Converting Audio Files

How To Change Audio Files From One Type To Another

iThere are several programs available online that will do this very easily, some of them are even free. On this page are instructions on how to do this quickly and easily with the most popular packages, such as Quicktime, iTunes and Audacity. There are many more to be found easily by searching online.

Why Change Audio File Types?

When you have an audio file on your computer it will be a certain kind of file, this is indicated by the letters after the full point at the end of the file name. For example if I have a royalty free music file called 'test' it could be one of several audio formats such as test.wav or test.aif or test.mp3. There are many kinds of audio file formats, unfortunately not every audio player recognises every file type. So if you need to play an audio file in software that won't open it, you'll need to change the file type of that file. This is usually just a matter of opening the file in another piece of software, then exporting it from that as a new file, in another format. Here are some of the most popular ways of doing this.

iTunes

iTunes is available as a free download for Mac and PC computers. Most people will know it as an online music store and music player, or as a way to integrate with their iPod. However it is also useful for converting music files from one format to another. iTunes will convert one of your music tracks (or even several) to any of the following formats - MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV.
Here's how to do this, if you're on a Mac select iTunes menu>Preferences, if you're using Windows select Edit menu>Preferences. Click the Advanced button, then click the Importing button at the top of the window. From the Import Using pop-up menu, choose the encoding format that you want to convert the song to, then click OK to save the settings. Select one or more songs in your library, then from the Advanced menu, choose the audio format you want to convert your music file into. One limitation with iTunes is that if your audio files have DRM digital protection, you will not be able to convert them to another format. Whatever non-DRM music tracks you have in your library, including for example royalty free music purchased online, iTunes will happily convert to another format.

Apple Quicktime

The full version of Quicktime (pro) is a capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation and music. One of the many things it does is convert audio file formats. First you wil need to open the music file you wish to convert in Quicktime, so taht the Quicktime player opens. Here select File/Export to open the "save exported file as" window. Now you can choose the target drive to save to, give the file a name, and the file typet - choose from "sound to Wave" "sound to AIFF" and "Sound to AU". Then by clicking options, you can additionally choose the sample rate, quality etc. The default settings are usually good, but you may want to change them. For example if you want to import audio taken from a CD at 44.1kHZ sample rate, and load it into an oldr video editing package, you may want to convert it to 48kHZ first. If you change the settings, there's a preview button so you can audition any changes in quality before making the final file save.

Audacity

Audacity is free audio editing software, that's also really useful for converting audio files from one format to another. It supports WAV, AIFF, MP3 and OGG VORBIS formats, and it's really as simple as loading the file you want, then selecting the menu File>export as, choosing either WAV, AIFF, OGG or MP3. You can additionally select the quality of each of these audio file formats by selecting "file formats" from the preference menu. Using this you can increase or decrease the quality and size of your new format music file, if you choose to.

Our royalty free music files available on http://www.royalty-free.tv are available in two formats. Loops are available as WAV files, 44.1 sample rate, 16 bit. This is exactly the same quality as you will find on an audio CD. All other music lengths (main themes, commercial cuts etc) are available as high quality MP3 files, 256bit. This is a high audio quality setting, but still retains the advantage of having smaller file sizes, which makes them much easier to download. The audio quality of these files is such that they sound similar to the original audio master - the quality is excellent enough that many of our files have been used by television broadcasters including BBC, ITV, SKY, ABC, MTV, Discovery, film studio Universal Studios, and many other corporate clients.

Royalty Free Music Loops

Articles
What Is Royalty Free Music?
What Are Performing Rights?
What Is Production Music?
Copyright Advice, Music Law and Royalty Free Music
How To Add Audio Using Flash
How To Add Audio To An iMovie
Music In Television Advertising
Choosing Music To Score Movie
What Is Sound Design?
Streaming Audio From A Web Page
Converting Audio Formats
Popular Video Editing Software
Music For Television
Royalty Free Music - A Brief Outline