How does audio file conversion work?

A file's format - the way that it's saved and encoded - determines what you can do with it and which programs can open it. You can check its format by looking at the filename extension. Some files only understood by specific platforms and applications. For that reason, to access any given file, you may need to convert it to a new format.

An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. The bit layout of the audio data is called the audio coding format and can be uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the file size, often using lossy compression. The data can be a raw bitstream in an audio coding format, but it is usually embedded in a container format or an audio data format with a defined storage layer. Audio files come in all types and sizes. And we may all be familiar with MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, or WMA.

In this post, we'll recommend some of the best format-conversion services, and give you a few tips so that you never get stuck with a wrongly-encoded file.

First of all, you have to understand - Which Format Should You Use?

For most people, the decision is actually pretty easy -

• If you’re capturing and editing raw audio, use an uncompressed format. This way you’re working with the truest quality of audio possible. When you’re done, you can export to a compressed format.

• If you’re listening to music and want faithful audio representation, use lossless audio compression. This is why audiophiles always scramble for FLAC albums over MP3 albums. Note that you’ll need more storage space for these.

• If you’re okay with “good enough” music quality, if your audio file doesn’t have any music, or if you need to conserve disk space, use lossy audio compression. Most people actually can’t hear the difference between lossy and lossless compression.

 

For those who want utmost quality in their music playback, note that high-quality audio files won’t matter if your playback device can’t faithfully recreate those sounds. Meaning, you need to have good quality speakers or good quality headphones!

Check your applications

Frequently, the application you used to create the file in the first place will let you save it as something else. If you know that you'll want to access a given file using multiple programs, you can save the file in several formats, to begin with. Of course, you won't always have access to the program that originally created the file. In that case, you'll want to use a conversion program. So, the program you choose will depend on the type of file you're tinkering with.

When you want a dedicated audio converter, however, you can find plenty of other programs online.

File conversion

• You get several different options that let you tinker with the audio quality.

• Load up your tracks using the Add audio files. With other application, you just drag your audio into the program window.

• Once you've clicked preferences, make sure you are selecting the format that supported in general.

• Then choose your output format on the General settings as part of the Options menu.

• To set the output options in more detail, select Options and Configure selected encoder.

• Once you're happy with the settings, click the play button on the toolbar to start the conversion (encoding) process.

• Then click to change Setting to Custom.

• In the Custom window, change the Sample Rate to 44.1 kHz and Sample Size to 16 bit. Make sure Channels says Stereo and Stereo Mode says Normal. Then continue clicking OK.

 

You can also get more information from our another article about Audio formats.

 

Finally, if you want to take more control over the audio as you convert it, then opt for the free audio editor Audacity (for Windows, macOS, and Linux). In addition to a full suite of editing tools, it gives you the option to convert your files between various popular formats. To do so, open the track in question, hit the File menu, and head to the Export option.

You can share your experiences with us in the comment section. Thank you!