WAV to quality MP3

[Ashley Choke]

I need to convert 16 and 24bit WAV files to good sounding MP3(An oxymoron yeah I know) Can anyone recommend me a quality converter? My wave-editor needs a plugin and I was thinking that a program specifically for converting might me the way to go sound quality wise??

Cheers in advance.

[Niko]

I have used Audacity and it's completely free and good.

edit: you need to download seperate mp3 encoder for it, but it can be downloaded straight from the audacity website.

[drunk]

I use this very-easy to use lil' program:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?lotkd45zq5b5h3i

It can convert to and from WMA, WAV, MP3 & OGG in different bitrates.

ot: I've never understood the 'bashing' the mp3 format gets. I've converted a lot of my cds, tapes and vinyl to WAV and then to 320 kbps MP3, so that I can listen to music on my ipod at work, and I've never noticed any difference in sound at all with my original 'physical' albums.

[ImpulsyStetoskopu]

and I've never noticed any difference in sound at all with my original 'physical' albums.

....but must be any difference in sound to listen real records instead of MP3 files?

[drunk]

and I've never noticed any difference in sound at all with my original 'physical' albums.

....but must be any difference in sound to listen real records instead of MP3 files?

I've compared my real records to the rips I made of them each time I rip something to listen to on my ipod and the differences are almost unnoticeable, especially when it comes to CDs. Of course it also depends on the system you're using - You can't compare listening to an MP3 file on shitty computer speakers to listening to the same file with medium quality headphones on an ipod to the same file on a beastly top-notch hi-fi system with huge state of the art speakers.

I like MP3s because I listen to music pretty much all day, when I'm at work, at home, travelling to/from work, etc. I buy and listen to tons of music on all 'traditional' formats, but also I really like the MP3 format because it's an extremely (and undeniably) convenient format. I guess I can understand just a little bit how some people don't approve much of the format, but at the same time I find it ridiculous to praise vinyl and tape only, as if it was the format of the album what matters most instead of the music.

[manuel-ronf]

for easy audio conversion I am used to  dBpoweramp:
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/
also sony sound forge does a good job but it is not that easy to find/register mp3 plug-ins

about the mythical 'wav Vs. mp3' battle, I think theres a big difference, from my own experience I have tried some albums in mp3 before grabbing a physical copy, noticing the physical one has given me the real goosebumps...

[GEWALTMONOPOL]

I like MP3s because I listen to music pretty much all day, when I'm at work, at home, travelling to/from work, etc. I buy and listen to tons of music on all 'traditional' formats, but also I really like the MP3 format because it's an extremely (and undeniably) convenient format. I guess I can understand just a little bit how some people don't approve much of the format, but at the same time I find it ridiculous to praise vinyl and tape only, as if it was the format of the album what matters most instead of the music.

This is one major reason I don't like MP3. That people listen to music all the time and never allow for silence and reflection on what they've just experienced. No ebb, just flow, constant stream of sounds all day. It's what David Bowie talked about 10-15 years ago when he predicted a future were music is just like electricity or water. And here it is, music has taken it's place among the rest of the daily droning surface noise and as such means less to people than it used to. The so called underground is no exception.

[ImpulsyStetoskopu]

This is one major reason I don't like MP3. That people listen to music all the time and never allow for silence and reflection on what they've just experienced. No ebb, just flow, constant stream of sounds all day. It's what David Bowie talked about 10-15 years ago when he predicted a future were music is just like electricity or water. And here it is, music has taken it's place among the rest of the daily droning surface noise and as such means less to people than it used to. The so called underground is no exception.

I aggree with that. Is underground music MUZAK? I would not able (though I have got possibilities) to listen my favourite music in job. Once I used walkman when I was travelling often. But I respect other people who prefer different ways to listen music. The MP3 files, as was said, are very usefull today, we must accept it.

[imaginaryforces]

Switch Sound File Converter

[Andrew McIntosh]

It's what David Bowie talked about 10-15 years ago when he predicted a future were music is just like electricity or water.

I've thought for a while that Satie has a lot to answer for when he invented "furniture music".

Having written that, I honestly think it's how people listen to music that matters more than the format. I accept mp3s as much as vynal and tape (haven't been a real vynal fan for a while but am getting back into it) and the rest of it and am happy to have sound in the background and to sit, listen and reflect. "Music" has certainly become ubiquitous as a consumer commodity but the choice of consumer minded fools doesn't affect how I listen to music.

[absurdexposition]

i'd suggest dbpoweramp as well, or if foobar is your music player, use that.


as far as formats vs. quality... a lot of people would be hard pressed to hear the difference between 320 MP3 and FLAC (WAV), and even between 192, 256, and 320. for MP3s, though, I stand by V0. 320 is just a waste of space. even silence/dead air is streamed at 320. with V0, the silence/any parts that don't need to be so high aren't. therefore saving space on your hard drive without losing any quality. for mobile devices i'd even go down to V2, given the poor quality of all the devices/ear buds, and space constraints.

[Zeno Marx]

I'm sorry, but the people who can't hear the difference fall into the:  1)  I don't care, so I refuse to focus long enough to notice  2)  are listening on equipment that insults the music, regardless of how mobile or convenient it might make the music   3)  likely have significant hearing deficiencies of some sort  4)  think it is cool to be a non-discerning being of things, considering it a great virtue of sorts  5)  the music they A/B compared was mastered/mixed with poor tools, wasn't intended to be dynamic and ranging, etc.

The differences are not minute for a great percentage of music.  The MP3 manipulation of the full .wav is significant.  I'm not anti-MP3.  They have their purpose.

But to answer the question, I'd download Trader's Little Helper.  It's a tiny, incredibly useful bit of freeware.  You can convert just about any type of file to any other type of file.  You can check and fix sector boundary errors.  You can test encoded files to be sure they can be decoded without error.  They pack some of the best converters out there into it, so the .wav>MP3 converter is highly sensitive, making efficient, quality VBRs (if you choose that route).  I have many of the other programs mentioned here, and I still use Trader's Little Helper more than all of the others combined.

http://tlh.easytree.org/
http://tlh.easytree.org/
http://tlh.easytree.org/

[absurdexposition]

Zeno Marx, I 100% agree with you on all counts. I listen to FLAC or vinyl day in and day out. I suppose a better word to use in my first sentence is "a lot of people claim to be hard pressed to hear the difference". and all your points stand. most people think a speaker is a speaker, soundcard is a soundcard, stereo is a stereo, turntable is a turntable, etc, etc, etc.

though FLAC on a mobile device is completely pointless for the reasons of quality of player/speakers/headphones most would use.

[Andrew McIntosh]

In fact, now that many more people have downloading speeds that are faster and have wider bandwidth (even here in pre-historic Australia), I really don't see much reason why people don't just up and download wav or AIF files. Archive.org have been offering that service for years.

[MagiaNuda]

Anyone who has knowledge of audio will tell you that wav is superior. Encoding to mp3, the file undergoes data compression and with this compression comes loss of sonic quality, so wav would be a purer, more true representation of the sound of the original recording since it is uncompressed. However, if you encode the mp3s at a bit rate of 320/kbs the difference will be less apparent, but the compression is still there.