MP3 to Wav

Anyone know of a program that will transfer MP3 files to .Wav files? or are they equivalent?

Winamp will. Go to Options>preferences>Output and change the setting to Out_dsk.dll. Click on “configure” to set the directory where the .WAV files will go and then simply hit play (conversion goes about 3-4x faster than playing, depending on the speed of your computer). Remember to change the output to Out_Wav.dll when done.

frankie,

I have an app that I can mail you if you like.

That would be great mouthie!

It’s on it’s way.

Send an email if you have any trouble with it, it is pretty simple though.

Yup. I convert all MP3 to WAV because with WAV I have more control over compression etc.

Note that they both use the same compression and codec though.

sailor, I have to ask: did you really believe that, or was it an attempt at a joke?

MP3 and wav do not use the same compression. MP3 is a lossy compression, which means that even when you expand it back to WAV, you don’t get the original WAV. And what you do get is generally about 10 times the MP3 file size.

Now, if you’re doing a lot of mixing and editing of sound files, then sure, there are lots more wav tools out there. But for simple storage and playback (of reasonable length files), wav vs mp3 isn’t even close.

My friend has a program which will convert MP3s into a format that works on traditional CD players. My question: is there such a program for Macs and where do I find it?

(spare me the Mac-bashing, if you please)

tiggeril,

I know squat about Macs, but MP3.com is a good resource for all things MP3. (The link is to Mac software.)

tiggeril, WAV is the format that traditional CDplayers use. All you have to do is save your mp3s to wav, then burn an audio cd with those wavs (the procedure will depend on the program you are using).

MacAMP will probably do the MP3->WAV conversion for you, but I’m not sure, as I’m not a mac guy.

TheNerd, you obviously don’t have a clue. WAV files can be straight uncompressed PCM or compressed using MP3 to any degree you like. I routinely compress WAV files using MP3 compression (more accurately called MPEG layer3).

You do not even need any special software. Start SNDREC.exe, record a few seconds, then choose SAVE AS, click on change / format and select any level or compression scheme you have codec for.

I would post an example of a file compressed to diferent sizes and different qualities but I think it is not necessary. You might want to try a little humility when implying other people are ignorant of something. It might turn out you were the ignorant one.

Most home audio CD players will only recognize CD audio (.cda) format.

Yup; just for clarification: cd audio is (among other requirements) straight uncompressed PCM at 44.1 Khz, 16 bit, 2 channel.

That is the short of it. The long explanation is much more involved because you have other information (like UPC code, program and time, etc).

MP3 files online are encoded at 44.1Khz, stereo, at 128Kbits/sec but this level is often unnecessary and the file can be compressed much more. Older recordings were never recorded in stereo. For most oldies I find that 22Khz/mono at 20 or 24 Kbps is enough and it cuts the file size to about 1/5.

Example: I just downloaded Day-O by Harry Belafonte in 1957. The mp3 file is 2884KB. Expand it to raw PCM and it goes up to 31,777KB. Compress it again at 24Kbps and you have a WAV file that is 538KB and sounds the same as the original MP3 which is much larger. You could possibly cut it down to 20Kbps and not notice much difference. With the spoken work you can go down to 18 Kbps. I often do this to send recordings of my voice by email. You can get good quality at about 130Kbyte/min

sailor said:

Yes, so do I. This doesn’t mean that wavs and mp3s use the same compression.

As an example, think bitmap and JPEG. These formats are both supported by just about any decent graphics program, and most will be able to convert one to the other for you. But I hope you won’t claim that a bitmap is a jpeg, or the other way around.

I do see where the confusion entered the discussion, but the fact remains that MP3 is not WAV. Nor is WAV MP3. Just because sound recorder supports both formats does not equate them. If they were the same compression and codec then ANY program that could play wavs could play mp3s.

Just to clarify things for those who don’t know the sticky details about all this stuff:

This expanded file, while in PCM format, isn’t the same PCM data that the mp3-encoded file was probably created from, since mp3 uses a lossy compression. The PCM version will sound exactly like the mp3 version, with any distortions caused by the mp3 compression, even though it’s not compressed. Once the compression is done, some sound information is lost forever (hence the term “lossy”).

It may sound the same to some listeners with some sound systems, and with some music sources, but it’s not, due to the compression. If you’re listening on your PC speakers, it’s probably not noticeably different, but if you’ve got an audiophile-grade sound system, (and some spare time to do A/B comparisons), you’ll probably notice a difference. It depends a lot on the type of music.

Again, it depends on the original music/voice content, and how you listen to it. For voice email, if you don’t really care HOW it sounds as long as it’s intelligible, you can get by with less than 20KByte/minute (at that rate you’ll sound like a distorted computer-like voice).

Anyway, I think the previous disagreements were more over semantics. The “WAV” format supports various different encodings, some compressed, some uncompressed. In addition, the uncompressed formats have different number of bits (8 or 16 for example), and different sampling rates. In addition not all “WAV” players will play all the different formats.

Arjuna34

Arjuna is correct. I’d like to apologise to sailor, as I did not know that wavs could use the mp3 codec. Sailor’s comments were technically correct, though the use of “mp3” had a slightly different meaning to him and me (and the OP, I’d wager).

I was referring to mp3 files, which are certainly not wavs, while he was referring to wavs which used the mp3 codec.

(you gotta admit though that the context of the OP was mp3 files vs PCM wavs)

Arjuna, I know all that very well. The point (which we now all agree on) was that TheNerd thought WAV files could not be compressed and I was telling him they can be compressed with MP3 or any other codec you may have. Look at my first post and his reply to that.

My post was clear: I said I convert MP3s to WAVs, but they both share the same codec (and therefore compression scheme).

You can see your audio and video codecs at
control panel / multimedia / advanced

Take out a codec and no program will be able to use that format because they all use the same codec. And the reverse: if the codec is there all programs will understand the format.

Regarding the losses of compression, I understand it all very well. My point is that all MP3 files I have seen are compressed to the same 128Kbps standard which is unnecessary for many recordings. If Harry Belafonte recorded with half the bandwidth and half the channels, it is no use putting it on a CD at 44Khz and stereo; it will still sound the way it did. If you are compressing double the bandwith and double the channels, you are just wasting space.

MS has some free software you could try. Im still not sure what you want to do but check this ripper page, its pretty nice:
http://fm4.org/tutorial/step3.html

“You will need the Ligos MPEG splitter, the InterVideo Audio Decoder, and a WAV
Dest filter. When you’re done inserting these filters, add “File Source (async).” It
should ask you for a file, point it at your single VOB file (from step 1). Also, add a
“File Writer” filter, it will ask for an output file. Point this towards whatever.wav (call
it whatever you want), on a drive with sufficient free space, the end product of
this step will result in a *.wav file at LEAST 1 Gig in size, so make sure you have
enough space before you start. The GraphEdit window should now look something”

Tiggeril: you can get a Mac MP3 decoder at download.com (can’t remember the name atm tho - sorry I’ve been away from the beloved macs for too long now. :frowning: One day I’ll come back from the dark side)

PC users: simple little app called MP32WAV also availble at download.com. Quick, simple.