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Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?



 
 
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  #31  
Old April 5th 19, 01:57 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Nil[_5_]
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Posts: 1,731
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

On 04 Apr 2019, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

FLAC natively supports information tags that can be read by any
player that plays FLACS


That sounds rather obvious (-:


Not necessarily so obvious. In my experience, most destructive audio
editors will discard or corrupt FLAC metadata when resaving, so it's
better to work on uncompressed files. Plus the speed-of-opening factor.

Remember one of the 'groups this thread is going to is the XP one,
and the other is the 7 one!


I've been using FLAC files extensively for many years, mostly on my old
XP machine. It's never been an issue for me.

WAV for editing.
FLAC for archiving.
MP3 for portable players and non-critical listening.
Ads
  #32  
Old April 5th 19, 02:01 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Nil[_5_]
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Posts: 1,731
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

On 02 Apr 2019, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
in alt.windows7.general:

Since the editor I use doesn't accept .m4a, I use Pazera's
"extract to WAV" function, and proceed from there.


You might want to look at the free Audacity editor, which can open and
save M4A format. It's not my daily audio editor (Adobe Audition is),
but it's got a good feature set, is in active development, an active
support base, and you can't beat the price.
  #33  
Old April 5th 19, 02:16 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Bill in Co[_3_]
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Posts: 303
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

Nil wrote:
On 04 Apr 2019, "Bill in Co" surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

I simply meant there are some audio utilities or audio players
that won't recognize it (along with some other formats too), like
some portable mp3 players, for example. And since it only reduces
the file size by half, for both reasons I don't see much use for
it, but that's just my own take on it.
:-). For me, mp3's are the saving grace, with their concurrent
10:1 or

better reduction in file size, whilst yet negligible sound loss.
:-)


Unless it's quite old I can't think of a computer audio utility that
can't handle FLAC. Even most hardware players newer than about 10 years
should be able to play them... unless they are named Apple.

I use MP3s for portable players. I use FLAC for archiving.


Well, I do use a lot of old software, so that may be it. 10 years seems
like yesterday to me. :-)


  #34  
Old April 5th 19, 12:05 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
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Posts: 2,679
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

In message , Nil
writes:
On 02 Apr 2019, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
in alt.windows7.general:

Since the editor I use doesn't accept .m4a, I use Pazera's
"extract to WAV" function, and proceed from there.


You might want to look at the free Audacity editor, which can open and
save M4A format. It's not my daily audio editor (Adobe Audition is),
but it's got a good feature set, is in active development, an active
support base, and you can't beat the price.


Audacity does seem to be the default for free audio editing. I really
must look at it sometime!
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Correct me if I'm wrong ... everybody else does.
  #35  
Old April 5th 19, 06:27 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Bill in Co[_3_]
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Posts: 303
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Nil
writes:
On 02 Apr 2019, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
in alt.windows7.general:

Since the editor I use doesn't accept .m4a, I use Pazera's
"extract to WAV" function, and proceed from there.


You might want to look at the free Audacity editor, which can open and
save M4A format. It's not my daily audio editor (Adobe Audition is),
but it's got a good feature set, is in active development, an active
support base, and you can't beat the price.


Audacity does seem to be the default for free audio editing. I really
must look at it sometime!


You are correct. It is the default free audio editor. It's definitely not
as polished as the commercial ones, however. And check out Acon Acoustica
(from German, I believe) while you're at it, which is pretty inexpensive. A
bit better for audio restoration than Goldwave, and about the same price:

https://acondigital.com/products/aco...-audio-editor/


  #36  
Old April 5th 19, 08:35 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
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Posts: 627
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

On Fri, 5 Apr 2019 12:05:22 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , Nil
writes:
On 02 Apr 2019, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
in alt.windows7.general:

Since the editor I use doesn't accept .m4a, I use Pazera's
"extract to WAV" function, and proceed from there.


You might want to look at the free Audacity editor, which can open and
save M4A format. It's not my daily audio editor (Adobe Audition is),
but it's got a good feature set, is in active development, an active
support base, and you can't beat the price.


Audacity does seem to be the default for free audio editing. I really
must look at it sometime!


I have it but I never really used it. I like Sound Forge. I used 4.5
for years and when there was a promo on 10 for $40 or so I bought it.
  #38  
Old April 6th 19, 06:53 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Nil[_5_]
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Posts: 1,731
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

On 04 Apr 2019, "Bill in Co" surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Nil wrote:

Unless it's quite old I can't think of a computer audio utility
that can't handle FLAC. Even most hardware players newer than
about 10 years should be able to play them... unless they are
named Apple.


Well, I do use a lot of old software, so that may be it. 10 years
seems like yesterday to me. :-)


What do you use that can't handle FLACs? Even the ancient and venerable
Winamp had no trouble with them.
  #39  
Old April 6th 19, 07:37 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Bill in Co[_3_]
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Posts: 303
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

Nil wrote:
On 04 Apr 2019, "Bill in Co" surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Nil wrote:

Unless it's quite old I can't think of a computer audio utility
that can't handle FLAC. Even most hardware players newer than
about 10 years should be able to play them... unless they are
named Apple.


