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audio file converter recommendations


gmp

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For years I've used Rapid Media Converter for converting audio and some video files. The newer version has too much malware, so I was wondering what converter you use? I prefer doing conversion in a separate program not CbB

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Max I'm looking for something simple and fast like to turn a wav file into an mp3. Video file into a wav or mp3. How easy is this? Anything time consuming I'll just use CbB instead

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For wave to mp3 I have always liked RazorLame.  The actual encoder is Lame. Lame has been around for years (1998). Lame has had many versions through the years. It is still considered the best mp3 encoder.  This pair once setup is super fast, easy to use and free. This only makes mp3s. It doesn’t do other stuff. Quick media converter does a ton of stuff. It even has codecs for some phone formats. I use both. If it’s just audio I usually tend to use RazorLame. 

https://lame.sourceforge.io/

https://www.videohelp.com/software/RazorLame
 

The video help site has a ton of great stuff.  You might want to look around a little. 

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Thanks for the links. In Sonar and CbB I have the External Encoder set up to use 3 actual lame DLLs in my shared utility's folder. I'll try both Razor and Quick Media converter.

Occasionally there's some apple audio file that CbB won't let me drag into it, so I need a converter to convert it to a wav or mp3. I think it may be a m4a file and sometimes files like that end up sounding 2x faster than they're supposed to, so those I have to convert also. Will Razor convert other files or only wav files?

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Ditto to Gold Wave. Rock solid conversion of just about anything. I bought a license years ago cheap and it's lifetime updates. But it works perfectly fine with only a nag screen too. It has a "Batch" conversion feature so you can do whole albums in one move. 

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Hey Max, I opened Quick media converter and couldn't easily figure out how to convert a wav to mp3 or a m4a to anything. Sometimes a client may send me a video file, likely from their phone,  with them singing and all I want is the audio. All of these conversions would be fine at medium quality. Quick media converter may be overkill for me. Let me know what you think.

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Gold wave is dead simple to use. 

Choose the file or multiple files. 

Choose the format which you want from this list which has what seems includes every possible known audio and video format.

Choose run. 

I find many uses for this Wave editor but batch conversion is my main use of the software. It's solid and straight forward to learn. 

Screenshot (238).png

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freemake audio converter is exactly what I'm looking for easy no nonsense, unfortunately it has a limit of 3 min. Any song longer than that they charge $39.  I'd prefer a free one, since that's what I had. Although I may pay the $19 for Goldwave unless I find something free

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No limit on file length. I hope I have these in order. I know it’s a  bad UI, but once you learn it, it is very easy to operate. 
+ to add files

music note for audio

Circle thing to convert

folder icon to locate the file

 

Hope this helps

(This is like Razor Lame-which is dependent on Lame. Quick media converter is only a GUI for ffmpeg which must be installed for it to operate) I think many programs use ffmpeg for the actual conversion)

 

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3781289A-7540-466F-B49B-A5B45F3EE1E4.jpeg

Edited by Max Arwood
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4 hours ago, gmp said:

freemake audio converter is exactly what I'm looking for easy no nonsense, unfortunately it has a limit of 3 min. Any song longer than that they charge $39.  I'd prefer a free one, since that's what I had. Although I may pay the $19 for Goldwave unless I find something free

Just pony up the $US19 for Goldwave (or even $US59 for the lifetime).

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6 hours ago, gmp said:

freemake audio converter is exactly what I'm looking for easy no nonsense, unfortunately it has a limit of 3 min. Any song longer than that they charge $39.  I'd prefer a free one, since that's what I had. Although I may pay the $19 for Goldwave unless I find something free

mmm... ugh!

You are right. I didn't realize that. A shame. Fantastic program anyway...

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Are you using the outputs is recordings or for reference? VLC Media Player will also do batch conversions, but I believe the mp3 offload is locked to 128kbps.

If pulling from online, the 4K Video Downloader has more options, but the free version is limited to 30 downloads per day.

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I guess I should have done this. Sorry about all the graphics.I just looked this program supports 60 different video formats. Dozens of iphone,iPod and other phone formats. Xbox, Playstation, Wii DVD, H264.  HTML5, Youtube , Windows media player. Just hover the icon for general info.  Click and the selections for that group appear. Don't buy it, I think the guy quit working on it. 

Free, MANY types or conversions, Unlimited length, Free Internet Downloader. 

QuickMedia Converter.jpg

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Max thanks for the great detail, bypassing all the confusing icons. When I installed it it was not able to load the FFMPEG. I think it said something about security. I've never had to tell Win security to do something like this. Maybe you remember what you did

The program still does launch and I tried all your steps, but when I click target folder, nothing happened. My suspicion is it has something to do with the FFMPEG not loading. what do you think I should do?

I will say this is exactly what I wanted. Once you know the steps it's very quick and easy

Thanks a million - so nice connecting with you after all these years.

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