ContinueTheEnd Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Hello everyone - I'm wondering if there's an MP3 converter that's available for free online that's considered to be "the best" for converting WAV files into MP3 files. I know there's probably a whole bunch of converters I could select from, but before I do, I want to make sure that I'm choosing the best one and not some trashy one that will compromise the quality of music from the WAV file. Any recommendations at all (and explanations) are appreciated. Thanks. -ContinueTheEnd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EC2151 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I believe what you want is Audacity. Which IS free, the download takes 30 seconds, and does everything you asked for and more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozovian Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 As long as whatever you choose doesn't encode to under 120kbps the quality will be fine for most listening. Unless you're on a really good sound system you shouldn't hear a difference on speakers. On headphones, the difference is a little more apparent, but even then 120 is passable (even when you compare to the wav). Encoding to VBR might also be a good idea. Might. I guess most hardware and software that plays mp3s nowadays can handle VBR. Unless you're playing them with old tech (like an mp3-cd player) VBR should be fine too. But really, it's not so much the converter as it's what you convert it to. Converting to mp3 will _ALWAYS_ make you lose quality, but most of it can't really be noticed by human ears anyway. At 300kbps you can hear subtle differences in low-volume and/or background sounds and some high-frequency stuff, but thats about it. They're not apparent unless you're doing side-by-side comparisons with 120kbps stuff. I write long. Pick any converter you like. Don't convert to less than 120kbps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitty Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Basically what Rozovian said. Convert at least 120kbps or greater. VBR is always a good choice too and you can choose the minimum bit rate in any converter that the author spent more than 5 minutes coding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulinEther Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Bonkenc is free (as in freedom) and not bad for batch operations (http://www.bonkenc.org/). Strange UI is a little finicky at first w/its quirks but I got it working fine for myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I echo the statements above but with 160kbps as a minimum bit rate, you can fairly easily hear the difference on good speakers and headphones at 120kbps if you listen closely imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ContinueTheEnd Posted December 25, 2009 Author Share Posted December 25, 2009 Alright guys, thanks for the help. I think I'll just get Audacity and use that to convert my WAV file to MP3 once I've got the final mastered version from my sound mixer. People mentioned VBR encoding; would this be an okay format to submit to OCR? The submission guidelines say that the file has to be MP3, but from the sounds of it, some of you think that a VBR file would pass as well. I'm not an expert on sound files and I've never actually heard of VBR files, but can someone (judges?) confirm whether they would be valid file formats as well? Thanks a ton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moseph Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 VBR (variable bit-rate) is an option you can set in the MP3 encoder, and it's fine for OCRemix submissions. It just means that the encoder will change the bit-rate over the course of the file so the sections in the music where you wouldn't be able to distinguish a lower bit-rate will be encoded with a lower bit-rate to save space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 Man Sony Sound Forge Studio or Foobar2k works for me. Considering I use both yeah... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.