Well, I do use a lot of old software, so that may be it. 10 years
seems like yesterday to me. :-)


What do you use that can't handle FLACs? Even the ancient and venerable
Winamp had no trouble with them.


To be honest, I haven't gone through the list, so it may have been somewhat
assumatory on my part, except for some simple dedicated portable mp3 players
like the one I carry with me on my walks. That said, I don't see much use
for it, since it only provides a 50% reduction in file size.

Well, wait a minute. I just checked Sound Forge 7, and it's not listed in
the file formats. According to Wiki, FLAC didn't even exist until year
2000. So FLAC is a relatively recent development. I have several audio
utilities that are older than 2000, however.


  #40  
Old April 29th 19, 06:46 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Char Jackson
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Posts: 10,449
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

On Sat, 6 Apr 2019 12:37:48 -0600, "Bill in Co"
surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote:

Nil wrote:
On 04 Apr 2019, "Bill in Co" surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Nil wrote:

Unless it's quite old I can't think of a computer audio utility
that can't handle FLAC. Even most hardware players newer than
about 10 years should be able to play them... unless they are
named Apple.

Well, I do use a lot of old software, so that may be it. 10 years
seems like yesterday to me. :-)


What do you use that can't handle FLACs? Even the ancient and venerable
Winamp had no trouble with them.


To be honest, I haven't gone through the list, so it may have been somewhat
assumatory on my part, except for some simple dedicated portable mp3 players
like the one I carry with me on my walks. That said, I don't see much use
for it, since it only provides a 50% reduction in file size.


You've quoted 50% multiple times in this thread and I knew it wasn't
right, so I took a quick look just now. It seems to depend quite a bit
on the specific source material, but the reduction that I see from wav
to flac is anywhere between 10% and about 25%. If I continued looking
I'm sure I could find a 30% example. I didn't find any examples that
were close to 50%.

Well, wait a minute. I just checked Sound Forge 7, and it's not listed in
the file formats. According to Wiki, FLAC didn't even exist until year
2000. So FLAC is a relatively recent development. I have several audio
utilities that are older than 2000, however.


Almost 20 [computer] years is recent? ;-)

--

Char Jackson
  #41  
Old April 29th 19, 08:16 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Bill in Co[_3_]
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Posts: 303
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

Char Jackson wrote:
On Sat, 6 Apr 2019 12:37:48 -0600, "Bill in Co"
surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote:

Nil wrote:
On 04 Apr 2019, "Bill in Co" surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Nil wrote:

Unless it's quite old I can't think of a computer audio utility
that can't handle FLAC. Even most hardware players newer than
about 10 years should be able to play them... unless they are
named Apple.

Well, I do use a lot of old software, so that may be it. 10 years
seems like yesterday to me. :-)

What do you use that can't handle FLACs? Even the ancient and venerable
Winamp had no trouble with them.


To be honest, I haven't gone through the list, so it may have been
somewhat assumatory on my part, except for some simple dedicated
portable mp3 players like the one I carry with me on my walks. That
said, I don't see much use for it, since it only provides a 50%
reduction in file size.


You've quoted 50% multiple times in this thread and I knew it wasn't
right, so I took a quick look just now. It seems to depend quite a bit
on the specific source material, but the reduction that I see from wav
to flac is anywhere between 10% and about 25%. If I continued looking
I'm sure I could find a 30% example. I didn't find any examples that
were close to 50%.

Well, wait a minute. I just checked Sound Forge 7, and it's not listed
in the file formats. According to Wiki, FLAC didn't even exist until
year 2000. So FLAC is a relatively recent development. I have several
audio utilities that are older than 2000, however.


Almost 20 [computer] years is recent? ;-)

--

Char Jackson


I thought I had read it somewhere (the 50% figure). OK, here is one
source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC

And if the compression of FLAC is even less in practice, it just adds to my
feelings of why even bother using it, instead of just sticking with the
source (wav) file format.

As for my use of the term "recent", 20 years ago to me isn't all that long
ago. :-) A lot of my software is older than that, and works great. In
fact, I often use (and prefer) the older versions of software, since they
are less bloated with (so-called) "features", and are just more direct, and
to the point.


  #42  
Old April 29th 19, 11:14 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

On Mon, 29 Apr 2019 13:16:33 -0600, "Bill in Co"
surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Sat, 6 Apr 2019 12:37:48 -0600, "Bill in Co"
surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote:

Nil wrote:
On 04 Apr 2019, "Bill in Co" surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Nil wrote:

Unless it's quite old I can't think of a computer audio utility
that can't handle FLAC. Even most hardware players newer than
about 10 years should be able to play them... unless they are
named Apple.

Well, I do use a lot of old software, so that may be it. 10 years
seems like yesterday to me. :-)

What do you use that can't handle FLACs? Even the ancient and venerable
Winamp had no trouble with them.

To be honest, I haven't gone through the list, so it may have been
somewhat assumatory on my part, except for some simple dedicated
portable mp3 players like the one I carry with me on my walks. That
said, I don't see much use for it, since it only provides a 50%
reduction in file size.


