Product Review: Nexus Radio
When you first start Nexus Radio you’ll get a Quick Reference Guide. The Quick Reference Guide is just an example of the Nexus Radio screen that tells you what each function on your screen does. It’s very easy to understand and it’s really the only explanation you need to run the program, in fact you could probably figure out Nexus Radio even without the Quick Reference Guide. Everything is pretty self explanatory and all the options you need are right there on the screen. No digging through menus or FAQs to figure out how to work everything.
After you close the Quick Reference Guide Nexus Radio will greet you with the screen you just saw. The Nexus Radio screen is split into two sections on the left side you’ll always have all your main options while your work area will be on the right side. This enables you to switch from one option to the other quickly rather than having to find your way back to the beginning. When you are first starting Nexus Radio the first thing you’ll see are your selection of radio stations. In the top right hand corner of Nexus Radio you’ll see how many different stations are available to listen to. Currently Nexus Radio has 4,071 stations to choose from with any genre you can think of available; 70s, 80s, Alternative, Rock, Rap, Gospel, Comedy, Sports, Classical, Country, and Jazz. Most of the genres had plenty of stations as well. So what if your favorite radio station plays online but it isn’t on the list of stations that Nexus Radio provides? Well that’s no problem. Nexus Radio also has a genre listed as “Favorites”. If you go into the Favorites genre there is an option to “Add Station”. All you have to do is input the name of the station and the URL and you will be able to add your favorite station to the list of stations to choose from on Nexus Radio. I took some time to look at each genre and try a few random stations. I probably tried over fifty different stations and I was surprised at how quickly the stations loaded. I got two stations that said they were not available and one station that took a while to load. But other than those few exceptions the stations I chose started playing instantly. Nexus Radio also has some helpful features after you have chosen your radio station. If you find a radio station you like Nexus Radio allows you to add the station to the Favorites genre just by hitting the “Add Favorite” button at the bottom of the screen. Also if you have found a station you enjoy and you want to learn more about that station there is an option above the station listings called “Visit Station Website” that you can click to go to their homepage. Also for some stations the song and artist you are currently listening to will be shown at the bottom of Nexus Radio so if you hear a song you like chances are you won’t have to go digging for the name of the song or artist.
Nexus Radio isn’t just for listening to radio stations though, its main function is for recording radio stations so that you can listen to the songs whenever you would like. This again is very simple. If you’re listening to a radio station and a song you like is about to play there is a record button at the bottom, you press that and it records, it’s as simple as that. When you stop the recorder Nexus Radio will move your clip to the “History” Folder which is one of your options on the left side of the screen. That way you can easily get to all your recorded files by just choosing the History folder.
But the real selling point is that you are able to record music while you’re not even home. Nexus Radio is like TiVo for your internet radio. Let’s say your favorite radio station has a special hour where they play a certain type of music that you normally really enjoy, like my radio station does. If you choose the Record option from the left part of the screen you will see all your options on the right side. There is a pull down menu where you select the genre of the radio station and then after you’ve selected your genre it lists all the radio stations to choose from. Next to the pull down menu is a place to set what day you want to record, what time to start recording and what time to stop recording. When it’s done recording Nexus Radio will immediately move what you’ve recorded to the history folder. What makes Nexus Radio even cooler is that it doesn’t move what you recorded to your history folder as one big file. It makes a file of each individual song. That way you don’t have to listen to an hour clip and try and jump ahead if you don’t like a song. Then you don’t have to edit the clip and chop out the songs you want to keep. You can just listen to your first file and if you don’t like that song you can go to the next file and delete the first one. If the station you are recording from is one of the stations that have the ability to show the artist and song title at the bottom then Nexus Radio will automatically label the song with the artist and song title. My one gripe about the recording system is there doesn’t seem to be an option to record the same time daily. So if you want to record your radio station at a certain time each day you’ll have to set it up to record each day. Still, Nexus Radio is easy enough that it will only take a minute or two even to set up a week worth of recordings.
I’ve tried other programs in the past for recording audio on your computer and usually when you try and record you’ll get a window popping up with several options on how you want to record. There are four or five different things you have to set with 10 or 20 options for each making for hundreds of combinations you have to test for days until you get the right settings to record a clip that has good volume and audio. But with Nexus Radio the only settings you have to worry about are where you want to save your files and what file type you want to save it as. The quality and the volume of the recording will sound exactly like the quality and the sound you get when you listen to the stations without having to figure out the correct settings. There are also plenty of options for the file types you can save your song as. You can save it as an ACC, MP4, MP3, MP1, OGG, WAV, and WMA. Your files will be compatible with Apple iPod so you should have no problem moving your files onto your iPod if you have one. I know these days there are a lot of questions about the legality of how you acquire music mp3s but Nexus Radio is 100% legal to use, as long as you do not rebroadcast or distribute your recorded files.
I highly recommend using Nexus Radio. It’s a good way to record some of your favorite songs particularly if you have to work or go to school when they air your favorite music. Nexus Radio is very easy to use; everything is pretty self explanatory really. Nexus Radio is also very nice looking and not very large so it doesn’t take up a ton of your computer screen. You should definitely check out Nexus Radio. Now, if you don’t mind I have to get back to listening to Papua New Guinea Music Radio. Lukim yu behain!
