# Music File converter



## Guest (Jun 15, 2009)

Can any one recomend a *good free* file converter M4A to WAV etc, thanks


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

What operating system do you have? Switch is great for Macs (click on it).


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## Guest (Jun 16, 2009)

BuddhaBandit said:


> What operating system do you have? Switch is great for Macs (click on it).


Hi BB, I am running Vista home premium, I did try Switch when I was in XP and not impressed, but will try on Vista


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## Conservationist (Apr 5, 2007)

Andante said:


> Can any one recomend a *good free* file converter M4A to WAV etc, thanks


On Windows, foobar2000 will do this, as will any decent audio editor (Audacity is a free one).


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## Guest (Jun 16, 2009)

Conservationist said:


> On Windows, foobar2000 will do this, as will any decent audio editor (Audacity is a free one).


Yeh, I have foobar but it will not handle these files (M4A) it gives the message [Could not load info (Unsupported format or corrupted file)] I have not tried Audacity, will give it a go


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## periodinstrumentfan (Sep 11, 2008)

Andante said:


> Can any one recomend a *good free* file converter M4A to WAV etc, thanks


I use Super converter http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html ...it's a bit confusing to navigate the site but it's worth it.

It converts all formats even video to audio only. Even videos that are unplayable/unreadable by say windows media player can be played in Super... even thouse that skip in ordinary players

try it it's free...


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## Guest (Jun 16, 2009)

periodinstrumentfan said:


> I use Super converter http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
> 
> try it it's free...


Thanks I have d/l will let you know how I get on


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## Conservationist (Apr 5, 2007)

Andante said:


> Yeh, I have foobar but it will not handle these files (M4A) it gives the message [Could not load info (Unsupported format or corrupted file)] I have not tried Audacity, will give it a go


Go here:

http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=Download

You want the ALAC codec (search for M4A and you'll see it immediately)

I forgot that I did this stage to upgrade mine or I would have mentioned it before. Sorry about that!


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## JemsRoker (Jan 13, 2010)

Hi, all so good and informative your convert system. I hope our forum member will be benefited form these information.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Of course, iTunes will convert any type of audio file into either AAC, AIFF, MP3 or WAV.


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## SalieriIsInnocent (Feb 28, 2008)

I used M4A to Mp3 converter. It will convert to WAV.


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2010)

Since my earlier posts I have learned a few things, the formats such as Dolby Digital, Minidisk DAB radio, MP3, MP4 etc etc are lossy codecs These work OK for portable players and I do use them for that purpose but my serious listening is done via my HiFi set up so that I now stick to lossless formats for down loads wherever possible


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## Gyan (Feb 23, 2010)

SoX is a free multiformat but command-line based converter for both Windows and Mac.


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## Krumcito (Jun 13, 2010)

footbar is good


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## AlexSe (Jul 1, 2010)

Andante said:


> Can any one recomend a *good free* file converter M4A to WAV etc, thanks


Hi, I use Convert-tune. It converts audio files to different formats. 
The tool also has free CD Ripper and free CD Burner.
It converts video files for iPod and iPad as well.


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## Morris Billy (Jun 30, 2010)

Music Converter is the best music file converter. It can convert MP3, MP2, AAC, ... This music converter also has the capability of extracting audio from video files.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Andante said:


> Can any one recomend a *good free* file converter M4A to WAV etc, thanks


If you're running a PC, dB PowerAmp does just about everything conversionwise. The converter app is free, and I've used it for awhile with no confusion. They want moderate dinero for the multi-app version, which includes a burner.


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## 151 (Jun 14, 2010)

There's not much benefit on the quality front in upsampling and converting to wav. from m4a...just makes a bigger file.


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## gatiri (5 mo ago)

periodinstrumentfan said:


> I use Super converter SUPER © Video Converter | Video Encoder | Free 3D Video Converter | Free 3D Video Encoder ...it's a bit confusing to navigate the site but it's worth it.
> 
> It converts all formats even video to audio only. Even videos that are unplayable/unreadable by say windows media player can be played in Super... even thouse that skip in ordinary players
> 
> try it it's free Mp3juice...


Hello. I am new here. Does anyone know of reliable software to download to enable me to convert an m4A file to mP3 or WAV? I am transcribing some minutes remotely for a school via Olympus DSS Player Pro software and up until now, they have sent mP3 files which I have converted to WAV (as the Olympus software won't import mP3 files).
They are now using Zoom for their meetings which puts the file into m4A format for which I would need to download conversion software to convert to mP3 or WAV as that can't be imported either and I don't know which one of the many online conversion software would be reliable.
Many thanks!


