14 DAY TRIAL // Who, what, when?
Sometimes all you need is wav. The question is how can you get a good quality wav, how fast and not last, at what price. Some of you might say that wav is outdated and I (and with me -lots of other people) will argue that it definitely isn't. A lot of specific applications especially require wave-format and can only understand this particular file-type. Not that they might be old programs which were not updated yet, but they rather work with the special features of a particular file as the lossless-feature would be for wave.
One must not forget that most of musical production around the world, including the most professional software and studios work with wave files and not others. The uncompressed digital data allows the most demanding processing to be carried out with the best (technical) results possible. Sometimes, even when you need to mix several mp3 files in a larger one, it's way better to first convert them to wav exactly because of the extended processing capabilities the wave-format supports.
Going back to where we started, when wav is needed, one has to choose a program which will do the conversion. Would a freeware do the job well, should I buy an expensive audio editing software or just about any audio conversion tool will suffice?
The professionals will go for the expensive all-knowing program because they'd rather feel OK while having the possibility to set everything up the way they want without having to accept, virtually, no presets. People who aren't concerned that much about such detailed mp3-to-wav set-up would choose the first thing they will set their eyes upon and let it work the way it's already set up while those who belong to none of the above-described are most likely to do the most research looking for a freeware, yet tweakable program.
Well, in this article I won't be speaking about any of these categories but rather about a combination of them all. MP3 To Wave is a shareware conversion tool which works very well, awesomely fast, it's incredibly simple and which produces perfect results. So, let's see what is all this MP3 To Wave about!
The Looks. The Works.
MP3 To Wave simply redefines the meaning of a simple GUI: just one window with everything you need to change your mp3 into wave files. A window with unchangeable size, with a common textured background and even more-than-common buttons...and this is all!
No menus, no endless tweaking, no look or setting which might confuse the inexperienced user...nothing that could be called futile even by the "purists". Just some ordinary looking buttons and a progress bar and voila, there you have the GUI! Indeed, no fancy stuff, but I am quite sure that this is exactly what the developers of MP3 To Wave wanted.
The simplest array of playback-control buttons (play, pause, stop) and the "Convert" button are the main things which really count in what controlling is concerned. The "Browse" button (obviously) will let you decide where the output file will be saved on your HDD while, right next to it, a field containing the corresponding local path can be seen. What's really nice and I did not expect was the fact that the local path is directly editable so if you're sure where the resulting wave file should go, you can just skip the "Browse" button. In the upper area of the MP3 To Wave's main window are the very common things one usually meets in almost any audio-related program: "Open file" and the time counter.
Besides its unbelievably simple yet functional interface (which I liked very much though), another issue which really struck me was the speed: MP3 To Wave reaches awesome speeds in processing and even if the unregistered version only allows 1 minute output wave files, this conversion is done in less than 1 second.
This little piece of software can decode huge amounts of mp3 data and write them down in wave format: proof is the fact that I had to give up the software I used for snapshots as it was shortcut-based. I really haven't had enough time to press the shortcut key-combo for a screenshot and I was forced to PrintScreen directly from my keyboard to later crop and edit the capture. Truly ironic, but it took me several attempts until I finally figured what I was supposed to do to catch MP3 To Wave at work :).
The resulting wav files are 14KB tracks, 44100Hz @ 16 bits per sample sound-resolution, which means they are just perfect for further and more serious processing. Two very handy buttons operate a really interesting feature: you can set the start point and the end point for your processing and this means you can even obtain samples or loops for DJ-ing and mixing quite effortlessly! And if anything more was needed, you can even listen to whether the whole track to be processed or the selection you have made.
The Good
A "fool-proof" software, as easy as can be, with incredible processing speed and producing high-quality results at a very reasonable price. Small size and professional results.
The Bad
There's really nothing bad about this piece of code. As an improvement, the developers could also embed a tag editor.
The Truth
MP3 to Wave is one of the fastest and the easiest converters I have ever seen, with a child-simple GUI and all at a very good price.
See MP3 To Wave at work in the screenshots below:
