Author Topic: Fastest Audio Converter (Read 29923 times)

Curt · « **Reply #25 on:** December 05, 2010, 04:03 AM »

Going down from VBR "Quality 6" to "Quality 8", the speed accelerates to 50 times the normed speed: 540 MB transcodes in merely 94 seconds!!

HankFriedman · « **Reply #26 on:** December 05, 2010, 11:29 AM »

1. How do you end up with such tiny files? When I use the MediaCoder 64 bit program, like all other programs, the resulting MP3 file is larger than the original WMA file.

2. Are you using the same settings that I am: 93 MB WMA file recorded at 44199 Hz to a file @ 22,050 Hz 96 kbits per second joint stereo?

In the image above, it clearly shows that it will take 8 minutes to process

Please help me to replicate your settings.

thanks

Hank

p.s. as the second image shows, it actually took over 9 minutes!

Curt · « **Reply #27 on:** December 05, 2010, 12:35 PM »

Hmm... We have been testing two quite different things. When you first said your files were larger, I assumed they were of a higher quality, so I tested some Lossless WMA sound tracks. Now I see, your files were l o n g e r, (much much longer: 12.000 seconds!), but merely 64 kbps! Our premises have been from opposite ends of the scale! Sorry, I expect MediaCoder won't help you then.

Edited:
>Relevant Knowledge "spyware"< is shit, but quite harmless. The few times I have had it on my pc but wanted to keep the attached program, I simply moved RN from 'Start' to 'Start on Demand Only', via my AnVir TaskManager Pro.

xtabber · « **Reply #28 on:** December 05, 2010, 06:40 PM »

12000 seconds is 3 hours, 20 minutes, compressed into a 92 MB file. That means that you have a very highly compressed lossy format being converted to another lossy format.

With that kind of recording, I'd be more concerned about retained fidelity of the output than the speed of conversion, although I'd guess that the original file is not of high enough sound quality to notice much difference anyway. Have you compared the output from the different programs you tried?

HankFriedman · « **Reply #29 on:** December 05, 2010, 11:42 PM »

These are voice recordings not music.

And Yes, I have compared the fidelity and they are so similar in quality that the differences are inaudible.

4wd · « **Reply #30 on:** December 06, 2010, 01:35 AM »

If it's only a voice recording and stereo isn't necessary, perhaps use --preset voice when using LAME might be better?

You need to do it from CLI, (AFAIK - not usually a normal option in GUIs), so:

lame --preset voice xxx.wma xxx.mp3

--preset voice is equivalent to ABR 56kbps/mono.

Adding -s 22.05 should change it to 22050Hz sample frequency. EDIT: Sample rate conversion is also time intensive, try without first.

You could also tweak the Noise and Psycho Acoustic parameters - try a -q value between say 5 and 9, (the higher the number the lower the quality but the faster the encode), eg. -q 7

wr975 · « **Reply #31 on:** December 06, 2010, 02:36 AM »

I'm using XRecode II to transcode files. I usually transcode audiobooks (192 kps CBR is insane) to -v8.

LAME isn't supporting multi-core, so the program is just encoding several files at once. For each core one file. This speeds up encoding a lot, especially if I use the server (8 x CPU) at work. ;-) It also keeps all ID3Tags, so it's a winner for me.

The last freeware version of XRecode (1) can be found here: http://www.xup.in/dl...e_I_final_2.6.0.zip/
Starting with XRecode 2 the program got shareware/nagware.

Don't confuse it with XMedia Recode. This one is good for video encoding and transcoding, but IMHO not so for audio. Guess the author of XMedia Recode never understood what the preset system (-v0 to v9) is all about.

Curt · « **Reply #32 on:** December 06, 2010, 03:43 AM »

Not freeware, but low-priced and absolutely serious: http://www.code-it.com/ Their Wave MP3 Editor is a multi-tool that will cover any needs, including WMA > MP3_Voice. I wrote about it in the thread Code-it Software almost-giveaway. However, it seems some changes have been made and that the new top of the pop is the program "Code-it Audio Solutions", but I have undivided faith in any piece of work from programmer Mike Baker.

+ a license is a life-time license.

Screenshot from my "old" Wave MP3 Editor version (model-year 2011):

http://www.code-it.com/software.htm

Is there any where I can download such a 3½ hours long speech, you're using, for testing?

HankFriedman · « **Reply #33 on:** December 06, 2010, 10:53 PM »

I want to thank you all for persevering so diligently.

I installed the latest two suggested programs:

Code-it Audio Solutions

and

XRecode

and neither was faster than 3 minutes

(with the fastest program -- the one with the Relevant Knowledge spyware -- took less than one minute)

I wish I could share my audio file for your testing purposes, but it is of a private session with a client, and I can't share it

Thanks again for all of the incredible responses from everyone.

4wd · « **Reply #34 on:** December 07, 2010, 12:04 AM »

Is there any where I can download such a 3½ hours long speech, you're using, for testing?
-Curt (December 06, 2010, 03:43 AM)

If you want to try some voice audio files, just do a search for sermons

eg. Catholic Church Archived Radio Programs - They're in MP3 format but you can always transcode to WMA to get a test file. Here's a 3 hour debate, (161MB), from the same page.

