Soundflower emulates the interface of an audio device but allows any audio application to send and receive audio with no other support needed. It opens as one of two audio devices (2ch/16ch). For most people and needs, the 2-channel device is sufficient.

If you want an application to interact with another application via the soundcard, select Soundflower as the output device in the first application and Soundflower as the input device within the second application. If an application does not allow you to specify audio devices, you can make Soundflower the default input or output device inside the Sound panel in the System Preferences, or with the Audio MIDI Setup utility application which is the only slightly tricky part.

You may hear interference at first when you setup an audio channel and if so, the developers recommend increasing the buffer size of both applications (set within each application). Note that if more than one application is sending its output to the same channel, the audio will be mixed.

The practical usages of Soundflower include conducting interviews with both voices. So instead of recording an interview with Skype and only hearing one voice, Soundflower allows you to record both voices for a more professional production. Alternatively, it's useful for routing audio from applications such as iTunes and Spotify to other applications and devices.

Note that this download is for OS X 10.5.8+. You can also download the OS X 10.4 compatible version (Version 1.4.3)..

Soundflower is a remarkably effective and free audio routing solution..

Download Soundflower 1.6.2.1 in Softonic

Boom is suitable for anyone that's had problems with low sound on applications such as Skype, iTunes and VLC media player.

Boom can also be used for boosting the volume on online music and video sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, - Netflix, Hulu and more. Boom works by adding a graphic equalizer to your Mac's sound system so that you tweak and boost it.

Boom has been continually improved and fixed since launch although some users may experience a popping or clicking sound when it's cranked up to full volume. However, this should have been ironed out in the latest version.

If you're Mac speakers aren't loud enough, Boom gives them the boost they need.

Download Boom for Mac 1.6 in Softonic

Camtasia Studio has been available on Windows for quite some time now but developers at Techsmith have finally given Mac users a chance to enjoy all it has to offer. The interface is sleek, the production process straightforward, and recording is flexible enough to allow you to make plenty of inevitable errors without starting from scratch again. While it has not retained all the functionality of the Windows version, the interface is considerably improved.

Camtasia for Mac divides the production process into two, using Camtasia Studio Recorder and Camtasia Studio Producer. The former is used for doing the all-important grabbing of the footage, such as mouse movements, program details, accessing menus, etc. The latter is for adding audio, and editing your footage into a coherent screencast.

Finally, you can export the finished product into various formats including AVI, QuickTime, AU, AIFF and 3G, which makes it suitable for using on iPod, iPhone and other mobile devices. You can also upload footage directly to sites such as YouTube and Screencast.com.

Camtasia for Mac delivers most of the benefits of the Windows version but with the advantage of a superior, intuitive interface. It makes creating a screencasts a pleasure.

Download Camtasia for Mac 2.3 in Softonic

Dragon Dictate has been designed specifically for Mac OS X and helps you create reports, emails, articles, books, research notes, online content - just about anything you'd normally use a keyboard for. The developer claims it has 99% accuracy, although you'll definitely find it doesn't quite measure up to that claim. However, the overall reproduction and accuracy is generally very good.

Dragon Dictate can even be used to command your Mac to carry out certain functions such as “Reply To This Message” when using email, or “Open Microsoft Word” or “Search Google for software” etc. You can also customize Dragon Dictate with personal vocabulary and voice commands for specific tasks related to your work.

A lot will depend on the kind of microphone you are using. Although it works with any microphone, the developer also provides its own when you purchase the full version. It does work with the Mac microphone very well, although it's subject to instability from time to time.

Dragon Dictate could increase your productivity significantly - its at least worth a try.

Download Dragon Dictate 2.5.2 in Softonic

To make the application work the inbuilt microphone of your computer needs to be working or you need to have a microphone installed. Just run your media player and let the computer listen to your tracks. You'll have to click on the interrogation mark in the application window for the program to search its database. It lists the title of the song and the artist's name as soon as it finds it.

Obviously Tunatic doesn't get it right all the time, and depends hugely on the database of songs that is being maintained by the developers. It is still quite a surprising tool and can find certain songs really quickly.

