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Converting BWF to MP3


Mirror

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Hi Guy's,

I just recorded a live radio program and want to convert it from a BWF to an MP3 file to burn to CD's so that the actors can have a copy. I've never done anything like this so have no idea where to start. What program do I need? Hopefully there's a free one.

FYI the radio program was a blast to do! It was a version of A Christmas Carol adapted by David Howard, the screenwriter of "Galaxy Quest". We had approximately 20 actors reading the parts, 5 people working the SFX tables and an organist. David and I decided to have all the sound effects done live as opposed to electronically. This involved building a lot of effects pieces such as a 1/2 size door, wind machine, hanging chimes, gongs, a table for footsteps, horse hooves, fire, chestnuts popping, chains, thunder, etc. The mic set-up was 3 on stands for the cast, 1 for the SFX with a boom op to swing to the working gags and 2 organs were hard lined straight to the board. I was real busy mixing for one take that lasted 45 minutes.

We did this in front of a live audience. I had 2 rehearsals, the first was without the playback speakers and it sounded very clean. The last rehearsal, which was a couple hours before showtime, I added the audience speakers and it changed everything. No longer did I have that clean sound. I wished I had someone with "live" experience on hand to give me some advice. With some repositioning of some speakers and levels I was able to get the bugs worked out. It sounded great although not as clean as before. The "roomy-ness" was a little more then I wished for.

All in all, a great experience!

If you have a tip on the file conversion I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Mirror

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Download AUDACITY. It's free, and can export to a number of formats, including MP3. Just make sure you download the MP3 library at the same time.

Alternatively, you could just put the raw WAV file into itunes (or Windows Media Player, take your pic) and you can burn it as an Audio CD - the program will do it automatically for you. Unless you want it as an MP3 file, in which case use Audacity.

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First of all, CD's don't contain MP3 files unless it's a data disc. They are WAV files at 16-bit, 44.1khz. MP3's are for your iPod and other portable music player.

iTunes can burn the disc quite easily. If you have a couple files that need to be cross-faded so they can be played as one track you will need a NLE software to make that happen. Garage Band, Audacity, Protools, etc.

www.matthewfreed.com

Production Sound Mixing for TV, Films, and Commercials

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Audacity is probably your best bet. You can join the 2 files and export the result as an mp3. Audacity converts files to AUP (Audacity Project format) on import and a long multitrack file might take some time, so you could use Wave Agent to split the poly files to mono and just import those or import the whole poly file and dump everything but your mix. As mentioned above, just be sure to download and install the LAME libraries at the same time and you should be all set. You can also export the file as an AIF and then burn it as an audio CD.

Sounds like it was both fun and interesting to do. And it's nice of you to provide the actors a copy.

Best regards,

Jim

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REAPER is another option - the download is free for an uncrippled, non-expiring trial. It's actually a full multi-track DAW program, but it's lightweight & works great for quick edits - fades, cuts, leveling, etc. If you end up wanting to pay for it, the lisence is cheap.

You can render wav files, MP3's, CD image files, etc. from within the program, but to render MP3's you'll need to download the free lame.dll encoder & place it in REAPER's program directory.

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  • 1 year later...

Just to add to the conversation, I've been using TwistedWave as my go-to Mac-based two track editor/batch converter for many years. It's an incredibly versatile program, not too expensive and updated pretty frequently by the developer. The batch conversion system lets you set up a chain of treatments, such as SRC, file-type conversion, normalisation etc. and then just hit the start button.

It's light on resources, easy to learn and there's even an IOS remote control app. Read all about it at http://www.twistedwave.com

Regards,

John

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

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