converting wav files to mp3

Uilleann Pipes
1

I know this topic has been covered before, but a quick search of C+F for the answer to my question has turned up a whole bunch of stuff that I don’t need.

So, here’s my question: Can someone tell me how to convert wav files to mp3 files? I’ve recorded directly from a microphone and from a turntable through an amp into my computer, and I’ve generated wav files. I’d like to compress these guys. Is mp3 the way to go? How do I go about compressing them? I’d appreciate any suggestions, along with links to software downloads if you have them.

Thanks.

Travis

2

Audiograbber is free, though it has some feature limitations to other format converters, It’s very easy to use.

http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/

3

Here are some others:
Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Goldwave
http://www.goldwave.com/

4

I use oggenc, but I don’t know if it is available for Windows or Mac.

For mp3s, I used lame but I now prefer the ogg format as I hear less artifacts in reed instruments.

5

Fancypiper,can you please expand on your use of ogg?
I’ve normally used Lame to convert 'Goldwave wav to mp3 for my ‘Whistletunes’ clips.
What ‘sonic’ benefits does OGG provide?
(of course U.P.s offer a very rich harmonic content-is OGG the answer for recording?)

6

The Ogg Vorbis home page has a faq that should explain it all to you.

I see that there is a Windows version available for download.

vorbis-tools-1.0.1-win32.zip

7

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

Music converter, works from Windows Explorer.

Kevin Krell

8

Cheers Lads.

9

CDex is free, easy to use and you can set it to whatever quality you want. It also does an excellent job in ripping cd’s especially ones that are copy protected. http://www.cdex.n3.net Has a free cd data base which you just need to put any email address in to make it work.

10

Just a quick note on this (please correct me if I’m wrong):
OGG uses another (higher) compression mode of the file compared to MP3 without loosing quality. So from the file-size (i.e. downstream) point of view it would be a good alternative (I guess files are nealr half as big using OGG compared to MP3). But currently there are only a few portable player available that support OGG. As long as you just listen to them on the PC - no problem.

Another nice thing about OGG (with MP3 there’s a patent to one institute):

Ogg Vorbis is a patent-clear, fully open general purpose audio encoding format standard that rivals or surpasses the ‘upcoming’ generation of proprietary coders (AAC and TwinVQ, also known as VQF).

11

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. Now I’m set to compress all these files and compile a larger music library on my machine.

Thanks.