But it has its drawbacks as well. Since it is only possible to select radio stations for recording, it is possible to end up with duplicate songs and songs that the recording user does not like.

We have reviewed many programs in the past that can be used to record Internet radio, from Streamripper over Streamrecorder to Radiosure, but none were that comfortable to use as streamWriter.

It takes less than a minute to record the first Internet radio station with streamWriter, thanks to its intuitive interface, and the fact that it is offered as a portable version and installer.

A radio station browser on the right offers filtering and search options to find suitable radio stations. The stations can be filtered by genre or quality (kbps), and searched for by name.

Users who have a favorite radio station can add the stream url to the application, to record that radio station as well.

A single click on any radio station in the station browser adds it to the list of stations that are recorded by streamWriter. All Internet radio stations added this way are displayed with their name, the current song title, the data received, the amount of songs recorded, the recording speed and the state.

recorded internet radio song listing

Recordings can be stopped and resumed at anytime. It is furthermore possible to listen to the stream or recorded songs and save the information in playlists.

Users who download the latest stable version of the radio recorder won’t see all features that the developer has implemented in the last month. One of the most interesting additions, besides from some layout changes, is the ability to cut mp3 right in the application. This can be handy to remove ads and other contents from the recorded songs.

The latest version of the program is offered as a download on the same page as the stable versions. I did not notice any stability or performance issues in that version.

StreamWriter is a comfortable easy to learn program to record multiple Internet radio streams at once. The program is Open Source and offered as a portable version and setup. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system, and available for download at the developer website.

© Martin for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: internet-radio, Open Source, portable software, record internet radio, streamwriter, windows software

I was searching for a simple and free application to do folder synchronization on my computer.  I wanted a tool with a little more flexibility than having to manually “select all”, “copy”, “paste”, and then pick and choose what should be over-written, copied as new, etc.  In my search I came across a free tool from Microsoft called “Sync Toy”. 

Sync Toy is tucked away on Microsoft’s site under “professional photography downloads” and a simple application for copying, moving, renaming, and deleting files between folders and computers (particularly photographs).  There are many options that let you decide which folder acts as the source and which acts as the recipient (you can create just about any combination that suites your needs).  Basically you create a paring between the “left” and the “right” folder, and then define the type of “relationship” that they should have to one another.  When you want to sync, just pick the pair from the list and hit “run”. 

Sync Toy is a very powerful little tool and the only trace that it leaves behind is a hidden text file called “SyncToyDirectoryId.txt” in both of the paired directories.  It is free so try it out.

Stable v1.4 Release: Here

Beta v2.0 Release: Here