ogg converter

[rhosk]

Simple drag and drop interface :yes Right-click to configure.

[yosik]

A good one, Ron. Pity that it doesn't accept mp3 files.
Thanks
Yossi

[Intrigued]

A good one, Ron. Pity that it doesn't accept mp3 files.
Thanks
Yossi

Yes, I agree... I really like this small app. But, .mp3 support would be the topper.

:rolleyes

[rhosk]

I think their thinking was, mp3 is already a compressed format, so to re-compress it (or re-format it) would be a loss of quality somewhere in there. Sorta like taking an already compressed image format and trying to compress it further (or add a 'quality' back to it). I'm no expert, but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it :D

It was free and it came in handy for what I was doing at the time. I like ogg - I just wish that it would "take off" as a standard - which is hard to believe that it hasn't yet. Might be a marketing thing or because it's royalty-free/open source, it's hitting brick walls.

[Corey]

My guess is that the lack of MP3 is probably a technical/legal limitation rather than anything personal. There are free .ogg plug-ins for all the popular audio editors if you wish to go from MP3 to .ogg that would be the easiest way to go. :yes

In an ideal world nothing would ever get re-compressed but alas... If you are going to convert from MP3 to .ogg the best way in terms of quality is to convert from MP3 to a 32bit wave file first. Upsample to whatever sample rate you wish your final .ogg to be if needed. Edit the wave file so that it's about as good as you can get it, i.e. you might want to balance the EQ a bit, then save to .ogg. With any luck you can get a listenable recording out of it. Ideally use a linear phase EQ to avoid introducing phase shifting and try to cut rather than boost frequencies when correcting the mix. Try not to normalize your audio whenever possible as it introduces artifacts. For some scenarios a subtle touch from a multi-band compressor can work miracles by compressing only an isolated portion of the frequency spectrum while leaving the remaining frequencies untouched. In particular for vocal material a little tweak in the 1kHz to 4kHz range can often enhance intelligibility where compression has muffled things a bit. Remember, you can't EQ frequencies which don't exist in the original material, you can only deal with what you have. Unless you use some sort of aural exciter or transient restoration plug-in, which may attempt to create new frequency information. :yes

Check out Fishphones (Sascha Eversmeier rules!!!) free "Endorphin" plug-in for an example of a decent quality mastering plug-in which can alter the dynamics of your mix without pooching the quality.
http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=3

The tricky thing is that the audio was probably mastered prior to converting to MP3 so there won't be much room to tweak during the conversion to .ogg. for the most part any damage done by the original MP3 compression will be very difficult to repair at this point. The best you can do is settle on something you find listenable. So basically you won't be sweetening the mix so much as just making it roadworthy. The less processing you use, the better, ideally you could just use the original converted MP3 "as is". :yes

And remember, the higher the bitrate- the better the quality, so if you have a choice between two MP3s work with the larger one... :)

[rhosk]

Agreed and well put :yes

[[[geez Corey, you've edited your post as I reply. Yer finicky ;)]]]

I have found that if you go from mp3 to wav, then you've lost half the battle already. It's best (IMHO) to go from the/an uncompressed wav file to [whatever format], because you will lose quality, albiet probably not audilble to a listeners ears, but it's a loss. And the more it's re-formatted, the worse it gets. Again, no expert here by far, but I just think of it in terms of 'digital drawdown'. The same analogy can be applied to video as well; many people don't understand the ol' adage - [crap] in [crap] out. You must and should have a good source file before the re-format. And it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that out. Simplistic anaolgy I know, but it's a keen way to look at it.

Great edit, and I know that you've experimented to the max just by listening to your latest recordings. They're fantastic pieces of work.

(sigh) I just wanted to throw the easy ogg converter that I found out there. There's a lot of people trying to capitalize on the conversion, when there are free software to be had if you look deep.

[Corey]

I agree. Some material can survive compression better than others. The generally accepted concept of compression right now is that most people stop hearing it at about 196Kbps, so if you are converting MP3s from 256Kbps or 320Kbps you will be well situated but if you are starting with a 128Kbps MP3 then it will definitely be tricky to get anything great sounding out of it. :yes

Ogg compression is superior to MP3 compression though so MP3->OGG will be probably not sound quite as good as OGG->MP3. I find OGGs have a bit more sparkle. :)

The only last thing I would note is that not all converters are created equal. If quality is the first priority you will probably have better luck using a full blown audio editor like Audition as opposed to a standalone tool. That's not always going to be the case but, unless you know the programmer, you can never be too sure what might be occcuring during conversion. Audio programming is an art and the old hands know all the tricks. :yes

BTW thanks for the kind words Ron. It's been a labor of love over the past couple years but I think I'm finally starting to grasp the most basic concepts of recording and mixing a little bit. Now to get my bocci skills back in order, because frankly all this audio learning has meant nothing but raw neglect for them. Yep... Wake up, play a little bocci, back to the compound for juleps by noon, *thaaat's* the stuff... :)

[rhosk]

I agree :D

Bocci Ball
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ingredients:
1 oz Amaretto
2 oz Orange juice
Fill with Soda water
Mixing instructions:
Shake amaretto and orange juice first then top with soda.