A few days ago, I went to my favorite store to get some blank DVDs. So far, so good – nothing special, you will say. Well, those guys who own the store are as crazy about good music as I am, and so they also feel the need to keep their old vinyls and audio tapes in digital format. While I usually download good quality CD rips of the albums I already own (is this piracy, or not, what do you think?), I couldn’t find most of my vinyls available. Sure, it’s not that hard to “grab” vinyls, especially since the guys with this store I mentioned recently got a device to rip vinyls to MP3, but what about checking to see if the resulted files are all right?
This time, we’ll talk about a program for everyone, since MP3 Diags is available for virtually any operating system you can think of, and sources are freely available. Even more, the official page I just mentioned above only says Linux, Windows, and “others,” but I am sure this program could also work on Mac OS X and other *nix-based systems. Anyway, I think it’s enough to know that MP3 Diags works on most Windows- and Linux-powered systems, so let’s stop talking and unleash its power!
Since I played with MP3 Diags in Windows XP, I will talk about my experience with it on this platform, of course, but I am sure things aren’t that different for Linux users. When it comes to installing, for example, I had to choose between a setup file and downloading two separate archives, one with the EXE file, and the other with the needed DLL files. I chose the second solution, because I always like to create shortcuts myself instead of allowing some setup program to mess with my registry…
After firing up MP3 Diags for the first time, you need to create a new session, and I found the interface to be a bit confusing during the first minutes of use, but I finally managed to overcome this small problem. Unfortunately, while using the program, I bumped into a few errors, and I am not talking about MP3 file-related ones…
Once you manage to scan your folder(s) with MP3 files, you will be taken to a different window, where you can see details of each available file, and perform a pretty wide range of operations on them, like tag editing (the program is capable of scanning online servers to find the proper tags for your files), normalization, repair/rebuild of VBR data, and many more.
The settings available for you to play with are more than enough, especially if we consider the fact that this program is a free one, so the only thing that could keep you away from it may be its lack of reliability. Don’t get me wrong – MP3 Diags is a program worth trying, but it crashed a few times too many on my system, so I would really like to hear about your experience with it. After all, it could be something wrong on my side, that’s not something I would take out of the equation.
Well… I guess this is it, so let me conclude by asking those two big questions once again:
1. Do you think that, if I own a genuine CD/audio tape and I download a RIP of the album, I am going into the warez area, or not?
2. How was your experience with MP3 Diags? Any crashes encountered?
Thanks in advance! I wish I could award some prize to those who will answer the questions above, but the gift box is empty now… just stay close to us, and I promise you’ll be awarded for it, one day! 
