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Vintage threads from the first ten years

WAV to MP3 conversion software?

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5/6/1999 9:21 PM
Steve A.	WAV to MP3 conversion software? Any recommendations for what utility program for Win95 (preferably free!) to convert WAV files to MP3? Thanks! Steve Ahola

5/7/1999 1:07 AM

Have you tried MP3.com?

I know there's a bunch of different free programs out there. I was doing some research the other day on it but my computer crashed and I lost all my bookmarks...

Do a search, I remember finding a bunch of stuff.

If you can't find it tell me. A friend of mine just downloaded an encoder the other day and I know he didn't pay for it. I'll find out where he got it, but I'm pretty sure its out there for the taking.

Warren

5/7/1999 1:50 AM
Steve A.	Warren: Have you tried MP3.com? As a matter of fact I did and it seems like much of the stuff there is trial versions of commercial products. With all of the choices I was wondering if there was a program in particular that someone would recommend. Thanks! Steve Ahola

5/7/1999 6:23 AM

In fact there are a lot of products but most are like "shells" that use one of few encoding machines (like the Fraunhofer codec or the Xing codec). I prefer the Fraunhofer codec for speed/quality. Once you have the codec installed, even CoolEdit will automatically be able to save MP3 compressed files, so the shell is not so important.

You can try
http://mp3.box.sk
to get a list of different encoders/decoders with some comments.

5/16/1999 7:56 AM

http://www.mp3bench.com/ is a good site for comparisons of different players and encoders. Unfortunately it has been under re-construction for a long time.

I like the Fraunhofer since it produces the best quality, but it is slow working. That's generally the truth, slow=quality... there are plenty that work faster but most produce 'artifacts' of compression in the final mp3.

While mp3 is king right now, there are other compressions systems in the running to become the standard. MS-Audio 4.0 has now been released, and I expect it to be the leader due to the massive inertia of Microsoft's empire. Lucent has an encoding system called ePac but I don't think it's been released yet. I tried a beta and wasn't impressed enough to believe it can dethrone mp3. The recording industry wants a system that allows password protection and/or machine-specific encoding, which would only allow playback on the computer to which it has been installed... after payment of course. The RIAA is interested in royalties, not technical trivialities

You might also check out http://www.a2bmusic.com/ I have a ton of mp3 links that I'm compiling for my web site but they're not up yet.

-Jack

5/17/1999 6:12 AM
GFR	Jack, Have you tried Yamaha's VQF?

5/17/1999 7:37 PM

Jack:

The RIAA is interested in royalties, not technical trivialities

    I just read this in an interesting article by Neil Strauss from the NY Times this morning:

    "It may seem as if [the record labels] are running scared because recent technological advances have made it very easy for Internet users to copy and distribute their favorite CDs on-line without authorization, but the truth is that the labels have already found a way to turn this new technology to their financial advantage.

    "Most major labels have added what's called a new technology deduction clause to the contracts that they offer bands. What it does is subtract 15 percent to 25 percent of the royalty rate of 12 percent to 13 percent that a new band receives for each record sold. The labels maintain that the clause is necessary because of the costs of Internet-related technology. This rationale seems strange because the distribution of music on the Internet is supposed to save record labels money in CD manufacturing, packaging and shipping costs."

    It brings to mind the local water districts here in the SF Bay Area which raised the rates when people weren't conserving water ("we need to find new sources!") and then raised them again when we cut usage down the recommended 20% ("we're not selling enough water to cover our costs!")

Steve Ahola

P.S. Even if the record industry wants to use a different format than mp3 to distribute their "product" (BTW didn't "product" used to be an euphemism for human waste? < g >

what is to stop the public from continuing to use mp3 to distribute their music? Will it be illegal to posssess mp3 software or recordings? (Like a new "3 MP's and you're out" law?) I believe that there are enough people using MP3 now that it will take a substantially better standard to convince them to switch... and hopefully to something that would offer backward compatibility (like mp4?) We will still be able to "rip" the audio from any Internet-distributed/home-pressed CD we purchase, or have they figured out a way around that one, too.

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