I recently downloaded and tried out a new audio conversion application for Mac OSX, called AudialHub. AudialHub is from the same company responsible for VisualHub (a video converting application), and I’ve tried it before and liked it, so expected to be impressed with AudialHub. And I am, to a point.
For starters, why would anyone need an audio converter? Doesn’t QuickTime Player do that? Well, yes it does, if you’re willing to shell out $29.95 to get the QuickTime Pro license. And even then, you’re only going to be able to convert to a few Apple-supported formats, not everything under the sun. For instance, you wouldn’t be able to convert to WMA (Windows Media Audio) if you wanted to with QuickTime Pro. If you wanted to do that, you’d need to purchase another license from Flip4Mac, which has licensed the technology from Microsoft and offers a Windows Media playback component for QuickTime (for free) and a converter (for money).
So right off the bat, AudialHub has a few advantages. For one, it’s cheaper than the QuickTime Pro license, and definitely quicker than the QuickTime Pro and Flip4Mac licenses together (duh). It isn’t able to convert videos, like you could with QuickTime Pro (although you can get a deal if you buy VisualHub and AudialHub together).
Another advantage AudialHub has is that it’s interface is quite nice. Simply drag the audio files you want to convert into the AudialHub main window. Then select the format you want to convert to, change any settings you want, and hit Start. AudialHub is pretty quick at converting (although not as fast as other encoders), but it did the job. Nothing to complain about there.
I do have a few gripes though. For one, AudialHub doesn’t have nearly as many features as I think it should. I’ve reviewed another stand-alone encoder for Mac OSX in the past, called simply Max. One area I’d like to compare the two is in supported formats. AudialHub is able to convert audio to AAC, MP3, WMA, 3G (for cell phones), Ogg Vorbis, Apple Lossless, FLAC, WAV and AIF. For those counting at home, that’s 9 different supported formats. Max, for sake of comparison, is able to convert audio to 39 different formats. That’s right… 39. That’s 30 MORE formats than AudialHub. And it can do all the same ones, in case you’re wondering. All except Windows Media Audio and Apple Lossless. And you can always use iTunes to convert to Apple Lossless if you want (you should really only use lossless formats when converting from another lossless format or from an Audio CD anyway), and if you’re using a Mac, then what the heck would you want Windows Media Audio for?
Back to AudialHub. I mentioned it has a nice interface, and it does, but it leaves a lot to be desired as far as customizability. For instance, if you want to encode your music to FLAC, AudialHub tells you that there are no quality settings, since FLAC is lossless. Not true. FLAC may be lossless, but it offers ten different levels of compression (the lower the compression, the less processor power used to play it back), as well as the ability to verify encoding, plus a ton of other options. With AudialHub… you’ll take what they give you, thank you very much.
One other thing. I mentioned that AudialHub was fast, and it is. But Max is faster. I did a little time comparison, and AudialHub was able to convert the first 60 seconds of a single song (all that’s offered in demo mode), in 9 seconds. Max, on the other hand, was able to encode two files, four minutes long each, simultaneously, in around 11 seconds. Now THAT is fast.
So, all in all, I’m not blown away with AudialHub. It’s definitely a good program, and to be fair, while I did mention that Max is able to convert to almost four times as many formats, they aren’t necessarily your everyday formats, so that’s probably not a big deal. And if you do actually need the ability to encode to Windows Media Audio, then Max isn’t for you, and maybe AudialHub is the right solution. Every program has a different set of customers, and probably AudialHub has a different type of user in mind compared to the ones Max is going after.
So… all in all, AudialHub is pretty good. It’s shareware, as I mentioned (hence the demo mode), but a license – at only $23.32 – isn’t all that bad. Certainly cheaper than QuickTime Pro. And if you do need the Windows Media Audio ability, definitely a good deal. If you’re interested in a nice audio converter for Mac OSX, I’d give AudialHub a look. But before you buy, give Max a look. You may just save yourself $23.32 in the process.
