Audio Tools

Choosing the right audio format

Audio Tools on FreeMicroTools work on sound files inside your browser. The Audio Converter opens WAV, MP3, M4A, AAC, OGG, Opus and FLAC files and saves them as MP3, WAV or OGG, one at a time or as a whole batch in a ZIP, so songs, recordings and voice memos are never uploaded or stored.

Choose the output by what you will do with the file. MP3 plays on every phone, car, player and website, so it is the right choice for listening and sharing: 128 kbps suits speech and podcasts, 192 kbps suits most music, and 320 kbps keeps the most detail. WAV is uncompressed and loses nothing, which makes it the format for audio editors, DJ software, samplers and burning CDs, but it takes about 10.6 MB for every minute of CD-quality stereo. OGG is an open format that games, Android apps and open-source programs often expect.

Converting never improves sound that was already compressed: an MP3 turned into WAV sounds the same, only larger. Start from the best copy you have, keep lossless WAV and FLAC originals as your archive, and make smaller MP3s from them for your devices. An audio trimmer, a BPM finder and a pitch shifter are on the roadmap.

Questions

Which audio format should I convert to?

MP3 for listening and sharing, because it plays everywhere. WAV for editing, DJ software and CDs, because it loses nothing. OGG when a game, app or program asks for it.

Does converting audio lose quality?

Saving as WAV loses nothing. MP3 and OGG leave out detail that is hard to hear to make files smaller, and at 192 kbps or more most listeners cannot tell. No conversion can restore quality a file has already lost.

Are my audio files uploaded when I use these tools?

No. Every audio tool on FreeMicroTools works inside your browser, so your files never leave your device and nothing is stored.