Internet Freebies That Everybody Should Have

Hello and welcome!

It's been well over a year since I posted anything new on this blog site, since October 2011 to be more precise, that's almost two years.  So what have I been up to you may ask.
Briefly I have been concentrating more on my 'Trail Trekking' blog site, and writing a couple of books, then I got myself a job which effectively took up most of my time and left me with just the weekends and the occasional evening to do my own thing.  For this reason I was forced to focus on my main goal - 'Trail Trekking'.  However I'm back now, but for how long I cannot say, it depends on what the near-future has in store for me.
Fortunately I have got loads of new stuff to tell you about, which I will split over the next few posts, so please read on.

Firstly, 'Trail Trekking' involves taking lots of photographs but as my main camera was a 9 megapixel model the resulting images were pretty large and it wasn't uncommon to end up with images that were a few megabytes in size so I went on the lookout for something that would reduce their size without sacrificing too much quality.  I eventually found what I was after in 'PhotoScape'.

PhotoScape in action

PhotoScape

This is a totally free (of course) basic photo editor that I use all the time.  It allows me to do everything I need to do to my photographs; such as downsizing them, adding text, darkening, lightening, and the usual expected features such as cropping, adding frames, and red-eye removal to name a few.  The interface is extremely easy to deal with and the basic functions can soon be picked up to allow you to do whatever you need to do to your images quickly and efficiently.

If you are looking for a program to get a fast overview of you photos and images with simple ways to optimize them? Than PhotoScape is for you! The tool offers the beginner everything they need to organize and edit their digital images.  Other than the viewer, PhotoScape has functions to clone, crop, sharpen and decolour as well as settings for contrast, levels, vignetting and many other image parameters. Several templates allow to easily arrange photos on a page which can then be saved as a final image or be printed on paper. Photoscape also includes capabilities for red-eye removal, batch editing (file names and image settings), converting camera RAW files, taking screenshots and generating GIFs, where several individual images can be combined to an animated GIF.

Developed by MOOII Tech, Korea.  The basic concept of PhotoScape is 'easy and fun', so that allows users to easily edit photographs taken from their digital cameras or even mobile phones.  PhotoScape provides a simple user interface to perform common photo enhancements including color adjustment, cutting, resizing, printing and GIF animation.  However PhotoScape operates only in Microsoft Windows systems and is not available in Mac or Linux systems. Its default languages are English and Korean, with additional language packages available for download.
Version 3.6 is the current stable release. However, older versions are still available for the sake of Windows 98 and Me users. It is distributed free of charge for all users including commercial bodies.

PhotoScape can be downloaded totally free from a number of locations but to save you time I've included a link here.

Secondly, for the Audio-heads out there here's a good one for you.

Audacity doing its thing

Audacity

Another freebie that I wouldn't be without.  Audacity allows me to record voice-overs for my 'Trail Trekking' slideshow videos, it also allows real-time recording from any audio source whether internal or external (imagine the possibilities when listening to streamed music or videos), then it gives me many options to allow me to enhance the recorded audio; such as amplify it, de-click it, delete sections (such as when I mess up with my voice-over recordings - washing machine spinning in the background for example) so I don't have to start all over again, I can just remove the bit or bits that are wrong.  It has almost all the functions you can expect from a quality audio editor, and of course it's free.

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. The interface is translated into many languages.  You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP2, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.

Audacity is free software, developed by a group of volunteers and distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Free software is not just free of cost (like "free beer"). It is free as in freedom (like "free speech"). Free software gives you the freedom to use a program, study how it works, improve it and share it with others. For more information, visit the Free Software Foundation.

Programs like Audacity are also called open source software, because their source code is available for anyone to study or use. There are thousands of other free and open source programs, including the Firefox web browser, the OpenOffice.org office suite and entire Linux-based operating systems such as Ubuntu.

Download 'Audacity' here.

Other free stuff I've learned about include:
Any Video Converter
Speedbit Video Downloader
K-lite Codec Pack
PDF Creator
SpeedFan
OpenOffice
Spotify

I'll tell you about a couple of them in my next post.

Thanks!

Fully featured registry cleaner absolutely FREE

Hi folks!

Here's another excellent freebie for your PC, 'AML free registry cleaner'.

I'm sure we all get those 'I'm fed up of waiting for this damn computer!' moments, you know the times when your PC is on a go-slow and there seems to be nothing you can do about it but to wait, and wait, and wait until eventually it sorts itself out and you finally get the file, program or web page you're after.  I know, it used to be a regular thing with my old PC but not any more.