Once Tunatic finds a song, it will also let you search iTunes for it, let you look for the ring tone, or search Google to find the lyrics.

Tunatic may not work all the time, but it is a really clever way of finding title's of all those unnamed songs in your library. Worth a try.

Download Tunatic 1.0.1 b in Softonic

There are three versions of MovieSherlock: Lite, Full and Pro. You can find a comparison table of differences between the different versions on the developer site. Most of the differences between the versions regard the convenience of inserting URLs and the ability to download from Vimeo or not.

MovieSherlock allows you to download any video from YouTube and convert it on your Mac to a high-quality MP4 video that is playable in iTunes or your favorite video player. MovieSherlock supports both HD (High Definition) and SD (Standard Definition) video from YouTube. However, only the Full and Pro version support HD and only the Pro version supports downloading from Vimeo.

The Lite version also lacks an instant transfer feature which automatically moves downloaded videos to iTunes. All versions support multiple downloads so you can download as many YouTube videos as your bandwidth will allow.

MovieSherlock is a powerful all-in-one video converter and downloader for Macs.

Download MovieSherlock Pro 4.8.3 in Softonic

You won't find any mention of WireTap Pro on the developer website apart from old press releases but this review is proof that it does still exist! It's harder than you'd imagine to find a decent, lightweight and simple recording tool that will record from your microphone, speakers or an input device. WireTap Pro does everything effortlessly and since using it, I've never looked back.

WireTap Pro lets you switch between recording from your mic or your speakers in a click. The speaker and microphone are clearly highlighted on front of the main recording panel which is small and discreet. Clicking on them highlights one or the other, or both if you want to record from both sources. The highlighting is a little obscure and could have done with being a bit clearer, but just squint a little and you'll see which one is activated. Press the record button and you're done - that's why I like this app so much. Just remember if you choose both, make sure you wear headphones otherwise WireTap Pro will record both the internal and external output at the same time. So, if you're recording a telephone conversation, it will record the respondents voice twice and make them sound like a doppelganger or something! When you click 'Stop' to halt recording, WireTap Studio immediately prompts you to give a name to the recorded file that it saves within the WireTap Pro folder.

There's no mucking around with configuring input channels, sound levels and there's no annoying bleeping or audio warnings, which is ideal for recording phone conversations. However, that's not to say there's not plenty of room for tinkering. There are a set of options to change the graphic equalizer and you can choose from 4 recording formats - AIFF, MP3. AAC and Quicktime. The default is AIFF which is a bit annoying but I just changed it to MP3 in a click.

Finally, as a sort of special bonus, WireTap Pro offers an automatic recording tool for radio shows, podcasts and other web broadcasts that can be scheduled according to when they were aired. Of course, nowadays, iTunes and other apps offer this and many web broadcasts are archived for later listening too. However, for those that don't, it's a great way to keep track of your favorite broadcasts. Unfortunately, WireTap Pro can't actually open the web stream for you though - you'll have to be on hand to do that, but you could always leave it streaming and set WireTap Pro to record while you're away.

Simplicity, ease of use and discreetness are why WireTap studio is a superb internal and external recording application for Mac.

Download WireTap Pro 1.3.2 in Softonic

What it does is allow you to send any audio from your computer via wireless to any other computer (PC or Mac), Apple TV or Airport Express. It works with any application that plays music in your computer.

Syncing is both easy and fast. The clear GUI will list up all the devices that you can sync to, and all you have to do is activate them and set the volume and equalizer. That means you can pretty much listen to your music anywhere. Rogue Amoeba have really succeeded in making a program which is efficient, useful and very easy to use.

The download also includes Airfoil Speakers, which basically turns any PC or Mac into an Airport Express unit which can then receive audio from the Airfoil of another computer.

On the help side, the Rogue Amoeba team is known to offer great support and respond quickly to user queries.

Naturally though, if your wireless connection is poor, then Airfoil will perform poorly, so make sure your WiFi is well set.

