mixing

Still feeling the Windows 7 blues? Ever wish you could take your apps out of Win8's Modern UI and onto your desktop? ModernMix is a utility that enables Windows 8 Modern-centric apps to run inside a windowed frame, resulting in a more traditional experience like previous versions of Windows. Regardless of your feelings about Microsoft's current direction, ModernMix is an attractive utility made especially for the classically desktop dependent.

When running multiple Modern apps, the applications are not normally running or visible in desktop view. Instead, the charms bar acts as your standard task manager for Modern apps. … Read more

Modern Mix is a tweak for Windows 8 that brings users one step closer to the classic Windows experience inside the Modern UI environment. Stardock's latest release removes the barrier between the Start Screen and desktop by enabling Modern apps to run inside a window. The result is a user experience more in line with the traditional Windows 7 way of displaying windowed applications. Regardless of your feelings about Microsoft's OS, Modern Mix is a utility that is genuinely useful for the desktop dependent.

After installation, you'll be introduced to ModernMix's config menu. By default, any … Read more

A triumvirate of companies have come together to deliver a new way of handling playlists, both in the browser and through Spotify.

Microsoft, Spotify, and a "music intelligence" start-up named The Echo Nest announced yesterday the launch of a visual playlist tool called MixShape. The feature allows users to toss their Spotify playlists of up to 300 tracks into MixShape and come away with a finely tuned playlist, complete with visual display. MixShape analyzes the tracks and creates a mix for the "optimal flow between songs." That flow depends on the "mood" the user … Read more

Slacker Radio (free) This is a great option for listening to streaming radio, with an intuitive interface that makes it easy to find what you want quickly. To use Slacker you must sign up for an account or log in with your Facebook credentials.

You can search for artists using a field at the top; check out the Music Guide curated by Slacker; or search by genres, stations you've previously listened to, specialty stations, or news, talk, and sports stations. Each selection on the first screen leads to another list where you can swipe to browse selections to find … Read more

The photo-editing capabilities of the iPhone are fairly limited. Other apps often pick up the slack of Apple's limiting Photo Library and iPhoto tools, providing filters, cropping tools, collage-creating tools, or sharing options. However, not all photo-editing apps are created equal. Some only offer a single feature. Others are loaded with options but no clear idea of how to use them. That's why PicMix Lite is such a nice surprise, providing a handful of very useful tools to combine, edit, and save photos on your device. Allowing you to load images into layers and add or remove parts … Read more

Audacity is one of our favorite audio tools, so we were interested in seeing Audacity Portable, a fully portable version from PortableApps. Like the installed version, Audacity Portable edits your MP3s, WAVs, and other digital audio files. You can remove long intros, extract clips, and change the pitch, tempo, and other parameters of your song files or any audio recording. But, as the name indicates, Audacity Portable is completely portable, which means it runs as soon as you click the program's executable file without having to be installed. You can carry Audacity Portable with you on a USB drive, … Read more

Mozilla Firefox (download for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, or the Portable App) didn't invent tabbed browsing, but they sure as heck perfected it, or at least the extended network of extensions developers did. If Firefox doesn't include a tabbed-browsing feature you want, there's a good chance you can find one among its numerous add-ons.

Personally, I'm a tab glutton. I might be using a Windows XP box from 2004, but that doesn't stop me from running four Firefox windows with 10-15 tabs open in each. Each window usually relates to a specific task, project, or … Read more

The first disc jockeys discovered that using side-by-side turntables is the best way to cue up tunes for broadcast or dancing. DJing has gone from a skill to a performance under the hands of today's turntablists, but you don't need to invest in a pair of analog decks to mix beats like the pros with VirtualDek 2.2. This digital music suite uses two virtual turntables with realistic action to make playing and mixing MP3s, WMAs, and WAVs nearly as easy as cueing up vinyl tracks with a stylus. With a central mixing panel, syncing, direct monitoring, scratching, … Read more

The Sound Recorder that comes with Windows will capture the audio stream and save it as a WAV you can edit or convert later on. But there's room for improvement, and there are more than a few choices, when it comes to recording digital audio with your PC. It's possible to spend staggering amounts of money on pro audio suites that really don't handle most users' needs any better than Free Sound Recorder by CoolRecordEdit. Like the Windows tool, it records whatever your sound card is processing, but Free Sound Recorder adds scheduling, more output formats, hot … Read more