Audio file conversion help...

[Jimothy JP7]

This has nothing to do with Music Man guitars, so if this is a problem, delete it.

Anyway, I'm trying to use the MP3 trainer on my Boss Micro Br. In order to be able to slow songs down to facillitate learning and hearing, I have to have the audio file in either MP3 or WAV formats. But, since I'm a good fan and I don't download my music from sites that provide them in MP3 form, I have the cd which is in WMA form. Being a supportive fan makes everything harder it seems, no wonder everyone steals the damn music.

So, I'm trying to find a way to convert my audio files (I'm trying to learn the solo to "Deceit" by Ankla) into either WAV or MP3. I have no conversion programs on my computer, and I record with Audacity, which is no help unless I'm going to record the stereo mix of the song as it plays though my speakers, in which case I should just use the crappy "Play Speed Settings" on Windows Media Player.

Any help would be fantastic.

Thanks,
-Jim

 

[NickDuBaldo]

One of the media players I use has a built in conversion tool.

I don't have many tunes in mp3 or wav; most of mine are DVD audio or some form of lossless files which I can (if I wanted to) convert to mp3 or wav with foobar2000.

 

[beej]

There are a few good free tools out there. I use MediaCoder a lot- it's free. Pretty sure you can convert WMA to mp3. 192 kbps VBR mp3 is a good sweet spot in quality vs. size.

There's a good utility called the Amazing Slow Downer to slow down your mp3s (PC based) - worth a couple of bucks. (There are some free ones too, but this does a good job.)

Btw, Reaper is a great multitrack recording environment for Windows that's free (you can use it w/o registering) made by the guy that wrote WinAmp. Much more flexible than Audacity, you can do just about anything with it.

 

[Astrofreq]

I use goldwave for all my sound editing needs.

 

[ba2m]

This has nothing to do with Music Man guitars, so if this is a problem, delete it.

Anyway, I'm trying to use the MP3 trainer on my Boss Micro Br. In order to be able to slow songs down to facillitate learning and hearing, I have to have the audio file in either MP3 or WAV formats. But, since I'm a good fan and I don't download my music from sites that provide them in MP3 form, I have the cd which is in WMA form. Being a supportive fan makes everything harder it seems, no wonder everyone steals the damn music.

Hi Jim,
i have to salute you for that attitude..
(almost everyone i know are downloading music from the net)

btw, i usually set my windows media player to rip my cd into mp3(not wma) file in my computer (it's media player version 10).

 

[the24thfret]

I find that you can convert about anything to anything using shareware found in google searches. But of course this would be a one-off kind of thing.

 

[Ricman]

I've found a much easier way. I'm using XP sp2 and Windows Media Player 11.
RIGHT click the WMA file. There is then an option to "Convert Audio Format"
Windows media player then converts it to MP3 in the quality you prefer.
EASY!!!

 

[Jimothy JP7]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, am I ever going to have a problem you guys can't fix? haha

Beej, thanks for all that. I'll definitely check out Reaper, anything has to be better than Audacity. The compression is pretty lame, and you pretty much have to eye up the tracks to a click, so I'm definitely excited to step up from that. I want to be proficient in something like Nuendo, but I'm broke and my computer hugs, so it would probably die if I installed something of that caliber haha.

Ba2m, thanks. I wish the internet had never happened for that reason, but what can you do? What's worse is there are musicians out there that wish to one day make a living off their music, yet they steal others music like hypocrites. Hopefully my good deeds will pay off in the future.

For those of you suggesting WMP, I'm stuck on a dial up connection, so I haven't updated anything since version 9. I hate dial up.

Again, thanks to all, you're the best.

-Jim

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I use goldwave for all my sound editing needs.

+1! For years!