Audio conversion software?

allllec

allllec

allllec

Soldato
Joined
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4,261
Hi there,

just wanted peoples opinions on whats the best software for converting all my music a) to mp3's to b) a defined bitrate (and also a low bitrate for mp3 player / phone) and if possible c) to 6 channel

free software would be ace - but ill consider anything if its good enough! its just i Google "audio converter" and surprisingly enough im faced with loads of crud! :(

ta

alec
 
Not used it myself but i've heard all2lame is pretty good, it's just a front end for the LAME encoder, but that's probably the best thing you want
 
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I've heard EAC and the latest LAME are the way to go (Both free).

I converted most of my CD's years ago and they sound poo :o I'm going to have to do them all again :( I'm going to use EAC and LAME and encode at a bitrate of 256 or 320 Kbit on the highest quality setting (q0). If your just encoding them for your ipod 192kbits should be fine.

Not sure about 6 channel stuff mate.
 
EAC + Lame is the best combo for ripping CDs but he easily wants to convert mp3s he already has.

dbPowerAmp does work fine as the above poster recommended, but you do have to pay :(
 
Go straight to FLAC and transcode to mp3.

That way you never need touch your CDs again, unless you lose a FLAC file or it becomes corrupt.
 
waahayy! wheres the assumption i wanna rip cd's come from!?! lmao

Just want convert WMA -> MP3 with a free bit of software :) none of that which has been posted has really fit the bill, either isnt free / dosent work / can only input files from one directory (not good with a massive music collection spread between artist / album folders!)

ta

alec
 
allllec said:
waahayy! wheres the assumption i wanna rip cd's come from!?! lmao

Just want convert WMA -> MP3 with a free bit of software :) none of that which has been posted has really fit the bill, either isnt free / dosent work / can only input files from one directory (not good with a massive music collection spread between artist / album folders!)

ta

alec
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I was really responding to warren - but forgot to quote!
 
True, however its just as important that the files are as small as possible! haven't got unlimited space! :(

Seems very odd that in this day and age a fairly good bit of free software doesnt exist!
 
Aye, but i woulda just thought through sheer popularity someone somewhere would have made something! :( but even if im willing to pay.. which i would do if something was really worth it.. all the apps are still aload of $^%$!
 
warren_1979 said:
I wouldn't recommend that. You'll properly end up with crappy sounding mp3's. Just my 5 cents. :cool: Can't you get a WMA player for your phone? Be less hassle.
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Umm - FLAC is lossless...

The mp3s sound identical to mp3s made from WAV files.
 
FatRakoon said:
Its depends on the Bitrate.
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There is no bitrate setting in FLAC.

Hence Free Lossless Audio Codec

The settings only affect the compression time and filesize.
 
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Yeah, I know that... I was referring to the bitrate of the MP3

reading your previous post...

It says MP3 sound the same as MP3s made from WAV...

And it was that, that I was on about, not FLAC.

I personally dont bother with FLAC.

They are far too large to be worth bothering with. The human ear cannot possibly tell the difference between a FLAC file and a high bitrate MP3 and yet the MP3 will be many times smaller.

As a rather poor example. I just converted the Windows XP Startup . wav sound into a few FLAC and MP3 files, and the original is 415K, and the FLAC low,med, and hi compression shrunk it down to 221-226k. The MP3 at 128, 192, and 320 were 74K, 192k and 185k respectively.

There is no possible way that the human ear can tell the difference between FLAC and a 320k MP3... No way on earth.

So, for me, and I dare say for most users, FLAC is a waste of time.

For keeping the original quality etc and for pro uses, then sure, its still a compression method, but for the normal everyday folk, no.
 
FatRakoon said:
Yeah, I know that... I was referring to the bitrate of the MP3

reading your previous post...

It says MP3 sound the same as MP3s made from WAV...

And it was that, that I was on about, not FLAC.

I personally dont bother with FLAC.

They are far too large to be worth bothering with. The human ear cannot possibly tell the difference between a FLAC file and a high bitrate MP3 and yet the MP3 will be many times smaller.

As a rather poor example. I just converted the Windows XP Startup . wav sound into a few FLAC and MP3 files, and the original is 415K, and the FLAC low,med, and hi compression shrunk it down to 221-226k. The MP3 at 128, 192, and 320 were 74K, 192k and 185k respectively.

There is no possible way that the human ear can tell the difference between FLAC and a 320k MP3... No way on earth.

So, for me, and I dare say for most users, FLAC is a waste of time.

For keeping the original quality etc and for pro uses, then sure, its still a compression method, but for the normal everyday folk, no.
Click to expand...

The file size is negligible by todays standards, and it simply saves ripping everything multiple times if you do it once in a lossless format.

These are good reasons by themselves to rip to FLAC.
You have a perfect back-up of all your CDs, that takes up, on average, half the space of a WAV.

I can certainly tell the difference between FLAC and a high-bitrate mp3 on my Quad electrostats, and even on my regular monitors with some pieces. Stepping is rife on sounds around the 10k area with any bitrate mp3.

High frequency transients can suffer from lower resolution dynamics, and of course everything above 15k is missing, so any mix with 'air' is lost.

This is listening to very well recorded classical music however (the brilliant Jacqueline du Pré version of Elgar's cello concerto was something I just tested myself with).

Once you know what you're listening for, in a piece you know well, on high quality equipment, the difference is actually pretty obvious.

Many modern recordings are mastered way too hot, so the differences can be hard to spot here too.

Of course you won't tell the difference on an iPOD whatever the weather.
 
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