Just a Bit Overpriced: RS Audials One

With an absolute ton of free software like Limewire and websites like Keepvid nowadays, I’ve gotta be blunt: the only reason I can see people turning to Videoraptor — basically one-third of RS Audials’ triangle of software — is its no-spyware guarantee.  It’s up to you whether that’s worth the price.  However, let’s have a closer look at Tunebite and Radiotracker, RS Audials One talk for DRM-Protection breaker and Internet Radio recorder, respectively.

The GUI is a very interesting one: there is a different colour scheme for every piece of software.  There is a uniquely shaped window, and three tabs on the side for Radiotracker, Videoraptor, and Tunebite.  The tabs are links to the program, which then opens up on the main side of the screen.  An interesting, unique layout — although it does take a while to load.

Tunebite was impressive.  I was a bit skeptical about how well it would work initially: although it wasn’t able to convert SpiralFrog’s .wma files, it was able to crack one of iTunes’ .m4p files into a 256kbps .mp3 file.  Unfortunately, Tunebite’s video converting function didn’t work as smoothly as its audio conversion: I tried converting a .m4v video I purchased off iTunes, and although it captured audio perfectly, only a few random frames of the video were caught — although I will mention that this could likely be due to the fact that I didn’t pay much attention to the configuration it told me to change in iTunes.  In my defense, that dialog box never popped back up, so I wasn’t able to discover what needed to be fixed or altered.

Arguably, the most interesting part of RS Audials One has to be Radiotracker.  Radiotracker basically allows you to input an artist, album, or song that you want to record from Internet radio streams.  Radiotracker will then scan over a couple of thousand of radio stations (my average use had around 3,400).  This is perfectly legal: however, it does take a good while longer to find the tracks that you want.  Radiotracker was generally every accurate about when to start and stop recording — on occasion, it would have ended too late or cut off too early, but those are just minor mishaps that can be easily fixed.

For $69.99, I’ll admit RS Audials One is a bit of a stretch.  For a less illegal version of Limewire, an arguably mediocre DRM-breaker, and an impressive radio-recording piece of software, I think RS Audials One can be skipped and you could consider Radiotracker on its own for $39.90 (still a bit expensive, no?).  As for the RS Audials website, I know it looks a bit sketchy, but it’s quite helpful in regards to sales information.