Convert OpenMGAudio (OMA - ATRAC3 plus) to .wav

[abhi]

Hello,
We're trying to edit music files using Audacity. The files are in OMA (ATRAC3 plus) format which Audacity does not recognize. Does anyone know how to convert ATRAC3 plus file format to a file format recognized in Audacity?

Thank You!

[steve]

This is a proprietary Sony format. You will probably need Sony software to do the conversion, such as the program that created the files. I don't know of any free decoders for ATRAC3 plus.

You may be able to play the files on a Sony portable player, or a Sony PSP, and then record the audio with Audacity.

[abhi]

Thanks,it worked. Why didn't I think of that??? I am wondering.

We simply took a line out of the mini disc recorder and sent that in to the computer (and Audacity). No problem.

Just wondering: it there more loss that way? Seems like there are several conversions going on: from analog (original sound) to the Sony format, back to analog while playing it, then from that new analog version to Audacity's format.

[steve]

Just wondering: it there more loss that way? Seems like there are several conversions going on: from analog (original sound) to the Sony format, back to analog while playing it, then from that new analog version to Audacity's format.

The amount of quality loss will depend on a number of things:

• The losses due to encoding/decoding of the ATRAC format (should be low, but since this is the format that the recording is in, there is nothing you can do about that)
  Losses due to the D/A converter in your mini disc recorder (should also be quite low)
  Losses due to the quality of the A/D conversion by your soundcard - this will depend on the quality of your soundcard

Audacity itself uses uncompressed audio, so unless you then export to a "lossy" format, such as mp3, Audacity will not introduce any additional losses.

The main things that you have control over are a) what soundcard you use, and b) make sure that you record with a high, but not too high a recording level. If your recording level is too low, you will start to notice an increase i background noise (usually "hiss"). If the recording level is too high, you will get distortion due to "clipping" of the waveform's peaks.

On-board soundcards tend to be the worst (or soundcards costing $10 or less). A professional level soundcard can cost well over $100, but good results can be obtained in the "middle ground".

When t comes to sound quality, the important question is always "what does it sound like?"
If it sounds good enough for you, then it IS good enough.