dupeGuru Music Edition

dupeGuru Music Edition is designed to detect duplicate audio files. Once the scanning is over and the results are displayed, the decision is entirely yours whether to delete the duplicate items or to preserve them at a different computer location or under different names.

The program's interface is extremely simple, so that you may find it rather dull and unattractive. Still, the power of the tool consists of the multiple searching criteria provided. Therefore, the scanning process is based on filenames, tags, and contents. It is good to know that the program identifies duplicate songs even if the names and tags don't match perfectly. For instance, if the filename is slightly different, the search engine is still capable of detecting duplicates, and it displays them in a search result list.

When it comes to the content analysis, the search function is even more complex. There is a wide range of content-related parameters taken into account when enabling the scanning process – size, bit and sample rates, songs’ length, and modification time are just some of them. You can control these parameters simply by selecting or deselecting them from the “Columns” drop-down menu. Obviously, the more criteria you choose, the less chances you have of erroneously identifying as duplicates files that are not.

The moment the scan ends, the results are displayed into a new window, and these can be exported to XHTML or CSV files. You will appreciate the ability to play the songs from within the application, in order to make sure whether the identification of duplicates is correct. The search function the program comes with is of great help when dealing with a large list of results. You can look for specific files by entering keywords into the filter box. What is more, you can delete duplicate files or rename them directly from the program.

The complexity of its scanning criteria makes dupeGuru Music Edition a good duplicate audio file detector. I don't have any complaint about this program – I only regret that it doesn't work with video files too.