirty edition of sound files and it works like a charm.
Hasan
March 17th
Reply

I am just wondering that you forgot the best audio app for OSX – TwistedWave.. Yes, it is little but expensive ($79), but you will get for what you pay. It is the best app for OSX to work with sound (if i am not counting profi apps like Logic or ProTools).

http://twistedwave.com/

Recommended.
Jeff Krieger
March 17th
Reply

I’ll add Fission as well. Can create iPhone ringtones with it from any mp3. I love Audio Hijack and Airfoil, too. I love Rogue Amoeba. Check out their free app that lets you choose your audio source straight from the menu bar.
MattT
March 17th
Reply

I’m wondering what the audio editing apps will do that GarageBand won’t? Not to be flip, I really do wonder. Do we get a lot of added functionality for buying an app that we don’t already have with an app that came with our Macs?
Taylor
March 19th
Reply

SoundFlower is also great for redirecting your In and Out. I use it with SoundTrack Pro to record my Mac speaking text for various purposes.
Gopal Raju
March 26th
Reply

Nice List!

Gopal Raju
productivedreams.com
twitter.com/gopalraju
m65
January 30th
Reply

very nice share thanks