[PYROphonez]

I want to convert my lossless WAV files into something like 192 kbps mp3 files so I can fit them all on my Zen Micro. I'd rather not have to rip all of my CDs for the second time. What's the best software to use? I searched using multiple search terms, but couldn't find any threads.

What would you guys suggest?

Thanks

 

[nspindel]

check out dbpoweramp. use that as the front end for your conversion - uses the LAME encoder, which is the one you want....

you'd also be well advised to convert those wav's into some other lossless format like flac, which dbpoweramp can also do for you. you could get back almost half the disk space you're using for the wav's, but flac is not a lossy codec like mp3.

 

[PYROphonez]

Yeah, I knew about FLAC, but it was too much hassle at the time to get the necessary files. Maybe I'll get that done too.

Thanks so much. I'm going to try their Sveta software as well, because I can't stand the creative stuff. Great player, awful software.

 

[Febs]

There are any number of front-ends for LAME that would do what you want. In addition to the ones already suggested, Foobar or even EAC would do the job.

Use the following setting with LAME to achieve your target bitrate:

-V 2 --vbr-new

 

[PYROphonez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Febs /img/forum/go_quote.gif There are any number of front-ends for LAME that would do what you want. In addition to the ones already suggested, Foobar or even EAC would do the job. Use the following setting with LAME to achieve your target bitrate: -V 2 --vbr-new

I don't know what you mean by that,

but I got dbpoweramp to work for me. Really simple too. Just right click, then click convert to, and choose bitrate or file type.

 

[nspindel]

The thing I like about dbpoweramp (not saying others don't do this as well) is that you can point the file selector at some directory tree structure, pick 100 cd's worth of music that you need to transcode just by clicking checkboxes, and then set it off on it's way. It will churn away for days on end if necessary transcoding everything you selected in some other folder and maitain the whole folder structure. It will also transfer the tags as well. So if I've got a big library of tagged flacs organized with a \genre\artist\album\ type file structure, I can translate the whole thing to mp3 via LAME in some other location, the files all end up with the same \genre\artist\album\ folder structure, and the mp3's are all properly tagged. All with a few mouseclicks (and a lot of compute time....). You really can't ask for much else from a transcoder, although I'm not saying nothing else does this. Just saying dbpoweramp does it quite nicely....

Also, when converting from wav to flac you can select something like "delete original after conversion" so that as it creates flacs it deletes the wav's as it goes, so you don't run out of disk space halfway through your transcoding.

 

[PYROphonez]

I was changing some wave files into flac. I read that the compression number didn't matter, it just meant it would take longer and would result in a smaller file in the end.
However, when looking at the kbps in winamp, I noticed it doesn't stay constant at 1411 like my other music. It usually goes up and down between 900 and 1200. Is it still actually doing its job, and I should ignore that?

 

[nspindel]

I've read that some portable players have problems with flac at maximum compression, processors aren't powerful enough to decompress on the fly. Shouldn't be an issue for winamp, but I was reading on another thread that someone was having problems with rockbox ipod playing max compressed flac.

When you're saying that bitrate changes, do you mean within the song? Or from one song to another?

 

[PYROphonez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nspindel /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've read that some portable players have problems with flac at maximum compression, processors aren't powerful enough to decompress on the fly. Shouldn't be an issue for winamp, but I was reading on another thread that someone was having problems with rockbox ipod playing max compressed flac. When you're saying that bitrate changes, do you mean within the song? Or from one song to another?

The bitrate is varying within the song.

 

[nspindel]

Strange, I've never seen that, but I don't use winamp, I use foobar.

 

[PYROphonez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nspindel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Strange, I've never seen that, but I don't use winamp, I use foobar.

Yeah, testing a different song, I'm getting variable bitrates, usually staying around the 1000 range, so it wasn't just one song

 

[mourges]

One interesting way to do it is via flac2mp3, a perl script I found on the slimdevices website. http://robinbowes.com/projects/flac2...WindowsInstall is the website - might take a bit of fiddling to work through, but it is a good way to do it if you have flac files