What software do you use to convert between audio files?

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Since the mid 2010s, I've made a habit of purchasing my music (where available) in lossless format. I may be the minority here, all everyone seems to do nowadays is stream low quality audio.

Your 'average Joe' will say that you can't tell the difference between a 128k MP3 and a properly encoded FLAC file...
Yeah, I definitely can, even with £45 Sennheiser in-ear headphones, or my car's factory default component sound system (with no road or fan noise).

But lossless audio sometimes presents a problem with portable devices, or some software, like GTA V - which has no lossless audio support.
A year ago, I purchased a license for a commercial audio converter, because I hated working with command line encoders.
The software seems to be a front-end for free/open source encoders, plus some proprietary DSP actions. For me, it was still money well spent. A perpetual license, and an idiot-proof GUI... well mostly. I have managed to break it on a few occasions!

So what does everyone else use for this?

I want genuine user experiences, please don't spam.
Don't post anything about online video converters. I don't want to hear about them, the sound quality is disgusting, and their legality is questionable.

NB - is it ok to name the software I'm using?

 

[muckshifter]

is it ok to name the software I'm using?

sure, I don't see why not

 

[Ian]

I've not really used any audio software other than Audacity or VLC, so would be interested to hear what you're using at the moment .

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

dBpoweramp is what I use for converting audio. It also has a few other things, like an AccurateRip CD ripper (yes, I still rip CDs occasionally) and a metadata tag editor. However it's tag editor is not reliable, previously it's resulted in corrupted audio files, and it doesn't work properly with iTunes purchased m4a files. Supposedly, music purchased with iTunes has account metadata embedded using a non-standard method.

For editing metadata tags, I use Mp3tag which is free software on Windows. Don't let its name deceive you, it also works with ogg, m4a (including iTunes purchased m4a), flac, alac and a whole lot more. It's also the only tag editor I've used which reliably produces m4a metadata that works with GTA V. The game is incredibily finicky about metadata in m4a files, if you get it wrong, the game won't recognise your custom music. I could never get m4a files tagged with dBpoweramp to work with GTA V.

I've not really used any audio software other than Audacity or VLC, so would be interested to hear what you're using at the moment .

When I used to make YouTube videos, I used Adobe Audition (formerly Adobe Soundbooth) for editing and mastering audio.
But it was complicated to use, and probably way overkill for what I was using it for.

I went back to Audacity, it's far more user friendly, and it's free. I don't make YouTube videos anymore, but I still use it sometimes when I need to remove profanities from songs. Most radio edits are reasonable, however some of them are half-assed, or they simply don't bother to release a radio edit. Audacity is great for quickly editing audio. I've probably spent hours (cumulatively) in Audacity replacing profanities with instrumental parts of the song.

I also use VLC on occasion too - but I was disappointed to find that it (still) can't play Blu-ray discs properly.

 

[Thersites]

What sort of music are you listening to that needs the removal of profanities?
"Having nothing better to say, he swore" is an aphorism by Blake that might apply to the authors.
No swearing in Schubert's music.

 

[BigDeal]

I uset Media Human Audio Converter. It's free and easy to use, but I don't know whether it does everything you need. I only ever download software which is recommended / reviewed in computer mags, so hopefully it's safe and worthwhile.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

What sort of music are you listening to that needs the removal of profanities?
"Having nothing better to say, he swore" is an aphorism by Blake that might apply to the authors.
No swearing in Schubert's music.

Pretty much anything I like. Usually chart/top 40 or mainstream dance, with some occasional indie/alternative.
Surprisingly, music in the chart/top 40 category seems to be the worst offenders. You'd think they'd want to be careful with explicit lyrics, as this type of music is aimed at the largest target audience.

Editing music is something that goes back to the days when I used to "DJ" for events. Many of them had policies prohibiting lyrics with profanity/racial/violence/sex references. This has stuck with me, even many years later. Nowadays, if I hear an uncensored version of a song, it just doesn't sound right to me. So I want to hear my music exactly as it would be played on the radio or MTV.

Here's a real life experience!
This week I was in Germany for a company event, I noticed that "radio edit" versions of songs don't seem to exist over there.
When I asked the German team about this, they told me that music played on the radio is mostly uncensored at all times. Needless to say, anything referencing the war/Third Reich is censored as required by the state.

At the company event, I heard the explicit version of David Guetta/Bebe Rehxa - I'm Good (Blue) for the first time.
I felt that it sounded... well, wrong I guess? Amazing how much difference one word can make.

Compare this clean version I have in my music library...

• 'Cause I'm good, yeah, I'm feeling alright
  Baby, I'ma have the best freakin' night of my life

With the explicit version I heard at the German company event...

• 'Cause I'm good, yeah, I'm feeling alright
  Baby, I'ma have the best ******* night of my life

Which one sounds better? If you can't decide, listen to both versions and tell me.
For me, definitely the clean version, the profanity seems so forced and unnecessary.

I uset Media Human Audio Converter. It's free and easy to use, but I don't know whether it does everything you need. I only ever download software which is recommended / reviewed in computer mags, so hopefully it's safe and worthwhile.

Suprised to see that this is free, it looks like paid software. Even the website looks like it's gonna ask you to purchase a license at some point. It could be a strong contender as an alternative, only a couple of things I think it's missing:

• iTunes QAAC encoder interface (other AAC encoders are terrible)
• Functionality to rip audio CDs

I'm still in contract with dBpoweramp/illustrate until 2024, but I will definitely review this software and see if it could be a viable replacement.