You've quoted 50% multiple times in this thread and I knew it wasn't
right, so I took a quick look just now. It seems to depend quite a bit
on the specific source material, but the reduction that I see from wav
to flac is anywhere between 10% and about 25%. If I continued looking
I'm sure I could find a 30% example. I didn't find any examples that
were close to 50%.

Well, wait a minute. I just checked Sound Forge 7, and it's not listed
in the file formats. According to Wiki, FLAC didn't even exist until
year 2000. So FLAC is a relatively recent development. I have several
audio utilities that are older than 2000, however.


Almost 20 [computer] years is recent? ;-)

--

Char Jackson


I thought I had read it somewhere (the 50% figure). OK, here is one
source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC

And if the compression of FLAC is even less in practice, it just adds to my
feelings of why even bother using it, instead of just sticking with the
source (wav) file format.


OOPS, sorry about that. I just re-read my post and I see that it was
vague and misleading. I meant to convey that my FLAC files are only
about 10% to 25% the size of the corresponding WAV files, so the
compression ratios would be about 10:1 to 4:1. That's actually a
significant saving in disk space if you have a bigger library. I only
have around 100,000 music files, much fewer than some folks here.


As for my use of the term "recent", 20 years ago to me isn't all that long
ago. :-) A lot of my software is older than that, and works great. In
fact, I often use (and prefer) the older versions of software, since they
are less bloated with (so-called) "features", and are just more direct, and
to the point.


I think the oldest program that I still use is this newsreader, Agent
2.0, copyright 1999-2004. For everything else that I can think of, when
a new version is released I almost immediately move to it.

--

Char Jackson
  #43  
Old April 30th 19, 12:54 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

Char Jackson wrote:
On Mon, 29 Apr 2019 13:16:33 -0600, "Bill in Co"
surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Sat, 6 Apr 2019 12:37:48 -0600, "Bill in Co"
surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote:

Nil wrote:
On 04 Apr 2019, "Bill in Co" surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Nil wrote:
Unless it's quite old I can't think of a computer audio utility
that can't handle FLAC. Even most hardware players newer than
about 10 years should be able to play them... unless they are
named Apple.
Well, I do use a lot of old software, so that may be it. 10 years
seems like yesterday to me. :-)
What do you use that can't handle FLACs? Even the ancient and venerable
Winamp had no trouble with them.
To be honest, I haven't gone through the list, so it may have been
somewhat assumatory on my part, except for some simple dedicated
portable mp3 players like the one I carry with me on my walks. That
said, I don't see much use for it, since it only provides a 50%
reduction in file size.
You've quoted 50% multiple times in this thread and I knew it wasn't
right, so I took a quick look just now. It seems to depend quite a bit
on the specific source material, but the reduction that I see from wav
to flac is anywhere between 10% and about 25%. If I continued looking
I'm sure I could find a 30% example. I didn't find any examples that
were close to 50%.

Well, wait a minute. I just checked Sound Forge 7, and it's not listed
in the file formats. According to Wiki, FLAC didn't even exist until
year 2000. So FLAC is a relatively recent development. I have several
audio utilities that are older than 2000, however.
Almost 20 [computer] years is recent? ;-)

--

Char Jackson

I thought I had read it somewhere (the 50% figure). OK, here is one
source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC

And if the compression of FLAC is even less in practice, it just adds to my
feelings of why even bother using it, instead of just sticking with the
source (wav) file format.


OOPS, sorry about that. I just re-read my post and I see that it was
vague and misleading. I meant to convey that my FLAC files are only
about 10% to 25% the size of the corresponding WAV files, so the
compression ratios would be about 10:1 to 4:1. That's actually a
significant saving in disk space if you have a bigger library. I only
have around 100,000 music files, much fewer than some folks here.


There's a test by a HydrogenAudio poster here.

https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,97310.0.html

The lossless compressors weigh in at around 2/3rds the size
of the original .wav file. 3TB of .WAV files could be stored
on a 2TB drive as .flac.

Apparently .flac has some scheme for detecting information
duplication between channels, so if you had something recorded
with 8 channel LPCM, there could be additional savings.

And the content type might make a difference (classical versus rock).

Paul
  #44  
Old May 4th 19, 03:04 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Dane Beko
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 8
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

On Tue, 2 Apr 2019 21:45:31 +0100, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

I've just tried. Unfortunately, neither my old Goldwave nor my old
WinAmp did, so I doubt my standalone player would. I just tried with
another .aac file I have, and old GoldWave still didn't like it, but old
WinAmp did, so there are obviously more than one kind of .aac file.


I've used Foobar with good results converting from one format to another.
You can try that one.
  #45  
Old May 4th 19, 03:25 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
😉 Good Guy 😉
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Posts: 1,483
Default Can a .m4a audio file be converted into a .mp3 one losslessly?

On 04/05/2019 03:04, Dane Beko wrote:
I've used Foobar with good results


Have you really? That's wonderful!!!!!!!!!!.



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