24/96 to 16/44 Conversion

[MourningStar]

tried searching here w/o luck. looking for a pain-free neophytic process to convert 24 bit/96 kHz flac files to the more common 16/44 flac w/o loss of quality.

thank you.

[Unidecker]

traders little helper?

[paddington]

You cannot, by definition, convert 24 bit/96 kHz flac files to 16/44 flac w/o loss of quality.

there will be less dynamic range (33% of the info discarded) and lower frequency response. The method of dithering is absolutely critical to the process if you don't want to hear the aliasing artifacts when done.

That said, the frequency response won't be nearly as much an issue as the loss of dynamics data.


You can also try dbpoweramp for this. It's a good swiss-army knife for audio.

[Billyki]

I would say dbpoweramp also. Has the freshest codecs, way easy to use. I use it a lot for converting to MP3 for my player, convert right to the disk on the player, delete when I am done. It is that easy to use and fast plus the bonus of no MP3 clutter on my hard drives. I like the job it does on the conversion of 24/96 to 16/44.1.

[Thulani]

Foobar2000 but you'll need to download the codecs by yourself.

[Wolf]

you can also do it in audacity, but its a longer and more time consuming process

[MourningStar]

perhaps I should have stated 'minimal loss of quality'.

thnx for the suggestions thus far. really lookin' for a 'idiot's guide' or 'for dummies' type solution. you know, a point & clik or simple 'push-button' stuff.

thnx!

[Billyki]

Simple and push button... Check out dbpoweramp...dbpoweramp (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm)

[trustthex]

r8brain?

[jamroom]

r8brain?

No question. I use R8Brain when I need to convert sample rates.

[Karst]

What I do is extract the 24 bit FLACs, pull the audio files into Audio Cleaning Lab on my ancient PC laptop and it automatically converts them to 16/44. I burn an audio CD from it so I can play it on my stereo - and keep the 24 bit ones archived on DVD to run them on my Macbook.

[MourningStar]

OK - I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation for all who responded. I know I can always count on this site for quick and competent advise. fwiw, dbpoweramp got the job done in the simple, push-button, idiot-proof, 'for dummies' methodology I was looking for.

thnx again,

[starchild31]

r8brain is free and easy, like i like my women

[Quackers]

Slightly off-topic - too lazy to do a better search...

Question 1. I recorded this show and sound resulted too quiet - my mistake/inexperience, I was a bit shy with the rec level :duh: So I have two versions: the original, and another one which I used the Amplify effect in Audacity.

It was recorded in 24/96, so it's 2 Gb worth of files. As i don't want to waste my (and others) time uploading (2 days at least)... which version should I seed best?

Question 2. Is it also allowed to seed a burnable 16/44 version?

[rspencer]

I would seed the amplified version. Better still, I would seed a 16/44.1 version. Just a little more work, & more people will/can download it. Just my $.02. I've traded out 24 bit files, but I've never bothered to seed them.

[Quackers]

I would seed the amplified version. Better still, I would seed a 16/44.1 version. Just a little more work, & more people will/can download it. Just my $.02. I've traded out 24 bit files, but I've never bothered to seed them.

Thanks. I'll do the 16/44 way as it makes more sense.

For the downsampling I've been struggling with Audacity, but it was 'padding' some seconds of silence at the end of each track. Googled a lot and still no luck about the issue :gun:

Anyway, I'm trying dbPowerAmpMC which seems to do the job properly.

[AAR.oner]

i've found with audacity, you need to downsample the raw whole file, not the tracked files

[weedwacker]

i've found with audacity, you need to downsample the raw whole file, not the tracked files

Correct track splitting should always be the last step to absolutely ensure no pops are induced at the track splits. If you split, downsample then do sbe correction it doesn't remove those pops if any where induced during the downsample process; just shifts them around.

[Quackers]

i've found with audacity, you need to downsample the raw whole file, not the tracked files

I ended with 5 original files coz I manually "file-incremented" while recording. I didn't want the recorder to auto-increment, when reaching the 2 GB limit, in the middle of a song.

Anyway, your tip is good to know for the next time