NoteBurner Reviewer's Comments

NoteBurner is one of our favorite programs in our review of audio conversion software, and its reliability in converting music files, even DRM protected songs, earned it our “TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award.” 

NoteBurner is a program that can be used to convert music files, MP3 downloads or even iTunes Music Store songs to other, more compatible formats. It operates a little differently than the other products we reviewed because it is a virtual CD burner. It must be used in conjunction with a media player that can burn CDs because it makes the media player “burn” the song as a file on the hard drive instead of onto a real CD. This is the major drawback in the program: you have to use two separate programs just to convert your music. This is one of the reasons why NoteBurner didn’t rank higher.

But the thing that really makes NoteBurner useful, and bumped it up to the top of the list, is its ability to convert DRM protected music files into regular MP3 files. This is a perfect solution for people who purchase their music online but have compatibility issues with their MP3 player.

NoteBurner Screenshots. Click for more
       


Features Set:  

NoteBurner’s features depend largely on the abilities of the media player you are using. NoteBurner can control the bit rate, sampling rate and channels, but it doesn’t do much else because it operates differently than the other audio converters in this review.

NoteBurner allows audio tag editing and can also extract audio signals from video files by burning them on the virtual drive. But its best feature, and the one that makes it stand out in our review, is the DRM removal that is indispensable when you’re having music compatibility issues.

Input/Output:  

The number of formats that NoteBurner can convert varies depending on the media player that you are using to create a burn list. If your player can’t burn it, then NoteBurner can’t help you. But if you find the right player, NoteBurner can handle whatever it will burn. We found that Winamp had the fewest problems with file compatibility, although Windows Media Player and the iTunes Music Player were both compatible with NoteBurner.

NoteBurner is limited in its choice of output formats. It will only convert music to MP3, WMA or WAV files. But these are the most common file formats, so it shouldn’t be a problem for the average user.

Ease of Use:  

NoteBurner is a little more complicated to use because it requires a second program to convert files. The NoteBurner interface is only used to view converted files and customize settings for the conversion. Everything else is done in the media player you use to burn to NoteBurner’s virtual drive. The process is not complicated, especially when you have customized the settings you want, but it can still be bothersome to switch back and forth between two programs.

Noteburner does have an exceptionally easy way to update or transfer audio tags, via a drag and drop system that trumped all the other tag interfaces we saw.

Help/Support:  

NoteBurner Inc. offers some several different support resources, including email support, FAQs, tutorials and guides.

Summary:  

NoteBurner is slightly cumbersome because it needs a separate media player program, but it is still an excellent audio converter and the best program on the market for DRM removal.