A different way to convert MP3s ? (unusual)

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NoiseySwitch

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Hello everybody,

I've got a bunch of old 1920s / 30s jazz files which are MP3s. I wanted to make a typical CD for my brother as a gift. He has no MP3 player of any kind and doesn't want to bother getting one.

I piped the sound out of one computer to an old stereo amp and tried to record it (with Audacity) on the second computer. I used the signal from the amps earphone jack. The result was a file with dropouts in it. If the dropouts hadn't been there I would have saved the file as WAV. If you try to convert an MP3 to a WAV file (typical conversion program) the sound is a little rough. The old 1920s files make things worse. Hence, my unorthodox experiment. Too bad .... shot down.

Any suggestions out there :(
 
NoiseySwitch said:
Hello everybody,

I've got a bunch of old 1920s / 30s jazz files which are MP3s. I wanted to make a typical CD for my brother as a gift. He has no MP3 player of any kind and doesn't want to bother getting one.

I piped the sound out of one computer to an old stereo amp and tried to record it (with Audacity) on the second computer. I used the signal from the amps earphone jack. The result was a file with dropouts in it. If the dropouts hadn't been there I would have saved the file as WAV. If you try to convert an MP3 to a WAV file (typical conversion program) the sound is a little rough. The old 1920s files make things worse. Hence, my unorthodox experiment. Too bad .... shot down.

Any suggestions out there :(
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand.
You have mp3s and you want to make an audio CD containing them?
There's no need to pipe things between computers. You can just burn mp3s straight to audio disc.
Stuff goes on behind the scenes, but any cd burning software will recognise your mp3s and do the job.

There's no point in converting an mp3, or any compressed format, into WAV because once it's mp3 it's permanently compressed.
Converting to wav won't uncompress it.

It's like putting VHS footage on a bluray. It's still going to look all 1980s.
 
Yup. MP3 is a lossy format.... 80% of the information is already tossed away (that's how the files get smaller.)
What you are doing is making a photocopy of a photocopy of a picture; it only gets worse.

Just burn a CD from the original mp3 files.
 
Converting mp3 to wav certainly does "uncompress" it! Try it once and then compare the file sizes. No question.

It doesn't actually fix any damage done in the conversion. In fact, it more likely introduces even more artifacts, but it MUST happen in order to be written to a true audio CD that can be played on a player withou mp3 capabilities. At least it has to be converted to PCM data, which really is about the same as wav format, except maybe the header file or whatever. That conversion may well happen behind the scenes in your burning software, but if you really want to be sure what you're going to end up with, you really are better off going to wav first and previewing that*. There are various ways to make that conversion. I don't have any good recommendations there, except that I definitely wouldn't bother going out to analog and back!

Honestly, in this situation, I'd probably just use Windows Media player. Build a playlist and then tell it to burn it to an audio disc. Done. Sounds like shit? Shrug. Really can't be much worse than the mp3s themselves.


*Though really you're just saving the couple of minutes burn time and the cost of the CD. What are you going to do about it anyway?
 
Actually it doesn't uncompressed it, it only adds leading zero to the bytes.

123456
Becomes something like
0000000000123456

That does not improve the quality, just adds useless bulk.
 
I don't think that's the way it works dude, but it doesn't really matter. The point being that it DOES make the files bigger, but DOESN'T make them sound any better.
 
"He has no MP3 player of any kind and doesn't want to bother getting one."Did anyone read that part ? You can't burn MP3s to a disc and get them to play on a CD only player (what he has). You won't hear anything. If you try to convert this very OLD music to a WAV file it sounds lousy. The conversion process can work fairly well with more recent pieces of music (mostly rock) because I've done it. This seriously old music is more problematic. One way around the problem is to make a cassette tape. The sound will be quite acceptable because it's analog. BTW, your ears are analog.
The point I'm trying to get across is that these MP3 files sound pretty good for their age when I listen with the earphones or turn my old Sansui amp on with the speakers (again-analog sound). Okay, imagine putting mics in earphones and wrapping them in cloth just before I start recording. Is anyone getting this ? Please read it again before you respond. Thanks
 
A little useless bulk is fine as long as it sounds smooth
 
NoiseySwitch said:
"He has no MP3 player of any kind and doesn't want to bother getting one."Did anyone read that part ? You can't burn MP3s to a disc and get them to play on a CD only player (what he has). You won't hear anything. If you try to convert this very OLD music to a WAV file it sounds lousy. The conversion process can work fairly well with more recent pieces of music (mostly rock) because I've done it. This seriously old music is more problematic. One way around the problem is to make a cassette tape. The sound will be quite acceptable because it's analog. BTW, your ears are analog.
The point I'm trying to get across is that these MP3 files sound pretty good for their age when I listen with the earphones or turn my old Sansui amp on with the speakers (again-analog sound). Okay, imagine putting mics in earphones and wrapping them in cloth just before I start recording. Is anyone getting this ? Please read it again before you respond. Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes we read that part and yes you can burn a CD from mp3 files and play it on a standard CD player. But you have to burn an audio disc rather than a data disc.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Yes we read that part and yes you can burn a CD from mp3 files and play it on a standard CD player. But you have to burn an audio disc rather than a data disc.
Click to expand...

