The biggest question when formatting newly recorded audio is the WMA/MP3 question. As a musician and former home recorder, this question always bothered me a little bit. So the biggest question really is what are the advantages and disadvantages of both? The second biggest question is what software is available out there for both? We\’ll answer both for you.
WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. So no, you can\’t escape Mr. Gates no matter how you try. WMA is Microsoft\’s cornerstone for audio production and distribution. Most WMAs can be found on internet sites and the like. They are generally larger files than MP3s and are considered by Microsoft to have a higher quality than any other format. The main boast of WMA is simply that with the bitrate, amount of bits per nano-second, that WMAs offer the audio accuracy should be more dead on than with MP3 files.
When several countries\’ labs converged to take on the evil that is Microsoft (not my words) they formed the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) and their third generation of audio software was called MPEG3 or MP3. My typing hand is very thankful for that. MP3\’s main attraction has to be a greatly reduced file size to WMAs. They achieve this by cutting out the parts of the recording that the human ear can\’t normally hear anyway. The result was a smaller program, or audio file.
Looking at both WMA and MP3 files on the same audio player you have to wonder which one will sound better and the answer is, it\’s hard to tell. A lot of this depends on your player\’s capability. WMAs sound better than MP3s at the same bitrate, but the average person will not be able to tell the difference unless they really concentrate. So that\’s no help in deciding things at all. So you can eliminate bitrate differential from our argument here.
MP3 files are smaller by an average of 1/3 and that is an advantage to the format. On the smaller hard drives that came with the original digital music players, MP3 files were preferred because you could store more of them on a device. Now, this wouldn\’t seem like as big of a deal, but consumers have grown used to MP3s and they have become the portable music standard. WMAs are used on computers and in a lot of games for Windows where hard drive space and processing speed are not really issues.
As to whether your MP3 player will play a WMA, the answer is \”most likely yes.\” There\’s no reason why most will not. The thing to consider is if you want a lot of WMAs and MP3s on the same device, it won\’t hurt anything, but things can get kind of weird. It\’s a personal choice really. Hard drive space has increased a lot since the first generation of MP3 players were marketed, so space isn\’t an issue anymore, but still, sticking to one format is a good idea.
If you have some WMAs and want to do a WMA to MP3 conversion, then feel free. There are all kinds of software packages that will enable you to do that. And you can even convert MP3s to WMAs, but I don\’t know why you\’d want to. Just remember, like everything else in life, when you make a copy of a copy, it\’s never as good as the previous copy.
On the whole when you compare WMA to MP3 format, MP3 serves a much bigger audience and fulfills their needs just fine. While WMA format is in a lot of ways more flexible for the home record maker, the difference in playback between the two in nominal. It was a 4 to 5 split decision but when we went to the cards, MP3 won.
Zeeman Haus enjoys writing articles online on a variety of subjects. You can check out his latest website on Touch Screen Mp3 Players which provides top deals on touch screen MP3 players From Creative Labs, Coby, Visual Land and more.