[wgr73]

Okay guys. I have WMA 160kbps, and I would like to transcode them into Mp3. What program do you guys recommend I use? Also since the WMA'a are 160kbps, can I transcode at a higher Mp3 bitrate? Or what would be the highest to trancode at? Thanks in advance!

 

[Cousin Patty]

I use foobar when I need to transcode songs.

I dont think converting 160kbps into a higher bitrate accomplishes anything. Its like stretching a low res picture across a higher res screen.

 

[wgr73]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cousin Patty /img/forum/go_quote.gif I use foobar when I need to transcode songs. I dont think converting 160kbps into a higher bitrate accomplishes anything. Its like stretching a low res picture across a higher res screen.

Cool! I have foobar, but how do I transcode exactly? I thought that WMA 160kbps is better than mp3 160?

 

[wgr73]

I think I figured it out! Nevermind. Thanks for your help thought. I appreciate it.

 

[Redo]

Transcoding lossy to lossy formats can be nasty. Since they both use different lossy algorithms, the end result is a much lossy-er file than the original 160kbps WMA. I recommend trying out different bitrates and seeing if you can hear the difference. I would probably transcode to -b 320 mp3 if anything.

 

[wgr73]

ok

 

[Mr_Junesequa]

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=227727

check that out mate

 

[Mr_Junesequa]

As a rule I have learnt that you should never encode lossy to lossy

 

[Jubei]

Only time I transcode lossy to lossy is when I chop up and reduce bit rate to create MP3 ringtones with Audacity.

As noted by Cousin Patty, transcoding to higher bitrate achieves nothing.

 

[ChaseD13]

well if you are transcoding across lossy formats, you should go to a higher bitrate, like in this case wma 160 to mp3 320. that way you will minimize the loss you get by going across formats.

wma 160 to mp3 160 is probably way worse than to 320 (im hypothesizing here).

best thing i would recommend is to rerip/download the files in the right format.

 

[Mr_Junesequa]

Where are the originals from -I hope its not from p2p networks - a lot of the music you dl from p2p networks have already been transcoded over and over..besides being all different versions with the same file name they all begin to erode as they circulate over and over ...if the originals are from cd..then your problem is solved..dl lame encoder and encode directly to mp3!

if not...What sort of music are we talking about? Perhaps you can find the originals and then encode them - u might be able to find some lossless versions on the web somewhere - or look for a trade on the for sale forums or something

 

[wgr73]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_Junesequa /img/forum/go_quote.gif I hope its not from p2p networks

Lol...no comment! Nah, but really, some are. Most (99%) are not! However, I borrowed the originals a while back and no longer have access to them. I got a Nano, and of course it won't play WMA (which I was stupid enough to encode to before I knew to just encode to the most used, Mp3). So I guess my only choice is to do what I mentioned.