Pepsky Free Audio Converter is a free program that can convert audio files across a wide range of formats, burn audio CDs playable with any CD player, burn audio-file CDs in many formats, and rip CD’s into MP3 or other formats.
What’s notable about this software is (a) the wide range of supported audio file formats that it can read and write (b) the nice collection of functions that it brings together at the same place, and (c) a very nice overall look and feel.
Here are more notes on this program:
- Supported audio formats: will convert from and to any of the following formats; MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, AIF, VOC, FLAC, M4A, OGG, AU, FLV, and APE.
- The user experience: is very nice. The interface looks good and the dialogs very intuitive.
- Conversion Performance: provides excellent conversion speed. This is merely my subjective assessment, but I will note that the program is optimized for dual core (Intel/AMD) processors.
- Audio CD creation: it can burn any of the above format audio files into a normal music CD that can be played on any CD player. It can also create a “disk image” file in BIN, APE, SVD formats.
- MP3 CD creation: actually not just MP3s; you can burn audio files of any supported format into CD’s that can be played on some CD players that support these formats.
- CD Ripping: will rip CD tracks into any of the supported audio file formats; surprisingly, however, it does not pull track data from CDDB or an online database, requiring manual data entry of this information (or a later online lookup using another app).
Wish list
- CDDB, Amazon, or other online database lookups for audio track info when ripping CDs. The omission of this is a significant drawback since, at least for myself, it is enough of a reason to never use this program’s CD ripping functionality. (Having said this, it will rip CDs into some unusual formats which other CD ripper may not).
The verdict: this program is a worthwhile download for many reasons. As a converter is it perfect because of it’s good performance and the great range of audio file formats that are supported that you can convert from and to (including ’uncommon’ formats such as FLV, APE, FLAC, etc). The audio CD creation function is also great because many freeware CD burning programs and many Audio players do not have it. The omission of online database lookups when ripping CDs is somewhat strange, though, and if added would make a very good program even better.
Version Tested: 3.5.3.218
Compatibility: Windows NT4/2000/2003/XP and Vista
Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 10 megs).
