As you know, today there are a lot of types of sound files. Music tracks stored on a computer’s hard drive, removable media, or shared on the Internet can often have completely different formats, and they often need to be changed or, so to speak, reduced to a common denominator. How to change the format of music will be discussed later. The methods proposed below to users who are not familiar with the basics of sound processing may seem somewhat complicated, but from a practical point of view, there should not be any special difficulties in their application.
Why may I need to change the format of the music file?
And to begin with, let's figure out why all this is necessary. Firstly, files of different formats sometimes have very different sizes. Compare at least one track recorded as a WAV or MP3 file. The first in terms of occupied space on the hard drive or removable media may exceed the second time in ten or more. Secondly, the formats may differ in the quality of the recorded material (bit rate, depth and sampling frequency). In this case, FLAC (lossless) and MP3 formats are the best examples. The first is uncompressed and recorded without loss of quality, the second is compressed. Of course, the difference is not very obvious by ear, but many music lovers feel it quite strongly. Finally, speaking about how to change the format of music and why it is necessary, it should be borne in mind that it is more convenient to keep your own collections in one format, and even when publishing music on the Internet, a change may also be required. For example, when sending your track to the radio or to some website to promote music, you usually need to observe some mandatory conditions, including which may indicate that the composition must be recorded in WAV format.
How to change the music format: Cool Edit Pro
To begin, consider specialized applications for sound processing. One of the most popular is the Cool Edit Pro program, which is no longer available, since its development was purchased from Syntrillium by Adobe, the program changed its name to Audition and became a bit more complicated due to the expansion of the main features.
Nevertheless, let's see how to perform the conversion in this application. Suppose we need to change the music format to MP3.
We open the music track in any of the supported audio formats, and then simply select the save in a new form (“Save As ...” in the file menu) and set the MP3 format as the final one.
If you want to change the sound characteristics, you can use the Batch Convert function, and at the stages of preparation for the conversion, specify a different final format and the required sound parameters.
If we talk about how to change the music format in Adobe Audition, the actions will be the same, only there are more supported file types, and you can change the sound characteristics either through the Batch Process item, or use the Convert Sample Rate function. Along the way, if you want, you can add effects or even out the volume by normalizing (Normalize).
How to change music format in FL Studio sequencer?
Almost all well-known sequencers and studios allow you to import audio tracks. So, for example, in FL Studio it’s enough to send the desired file to the specified track, having previously determined the tempo at which it was originally recorded so that automatic stretching or acceleration does not occur.
You can use special utilities for this. Then you need to set the base note (C5), the duration of the pattern, or add an empty pattern in the Song mode in the playlist in such an amount that corresponds to the playing time.
After that, you must select the file export indicating the desired format and frequency characteristics. The latest versions of the sequencer, by the way, can even work with the FLAC format.
Using Converters and Players
Finally, the most simple are automated converter programs, in which you just need to add files of any type and specify the output format. Many of these applications support batch conversion of multiple files at once, with different source formats. Sometimes, for all objects, you can set the same sound parameters. Also, just similar actions can be performed in some players. For example, the VLC software player copes quite successfully with such tasks.