Wav to MP3

[JonathanT]

Hi

Quite a few years ago I remember producing MP3s within SAW - I think it was one of John Marshall Smith's plugins. I still have all the products I bought from him plus the demo versions etc. but I can't remember which one to use or whether it is compatible with the current version of SAWStudio. Is anyone using this method?

Or am I better off just converting outside SAW - has anyone got a recommendation on what program to use?

Thanks

Jonathan

[mr_es335]

Hello,

Why not go "outside of SAW"...as there are many, many options available out there today.

[Dave Labrecque]

Hi

Quite a few years ago I remember producing MP3s within SAW - I think it was one of John Marshall Smith's plugins. I still have all the products I bought from him plus the demo versions etc. but I can't remember which one to use or whether it is compatible with the current version of SAWStudio. Is anyone using this method?

Or am I better off just converting outside SAW - has anyone got a recommendation on what program to use?

Thanks

Jonathan

Jon's plugin is LACE. Works fine. I use it as the last thing on the output patch point for some EDL templates. All the settings are already made. It's just a matter of "buildmix to FX modules" rather than the regular buildmix operation.

Otherwise, I find it easier to use dBpoweramp, which gives you a "Convert" context menu (right-click) option in File Explorer. You do a regular buildmix in SAW (to WAV), then right-click on the output WAV file in File Explorer. You can select multiple files at once, if you like. dBpoweramp has a "very high" quality setting for LAME codec MP3 conversion -- which LACE does not. I've never determined if that means you actually can't get the highest quality out of LACE or not. Maybe LACE's "high" equals dBpoweramp's "very high"? I don't know. LACE has four quality tiers, dBpoweramp has ten. These settings are in addition to the bitrate setting.

Lots of other options out there, but these are my go-to creation/conversion methods.

UPDATE: actually, I recently updated my dBpoweramp to the latest version, and the multiple MP3 quality setting levels are no longer low, medium, high, very high (or whatever they used to be). They're now less "verbally" labeled and more numerically denoted, but there are ten levels, now. I think there used to be only four.

[JonathanT]

I went for dBpoweramp

Thanks

Jonathan

[Tim Miskimon]

I've been using Sound Forge for many years to do that and several other tasks I can't do with SAW.
Sound Forge has a great batch converter that allows you to convert hundreds of files at the same time.
It not only converts to and from MP3 to Wave - it also will do many other file formats.
Someone sent me a project with about 50 MP3 files that needed to be converted to wave before I could load them into SAW for a quick reference mix.
Converting them one at a time would have been a big pain.
With batch conversion I loaded them all into Sound Forge at once and took a break - came back in 5 minutes and the conversion was completed - something easy for a change.

[mr_es335]

Hello,

I use TAudioConverter...does everything...

[Richard Rupert]

I've used Format Factory for several years; very good, and free: http://www.pcfreetime.com/formatfact...hp?language=en
Just be careful when installing to avoid a bunch of bloatware.