64-bit .wma to .mp3 convertor

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Soldato
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Hi all,
searched for "wma to mp3" and didn't yield anything useful, so here i go.

I've tried a couple of free wma to mp3 convertors, but they didn't seem to work; one (Jodix) wouldn't let me alter the settings. I'm wonding whether its cos i'm using win7 pro x64.

Anyway, recommendations for free .wma to .mp3 convertors please. Any that are certified for x64 would be good.

My CD70 car stereo (vauxhall) will take mp3 but not wma, hence my need to convert. My aim is to rip cd's to either wma then convert to mp3, or rip straight to mp3. But i still need to convert my existing wma stuff to mp3 as they are in playlists and i aint going searching through boxes for the original cd's again.

Any help would be appreciated. :)

Cheers
 
Thanks phil, playing with Format Factory right now.
May sound daft, but is there any benefit in converting a 128kps wma track into a mp3 with a higher bitrate, say 192kbps? Does it encode differently so that bitrate quality could change from one format to another or is it a non-starter?
 
No, what you are trying to do is interpolation, basically adding stuff that's not technically there.

Converting a 128kbps to 192kbps will do nothing I'm afraid. You can't increase what's not there to start with (in terms of quality). To be fair, the difference between 128 and 192 is not drastically noticeable.
 
Thought as much, thanks.
It's failing to convert WMA files that are over 360kbps. :(
not sure why but when i ripped some of my cd's it looks like it ripped them at variable bitrate as some tracks are 775kbps, some are 900kbps etc.
Format Factory doesn't seem to want to convert them down to a 128kbps mp3.
Bummer!
 
You *may* be better of ripping straight to MP3 again, not sure if you are aware but both WMA and MP3 are lossy techniques, so converting from CDA to WMA will have lost some data that the encoder thinks can be hidden behind psychoacoustic trickery.
To then convert that WMA to MP3 will put the audio through the ringer (pun and lack of "w" intended) once again, eventually you'll end up with all kinds of artifacts, blorping, ringing, very slightly increased noise levels etc etc.

Give it a bash and if you can't tell the difference between the WMA and MP3 then you are on to a winner, but I'd also advise doing a compare between the CDA track and the wrung out MP3, my spidey sense is telling me you'll spot missing detail like soft hihats and reduced stereo effects.

Anyways, enough rambling, good luck! :D
 
There's a way you can do it with itunes if you use Itunes.
I used Winamp to convert my .flacs to wma. then itunes to convert those to .mp3.

This may be handy. I only used it cause I already had itunes and winamp installed. and goggle was throwing up all sorts of "free convertors" that you needed to pay for. -.-

Edit: Url posted was an infraction. I never realised :p

Here's the steps repeated sans links :p

Download the latest version of iTunes if you do not already have it on your computer. This is a free application that can be downloaded from http://www.apple.com/itunes.

2
Install and set up iTunes by following all the prompts.

3
Click "File>open" and select the WMA file you are interested in converting.

4
Right-click the WMA file and choose "create MP3 version." Once you have selected this option, an MP3 file will automatically be created and placed in your iTunes music library. You can also create an MP3 version by choosing "Advanced options>create MP3 version."

5
Check to make sure that your file has been properly converted. To do this, right-click your new MP3 file and click "get info." An information screen will appear that will display properties of the file. If you look under the category "kind," it should read MP3.
 
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