Convert MP3: Have you downloaded from the Internet some songs in AAC, OGG or FLAC format that are not “digested” by your portable music player? To solve the problem it should be enough to turn these files into common MP3s, this is a very simple operation that you can complete completely free of charge.
Try to download one of the applications to convert MP3 that I am about to report to you and follow all the steps you find below. I assure you that in a handful of clicks all your favorite songs will be playable by any music player worthy of the name. Not only that, if necessary you can also optimize the size of your music files (making some small sacrifices in terms of audio quality) and save space on your MP3 player.
But now let’s not digress. Let’s focus on the main topic of our guide and find out which are the best free software we can rely on. Regardless of the operating system installed on your computer (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux) you will find the program that best suits your needs. This is little but sure.
Fre: ac (Windows / Mac / Linux)
Fre: ac is definitely one of the best free applications to convert MP3 . It is distributed under an open source license and is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Using it, you can select any song M4A, WMA, Ogg, FLAC, AAC, WAV, Bonk and convert it to MP3 or vice versa.
To download fre: ac on your computer, connect to the program’s website and select the Downloads item located in the left sidebar. Then click on the link located next to the Self extracting installer item (e.g. fre: ac 1.0.24.exe ) or, if you use a Mac, click on the link next to the wording Binary .dmg image (e.g. freac-20150725 -macosx.dmg ).
Download is complete, double click on it and open the file you just downloaded (eg freac – 1.0.24.exe ) and in the window that opens, click first on the Yes button and then on Next , again Yes , Next four consecutive times and End to end the setup.
If you use a Mac, the procedure is even simpler: all you have to do is open the dmg package you just downloaded and drag the Fre: ac icon to the Applications folder of OS X. To start the program for the first once – due to the security measures included in OS X for applications downloaded outside the Mac App Store – it may be necessary to right-click on its icon and select the Open item from the menu that appears.
Now you are ready to take action! Start fre: ac and click on the first of the icons in the application toolbar (the white sheet with the musical note next to it) to select the songs to convert. Then, click on the arrow located next to the green button with the play symbol and choose the output file format from: LAME MP3 Encoder (MP3 format); FAAC MP4 / AAC Encoder (m4a format); FLAC Audio Encoder (FLAC format); Ogg Vorbis Encoder (ogg format); Windows Media Audio Encoder (wma format); Windows Wave file output (WAV format) eBonk Audio Encoder (Bonk format).
The conversion will start immediately. To select the folder in which to save the converted songs with fre: ac, click on the Browse button located at the bottom right. You can also convert music CDs to MP3 (or other compressed audio files) by clicking on the button with the audio CD icon and selecting the output format of the songs as just seen together.
MediaHuman Audio Converter (Windows / Mac)
MediaHuman Audio Converter is a free software that allows you to convert all the main audio file formats: not only MP3, but also WMA, AAC, WAV, FLAC, OGG, AIFF and Apple Lossless. It is available for Windows and Mac OS X.
To download it to your PC, connected to its official website and click on the Download button . When the download is complete, open the MHAudioConverter.exe file you just downloaded and click on Yes first and then on Next . Then put the check mark next to the item I accept the terms of the license agreement and complete the setup by clicking first on Next for four consecutive times and then on Install and Finish .
If you use a Mac, to install MediaHuman Audio Converter on your computer you must open the dmg package you just downloaded from the program’s website and drag the icon of the latter to the Applications folder of OS X. Then you have to right-click on the MediaHuman icon Audio Converter and select the Open item from the menu that opens (operation necessary only when the software is started for the first time).
Now you just have to drag the songs to be converted into the MediaHuman Audio Converter window, expand the Format menu located at the top and select, in the window that opens, the format and quality of the output files. For example, if you want to get MP3s with a bitrate of 192kbps, you need to select the MP3 item in the first drop-down menu and the 192 kbps item in the second menu.
Then you have to click on the Close button and start converting the files by clicking on the icon with the two arrows located at the top right. To change the folder where the output files are exported, click on the wrench icon (or go to the MediaHuman Audio Converter> Preferences menu on Mac) and indicate the destination you prefer in the Output folder field .
Media.io (Web)
If you need to convert MP3 only occasionally or in any case you want to avoid installing new programs on your computer, you can rely on Media io , a free online service that works directly from the browser. It supports all the main audio file formats in input and many formats also in output. To be precise, it allows you to generate MP3, WAV, WMA and OGG files with a maximum bitrate of 320 kbit / s.
To use it, connected to its home page, click on the Select files to upload button and select the files to convert (there is an upload limit of 750MB). Then choose the desired output format from MP3 , WAV , WMA and OGG , select one of the available bitrates (96, 128, 192 or 320 kbit / s) and click on the Convert button to start downloading and converting the songs.
Online Convert (Web)
Online Convert is a universal converter that works through the Internet. It allows you to convert all major audio file formats and can be used by any browser (without resorting to additional plugins).
To convert a song from or to MP3 format with Online Convert, connect to the home page of the site and use the drop-down menu located under the heading Audio converter (top left) to select the audio file format you want to get as output . You can choose between: MP3 , AAC , OGG , WMA , FLAC and other types of files.
At this point, click on the Choose file / Browse button and select the song to be converted. Then use the drop-down menu Change audio bitrate to set the quality of the output file (the maximum is 320kbps ), affix the check mark next to Normalize audio to normalize the volume of the selected track and click on the Convert file button to start the conversion process. You can upload files with a maximum weight of 100MB.
The duration of the operation depends on the weight of the song to be converted and the speed of the Internet connection at your disposal. At the end of the conversion the download of the output file will automatically start on the PC. Easier than that?