This is thanks to 'AML' who's free registry cleaner is excellent and very efficient.  What am I waffling on about?  Of course not all of you will be aware of registry issues with your computer so let me explain; please forgive me if what I'm about to go into is not 100% accurate, it's just a brief explanation of what registry is about in my opinion.  So it may be slightly inaccurate but does briefly tell those who do not know what they are up against, of course you computer pros out there will no doubt have your own explanations which are most probably much more accurate than mine.

Here's my brief - perhaps mis-informed explanation.



'AML free registry cleaner' - disc cleanup app in action

 Although you may not be aware of it, your computer keeps a log of everything you do on it.  Somewhere in its system it records everything you do and logs each individual activity, however slight, in its memory somewhere.  Don't ask me where, I haven't got a clue!  Your PC then goes through all these logs when you try to do something and also records what you do once again.  All these log files and temporary files that your computer saves are what slows down the system sometimes to the point of a virtual stand still.  This applies to programs or software you use, the initial boot process, internet browsing; everything! 

It can be likened to searching through a thousand receipts to find the one you need for whatever reason.  That would certainly take you some time wouldn't it?  Your PC has the same problem.  Why not just save the most important receipts and throw away the rest?  You would then be able to find the one you want much more quickly and with no effort.  That's what a registry cleaner does; it goes through all the 'receipts' if you like on your computer and throws away what's not needed.  You can if you want choose which PC 'receipts' you would like to keep, but I tend not to bother and get rid of them all.

You could go and pay out silly money for a decent registry cleaner and some anti-virus packages do have one thrown in as part of the deal.  But why go and pay for one that doesn't do any better job than this one you can get for free?  Search for 'free registry cleaner' in Google and chances are you'll get a somewhat limited 'trial' version or something that's useless and totally unefficient.

'AML free registry cleaner' has it all and also has a few bonus tools thrown in with it.  You also get access to online tutorials telling you about its features and how to use them. 

So leave the debit or credit card where it is and click one of the links to download 'AML' for free.  Go for it, you'll love it!

http://www.amltools.com/

After more free stuff?
Email me at mediabandit@ymail.com and tell me what you would like me to find next.

Get the first 'Media Bandit' tutorial ebook

The 1st 'Media Bandit' tutorial is available now.  It is an interactive ebook that guides you through the whole process of downloading videos, converting them and extracting the audio etc.  Laid out in step-by-step instructions where I take you by the hand and guide you through the lot.

In 'The Media Bandit Book of Free Vids & Audio' I show you where and how to get all the FREE software required to complete the whole process and of course how to use that software.  With this tutorial ebook at hand you will be able to download all the videos you like to your hard-drive absolutely free, you will be able to add a codec that will enable 'Windows Media Player' to play video formats that it does not do normally by default, you will be able to convert your downloaded videos to any other video format you like so as to make DVDs for example; what's more if you just want the audio part of the video (the soundtrack) this tutorial will show you how to extract that from the video also to use as a stand alone audio file such as MP3 or WAV for example.

'The Media Bandit Book of Free Vids & Audio' is available from 'PayLoadz' or on 'Amazon Kindle', and will be available from my own site at 'Stanton Publishing' soon.  I have tried to price it reasonably low so that anyone can afford it, plus tagging a high price to an ebook about getting FREE stuff would be defeating the object don't you think?

I have also recorded some video tutorials to go with 'The Media Bandit Book of Free Vids & Audio' and you can find a glimpse of them now on 'YouTube', just look or subscribe to my 'YouTube' account 'PREnterprisesUK'.  There's only a few of the video tutorials uploaded at the moment but I may upload some more soon, we'll see how it goes.

Not all the video tutorials will be available for free on 'YouTube' as I plan to sell them as an accompaniment to 'The Media Bandit Book of Free Vids & Audio' or as an extra but rest assured I will price them very reasonably.  You can get a glimpse of what's to come by looking on 'YouTube' but for now here is the first one for your viewing pleasure, please excuse the breathing into the mic as I'm still getting used to using it.

Get the ebook tutorial by clicking any of the links below and please feel free to comment on and share the 'YouTube' vids.

Thanks!
'Media Bandit'

http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=947456
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005F50FM8

Free antivirus - get 'avast'

Recently panic set in when I received notification that my anti-virus software was about to expire and I couldn't afford to pay the renewal price. So I trawled the net to find a free anti-virus that I could at least use for the trial period. There are plenty of these and they are all pretty good and good value; you get a free trial version and then on expiry of the trial period you are prompted to get out your debit or credit card to pay for their service.



