How do I convert .MP3 to .OGG directly?

[Cobra]

I am going to uni soon and I want to convert all those bulky old MP3 files to sleek, new space-age OGG files. However, I currently have to convert the MP3 to WAV, then to OGG.

Does anyone know an application that will convert big batches of MP3s to OGG files?

Thanks in advance!

CobraDMX

[geek rock]

just out of interest, why are you bothering?

compressing an already compressed file isn't a good idea, and hard drives aren't really expensive these days.

the whole idea of ogg is to encode your uncompressed WAV audio to a new small format.

you've already got your mp3s, so why waste all your time encoding to something that'll sound worse than the original mp3 anyway?

[handiman876]

mediamonkey 2.0 at download.com. basic version is free and says it will convert. i have to also wonder why. if there's a good reason pass it on. peace out.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Use Audacity.I agree with geek rock,you won't gain any quality converting to OGG and you will only be able to listen on PC.

[Cobra]

OK, MP3 sounds good at 192kbps, and Vorbis sounds good at 128kbps. Since disc space is at a premium, I want to make the files smaller, yet retain the quality.

I understand that recompressing will not yield greater quality due to the "lossy" nature of both technologies. However, if I can save disc space by converting a load of 320kbps MP3s to 128kbps Vorbis, then it's a good thing for me.

Thanks for the suggestions - I'm off to try them out now.

CobraDMX

[pixel]

As others have said, hard drives are pretty inexpensive, and why use a format without the same support as MP3?

The thing is, MP3 doesn't have as good quality compression as OGG, so going from MP3 to a lower bitrate OGG can only lose even more quality. Why not just reencode the MP3s to 128kb/s?

I use cdex for audio conversions (i think MOVIEGEEK suggested it to me).

[Cobra]

I feel a bit of a Vorbis - MP3 shootout coming on.

I tried both formats, and to my ears Vorbis sounds better. It's personal preferance I suppose. I use Fraunhoffer (comes with Cool Edit Pro) to do MP3s, and CDex to do Vorbis files, so it's not the MP3 encoder at fault.

CDex does indeed allow me to convert entire folders of MP3s to Vorbis, so that's my question answered.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated. Now, I have a long task ahead...

CobraDMX

[pixel]

I feel a bit of a Vorbis - MP3 shootout coming on.

I tried both formats, and to my ears Vorbis sounds better. It's personal preferance I suppose. I use Fraunhoffer (comes with Cool Edit Pro) to do MP3s, and CDex to do Vorbis files, so it's not the MP3 encoder at fault.

CDex does indeed allow me to convert entire folders of MP3s to Vorbis, so that's my question answered.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated. Now, I have a long task ahead...

CobraDMX

Sorry, didn't want to start a format war, whatever sounds best to you.

I also use Cool Edit, but it is direly slow for mp3s, mainly because it doesn't use a high priority.

I find it is quicker to do everything like edit etc. in cool edit then save it as wave. Open cdex, choose windows MP3 in settings and choose fraunhofer pro codec, set it to high. This will take about 10 mins to do an hour at 160Kb/s MP3.

[cplevel42]

This is not an issue of format wars. The ogg files DO sound better at a lower bit rate, but that is only when you convert from the original wave files. If you go from mp3 to a lower bit rate ogg file you will lose quality, plain and simple. So, unless you have the original waves, you should stick with the mp3s you have now, unless you are not concerned with quality.

[Cobra]

Well, I won't argue with that. What I'm doing is working fine, and I'm getting great sounding Oggs from it.

'Nuff said.

Thanks again for the advice!

CobraDMX

[Cobra]

Not enough said, obviously!

I found this on Vorbis.com and it certainly cleared up a few things with me.

"You can convert any audio format to Ogg Vorbis. However, converting from one lossy format, like MP3, to another lossy format, like Vorbis, is generally a bad idea. Both MP3 and Vorbis encoders achieve high compression ratios by throwing away parts of the audio waveform that you probably won't hear. However, the MP3 and Vorbis codecs are very different, so they each will throw away different parts of the audio, although there certainly is some overlap. Converting a MP3 to Vorbis involves decoding the MP3 file back to an uncompressed format, like WAV, and recompressing it using the Ogg Vorbis encoder. The decoded MP3 will be missing the parts of the original audio that the MP3 encoder chose to discard. The Ogg Vorbis encoder will then discard other audio components when it compresses the data. At best, the result will be an Ogg file that sounds the same as your original MP3, but it is most likely that the resulting file will sound worse than your original MP3."

Sorry about all the reading!

Never mind, I converted from 320kbps MP3 and it does sound OK. No going back now, anyway...

CobraDMX

[theaveng]

Thanks for answering this question. I've been looking to convert some MP3s to a more-compact format like Vorbis. (These are old-time radio dramas, so quality is not an issue.)

Unfortunately Vorbis only goes down to 48 kbit/s,
so that's not going to work.