This. I don't think the OP knows what they're talking about.

You can literally just go on something like iTunes and burn an audio disc out of the files, as long as it doesn't exceed 80 minutes in length, and he can play it on his standard CD player.
 
Teensey caveat...
Watch the levels when you burn. Do not FFS "normalize" to the top. My very early Philips CD480 player "cracks" for any such copies but plays commercial discs boootifully!

I used to just drop an MP3 into Audition 1.5 and save it as .wav then burn with Nero. These days I would probably use Samplitude Silver Pro X.

Dave.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Stuff goes on behind the scenes, but any cd burning software will recognise your mp3s and do the job.

There's no point in converting an mp3, or any compressed format, into WAV because once it's mp3 it's permanently compressed.
Converting to wav won't uncompress it.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what the burning software is doing "behind the scene(s)" to make the MP3 files into something that can be written to a CD to be played as CD Audio on any standard CD Player.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_Digital_Audio

Essentially the compact disc is 16bit 44.1khz streaming data. When we rip CDs we save that data in a container called a WAV file. In reverse, we typically use a WAV file as a source when making our own burned Audio CDs. The conversion of a MP3 into data suitable for CD playback is effectively the same as converting MP3 into WAV. It doesn't create quality that isn't there, but *should* be nearly identical to the original MP3. What it could reveal are limitations of the MP3 file, but doesn't damage the audio in any way (from my understanding). It's possible dithering plays a role in the up-conversion from MP3 to WAV but that would be further than I've ever needed to explore the subject.


ecc83 said:
I used to just drop an MP3 into Audition 1.5 and save it as .wav then burn with Nero.
Click to expand...

Nero burns MP3s straight to disc as described above. No need for extra steps.

NEVER normalize music before burning to CD. There's never a need to do that. [good advice, just reiterating it! :p ]
 
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Pinky said:
That is exactly what the burning software is doing "behind the scene(s)" to make the MP3 files into something that can be written to a CD to be played as CD Audio on any standard CD Player.

Compact Disc Digital Audio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Essentially the compact disc is 16bit 44.1khz streaming data. When we rip CDs we save that data in a container called a WAV file. In reverse, we typically use a WAV file as a source when making our own burned Audio CDs. The conversion of a MP3 into data suitable for CD playback is effectively the same as converting MP3 into WAV. It doesn't create quality that isn't there, but *should* be nearly identical to the original MP3. What it could reveal are limitations of the MP3 file, but doesn't damage the audio in any way (from my understanding). It's possible dithering plays a role in the up-conversion from MP3 to WAV but that would be further than I've ever needed to explore the subject.




Nero burns MP3s straight to disc as described above. No need for extra steps.

NEVER normalize music before burning to CD. There's never a need to do that. [good advice, just reiterating it! :p ]
Click to expand...

Often needed to edit the MP3 hence AA1.5.

I said don't normalize but watch levels anyway, MP3s are usually slammed.

Dave.
 
ashcat_lt said:
Converting mp3 to wav certainly does "uncompress" it! Try it once and then compare the file sizes. No question.

It doesn't actually fix any damage done in the conversion.
Click to expand...

And the award for unnecessary semantics debate goes to.....
 
NoiseySwitch said:
You can't burn MP3s to a disc and get them to play on a CD only player (what he has).
Click to expand...

You can. Most, if not all, modern media players will do this.
As mentioned, there are conversions and processes carried out in the background, but it's a common enough feature.


NoiseySwitch said:
If you try to convert this very OLD music to a WAV file it sounds lousy.
Click to expand...

It shouldn't. There should be no discernible difference at sensible settings. 16bit/44.1 or higher.
Think hi-res photo of a low-res photo.


NoiseySwitch said:
"He has no MP3 player of any kind and doesn't want to bother getting one." Did anyone read that part ?
Click to expand...

If you think we've misunderstood you please let us know, but let's not forget that people here are trying to help you.....for free......out of the kindness of their hearts.
 
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I ended up burning one of the songs as an MP3 and put that in an MP3 player. I took the output from the player and was able to record a wav file that actually sounds quite nice. No distortion like you would get from a digital conversion. Sometimes I like to work outside the box. :thumbs up:
 
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