Converting MP3 file to a .wav. 16-bit 44.1kHz file

[Nowhereman]

I have Audacity version 2.0.5. I think I obtained the exe.installer. Got it off the internet yesterday. I have a Windows 8 laptop, version 6.2. It is 64-bit. I want to convert my brother's recording of an mp3 file to a .wav. 16-bit 44.1kHz file because I read I can transfer that type of file onto Studio One Artist 2.5. I want to add piano and vocals. I have not been able to import this recording onto Studio One so far. The original recording is off a CD. I converted the original recording to mp3.

[kozikowski]

The original recording is off a CD. I converted the original recording to mp3.

If you got it from an Audio CD, the music format is high quality WAV standard. You converted it to ratty MP3, so you could re-convert it to WAV (you don't get the quality back).

Can you reconvert the original CD to WAV directly? Many ripper programs will let you do that.

If not, import the MP3 into Audacity and File > Export > WAV (Microsoft)....
Use new filenames so you don't step on original files and break them by accident.

Koz

[Nowhereman]

Hi Koz. I have the original CD. I thought files on CDs were wave files. I will find a way to rip the CD version to a wave file and try that. If you have any other suggestions, I would really appreciate them. I am just getting started with all this. Thanks for your help. - Nowhereman in central Illinois.

[kozikowski]

The files on an Audio CD are not WAV files, but they are WAV quality and generally WAV format. The designers did that to smash as much music on a CD as they could. They're not hard drives which have to contend with multiple formats and complexity. They're a captive audience, so much of the unused formatting vanished -- along with the song titles. That's why you have to rip an Audio CD to get the music back out into files.

Koz

[steve]

I will find a way to rip the CD version to a wave file and try that.

C-Dex can do that (free): http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

[Nowhereman]

Hey Kos, I got it to work. I found a program to convert my brother's CD song to a wave-file. I then imported this wave file into Studio One. I couldn't believe it when it played. I freaked out. Thanks again for you help. Do you think they will ever invent a CD that will capture the quality of the original recordings?

[kozikowski]

Do you think they will ever invent a CD that will capture the quality of the original recordings?

They did. That's why you can't use a compressed format and its associated damage and why you can only get 78 minutes of show into a disk.

That's an Audio CD. If you make a Data CD, you can put your whole 24-bit 96000 stereo original studio WAV capture on there in the original quality (limited to 700MB). If you need more, then you graduate to Data DVD and then Data BluRay beyond that. Most people give up and start using Thumb Drives and then Cloud Storage.

That's the past fifteen years in three sentences.

Koz