Selecting the desired file quality
Before you start converting, you have to select the desired sound quality
in the Audio Converter Settings window.
MP3 Preset Quality:
The easiest way of choosing a level of compression for your MP3 files is
to use the Preset Quality slider.
The Preset Quality slider allows you to choose from several levels of quality
and resultant file sizes. As you choose higher quality, the file size goes up
as well. On the other hand, lower quality presets will be smaller and easier
to send over the Internet.
| Preset | Bit rate | Mode | LAME |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone | 16 kbps | Mono | X |
| Shortwave | 24 kbps | Mono | X |
| AM Radio | 32 kbps | Mono | X |
| FM Radio* | 96 kbps | Stereo | X (J-stereo) |
| Voice | 64 kbps | Mono | X |
| Radio | 112 kbps | X | Stereo |
| Tape | 128 kbps | X | Stereo |
| Hi-Fi | 160 kbps | X | Stereo |
| CD | 192 kbps | X | Stereo |
| Studio | 256 kbps | X | Stereo |
The default is CD quality (192 kbps, Stereo).
* Note that the FM Radio bit rate is higher than the next preset quality, which
is Voice. Voice is @ 64 kbps and FM Radio is @ 96 kbps. The reason that there
is a discrepancy is because Voice is mono and FM Radio is stereo. If you were
to divide the FM Radio bit rate in half, you would have 48 kbps per channel,
which is lower than the Voice preset.
WMA Quality:
To get to the WMA File Options, go into the Settings and click the Output
format - WMA tab.
WMA is a second generation compressed audio format.
The main option on this screen is the quality format, which is chosen by moving
the slider. The possible settings are:
| Preset | Bit rate | Mode | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 kbps | Mono | 8,000 Hz |
| 2 | 32 kbps | Stereo | 22,050 Hz |
| 3 | 48 kbps | Mono | 44,100 Hz |
| 4 | 64 kbps | Stereo | 44,100 Hz |
| 5 | 96 kbps | Stereo | 44,100 Hz |
| 6 | 128 kbps | Stereo | 44,100 Hz (default) |
| 7 | 192 kbps | Stereo | 44,100 Hz |
WAV Quality:
CD Quality: This is the most popular setting. Use this when creating
WAV files for burning on custom audio cds.
| CD Quality |
|---|
| This is the most popular setting.
If you are creating WAV files so that you can burn them on custom CD compilations, choose this option. It will ensure that any non-CD quality format WAVs and MP3 files are converted to CD quality compatible WAV files. CD quality format WAV files are 44,100 Hz, 16 bits, stereo. |
Specific Settings: Choose this if you want the WAV files in a specific
format.
| Specific Settings |
|---|
| The last alternative can be used
for special situations where you need all your resultant WAV files to
be in a specific format. For example, you can use this if you need all
your WAV files to be mono. Sample Rate The sample rate is the number of sound points per second. For example, 22,050 Hz means that there will be 22,050 samples of sound data every second. You can also type in the sample rate if its not in the list. Mode Stereo means that the resultant files will have a left and right channel. Mono means that there is only one channel. Bits Per Sample Each sample is stored in a finite number of bits. The more bits you use, the less noise is introduced to the sound. However, the file size will also get bigger as higher bits per sample are used. The default is 16 bit. 8 bit sounds may sound noisy especially for subtle dynamic sounds. |
Please note that the higher the selected sound quality, the more disk space
is required to store the converted files.
If you have little disk space left, then this might be a reason to select a
lower sound quality.