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.

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'.