Converting WMA to MP3...How?
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Converting WMA to MP3...How?
So I am a new DJ and I use Windows Media Player. I usually just rip songs off of CDs and add them to my library. Well I recently just found itunes...it's a whole lot better, but I can't get all my old songs from Windows Media to itunes because of the file type. I've tried importing and it doesn't work. Help me please! Do I need a file converter or what? If so which one is the best and easiest to use. Thanks.
Re: Converting WMA to MP3...How?
Are you using PC or Mac? Anyway, these ideas should help ...btluhrman wrote:So I am a new DJ and I use Windows Media Player. I usually just rip songs off of CDs and add them to my library. Well I recently just found itunes...it's a whole lot better, but I can't get all my old songs from Windows Media to itunes because of the file type. I've tried importing and it doesn't work. Help me please! Do I need a file converter or what? If so which one is the best and easiest to use. Thanks.
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/converting ... _ipod.html
http://forums.dealmac.com/read.php?4,2504022,2504022
http://playlistmag.com/forums/ubbthread ... &Main=3917
Exactly. What he's referring to is that WMAs are "lossy" formats, meaning that they degrade the quality of the audio in the compression process. Re-compressing them into another lossy format like MP3 is like taking a photocopy of a photocopy: with each progressive copy, the quality gets worse. The better the quality of the original photocopy, the better the second generation photocopy will be; but the second generation copy will never be as good as copying the original anew.Matthew wrote:What bitrate are your WMAs? It may be worth it to rerip everything at a higher rate, or as WAVs.
If the bitrate of the WMA is not top-quality, you are pretty much stuck because "converting" (in other words, "re-compressing") the files into MP3s will make them sound awful.
You make a good point Lawrence, but are you really sure converting to MP3 will make them sound 'awful'?Lawrence wrote:Exactly. What he's referring to is that WMAs are "lossy" formats, meaning that they degrade the quality of the audio in the compression process. Re-compressing them into another lossy format like MP3 is like taking a photocopy of a photocopy: with each progressive copy, the quality gets worse. The better the quality of the original photocopy, the better the second generation photocopy will be; but the second generation copy will never be as good as copying the original anew.Matthew wrote:What bitrate are your WMAs? It may be worth it to rerip everything at a higher rate, or as WAVs.
If the bitrate of the WMA is not top-quality, you are pretty much stuck because "converting" (in other words, "re-compressing") the files into MP3s will make them sound awful.
Re: Converting WMA to MP3...How?
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/btluhrman wrote: I've tried importing and it doesn't work. Help me please! Do I need a file converter or what? If so which one is the best and easiest to use. Thanks.
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As he said, it depends: What quality is the WMA? What bitrate are you re-encoding too.Haydn wrote:You make a good point Lawrence, but are you really sure converting to MP3 will make them sound 'awful'?Lawrence wrote:Exactly. What he's referring to is that WMAs are "lossy" formats, meaning that they degrade the quality of the audio in the compression process. Re-compressing them into another lossy format like MP3 is like taking a photocopy of a photocopy: with each progressive copy, the quality gets worse. The better the quality of the original photocopy, the better the second generation photocopy will be; but the second generation copy will never be as good as copying the original anew.Matthew wrote:What bitrate are your WMAs? It may be worth it to rerip everything at a higher rate, or as WAVs.
If the bitrate of the WMA is not top-quality, you are pretty much stuck because "converting" (in other words, "re-compressing") the files into MP3s will make them sound awful.
In my experience that type of conversion almost always has a noticable quality loss. Re-ripping is the definiteloy the best choice, and really won't take that much more time.
No, you are stuck unless you resort to "illegal" means to get around the DRm (Digital Rights Management). You might be able to convert to ITunes' proprietary format, it might work, but I've never done that because I avoid using proprietary formats since my experiments in Minidiscs (Sony's proprietary compression) screwed me. ITunes automatically prompts you to convert WMA files to ITunes format when searching your music folders to build its library.btluhrman wrote:Thanks for all your help. I tried converting, but something about the liscence agreement came up and wouldn't let me convert. Is there anyway to bipass this?
... yet another example of how DRM negatively impacts a legal user who simply did not know the pitfalls of using that format.
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caveat emptorLawrence wrote:... yet another example of how DRM negatively impacts a legal user who simply did not know the pitfalls of using that format.
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I don't know many places where one can by a .wma file, so I have to assume the file was created locally... in which case I can also assume the original location exists and could be used to create a new format.Lawrence wrote:No, you are stuck unless you resort to "illegal" means to get around the DRm (Digital Rights Management). You might be able to convert to ITunes' proprietary format, it might work, but I've never done that because I avoid using proprietary formats since my experiments in Minidiscs (Sony's proprietary compression) screwed me. ITunes automatically prompts you to convert WMA files to ITunes format when searching your music folders to build its library.btluhrman wrote:Thanks for all your help. I tried converting, but something about the liscence agreement came up and wouldn't let me convert. Is there anyway to bipass this?
... yet another example of how DRM negatively impacts a legal user who simply did not know the pitfalls of using that format.
DRM is rarely more than just an annoyance for legal users.