'Avast' free anti-virus

 So imagine my surprise when I found an anti-virus that was completely free forever, use it free for as long as you like and no payment ever - unless of course you want to upgrade to a more thorough version.

So what is it called?  It's 'avast', a totally free-for-as-long-as-you-like anti-virus that works extremely well.  Avast works quietly in the background and sorts out any virus issues for you, it even upgrades itself automatically whilst you are net connected, just showing you a little pop-up to let you know that an upgrade has taken place.

Verdict!  Highly recommended!

Get 'avast' free by clicking here, download the free version and get it installed.

Excellent!

Download often? You need DAP

Speedbit Video Downloader is normally an excellent piece of kit for downloading flash videos to your hard drive but it's not without its faults.  My main gripe is that whilst downloading some video files the connection seems to be lost before the download is complete, and although this happens only on the odd ocasion it is rather annoying when it does.  You get to something like 75% and it doesn't download any more; fortunately I manage to resist the temptation to launch my computer equipment in anger.

The reason for this happening is that it primarily only downloads the file from one online location, and if the connection to that location is lost bang goes your download.  When this happens please resist the urge to yank your hair out from the roots for I have a solution to our frustration.

It's called 'Download Accelerator Plus' (DAP for short) and of course it's absolutely free - you wouldn't expect anything else from me would you?  So true to form I offer another awesome piece of totally free software to help you along.

It is a program that is provided by Speedbit and works in total harmony with their video downloader.  Fortunately if you don't have Speedbit Video Downloader then no worries!  Download Accelerator Plus works with or without it and has no vices about whether you have other Speedbit software installed or not.

DAP will speed up your downloads of anything to give you a download time of about one fifth of the time it takes to download without it.  So if your download would normally take about 5 minutes then with DAP chances are it'll only take just 1 minute.  Superfast downloads - cool!

It does it by downloading your file from multiple locations at once (average 5 to my experience).  This way if you lose one connection you've still got 4 more for example, and because of the multiple loations it downloads your file much quicker.

That is the basic gist of it, and it does have a few other features too but I've yet to learn them all.  One big advantage is it has a file checker built in so if the file is a bit dodgy it will tell you so.

As far as I'm concerned if you wish to download anything then Download Accelerator Plus is a no-brainer, a must have.  Get it installed on your PC, you will love it!

Click on the link below and download the free version from the Speedbit site.

http://www.speedbit.com/dap/

A brief description of how to make your own karaoke video

By utilising your previously downloaded or created instrumental audio file in a standard (freely available download of course) video creator or editor it is possible to make your own simple karaoke version of the tune.

To make karaoke however you should be sure to only use an instrumental version of the song. To get your instrumental song file you can either use one you already have on your hard-drive or an audio CD, download one from the internet, or use a midi file.

A good and safe way to get a good quality audio mp3 or wav file to use I suggest you take the audio from an online music video; download the selected music video using SpeedBit Video Downloader and then convert or extract the audio section of the video using a suitable converter such as Any Video Converter or Freez flv to mp3 converter, all available as totally free downloads – exactly what you expect from ‘Media Bandit’, free stuff! My 1st media ebook explains exactly how to do this.

Alternatively use a free midi file or one you’ve created yourself using perhaps the method explained briefly in a couple of earlier blog posts (see here and here). 

To get free midi files my favourite method is to use VanBasco which gives you access to thousands of totally free midi downloads – they also have a very user-friendly kar player you can grab for free. Once at their site just type the name of the tune you want into the search bar and you will be confronted with a list of available versions of your desired tune, click on the one you want and once directed to the source just right click and select ‘save target as’ to download the midi song to your hard-drive, it only takes a second or so.

Alternatively search for the title of your desired midi tune followed by the suffix mid or midi using a good search engine. Once found right click and ‘save target as’ as mentioned before, or click the download button in some cases.

If your instrumental audio is not already in wav or mp3 format but is in midi format you will in most cases need to convert it to use it with a video creator or editor. To do this I recommend using ‘Switch Audio File converter’, go to http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html and click on ‘Download the free version’. This will easily convert your midi file to an mp3, wav or almost any format you like.

A good free video editor or creator can easily be found on all recent ‘Windows’ platforms – I think it’s available with ‘Windows XP’ and later versions and is simply called ‘Windows Movie Maker’.