Curt · « **Reply #35 on:** December 07, 2010, 04:09 AM »

We decided more than 30 years ago in our church that a sermon never should be any longer than a cassette tape. Today we only offer our sermon recordings as "1 sermon = 1 CD".

Thanks for the file. I am going to test it now.

Dormouse · « **Reply #36 on:** December 07, 2010, 04:21 AM »

Today we only offer our sermon recordings as "1 sermon = 1 CD".
-Curt (December 07, 2010, 04:09 AM)

That could be a very long sermon indeed if its done as a low quality mp3

Curt · « **Reply #37 on:** December 07, 2010, 07:02 AM »

.Wav, 60 minutes.

---

Regarding the downloaded MP3 "debate" file from 4wd's post: It was quite interesting to notice how much faster it is to convert from MP3 to WMA, than the other way around.

I used Aimersoft Video Converter Ultimate to convert the 3 hours 'debate' file from MP3 to WMA. It only took 2 minutes, but it took 5 minutes to convert it back into MP3! My converters will not work any faster than 30, 40 or 50 times the normed play time - depending on the settings. This is where the key to conversion speed is to be found, meaning that most programs probably will convert with the exact same speed!

As Hank said, in this discipline (1 long file, from wma to mp3) MediaCoder was in fact slower than the other converters. I used to have a lot of converters, and still have some license keys, so I was tempted to do a thorough test. But the European Championship tournament in female Handball is beginning in a few minutes, so I skipped the lot and went strait to the target: If conversion speed really is so important to Hank, he should consider not converting at all; it is a waste of time, just in order to halve the size of the files! Speaking of "halves"; if you must change any settings, divide any number with 2 or 4, avoid odd dividers. Don't use "Preset > Voice", it takes forever to create.

Sorry; I am out of time (hopefully not too literally!!!) Handball girls, here I come!

HankFriedman · « **Reply #38 on:** December 07, 2010, 11:25 AM »

I only convert for those clients of mine that cannot handle WMA files. They need MP3 files on their Macs. (And yes, I know there is an easy way to configure a Mac to be able to play WMA files, but even that's too complex for some of my clients.)

Dormouse · « **Reply #39 on:** December 07, 2010, 11:36 AM »

If you control the whole chain, could you not record directly into mp3s?

HankFriedman · « **Reply #40 on:** December 07, 2010, 11:37 AM »

Not on the recorder that I own.

superboyac · « **Reply #41 on:** December 07, 2010, 12:08 PM »

dbpoweramp is the best. But it's not free. Just FYI.

Curt · « **Reply #42 on:** December 07, 2010, 01:26 PM »

-and NoteBurner Audio Converter is the fastest!

I totally forgot about this one because I never have used it myself, and it is $35.
Read more at http://www.noteburne...audio-converter.html

HankFriedman · « **Reply #43 on:** December 07, 2010, 01:49 PM »

Did you read this paragraph in the Noteburner review?:

NoteBurner audio converter adopts virtual burning technology, so it's required that you must have iTunes, Windows Media Player, Real Player or other kind of media player to co-work with NoteBurner audio converter.

HankFriedman · « **Reply #44 on:** December 07, 2010, 01:52 PM »

Another review of NoteBurner said:

. It must be used in conjunction with a media player that can burn CDs because it makes the media player “burn” the song as a file on the hard drive instead of onto a real CD. This is the major drawback in the program: you have to use two separate programs just to convert your music.

so it's not really what I'm looking for

skwire · « **Reply #45 on:** December 07, 2010, 02:13 PM »

Is a matter of a few minutes really that big of a deal? It's an honest question...not some attempt at a flame. If so, are these conversions something you can just queue up and let run overnight or during some time you're away from the computer?

HankFriedman · « **Reply #46 on:** December 07, 2010, 02:17 PM »

It is amazing how my work flow proceeds better when jobs are done efficiently.

I upgraded my PC recently, and one program that took 14 seconds to load now does so in 2 seconds.

All of the delays add up, and I'm much happier and more focused when I don't have to wait an extra 2 minutes to proceed to the next task.

HankFriedman · « **Reply #47 on:** December 07, 2010, 09:44 PM »

I tested the Factory Audio Converter and the dBpoweramp, and they are both slower than the best one (although Factory Audio Converter was only a little more than twice as slow, and thus comes in second place)

Curt · « **Reply #48 on:** December 08, 2010, 05:32 AM »

This is not about speed, but today (and ending 24:00 PST December 9, 2010) dotTech is teaming up with iSkysoft Studio to bring everyone iSkysoft Video Converter ($35.95 value) for free! You can use the offer to upgrade to the $55 Ultimate version for merely $29.

http://dottech.org/freebies/19221

Edited:

You may go straight to the Ultimate offer.

Just so all dotTechies know. Before I committed to a co-promotion with iSkysoft Studio, I talked to their new sales manager about iSkysoft’s spamming. He reassured me he is trying to rebrand iSkysoft Studio and will stop spam-tactics. Otherwise, if I wasn’t given that guarantee, I wouldn’t have agreed to this promotion.
-Ashraf, dotTech