How to convert .wav files to .mp3 and visa versa

Week 2- Skills 4. It’s all about the format. (10.8.18)

This week we looked at different video, audio, and image formats, and how to convert them. I decided that this blog post will be mostly covering .mp3 and .wav files, but an overview of the others will be included in later in the year.

Why might you want to convert one to the other, and what even are the differences between .wav and .mp3?

• .wav files are simple and therefore can contain more raw information. the audio quality tends to be higher and so they're most commonly used during the process of music making, i.e. while the sounds are still being edited, mixed, or refined. The advantage of .wav is that one can achieve very high recording rates and create extremely high quality audio. The downside is the sheer size of them, which makes them impractical for streaming and for portable devices.

• .mp3 files are simpler and smaller. Some of the data in high quality audio recordings are simply inaudible to the human ear, so .mp3s cut out anything that might be considered unnecessary or hard to hear. The audio is then further compressed to an even smaller file size with is much more appropriate for mass distribution and consumption, especially over the internet. It sacrifices some audio quality for the convenience of a small file.

If you have a professionally made recording in .wav file, you might want to convert it to .mp3 to make it easier and quicker to access in the classroom, conversely, you may want to convert an .mp3 file to .wav if you want to do some work on it or play it on a large sound system where quality discrepancies are more obvious. If you have iTunes, this is easy to do.

Go to the iTunes menu button in the top left menu, then go down and select preferences. This will open a pop up window. If you're on a windows machine, preferences will be under 'edit' instead.

Make sure you're in the first menu item, 'general', which looks like a light switch, then click on 'import settings'.

A screenshot of an iTunes window with the 'general preferences' window open at the front. The 'general' menu button is circled in red, as is the 'input settings' button about two thirds down from the top of the window.

At the top, there'll be an 'import using' drop down menu which gives you a number of '... encoder' options including .mp3 encoder and .wav encoder. Select whichever one you wish to convert to.

A scrceenshot of an iTunes window with the 'general preferences' window open in front of it. In front of that is another window labeled 'import settings'. there is a drop down menu at the top of the window which is open. the options '.mp3 encoder' and '.wav encoder' are both circled in red.

Click okay to finish and find the audio file in iTunes you want to convert. Select it, then go to file -> convert and it will show you a 'create .mp3 version' or 'create .wav version' depending on which file type you selected in the previous step.

Screenshot of the iTunes window, this time with no other windows in front of it. The 'file' menu is open, as is its subfolder 'convert'. Within 'convert' the option 'create mp3 version is selected and circled in red. the 'file' menu and 'the sub-folder 'convert are also circled in red.

We also covered iBooks author, which will be covered in a later post. If you can't wait and are interested in the wonderful things it can do for music teachers, check out James' playlist here.