VideoPad video editor

 If however you would rather try a different editor or creator or you don’t have ‘Windows Movie Maker’ on your PC then I suggest VideoPad Video Editor from ‘NCH software’, this is actually a free trial version that I have found to be the easiest to use in my opinion and I highly recommend it. The only drawback with this however is that after the trial period it locks you out if you don’t pay for the full version, but you can get around this but I don’t think it is wise to explain how here; please email me at prenterprises2010@gmail.com if you would like to know.

Once you have your video creator or editor and your instrumental audi file you can add background images or video clips, add sequenced lyrics so as the performer knows what to sing, then save it all as a video file on your PC. You can then convert it if you wish to an alternative format for use in your playback equipment, Any Video Converter as mentioned earlier will do this for you.

The basic step-by-step process involves:



Finding or creating your own background images or video clips

Inserting your clips or images into the video creator or editor in the right sequence

Removing or muting any audio in the video clips and then adding your own audio file

Changing the duration of the images or clips to appear in sequence at the right time with the music

Adding the lyrics into the visual part of your video; if you don’t know the lyrics then do a lyric search in Google

Previewing and saving your completed masterpiece karaoke video for later useDon’t worry, it may sound complicated but is quite easy once you’ve got the hang of the basic controls of the video creator/editor. It is quite time-consuming however and you will need to pay attention to detail or it could all go drastically wrong, but if you have saved all your original source files you can always scrap it and start again.

Of course you could also record your own singing voice into it if you think you are talented enough. One distinct advantage of a decent free video editor/creator is that if your singing is a bit rough you can always mute or remove it from the finished video.

Using free sheet music to create your own midi music

Sheet music for many popular and classic tunes can be downloaded free from the internet. You can then just copy the note durations and positions into a midi notation editor (also free) and you have your great sounding home-made version of the tune. It's not difficult, time-consuming yes, but quite easy if you pay a little attention to detail.

Even if you cannot get hold of any sheet music online many public libraries lend sheet music books and music scores using your normal membership (totally free of course). You can then scan into your PC and save a copy or just use the music score and copy it into a midi notation editor (I suggest the free 'NoteworthyComposer')

Another alternative is to look online for the tune you would like as a midi file and download it. If you then open the downloaded file in your midi notation editor it will show you its own version of the sheet music to play with at your leisure.

Please note however that you should save the original version of the midi file on your hard-drive so that if you mess it up when editing you can still go back to the original version and start again.

Once you are happy with your unique version of the tune or your own created tune you can save it to use as you like. Oh and by the way 'Windows Media Player' will happily play mid or midi files with no alteration, tweeks or codecs.

With the right software (which you can also get as a free download) you can if you want convert your finished midi music file to 'mp3' or 'wav' to make an audio CD or enable it to play on your playback equipment.



'KaraFun' in action

 There are also a few other great pieces of free software available as downloads that will let you play your completed instrumental midi or other audio file whilst you sing into a microphone (if you think you are talented enough) and record it for playback later -a good way to realise how good or bad your singing really is. Don't worry though, if your singing is bad you can always remove it from the file afterwards. 'KaraFun' is a good free application that will do this.

Don't forget to first save the original midi or other audio file seperately first in case you mess things up!

Look out for my tutorial ebook coming soon that guides you step by step through the whole procedure.

Make your own backing music

This is a great way for buskers and pub performers to make their own backing music absolutely free rather than paying for the service. With this method you can create your own great sounding backing tracks for your performances without having to have any musical skill or knowledge whatsoever. To do this we utilise freely available midi (musical instrument digital interface) software and files to work with.

It basically works using this step-by-step procedure:
1 Get a music score or sheet music from your local library or online
2 Copy the position and duration of the notes into a midi notation editor
3 Play about with the different instuments to creat the desired sound
4 Save as midi music file or convert into mp3, wav or wma audio

Midi is the format used by all electronic keyboard manufacturers and is the standard universally compatible format. Electronic keyboard manufacturers use midi to create different instrument sounds to play on the keyboard and to add pre-programmed music tracks to their equipment.

Midi is a very small file, taking only a few kilobytes of memory as opposed to many megabytes such as mp3, wma and wav. This invariably means that you could store hundreds of midi files in only a few megabytes of storage. For example just one standard cd-rom can store thousands of midi files; so a 4 gigabyte memory stick will therefore hold millions.

The biggest advantage is that although only small, many midi files will still offer great instrumental sound quality. I say instrumental because midi is not able to work with vocals.

The basic procedure in a little more detail:
1 Using your normal public library membership you can borrow sheet music or music score books to read and use at home for no cost. Alternatively you can sometimes download sheet music for the tune you require, search the title of the song or tune and free sheet music into a decent search engine such as Google.


