NCH Audio Essentials audio software

NCH Audio Essentials is a collection of six different programs – the Wavepad sound editor, the Mixpad multi-track recorder, the Switch audio converter, Recordpad, which is a straight audio recorder, Golden Records for digitising tapes and LPs, and finally the Zulu DJ software.

Installation was preposterously long-winded, as each program needs to be downloaded onto the computer and installed individually. Each program also goes off to check for updates and offers to install companion products (and sneakily tries to install the Ask.com toolbar in your web browser – watch out for that). Why NCH couldn't use a standard installation process is baffling.

Once up and working, however, Audio Essentials was generally good. The converter was excellent, supporting a wide range of audio formats (including MP3, AAC, OGG, WMA and FLAC) and making it easy to convert from one format to the other, either singly, in batches or by folder. Wavepad also has good features such as detailed editing of sound files, special effects and some good, less flashy controls – such as Normalise and Amplify – for preparing tracks to be recorded on a CD (it also does that). If you have them it'll support both VST and DirectX plug-in effects.

Zulu DJ displays a twin-deck window into which the user can drop tracks from their music library, apply effects and use the cross-fade controls to switch smoothly between them, while the wizard-based Golden Records made a good job of transferring old cassettes or LPs for listening on the computer.

It's not all good: Mixpad is a multi-track recorder as beloved of home musicians but despite its name, it doesn't include an actual mixer and MIDI support was feeble – for example, you can't hear MIDI notes as you're recording them, only when you play the recording back.

Recordpad can record audio as MP3, WAV or AIFF files but that aside, it's barely an improvement on Windows built-in recorder.

People who are really serious about recording music should look elsewhere, but as an all-round bundle for handling lots of different audio-related jobs, with a bit of music production thrown in, NCH Audio Essentials is good value.