Audacity - Open Source Sound File Editor

Audacity is an application that is an alternative to Sonic Foundry Sound Forge ($350). It has a variety of effects, sound filters and editing tools that help edit captured laptop mic input as well as a wide variety of sound file formats.

I have used this application for many purposes, to add and edit sound to PowerPoint presentations, capture and edit recordings from my digital voice recorder, combine and edit different sound samples together. I have used it to produce mp3's converting from different kinds of sound files and even use it to custom create cell phone ring tones (for mp3. ring tone phones) with your favorite music, avoiding the shiesters who charge you 99 cents for 5 seconds of audio. This is truly a must have application!

Download Now

Web Site

Note: To save to MP3, you must also install another Open Source package, the LAME MP3 encoder - Download Now

Notepad++ - Open Source Editor

Notepad++ can be considered a replacement for Notepad. In essence it is Notepad on steroids. Though Notepad is already free with Windows, Notepad++ ranks with editors like TextPad ($33) and others like it. Unlike Notepad, Notepad++ allows tabbed viewing of multiple files, line numbering, syntax highlighting and many other features as an improvement over Notepad and offers a free alternative to proprietary text editors.

Download Now

Web Site