Airfoil is a smart and intuitive program, to sync music wirelessly to any computer, Airport Express or Apple TV.

Download Airfoil 4.7.5 in Softonic

If you've ever hooked up your laptop or desktop to your television, you'll know the one thing lacking is a way to control it remotely. Sure, your Apple Remote can be used for basic functions but it's only really suitable for Frontrow. Flutter requires your iSight camera (or alternatively an external webcam) to be attached so that it can read and recognize hand gestures.

And generally, it doesn't do a bad job. It's not perfect however and can be slow to respond at times. At other times it seems oversensitive and just looking it can suddenly set-off iTunes. At the moment, Flutter only supports iTunes, Spotify, VLC media player and QuickTime.

Despite the hit and miss functionality of Flutter, it is just about passable as a way of switching between tracks by waving your hand left or right. There's no way to control the volume though which is a basic feature they will surely add soon.

Flutter is an interesting project with potential lthough it can be very frustrating to use on Mac.

Download Flutter 0.1.237 in Softonic

XHub Media Center favorably compares to Front Row, however we did experience some little issues with it. The program does take some time to load and can be known to freeze up. At times it also seemed like the aspect ratio of the videos was wrong.

Overall though, XHUb Media Center is a great application to enjoy any type of media straight from your Mac to your TV screen.

Download XHub Media Center 2.2 in Softonic

Normally, this can mean long, painstaking searches across the Net to find the right subtitle file for your film. This is, however, a very hit-and-miss process and it takes ages. As long as your subtitles are in .srt format, SubFix can help you synchronize ".srt" files with the audio track of a movie. The good thing about SubFix is that you only have to make the adjustment once to ensure that the rest of the film is in sync.

Of course, VLC Player allows you to tinker with the subtitle syncing by pressing the "H" and "J" key but any corrections you make are only temporary, as you'll soon find the film out of sync again.

The SubFix interface simply requires you to indicate the precise timing of two separate subtitles. This means browsing to two .srt subtitle files for the film. Subfix then automatically interpolates it for all the other subtitles in the file and the result should be that your subtitles work in sync again. The interface is very elegant as it's based on Cocoa and you can also search your subtitle files for specific words or scenes.

It's a shame it doesn't support other subtitle formats and truth is, it's better to simply make sure you have the right subtitle track than mess around with this but if you find yourself really stuck, SubFix can help you get back in sync.

Download SubFix 1.0 in Softonic

It is ideal for recording voice or other audio in podcasts or to create audio books. You can quickly and easily record audio notes, messages or announcements in MP3, WMA, AMR, MMF, AAC, AC3 Flac, and MP2 format. The program allows you to use a microphone or other external line-in input sources.

In addition you can also record sounds that are being played by your Mac internally, such as audio from other applications such as iTunes, QuickTime, Flash, and various games or via Internet broadcasts and Internet streaming audio or music. It's particularly useful for interviews, news or melodies from radio, conferences, and other situations that require instant recording.

As an all round audio recording solution, Macvide Audio Recorder is a one touch all-purpose solution.

Download Macvide Audio Recorder 2.0 in Softonic

This little app works very simply – use Scan Videos to find the videos you want subtitles for, and then hit Find Subtitles. Once SubsMarine has found them for you, you can choose which to download and which to discard by selecting the relevant checkbox.

It’s important to take a look at SubsMarine’s configuration settings so you can make sure you always get the right languages for your movies. Helpfully, the app lets you specify up to three languages, and offers to match the subtitle file name to the movie name, an essential step so apps like VLC will play them automatically. SubsMarine can also be configured to automatically import videos from a specific folder on start-up.

The only confusing thing about SubsMarine, in fact, is the subtitle servers. The app uses podnapisi.net and opensubtitles.org, and there doesn’t seem to be a way of adding additional ones. You should bear in mind that some subtitle services may require you to log in.

Mac doesn’t have as many subtitle-finding apps as Windows, so SubsMarine is a welcome addition to the field.

