convert to lame mp3, app to convert songs to lame mp3? Options

[VCSkier]

hey, i know that transcoding in lossy formats is in general a bad idea, but i was just wondering if there was an easy, high quality program out there that could convert wma, ogg, and mpc files into lame mp3 on the fly. i would be using it just to give music to friends that dont want to mess w/ other formats (itunes and windows media player users....heh).

also, kinda off topic, i was just wondering if i convert a lossy (say, mpc extreme) to a lossless (i use ape), and then back to a lossy (mpc extreme again), would i still lose quality? thanks

[A_Man_Eating_Duc...]

hey, i know that transcoding in lossy formats is in general a bad idea, but i was just wondering if there was an easy, high quality program out there that could convert wma, ogg, and mpc files into lame mp3 on the fly.  i would be using it just to give music to friends that dont want to mess w/ other formats (itunes and windows media player users....heh).

you can use Foobar 2000 with the diskwriter installed, to convert all those formats to mp3, you need to download an extra package for wma to work.

search the foobar forum

also, kinda off topic, i was just wondering if i convert a lossy (say, mpc extreme) to a lossless (i use ape), and then back to a lossy (mpc extreme again), would i still lose quality?  thanks

lossy -> lossless -> lossy

you will lose quality becuase your lossy encoding the lossy file again.

lossy (losing quality)-> lossless (keeping the same quality as the first lossy)-> lossy (losing more quality because your transcoding lossy to lossy)

[ugly]

hey, i know that transcoding in lossy formats is in general a bad idea, but i was just wondering if there was an easy, high quality program out there that could convert wma, ogg, and mpc files into lame mp3 on the fly.

lossy -> WAV (using Winamp's disk-writer plugin or similar) -> MP3 (using LAME)

There's no such thing as a "high quality program" for such a task. LAME is the same wherever it is used, as long as the version, etc. is also identical...

also, kinda off topic, i was just wondering if i convert a lossy (say, mpc extreme) to a lossless (i use ape), and then back to a lossy (mpc extreme again), would i still lose quality? thanks

Covered by FAQ here:
mp3 to wav to mp3 to wav same?

(No it doesn't make a difference whether you're talking about mp3->WAV or mp3->APE, as the latter case would still first be converting the mp3 or other lossy file to WAV and THEN to APE/FLAC/whatever.)

[VCSkier]

wow, you guys rock. that was fast. so foobar can do it on the fly, otherwise i'd have to convert to wav and then reencode? i really wanted to be able to do it on the fly, but im a big winamp fan... been using it forever... is foobar really better? i hear its better for power users, but does that mean it has a crappy or not friendly user interface? anyways, i did use dbpoweramp music convertor (great app in my opinion) for stuff like this, but they make you pay for an upgrade now to use lame... big disappointment. are there no other apps that do it on the fly like that?

[A_Man_Eating_Duc...]

wow, you guys rock.  that was fast. so foobar can do it on the fly, otherwise i'd have to convert to wav and then reencode?  i really wanted to be able to do it on the fly, but im a big winamp fan... been using it forever...  is foobar really better? i hear its better for power users, but does that mean it has a crappy or not friendly user interface?  anyways, i did use dbpoweramp music convertor (great app in my opinion) for stuff like this, but they make you pay for an upgrade now to use lame...  big disappointment.  are there no other apps that do it on the fly like that?

you could just use foobar to transcode your files and stick with winamp for playback.
Have a dig through the foobar forums and see if you like it, it's a large learning curve tho.

if you don't like foobar or can't be arsed with learning how to use, uninstall it, it's not like it will wreck your system by installing it.

[VCSkier]

wow, you guys rock.  that was fast. so foobar can do it on the fly, otherwise i'd have to convert to wav and then reencode?  i really wanted to be able to do it on the fly, but im a big winamp fan... been using it forever...  is foobar really better? i hear its better for power users, but does that mean it has a crappy or not friendly user interface?  anyways, i did use dbpoweramp music convertor (great app in my opinion) for stuff like this, but they make you pay for an upgrade now to use lame...  big disappointment.  are there no other apps that do it on the fly like that?

you could just use foobar to transcode your files and stick with winamp for playback.
Have a dig through the foobar forums and see if you like it, it's a large learning curve tho.

if you don't like foobar or can't be arsed with learning how to use, uninstall it, it's not like it will wreck your system by installing it.

your right, foobar is loaded. ive been playing w/ it for about an hour now. fun stuff. is there anything it cant do? very steep learning curve, but thats the fun part. im gonna miss my geiss visualizations and dee2 dsp, but foobar is packed w/ stuff. im a convert. and hey, at least evillyrics works w/ it. thanks so much guys. my problems solved