[Geekiness] Batch wav to mp3 conversion

Girl with headphones. Image by Matthew Henry on Stocksnap.io

This happened while I was trying to convert my Yuta Tanaka CD that the Wind_Goddess returned. I had already ripped the audio to wav, and now I wanted a mp3 batch.

Here’s the silly thing. The first few results told me to download random software, and I forgot I had the best batch wav to mp3 conversion software already on my PC.

Hello Audacity, you lovely little thing!

So here’s how you do a batch wav to mp3 conversion.

Easy Batch .wav to .mp3 conversion with Audacity

Step one: Import music files into Audacity

Step 1: Open Audacity. Drag and drop your files into the window. If you are going to make any changes to your music, then use the Make a copy of the files option as your import method. Otherwise, Read the files directly from the original should do the trick.

Note: you will need to select this for every file you’re importing, so I recommend doing it in small batches unless you want to spend the next 10 minutes clicking “Ok.”

Step 2: Export Multiple from File

Step 2: Once they’ve all been imported, select “Export Multiple.”

Step 3: Selecting your export format and other details
Step 3: This is where it gets fun. Specify your format and the bit rate. Then select Split files based on tracks. When naming files, the easiest is to Use Label/Track name.

When you click on Export, the usual metadata box will appear, and you can populate the details as needed. By the way, this is also a manual, file-by-file process, so if you have hundreds of files, you may be here a while.

And then while it converts, go and have an ice-cream or have a drink and sandwich before coming back to your new mp3 files! Many thanks to this Audacity thread for the help!