Download SubsMarine 1.1 in Softonic

Jubler is a comprehensive subtitle-editing tool that allows users to edit text-based subtitles. You can use Jubler to create subtitles from scratch or to convert, transform, correct and refine existing subtitles. Jubler works with most popular subtitle formats and you've got a few handy tools at your disposal including spell check, translation mode and styles editing. It's especially ideal for adding subtitles to DivX films.

The annoying thing about Jubler however is that it's been programmed in Java in an attempt to make a multi-platform application. The problem with this is that it can work rather sluggishly and sometimes simply hang up. You must make sure that you have the latest version of Java installed to have any chance of seeing it work as it should do. In addition, it requires the installation of both MPlayer and cocoAspell, within which you can preview the subtitles. This is fine if MPlayer is your default player but if not, you've got no choice but to install it.

Jubler is a simple and fairly easy-to-use subtitle editor but it's not without problems, and it only works with MPlayer at present.

Download Jubler 4.6 in Softonic

Express Dictate is a simple but very effective dictation tool for Macs that allows you to record and send voice notes in seconds. Express Dictate works exactly like a dictaphone. You can add brief labels and notes to dictations so that you know what they're about and you can even import recordings made on a portable dictaphone by virtue of the Express Dictate 'Dock' feature.

Express Dictate records in WAV, MP3, or DCT formats and you can perform basic editing of your recordings without damaging the original, which is always archived. Another interesting feature is that, if you purchase the complete app, you also get a foot pedal which will assist secretaries in taking down dictations. Perhaps most usefully, there's a an inbuilt sender that allows you to instantly send recordings by email or FTP. This is ideal for those who want to send something more personal than just an email to friends and family.

Overall, Express Dictate is an excellent tool. The price tag may put some people off but if you're serious about dictation, you can't go far wrong with it.

Download Express Dictate 5.64 in Softonic

Do you like to hear the sound of waves lapping at the shore as you go to sleep? Or the natural buzz of a rainforest? If so, White Noise is for you.

Providing a range of ambient sounds to help you sleep or simply relax, White Noise features a slick iTunes style coverflow interface from which you can choose the sound you're looking for.

Cover Flow features a Digital Clock with sound timers that slowly fade audio in and out to help you relax or sleep. You can also use it as a meditation tool, because White Noise features soothing scenes and images to complement different sounds. What some users might find ironic is that not all the noises seem very relaxing. Fortunately, there's a wide selection to choose from, so you should never find yourself without an option to suit your relaxation needs.

White Noise is a simple but effective application for adding soothing ambient background noise to aid in relaxation.

Download White Noise 5.0 in Softonic

Uploading songs to your Music Beta library on an individual basis can be a serious drag, as well as a complete time-waster. Much like the 8tracks Uploader for Macs, Music Manager lets users easily and effectively transfer new songs to their Music Beta Library in no time at all.

You can tweak the settings on Music Manager to automatically upload new music it detects from iTunes or any other music storage app of your choosing. Alternatively, if you'd rather manually upload individual songs, Music Manager also has an option for that.

In addition to uploading songs, the app will also provide you with a list of songs it was unable to upload, as well as a reason as to why the upload didn't work. Unfortunately, if you do encounter an error in uploading, Music Manager doesn't actually suggest a solution. You might just be out of luck, which could be frustrating.

If you want an easy-to-use method of uploading songs to your Google Music Beta library however, Music Manager is the way to go.

Download Music Manager by Google 1.0.35.1577 in Softonic

StartupSound.prefPane mutes the startup sound without changing your main volume setting so it doesn't affect the rest of your Mac's audio. You can select or de-select the startup volume using the Startup Sound pane added to the System Preferences when you've installed it.

Note however that the developer recommends that you backup your Mac before installing StartupSound.prefPane. Therefore, ensure that you're TimeMachine backups are up to date before installing it. If this worries you, you can always try using Psst! instead which isn't quite as good but does pretty much the same thing.

StartupSound.prefPane is probably the most effective startup sound silencer for Macs.

Download StartupSound.prefPane 1.1 Beta 3 in Softonic