Converting over 1000 files from mp3 to wav; fastest method? Options

[Extorris]

Hey everyone,

I'm a musician, and I've recently decided to go digital from analog (in terms of playing). I've uploaded a metric crapton of myself playing, and after week, I've noticed that I have been saving them as mp3 instead of wav! Each clip is anywhere from 2 to 15ish seconds, and I was wondering if there's a semi-fast way to convert them all? I would like to drag-and-drop, but from the looks of it, I might be spending the next 2-3 days converting each file individually.

I kept hearing about this forum and how smart all of you are , so I figured I'd try here before I get carpel tunnel.

Thanks a ton in advanced if any of you have suggestions on what programs to use. (I'm using a PC and my budget is $100-$200).

[skamp]

Why do you want to convert your MP3s to WAV? Sound quality will be exactly the same (not better), but filesizes will be 4 to 11 times larger.
If you still want to mass convert your MP3s, I recommend foobar2000 (right click on a selection of files -> "Convert").

[Extorris]

I suppose I should have been more specific (thanks for the quick reply, skamp). I need them in .wav because the DAW I'm currently using doesn't accept .mp3 files, otherwise, I would of just went with them. I'll check out that foobar2000 program right now. Thanks again!

EDIT:: It worked! Thanks again, man, I really really appreciate it! Cheers!

This post has been edited by Extorris: Nov 7 2012, 21:33

[DVDdoug]

There are lots of programs to do it... I'd use XRECODE (FREE!!!) or XRECODE II ($15 USD). It's very easy to use... You just select your output format and drag & drop the files, and go... (I've never batch converted 1000 files, but I've probably done about 50 at a time. And, I'm usually converting to MP3, but that shouldn't make a difference.)

This post has been edited by DVDdoug: Nov 7 2012, 21:38

[Porcus]

I suppose I should have been more specific (thanks for the quick reply, skamp). I need them in .wav because the DAW I'm currently using doesn't accept .mp3 files

But you originally had them in something else? Dig up your originals.

[yourlord]

mp3 is a lossy format. If you convert them to wav, mix them in a daw then export back to a lossy format you will have quality issues. It may or may not be audible, but it's something to keep in mind.

[nu774]

As far as I know, Apple's MP3 decoder implementation is quite fast. It's faster than fb2k decoder in my environment.
So, it might be worth to have a look at iTunes... although I'm not a serious iTunes user and I don't know how well iTunes parallelizes the decoding task.

BTW, the attached is a win32 CLI MP3 decoder based on Apple implementation; requires CoreAudioToolbox to run (which is installed by iTunes or QuickTime installer).
This toy program can show you the speed of Apple's implementation, but I don't recommend you to use this seriously.
 camp3dec.zip ( 35.03K ) Number of downloads: 33

[smok3]

If you have 1000 clips with say 10s length, then that is less that 3 hours of material. Random album (1 hour) converts in 15 seconds (on my machine, using ffmpeg as decoder), so your conversion should not take more than 45 seconds.... , no need to invent any parallel workflow.

This post has been edited by smok3: Nov 8 2012, 09:22

[Nessuno]

If you have 1000 clips with say 10s length, then that is less that 3 hours of material. Random album (1 hour) converts in 15 seconds (on my machine, using ffmpeg as decoder), so your conversion should not take more than 45 seconds.... , no need to invent any parallel workflow.

Maybe a little more, to take into account 1000 iterations of an open > read > create > write > close loop.
All the more in this case I expect the decoding job to stay idle most of the time, waiting for I/Os to complete and a parallel workflow might actually worsen performances.