Audio Catalyst 1.5 Capsizing the Competition

by Carmel Lerner

January 24, 1999
The genre of MP3 creation is being pumped with numerous programs all of which do much the same thing. But like all other genres like this, there's one program which crowns itself number one. Xing Audio Catalyst, in conjunction with AudioGrabber, is the best MP3 producer released, for a number of unassailable reasons.

Start Her Up
The program was refreshingly easy to install. Being a small program - contradictory to other programs of this type which are too large and bulky for their purpose - the setup was extremely efficient, not wasting any time which could be put to better use. A few clicks and choices and the program installs almost instantly. No hassles or errors, but painless.

Back to Basics
The purpose of this program is for the production of MP3's. Audio Catalyst combines the two necessary parts of MP3 creation - ripping audio from a CD and encoding it into MP3. This has been done by a few other programs, most of which use the Xing encoding engine to do so. Even though there are other programs which share the engine, it seems as if Xing tweaked it flawlessly to create the best program of its kind.

How Did They Do That?
Audio Catalyst Splash ScreenThe program is easy, user-friendly, and the quality produced is absolutely amazing. Instead of the Digital Rip-Encode methods of other programs, Audio Catalyst Rips and Encodes separately, but in one step. This does not, however, mean that it takes more time. The ripping of an average five-minute song can take about twenty seconds, and the encoding can take about a minute. This is as fast if not much faster than any other program available.

The engine used is an optimized Xing Encoder, and the Ripper is AudioGrabber. This used to be a separate program which obviously ripped CD audio onto the hard drive, and another foreign encoder was needed. Adding to its potency, AudioGrabber has now combined with the Xing engine to form a powerful partnership.

What's the Big Idea?
Finally, I want to mention some of the outstanding features making this program so advanced.

Very importantly, I have to mention the easy-to-use interface. Clear buttons and explanations makes the job that much easier. Even the fully explanatory help file is made user-friendly.

Using the brilliant CDDB system, once a CD is inserted and if you are connected to the internet, it automatically connects to the CD database server of your choice and finds the correct CD, then automatically gives the tracks the names of the artist and song names. This saves a major headache of typing all the information in yourself.

Once that's done, you simply select the songs you want, and select "GRAB." Then it does it all by itself. First, it rips the raw CD audio, and puts it on your hard drive. Then, it encodes the data into MP3 format using the lightning quick encoding engine. This is where the first shine of brilliance arises. You can encode the song in at variable bitrates. This means that if you have a huge hard drive and are striving for true perfection in audio quality you can encode at up to 320 kbps. For those who are space conscious and can't really tell the difference between CD and near CD quality, you can encode at a low rate such as 32 kbps, to save a considerable amount of space.

Another superb benefit of the separate Rip and Encode method used, is that you can also choose to create a WAVE (.WAV) file alone or along with the MP3. This allows you to check the file, normalize it if necessary, and mix it into another audio editing program to create your own customized songs. Then all you do is go back to the program and use another great feature, the stand-alone encoding.

This option allows you to take any .WAV file, either old or one you created, and encode it into MP3. This can be done at any variable bitrate, and is also as quick as before (even quicker as there is no ripping involved). This is a great way to save space on your hard drive, as many .WAV files take up excess space, and MP3 files take up to twelve times less space.

The program is also extremely configurable. Besides the alterable bitrates, you have a wide choice for CD setup to enhance the speed at which the production occurs. There are a number of different CD systems to choose from, speed at which to rip the audio, numerous jitter and error protections. There are also a number of options to change and create different ID3 Tags and built-in normalization.

One last factor which I must refer to is the quality. Probably due to the separate Rip and Encode creation technique, the quality is higher than any other program, no matter what bitrate used. There are no jumps, errors, blurs, or distorted sound effects which have been encountered in various other programs.

Conclusion
With an almost daily release of new programs to make your own MP3's, the category is being filled with a lot of junk and useless programs which cause suffering to the everyday PC user. AudioCatalyst 1.5 is a remarkable and unbeatable combination of the Xing Technology MP3 Encoding engine, and the AudioGrabber ripping system.

No other program can match its speed, configurability, usability, and most importantly its quality. I give AudioCatalyst 1.5 five out of five Go Inside Review Lights.

Source: http://goinside.com/99/1/ac.html