[SOLVED] Keep the quality of music files when convert into other format.

[Vietred]

Hi, I have a music collection with 90% is mp3. My HDD is nearly full so I want to convert those mp3 into ogg using soundkonverter, but I don't know how to keep their quality. Bitrates of my mp3 files is 64kbps, 96kbps, 128kbps. What I need to do? Help me, please.

[disturbedite]

Re: Keep the quality of music files when convert into other format.

you need to use a lossless format. i'd recommend flac.

[stealthbanana]

Re: Keep the quality of music files when convert into other format.

When you convert from one format to another, you will invariably loose some quality. I think your best option should be to get hold of a bigger hard drive, an external one would be ideal and dump them on that then you can play them on any computer.

If you are converting, an intermediary lossless format would probably be the best way rather than one compressed format direct to another. Flac files are very big compared to ogg vorbis or mp3, typically a cd will go to 2-300 mb as flac. The intermediary format would most easily be .wav format, its lossless, you will be doing one song at a time I assume and it could be deleted once finished with. A simple bash script could do it.

[Rog131]

Re: Keep the quality of music files when convert into other format.

Ogg wiki:

Ogg is only a container format. The actual audio or video encoded by a codec will be stored inside an Ogg container. Ogg containers may contain streams encoded with multiple codecs...


* Audio codecs
o lossy
+ Speex: handles voice data at low bitrates (~8-32 kbit/s/channel)
+ Vorbis: handles general audio data at mid- to high-level variable bitrates (~16-500 kbit/s/channel)
o lossless
+ FLAC: handles archival and high fidelity audio data

From mp3:

Codec : MPEG-1 Audio layer 3
Codec profile : Joint stereo
File size : 2.00 MiB
Bit rate mode : VBR
Bit rate : 142 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits

to the ogg Vorbis, Quality level 1

Format : OGG
File size : 999 KiB
Codec : Vorbis
Bit rate : 80.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz

or to the ogg Vorbis, Quality level 10

Format : OGG
File size : 4.11 MiB
Codec : Vorbis
Bit rate : 500 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz

or to the Flac, Flac compression level 2

Format : FLAC
File size : 14.0 MiB
Bit rate : 989 Kbps
Codec : FLAC
Bit rate mode : VBR
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits

Links:

mp3 wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3

Topic: Perl Audio Converter
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3093565.0

Topic: Mediainfo application on Linux
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3092927.0

[dibl]

Re: Keep the quality of music files when convert into other format.

When you went from .wav to .mp3, you already lost about as much quality as is possible to sacrifice, without actually hearing the degradation (some say they can hear it). If you compress further, or convert the mp3s to another format, you probably will have an audibly degraded result. You would be better advised, if you are concerned about the sound quality, to find a way to keep the mp3 format and get them onto larger storage media. That's my two cents worth on it.

[stealthbanana]

Re: Keep the quality of music files when convert into other format.

When you went from .wav to .mp3, you already lost about as much quality as is possible to sacrifice, without actually hearing the degradation (some say they can hear it).

You can hear it, have you ever listened to classical music on mp3, it's like comparing a video taken with a pro broadcast quality video camera and a mobile phone. If it has slow and low passages changing to fast and loud its very apparent, try Stravinsky's Rite of Spring as an mp3.

[Vietred]

Re: Keep the quality of music files when convert into other format.

Thanks for your help. I'll save money for a larger HDD . But I'll convert my mp3 files to ogg vorbis (quality level 1) as a temporary solution, because I realize that my speakers can't show me the difference between the high and the low quality :-P. I'll use lossless format when I have pro devices because its size is unacceptable for me.

[disturbedite]

Re: [SOLVED] Keep the quality of music files when convert into other format.

Thanks for your help. I'll save money for a larger HDD . But I'll convert my mp3 files to ogg vorbis (quality level 1) as a temporary solution, because I realize that my speakers can't show me the difference between the high and the low quality :-P. I'll use lossless format when I have pro devices because its size is unacceptable for me.

i'd recommend newegg.com for hardware, stuff there is almost always very affordable.