Converting WAV files to mp3

[Mike Blakesley]

Can anyone recommend a good reliable utility for converting WAV files to MP3s? I am going to "DJ" a demolition derby in a couple of weeks and I need to quickly convert a bunch of tunes. I tried googling it, but got so many responses and I'm leery of "free" stuff. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Harry]

WAV to mp3? or WMA to mp3? Your post and title mentioned both.

Harry

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

Windows Media Player can rip to both. Not sure if will rip from the files alone or whether they have to be ripped from a CD.

 

[Harry]

Windows Media Player has to rip from a CD.

To convert WMA files, I've used any program, including WMPlayer to write the files out as a CD. Once in CD format, it can be re-ripped to anything you need.

Of course going from a lossy format to another lossy format is going to end up being somewhat suspect, but when you need to do it, you need to do it.

Harry

 

[bob]

You can use what I use it is called Audio Cleaning Lab.12 www.magix.com, this would not only take 99.5 percent of the ticks and pops out of vinyl records.
you can convert files to other formats. and you can clean it up take all the hiss out from analog and make to to digital.
bob

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I use the Magix MP3 Maker. It's quick and easy. I convert a lot of tunes to MP3 for my iPod. I avoid the Windows Media Player anymore, since it seems to freeze up my computer (something weird going on there).



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Harry -- I meant WAV to mp3.

I'm not overly concerned about sound quality since the event is outdoors, in front of a grandstand full of people many of whom will be buzzing on beer, plus there will be the sound of revving engines in the background. I don't think anyone will be minding lossy compression!

I'm more worried about learning to use the cool new "DJ" software I just got (from Pioneer) before this thing happens. It's on July 25 if any of you tourists are in Eastern Montana and want a rowdy good time.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

If there's no seafood, then I'm not coming.

 

[Harry]

WAV to mp3 really shouldn't be much of a problem without adding new software, but it will require two steps.

Take the wave files and burn a CD as an audio CD. You can use Media Player or something like Nero (if you have it) to do that task. Then simply use Windows Media Player again (or any other ripper software) to re-rip that new redbook CD, this time into mp3 files.

Two steps - but it works - and since the files started as wave files, you'll only be making it lossy once.

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

If there's no seafood, then I'm not coming.

I think it's illegal for county fairs to serve seafood in Montana! But we have something called the 'walking taco' which sells like hotcakes.

I'm a plain burger guy myself.

Thanks for the recommendations guys -- I am fairly surprised that this software doesn't work with WAV files. It is a Pioneer product (DJS) But, I suppose in a "club" setting mp3s would sound just fine too, and that way a DJ could put a few thousand songs onto a big jump drive and carry his music collection in his pocket.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

But we have something called the 'walking taco'...

We have something called that here in Texas, but we try to send them back where they came from....




Capt. Bacardi
...in a non-PC mode online...

 

[Rudy]

CDex will do what you want, and it's free:

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

It uses the LAME MP3 library, which is about as good as MP3 can get. I'd stick with bitrates of 256k or higher, since anything lower sounds nasty (especially if you're amplifying it).

I've been using dBpoweramp for both ripping and converting. It's not a freebie, but it's cheap enough, and has several encoder/decoder plugins to do just about anything. If you want to tag those MP3 files, download MP3Tag, a free program that lets you edit all the track data (the Pioneer program may use it to help organize those tracks).

 

[Captain Bacardi]

It uses the LAME MP3 library,

Is that really the name of it? It doesn't exactly bring a lot of confidence when seeing that.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

It uses the LAME MP3 library,

Is that really the name of it? It doesn't exactly bring a lot of confidence when seeing that.

Go ahead and hit Google...you'll see it.

I always say it is aptly named. Seriously, just about every other compressed format sounds better than MP3 at the same bitrate. I get the same results using WMA 10 Pro at 192kbps as I do MP3 at 320kbps. Even WMA 9 does a respectable job at 192kbps (I hear slightly more artifacts). AAC (which the ipod uses) is just as good as WMA, and there are a few other, more obscure ones (like Ogg Vorbis...and you thought "LAME" was weird ) that also sound as good.

LAME is actually as good as MP3 can get. If you have LAME encoders, you've got the best available.

That DOES sound very wrong...