One thing I dislike about Apple Music is the inability to side load audio files onto my phone. I have to turn off a setting to transfer an mp3 file that’s not available on Apple Music (usually a review copy of an unreleased audio drama) and when done, turn the setting back on and lose the mp3. The fact you can’t have both is infuriating because it is such a time waster as syncing a large library takes time.

I was graciously given a lifetime subscription to a collection of apps for mac and windows platforms from Softorino in return for a review of one of the apps in the collection. The app is called WALTR 2 Pro and it’s a solution for this exact problem.

Software Pros

There’s a potentially odd glitch with converting FLAC files to “AAC Lossy format” by checking a box in the settings that makes an “Apple Lossless Audio File” or an AAC file both with .m4a extensions. Leaving the box unchecked will result in a larger file size than checking it, which seems the opposite of what it should be. When the box is checked, the bitrate is 256 kbps rather than 1k+ kbps. Obviously the more bitrate, the better it sounds, but the more storage it takes up. I used an hour long FLAC file from Graphic Audio as the test file.

Softare Cons

A downside of WALTR 2 pro is the lack of a remember playback position option for longer duration audio files. Often times life finds a way to interrupt listening time and pausing is needed. The ability to start from where I last left off is a requirement for me, especially for the longer stories. While there are options, such as converting to an m4b file before sending it to your mobile device, it requires another piece of software that may downgrade audio quality. You can’t convert mp3 to a format other than m4a using WALTR 2 Pro.

The subscription model while becoming the norm or application software doesn’t have benefits that outweighs the cost in this case. If you’re just looking for a way to get audio drama files that aren’t on podcast apps without syncing every time, it’s a good option. For the more tech savvy people, it’s probably more beneficial to sync the old fashioned way. It all comes to down to quality over time spent waiting.