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Audio Conversion Problems

March 22, 2005 By Brian 13 Comments

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In yet another byproduct of The Great Hard Drive Disaster of 2005, I’m looking for a new audio converter. I’ve been using dBPowerAmp for several years, but the new version I’ve been forced to use since the HD failure only shreds the audio instead of merely converting it.

So, I’m looking for suggestions: anyone know a good MP3 converter? I’m not going from .wav to .mp3, but from .mp3 to a different bitrate .mp3 — and it absolutely, positively, 100% has to preserve the ID3 tags and not change the file name. I’m striking out in finding such a beast, so I turn to you, the userbase. Any ideas are welcome…please hit the “Comments” link below. Thanks.

UPDATE (3/25): found an old version of dBPowerAmp, and life is good again. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

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Comments

  1. Robert F Corbin says

    March 22, 2005 at 5:06 am

    Brian… I sent you files encoded in 128/48/stereo and then re-encoded those same files into 96/22/mono with the ID tags remaining intact.

    I’m using Roxio 7.0 and the Sound Editor that comes with software. Not sure if it’s “good” but I have always liked Roxio and it’s predecessor. It does give you many options from different compression rates for mp3s… 48/64/80/96/128 etc and many frequency settings 8/11/12/16/22/24/32/44.1/48. It does include Windows Media, WAV and OGG encoders…

    Reply
  2. Brian says

    March 22, 2005 at 7:44 am

    Bob: thanks for the send…look for them on the site tonight. Thanks for the suggestion about Roxio, I believe I have it (came with the burner I bought to fight off another hard drive “incident”) so I’ll give it a shot. Suggestions from anyone else?

    Reply
  3. Lance says

    March 22, 2005 at 12:10 pm

    What version of DB were you using by chance?

    Reply
  4. Chris says

    March 22, 2005 at 5:38 pm

    go here….
    http://ec2000.xperiment.net/index.php?id=software
    ………..and download this FREE encoder, decoder, converter. Doesn’t touch file names.

    It’s kind of a bear to get set up, but once you get it rolling, it is flawless. I am running XP Home on a Dell Dimension and I have never had a problem with it.

    Reply
  5. Chris says

    March 23, 2005 at 10:21 am

    Brian I have the free version of Db power amp that works well…It doesnt shredd the audio it converts in many different formats and bitrates…another one is ultimate encoder that works well too. FYI

    Reply
  6. Robert F Corbin says

    March 23, 2005 at 4:50 pm

    Chris… I downloaded what you suggested above. The Win 9X/XP version kept crashing so I tried the Win2000 button…

    I still like what I have with Roxio… very easy to understand with many, many encoding options…

    Reply
  7. Jef says

    March 23, 2005 at 7:18 pm

    I tried that first one as well (http://ec2000.xperiment.net/index.php?id=software) works fine, just download the Windows 2000 version. The XP one crashed for me too, eventhough I’m using XP.

    Reply
  8. Chris says

    March 24, 2005 at 2:20 am

    Robert and Jef. I’m sorry… I should have made a note about that. I have the Win2000 version as well. The XP version is crap. But IF anybody still has problems with the Win2000 version, you can always right click the icon, pick ‘properties’ and navigate to the “compatiblity” tab… and pick something until it works. I have had to do that in the past on other machines (not my current one). I just suggested the MPEG Suite, because I have used it for so long and have had very few problems. And I am a person that is VERY slow to try new things… if you like Roxio, that is cool. To each his own!!

    Viva La Radio Geeks.

    Reply
  9. Brian says

    March 24, 2005 at 9:24 am

    And here I thought it was just my problem. =)

    I’ll try the 2k version and the other suggestions here and report back. Thanks!

    Reply
  10. Thatcher says

    March 24, 2005 at 9:51 am

    I have a strong preference for Sound Forge 8.0. Its easy sturdy and seems not to introduce avoidable artifacts. Its a manual process for each file but I never have problems anymore.

    Reply
  11. Lou Pickney says

    March 24, 2005 at 10:52 am

    I’ve been using DB to convert/encode, but it’s creating those awkward “0:16 · 96 Kbit/s” pieces that cause the listings to look strange. I narrowed it down to that when I did the conversion for the Boston and Norfolk stuff this morning (since Brian had done the tough part in getting the files ready to go with everything but the conversion.) Anyone familiar enough with DB know if there’s a toggle to keep that superfluous info out of there?

    Reply
  12. Brian says

    March 24, 2005 at 9:37 pm

    Lance: it was version 11 of dB that I was using.

    I was also having trouble with every converter I found chopping off the ID3 tags. But…Lance’s question made me start a-thinkin’, and I went and FINALLY found an older version (10) of dB. Problem solved. Yay!

    Thatcher: I’ve never used Sound Forge, but a lot of friends recommend it. I’ll have to test it.

    Thanks to all for suggestions and the like. Much appreciated.

    Reply
  13. Lance says

    March 25, 2005 at 10:12 pm

    Brian – I had Version 10.1 if you had the need for it, which is why I asked.

    Lou – I’m not sure how Andromeda reads the ID3 materials, but I do see some differences between the files converted by Brian and the ones converted by you. Go to the following URL for a side-by-side comparison: http://radiobb.com/capture.jpg

    It seems that the tags are caused by your files being encoded in Lame 3.96, while Brian’s are in Lame 3.93. Right after making that JPG I ran DB on both of the files and they both looked exactly like Brian’s did.

    Reply

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