converting an mp3 to wav

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

When converting an mp3 to wav by export as what pcm should it be.16 bit 32 bit?

Thanks

2

Not all software/devices can play 32-bit WAV.
IMO no audible difference between 32-bit & 16-bit WAV
Converting from MP3 to WAV will not improve sound quality.

3

Normally you would want 16-bit.
16-bit WAV is compatible with nearly everything.

4

WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit is very ordinary and those will play anywhere on all three computer platforms. That’s the sound standard for Music CD.

Converting MP3 to WAV will give you a very high quality sound file with MP3 compression distortion. That can work for you if you want to edit or use the sound in production, but you can never go back to MP3. The conversion back will add compression distortion as if you had never put the WAV step in the middle. There was a forum poster who supplied a music review show to a radio station. He did all the work in MP3. The broadcast was fine and everything worked OK until the station tried to make an MP3 podcast. The quality was terrible and sounded like a bad cellphone.

MP3 adds distortion again and again each time you make a new one from the work. You can minimize it by making insanely high quality MP3s, but that gives you very high file sizes and the normal goal is to keep the same file size.

Never do production in MP3. Once you do, you’re stuck with the compression sound distortion forever.

Koz

5

It is not to improve quality. Thanks

6

did you mean no mp3 compression distortion? I know you can never go back to MP3, I will have wav and mp3 copies

There was a forum poster who supplied a music review show to a radio station. He did all the work in MP3. The broadcast was fine and everything worked OK until the station tried to make an MP3 podcast. The quality was terrible and sounded like a bad cellphone.

I think i saw that

Thanks everyone

7

ok thanks :slight_smile:

8

I will have wav and mp3 copies

If you go into this with your eyes wide open (you bump into far fewer things that way) then you just open the work in Audacity and Export WAV. The thread above is the differences between the variations. The sample rate is in the work window lower left.

Some of the odder differences may pop up. MP3 is part of a video format. It’s full family name is MPEG 1, Layer 3. As such, they didn’t pay too close attention to stop and start times. They just consulted the associated video for frame barriers. This drives the loopers nuts. “How Come I can’t loop my song without spaces and ticks?”

There are length restrictions for WAV. Because of header restrictions, you shouldn’t make WAV files over 2GB. Most applications and services recognize WAV files out to 4GB. I have a sound recorder that automatically starts new WAVs at the 2GB limit, so yes, this is still a thing. If you exceed the barriers, you might end up with a multi-hour stereo show that appears to be fifteen minutes long. The header just starts over. I think there are ways to rescue a show like that.

Koz