Does conversion Mp3 to Wav format alterate quality sound ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Outloud
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Outloud

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Hello everyone,

I would like to know if conversion of a mp3 track to wav file would alterate in any way the sound when it is done with audacity software on a regular basic laptop (basic audio card)

Thank you in advance.
 
I mean does it change the quality of the sound ?

I don't seem to notice any difference but I am not sure.

Thanks
 
Going from a wave to an MP3 there's a big hit in sound quality. From MP3 3 to wave you get what you get.
 
Going from MP3 to wav will result in a wav that sounds like the MP3. It won't "alterate" the sound. It won't make it better or worse. It'll be like trying to turn a turd back into food. You can put it on your plate, but it'll still be a turd.
 
Greg_L said:
Going from MP3 to wav will result in a wav that sounds like the MP3. It won't "alterate" the sound. It won't make it better or worse. It'll be like trying to turn a turd back into food. You can put it on your plate, but it'll still be a turd.
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This ^^^^^^

But why would anyone want to do it???
 
grimtraveller said:
What does "alterate" mean ? :D
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I think it is a G.W.Bushism Grim (we have a comedian/impressionist here, Rory Bremmner who used to "do" him hilariously including his "vocabulatory" foibles!) .
Now, one reason to turn an MP3 (or any other screwed audio) into a .wav would be to edit it. One point that is often overlooked is that no all "MP3" is the same. There is a spectrum of quality from the dire 128kBs to 320kBs which many say is often almost as good as the original .wav.

N.B. If anyone is looking for a free MP3 encoder that gives you all the quality options including VBR, MAGIX Samplitude Silver Cloud is the bizz. VERY easy to use. Just select "Export" (as .wav/MP3 etc) and "Format" to set the desired quality.

A very merry Christmas day all!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Rory Bremmner
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He was pretty funny. His Tony Blair smile still grabs me !
ecc83 said:
One point that is often overlooked is that no all "MP3" is the same. There is a spectrum of quality from the dire 128kBs to 320kBs which many say is often almost as good as the original .wav.
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I've been finding out so much about the quality of various MP3 kbps. Not even all of them at the same kbps are the same. Some 128s are pretty cool while others are crappy. Some 192s sound better than some 320s. And we won't even go into FLACs or Eggs !
The greatest waste of time in all history though has to be 96 kbps and below. Anything put out at that kind of quality {ha ha, quality ?} is worthy of much violence or deportation.....
 
grimtraveller said:
The greatest waste of time in all history though has to be 96 kbps and below. Anything put out at that kind of quality {ha ha, quality ?} is worthy of much violence or deportation.....
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So, the term quality is misused in this case, grade is the more accurate term. As the quality is 100% (quality = the expected design result). So at 96kbps is the expected result of the specification, but the grade is lower that a higher grade of 192kbps.

Sorry, I have this discussion all the time with customers. People often confuse grade and quality.
 
ido1957 said:
This ^^^^^^

But why would anyone want to do it???
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Because MP3, being a frame based system, is difficult to do anything but the most basic editing on. Most DAW's convert MP3 to wave (or some other form of uncompressed data) when you open an MP3 file anyway.

No, converting to wave won't alterarte your sound--it'll give a good representation of what the original sounded like.

But...and it's a big but...if you want to convert your finished product back to MP3, that's where you'll take a quality hit. MP3 errors and artifacts are cumulative so, if you take an MP3, convert to wave for mixing, then change the mix to MP3 for distribution, that'll be two MP3 codings and double the problems. Even worse if if you save to MP3 then open to wave several times--the quality problems increase exponentially and pretty soon you'll go over a cliff edge and sound REALLY bad.

...so, if you convert your MP3 to wave, stay in wave as long as you can and only convert back to MP3 if you absolutely have to and only do it once.
 
Greg_L said:
Going from MP3 to wav will result in a wav that sounds like the MP3. It won't "alterate" the sound. It won't make it better or worse. It'll be like trying to turn a turd back into food. You can put it on your plate, but it'll still be a turd.
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Lol - good analogy.
 
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