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

https://www.freac.org/


for general audio coversions, any format to any format


https://clipgrab.en.softonic.com/mac


for video conversions, extracting the audio from YouTube, etc.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

The problem with converting from one lossy codec to another is the "loss" accumulates. Lossy compression strips away parts of the music the human ear tends not to miss. Different codecs strip away different chunks of data. Transcoding between them gives one the worst of both worlds.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

progmatist said:


> The problem with converting from one lossy codec to another is the "loss" accumulates. Lossy compression strips away parts of the music the human ear tends not to miss. Different codecs strip away different chunks of data. Transcoding between them gives one the worst of both worlds.


How would this work: convert a lossy codec to a lossless one, like WAV. Then convert it to a different compressed algorithm. Would the intermediate step restore any of the missing data?


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

You can't restore what isn't there.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Becca said:


> You can't restore what isn't there.


Yes, that's the underlying truth. But as I understand it, some lossy codecs strip out things you can't generally hear (signal below -60dB perhaps, or compressing the dynamic range, or stripping out some error-correction data) and these, at least potentially, might be recoverable?


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

But if it has been stripped out, how do you know that it needs to be recovered? There are no flags that says "we diddled something here." The reconstruction routines just build a wave form from the data that was kept.


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## Floeddie (8 mo ago)

You'll find it in MusicBee (freeware), but m4a is not supported, all other codecs are there.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Floeddie said:


> You'll find it in MusicBee (freeware), but m4a is not supported, all other codecs are there.


m4a is not a codec, it is a packaging format version of '.mp4' which only contains audio and where the audio is typically (but not exclusively) AAC or ALAC


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## Floeddie (8 mo ago)

whatever... it's proprietary to Apple here in the US. I can extract sound from mp4 & avi, & mkv, but never to m4a, but to all of the other formats. My ears tell me that m4a sounds better than mp3, but not by much. It really doesn't matter, with a 15 band equalizer with multiple enhancements found inside MusicBee, I can tweek anything to my satisfaction.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Floeddie said:


> whatever... it's proprietary to Apple here in the US. I can extract sound from mp4 & avi, & mkv, but never to m4a, but to all of the other formats. My ears tell me that m4a sounds better than mp3, but not by much. It really doesn't matter, with a 15 band equalizer with multiple enhancements found inside MusicBee, I can tweek anything to my satisfaction.


AAC+ does *NOT* belong to Apple. It was created by a consortium of 4 companies. One of which is Fraunhofer, who still owns the MP3 codec. It was created specifically to be the audio layer of Mpeg-4 video compression. MP3 licensing is much stricter than that of AAC+. One would never know that because MP3 became so ubiquitous, its licensing became effectively unenforceable.


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## Floeddie (8 mo ago)

meh


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## Floeddie (8 mo ago)

progmatist said:


> AAC+ does *NOT* belong to Apple. It was created by a consortium of 4 companies. One of which is Fraunhofer, who still owns the MP3 codec. It was created specifically to be the audio layer of Mpeg-4 video compression. MP3 licensing is much stricter than that of AAC+. One would never know that because MP3 became so ubiquitous, its licensing became effectively unenforceable.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless_Audio_Codec



and



Apple Lossless Audio Codec


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## Floeddie (8 mo ago)

Guest said:


> Can any one recomend a *good free* file converter M4A to WAV etc, thanks


I downloaded Switch from the Microsoft Store (freeware version), installed it on Windows 10, and here were my results on mp3 to m4a (both AAC & ALAC)









To my ear, I couldn't tell any difference... an exercise from FLAC to m4a may be worthwhile. You may need to upgrade your equipment if you are still on Vista to benefit. You can get Windows 10 and or 11 for free if you try.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Floeddie said:


> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless_Audio_Codec
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Of courses ALAC belongs to Apple. Apple is even in its name. A common misconception is AAC+ belongs to Apple because iTunes used it for the first ever legal download service.


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## Floeddie (8 mo ago)

progmatist said:


> Of courses ALAC belongs to Apple. Apple is even in its name. A common misconception is AAC+ belongs to Apple because iTunes used it for the first ever legal download service.









https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics


☝


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Floeddie said:


> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics
> 
> 
> ☝


You do know ALAC and AAC+ are not the same thing? Just want to make sure we're discussing the same thing.


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