by Richard Serra

Created on: January 17, 2010

Anytime you need to convert audio, or video into another format, it's all about the software that  would be needed to do so. There are free programs that are offered that can do the job, and there are more sophisticated programs that you can either buy, or use as a thirty day trial period.

If you like the freeware, then you simply agree to purchase the program. Freeware may sound as though it's free, but unless it is advertised as "free," there is a chance you will be required to make a purchase to continue using it, or it may be that the features with the freeware version is limited.

You would experience this if you were to try and save something to file, or want to do something that is not included with the freeware. It is a bare bones program that lets you do a number of simple tasks without prompting for updating to a full version. There are a few freeware programs out there that will operate as a full version, but there again, you have to purchase it if you want to continue using it after the trial period is over.

The programs all work pretty much the same. They allow you to choose between the MP3 formats for quality of sound, without putting a drain on your hard drive. Conversion is quite simple. With any program you choose, it would require you to open the file you would like to convert. Then it would prompt you to choose the quality for the conversion.

An example would be a program such as AVS Audio Converter. This program will allow you to convert audio to one of several MP3, MP4, or MP2 formats. When you open a file you want to convert, there are a number of formats from which to choose, and in the case of an MP3, there are at least four quality settings to choose from.

The best quality being MP3: 48000 HZ, Stereo, 320.00 kbps, and then normal quality which would be MP3: 48000 Hz, Stereo, 256.00 Kbps. Two more would be of a lower quality, which would be for a Media player, MP3: 48000 Hz, Stereo, 128.000 kbps, and even lower, one that would be used for Mobile use, and is the MP3: 44100 Hz, Stereo, 112.00 kbps.

The higher the quality, the more drive space that would be used, but much lower than a WAV format. They also have a MP2 format as well, which is a much lower quality, and is considered for Mobiles as MPEG layer-2: 22050 Hz, Mono, 96.00 kbps, which you can clearly see is the bottom of the quality ladder.

Once you have decided on which quality format  to use, open the folder where you have your music files to be converted, and simply click the "convert now" button, and the program does the rest. If you want to keep both the original WAV file, and a converted WAV to MP3 file, then you should make a copy or backup of the WAV file, so that you still have the highest quality for use whereas the best sound is to be enjoyed.

However, in my experience, any music downloaded from the internet can be stored as an MP3, and if the sound of the download is really good, then you might consider using one of the better quality formats such as best quality, or normal quality. Unless your hearing is well above average, you shouldn't notice any notable difference in quality.

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