MP3 - How to Convert An MP3 to a WAV?
CD-->WAV
One of the most crucial tasks for producing high quality MP3s is the conversion from CD audio to .WAV format. There are programs, which can be used to produce MP3 directly from CD audio, but they are also using an MP3 to WAV conversion to accomplish that.
The crucial point is to produce the audio digitally and not using analog methods. That means that it is NOT correct to connect your CD audio to your line-in of your sound card. This kind of a connection would result of an analog to digital conversion, and the quality of the result greatly depends on the quality of your soundcards' ADC (analog to digital convertor).
In any case the result is not exactly the same as the source. The correct way of doing audio extraction from a CD is to do it digitally. CD-Rippers are specialized software programs that are used to produce digital audio. The CD-Ripper reads the tracks of a CD (CD-audio) and writes them to the hard disk as .WAV. Note that a 4-minute song when written as .WAV file takes about 40-50 MB; so be careful about your hard disk space. This conversion is made digitally and if it is done correctly should result in a perfect copy of the song. Two things must be noted here:
1. You need a CD-ROM drive that can do this kind of extraction. The majority of the new CD-ROM drives can do that. The speed of the CD-ROM drive is the most crucial factor for the speed of the CD-Ripping. The best CD-ROM drives can Rip in speeds 8-12x so that a full 70min CD can be audio extracted to .WAV in 10min!
2. You need a good CD-Ripper program for doing the job. Each CD when ripped produces a .WAV file of a specific file size. Here you can find an extensive list with the correct file sizes of several Cds. So give a try to some of the CD-Rippers to see which one is doing better with our CD-ROM drive. You must save the files as 16-bit as 44khz stereo to ensure maximum compatibility with the encoders that you need afterwards.
LP-->WAV (Also MD, Tape, DAT-->WAV)
Yes you can also convert your old LPs and Tapes to .WAV files (and then to MP3 of course) to keep them in a digital format! To do this you must connect your sound card LINE-IN to your home hi fi Tape-Record adaptor (check your sound card manual for instructions on doing that correctly). Note to produce audio from analog to digital a good quality sound card is needed.
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