Noteworthy Composer in action

 2 You will need to copy the music into a midi notation editor (I recommend Noteworthy Composer, it's free and does the job quite well. Once downloaded and unzipped click on NWC32 to use). A midi notation editor will show you the standard five horizontal lines close together that is used for music composition, just copy what you see on the sheet music or music score. This is easy to do but can be somewhat time-consuming and you will need to pay particular attention to detail.
Alternatively you could download a pre-recorded midi file from the internet and edit it to your requirements. Search for the name of the tune followed by mid or midi in a good search engine.
3 Standard midi notation will use piano type sounds as the default so you may want to change this to different instrument sounds to create the desired effect. Pre-recorded midi files will also load into the notation editor with ease. Your notation editor will make changes easy to do. Not only will you be able to edit the instruments but also the tempo, pitch and many other aspects.
4 Once you have what you want you can save the result as a midi file for use later. If however you wish to play it back using standard audio playback equipment you will need to convert your midi file into a different audio format such as mp3 or wav, there are plenty of free downloadable applications that will do this for you.

I will be releasing a tutorial eBook and accompanying tutorial videos that will take you by the hand and guide you through the exact procedure. Look out for them soon.

Video creation and editing

You can easily make your own videos by making use of one of the totally free video creation or editing software packages available from the internet.

It is not difficult once you've got the hang of the functions and controls, but you will need to pay attention to detail.

Here is my very first attempt at video creation using free software. It's not great but I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt, I have a lot to learn yet!  Let me know what you think.

A suitable alternative method to p2p file sharing, but with less risk

I'm sure you know that you’re at risk from viruses if you use p2p programs for getting hold of your videos, music, pictures, and other files, and although modern anti-virus protection goes a long way to help stop malicious files and programs getting into your system nothing is 100% guaranteed.

So what is the best way to get around the problem? Well here’s one way you can avoid risking it but still get the free music and videos you desire.

I remember spending hours in front of the PC years ago slowly downloading mp3 music (and several viruses also) from ‘Napster’ through a dial up connection.

Thankfully nowadays things have changed for the better; with super fast broadband connection and mega efficient anti-virus software downloading anything has become commonplace because it’s now easier, quicker, and safer.

First though let me briefly explain what p2p is about (just in case you don’t know).
P2p is short for ‘peer to peer’ and basically this means a software program that allows you to connect directly with other p2p users and download or upload files direct from and to the other user without the need of a middle-man, so to speak (for example: ‘winmx‘, ‘limewire‘ etc. but there are many others). It can be likened to having a connection direct to your friends computer without nothing in between, then you can access each others files without anything else getting involved. So effectively if you or the other user have any virus files on their system there’s nothing in between to stop them.
As I mentioned earlier, modern anti-virus protection will in most cases stop any virus entering your system, or
at the very least they can warrn you about any impending viral issues, but like most contraception methods nothing is 100% guaranteed.

So what’s another way?

How about using internet video sites. The biggest and most famous of course is ‘YouTube’ which is owned by ‘Google’ so you know you’re dealing with the big guys; but there are lots of others out there, you just need to sign up (or if for example the site is adult orientated, you just need to confirm you’re over 18 years of age) and you have access to thousands or even millions of free streamed flash videos (known as flv. files). The big advantage for us is that with these sites files are automatically checked for virus before they are permitted on the site (just what we need, safe files).

As a general rule, yes you have to watch these vids on the net, that’s what you’re meant to do! But do you know that with the right software - available totally free through the internet - you can download these videos to your computer, convert them to almost any format (such as ‘mpg’, ‘avi‘, ‘mp4’, ‘3g’ for example), copy only the audio part of the video to use as ‘wav’ or ‘mp3’ music/sound file, or even get a ‘codec’ to use with ‘windows media player’ so that you can actually watch the flash (flv.) streamed video through ‘media player’.

So there you have it, though only briefly; download the vid and save it on your computer, watch it whenever you want (with help from the codec) through ‘media player’, perhaps convert it to dvd or mpg or whatever, or if you like, copy the audio from it and use it as a music file.

Just type: ‘free video downloader’, ‘free flv codec for media player’, ‘free video converter’, ‘free video audio extractor’ or similar into a good search engine.

Alternatively you could purchase my new ebook in which I take you by the hand and guide you through the process one step at a time. 

RECENT FOOTNOTE

Unfortunately, due to several reasons it is now not possible to download from 'YouTube' using this method.  But if it's music you're after then nowadays it's perhaps best to record from 'Spotify' using any of the FREE audio editing software programs on the net, such as 'Audacity'.