AudialHub: Audio for All

So you just got that new phone (not an iPhone) with a bunch of features that you will never use. But what about the features that you will use, like ringtones? They typically cost $2 - $4, and the quality is usually questionable. How about making your own ringtone from a song that you like, with good quality? If you want to take that path, then Techspansion’s AudialHub may be the tool for you.

Now, before you decide that AudialHub will be your converter or choice, you may want to think of what you want in an audio converter. If you are the type of person who just wants to convert a few files to an iPod-friendly format, then AudialHub may not be for you. You can do that with iTunes! However, if you want to convert a lot of files to numerous formats that are not always supported by OS X, then AudialHub is probably right for you. Now, there are some free alternatives to AudialHub (such as Max), but if you want a clean and simple interface that looks like a design team has taken time to create, then AudialHub is definitely the right audio converter for you.

As I said above, AudialHub has a professionally-made looking interface. Not only does the interface look well-made, but it looks Mac-like. You have one main window, an inspector and a preference window. It looks like a Mac app; not like a BETA app, or a Windows app, but the kind of application you would want to see running on a Mac.

Now for the real purpose of AudialHub: It offers you all the features you could really ever want for audio converting. It supports a wide variety of formats, and even sub-formats within those formats. You can specify options like bitrate, frequency, volume, etc. It has everything you would expect from an audio converter. Actually, it has a few more.

If you are a big FFmpeg or afconvert nerd then AudialHub has some features you will like. It allows you to specify flags for either one of these. In the Info panel, under the Audio tab, there will be two text fields that are labeled “Extra FFmpeg Flags:” and “Extra afconvert Flags:” respectively. This is a great way to add even more options to your conversions. Although, if you don’t know what FFmpeg or afconvert is, then I highly suggest that you don’t edit these fields.

If you are an organizational freak, then AudialHub also has some very nice features for you. In the Info panel, under the One-Offs tab, there are a load of options for specifying MetaData (what iTunes uses to tag songs with artists, names, etc). It gives you most of the tags used in iTunes. If you click View Selected Item’s Tags, then it will fill in these fields with the MetaData already on these files. Another feature for you would be the ability to retain creation and modification dates for files. Those options can be found in the preferences under the File Handling tab.

One feature that AudialHub lacks is XGrid support. Techspansion’s other main product, VisualHub, has XGrid support, but AudialHub does not. In case you were wondering, XGrid allows you to use computers on the same network to help the encode. This is a really great feature if you want to speed up the conversions, but it is more needed in video than audio because video takes longer to encode.

Another place where AudialHub (and VisualHub for that matter) is lacking is preset support. Yes, it has them, but it asks you where to save the preset file. In most applications presets are saved by themselves to a folder that you would have to look for to find. AudialHub needs the user to tell it where to save the file. It would be very nice to click Save, and it saves, and then when you want to use it a preset drawer appears. It does work, but it just takes a little more effort.

AudialHub can be found at Techspansion’s website, along with the great video conversion app, VisualHub. If you want to buy it, it is only $18.81, or $14.41 if you already own VisualHub. It is more expensive than the free alternatives, but to me it seems much cleaner. And hey, it’s still cheaper than QuickTime Pro!

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