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Recommended MP3 Converter


ContinueTheEnd
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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

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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. :D

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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.

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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.

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