StreamWriter 4.0 Released – Record Internet Radio Streams

Streamwriter is a free program for Windows to record internet radio streams and save them as tracks for you to listen to later or transfer to an mp3 player etc.

I reviewed StreamWriter 3.6 in detail here last month and found it easy to record single or multiple radio streams. It also provided good scheduling and editing options whilst adding popular tracks to the wishlist could help you to record current chart hits – even if you are not listening to any streams.

The new version 4.0 released yesterday brings many new features and some bugfixes:

  • Added hotkey to mute playback. Accessed via File \ Settings \ Hotkeys
  • Added overlay image to indicate set schedules
  • Added support to convert AAC to M4A. Accessed via File \ Settings \ Addons
  • Added tag editor. Accessed via right click on a saved track \ Edit Tags. Basic editing of Artist, Title, Album, Comments

Tip: for a far more powerful but easy to use MP3 tag editor, see my review of MP3Tag or my review on using Gracenote to tag music files in Winamp

  • Cutview now decodes files on open and encodes files on save
  • Added options to finalize songs without editing. Accessed via right click on a saved track \ Finalized
  • Added support for command line arguments
  • Added possibility to import folders into “Saved songs”. Accessed via right click on a saved track (or blank space in Saved Songs) \ Import Files
  • Post-processors are now configurable on a per-stream basis. Accessed via right click on a stream \ Settings
  • Added support for different encoders (MP3/AAC/OGG). Accessed via File \ Settings \ Postprocessing \ ‘Format to convert recorded files to’
  • Added option to edit entries in wish-/ignorelist. Accessed via right click on the entry to be edited \ Rename
  • Playlists can be added to the list of streams

Conclusion

StreamWriter 4.0 adds a host of new features to what was already a very polished tool for recording internet radio streams, whilst keeping the same familiar interface.

The support for encoding recorded tracks using MP3, AAC or OGG is welcome and the addition of separate post-processing per stream is especially useful. Other new features enhance StreamWriter as a basic media player for recorded radio streams – so you have less need to use another audio program to play them.