AudioCatalyst was born as a partnership between AudioGrabber - probably the most popular CD ripper at the time - and Xing, the fastest MP3 encoder.

It features a pleasing interface and the usual features of a CD ripper: CDDB lookups, tagging, volume normalizing... Versions were available for both Windows and Mac OS Classic, and the Windows version available here (courtesy of the great FOSI guys) includes the XingMP3 player.

It's worth pointing out that the Mac version is not based on AudioGrabber, but on Oliver Dreer's MPEG Audio Creator - a CD ripper for Mac OS Classic that created MP2 files, but not MP3. Therefore, the feature set is different from the Windows version (for instance, the Mac version can record and encode from line-in).

After Xing Technology got bought by Real Networks the product was discontinued. You can still check the AudioCatalyst web page at the Internet Archive.


Date: 1999-07-23
Version: 2.1
Interface: Graphical
Platform: Win32
Download: fo-acat21.exe - 3.045kB

Date: 2000-04-01
Version: 2.1 (updater)
Interface: Graphical
Platform: Mac OS Classic (PPC)
Download: AudioCatalysttm_2.1.0.sit - 268kB

Date: 1999-07-07
Version: 2.0.1
Interface: Graphical
Platform: Mac OS Classic (PPC)
Download: AudioCatalyst_MP3_Encoder.sit - 988kB

Date: 1999-02-10
Version: 1.0.1
Interface: Graphical
Platform: Mac OS Classic (PPC)
Download: AudioCatalyst1.0.1.sit - 356kB

Date: 1999-01-28
Version: 1.0
Interface: Graphical
Platform: Mac OS Classic (PPC)
Download: AudioCatalyst1.0.sit - 330kB