Computer Audio - Suggestions for software to downsample

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Suggestions for software to downsample

Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: Digital Audio
Forum Name: Computer Audio
Forum Description: Is computer audio here to stay or is it just another flavour of the month?
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1848
Printed Date: 27 Mar 2026 at 4:04am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Suggestions for software to downsample

Posted By: marshmid
Subject: Suggestions for software to downsample
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2013 at 9:20pm

I bought a Naim LP which included the code (free) to download the 88.2kHz 24 bit master file of the album. (Incidentally this approach is £4 cheaper than just buying the master alone.)

As I don't yet have an external DAC, I cannot compare the outputs from vinyl & the HD master.

I thought I could easily convert the master to 44.1khz and 16 bit, then save on a CD and compare the CD output with the vinyl.
However I cannot find a program to do the conversion.

I have a trial of dBpoweramp, foobar2000 and cooledit2000 but cannot see how to do the conversion with them.

I would appreciate any help you can give. Google, so far, has not helped.

Marsh

Replies:

Posted By: JamesD
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2013 at 9:36pm

Hello Marsh

Have you looked at Audacity? This is totally free and you have the option to open various types of file and then export to other formats.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

James

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Aren't ears brilliant

Posted By: morris_minor
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2013 at 9:37pm

You could try Audacity, which is free. I believe the sample rate can be changed from the control in the lower left corner.

Edit : great minds think alike!

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Bob

Majestic DAC/pre-amp
Accession MC/Enigma, Accession MM, Reflex M, Elevator EXP, Era Gold V
Solo ULDE, Novo, Lautus USB and digital, Libran balanced, CuSat50
2 x Proprius + Spatia/Spatia Links

Posted By: Fatmangolf
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2013 at 10:26pm

My dBPoweramp package included the file convertor. It was about a tenner. Audacity is free.

-------------
Jon

Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC.

Posted By: marshmid
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2013 at 10:59pm

Thanks guys. I had forgotten about Audacity - but I know some folks find it difficult to use.
I expected dBPoweramp to do it but the Music Converter program doesn't appear to give options for bit depth of sampling rate. Maybe it reads these parameters automatically and converts to suit. I will look at it again tomorrow.

I have downloaded Audacity.

Posted By: suede
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2013 at 10:59pm

With foobar you can just right click on the selected file(s) and choose Convert. Then scroll to where it says "...", choose what format you'd like to convert into and then make a choice of processing. Choose resampling from the list (I'd suggest you download the SoX resampler beforehand, I think it's a much better resampler than the inbuilt one, also it has many more options to customize things).
Then just choose what directory to put the converted files in and if you want to, customize file names etc. And when you're done with all settings just start the conversion process and sit back.

As for the parameters of the Sox resampler I haven't tried downsampling as yet but I do use it to upsample everything I play to 192000hz and I've found that at least to my ears the best results are had with a passband setting of about 98.8%, not allowing aliasing and having a linear phase response (50%). Also make sure to keep a sufficent software buffer to allow these processes to be made correctly. My processor isn't the most recent make so I set the foobar software buffer to about 1600 ms.

Best of luck with either method!

Posted By: tg [RIP]
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2013 at 3:42am

The Voxengo http://www.voxengo.com/product/r8brain/ - r8brain resampler is freeware and simpler to use than SoX.

Reputedly one of the best resamplers, it is the one I use for downsampling my own LP recordings after any click/noise removal and trimming.

I also own dBpoweramp Music Converter which will do the job.

With many such things, its use is less than intuitive - first select your file/files in explorer and right click, then select "convert to" from the context menu, you then need to select to convert to .wav, the various options will then be available in the conversion dialogue.

Posted By: marshmid
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2013 at 9:58am

Yesterday, while reading a review of the Astell&Kern AK100 (Portable hi-fi music player), the problem of file conversion of Hi-definition files was highlighted. They suggested a google search of "audio format conversion software" (including quotes - i.e. that specific phrase). Unfortunately, it produced no breakthrough.

The GSP forum, however, did and within a couple of hours!!

1) Audacity - too complex for what I want it for. I use Vinyl Studio for captures.
2) dBPoweramp - it seems to work but there doesn't seem much control of formats.
3)Foobar2000 - I have the SoX reampler but I see nothing under the sample options - despite 'Suede's' coaching.
4) r8brain - brilliant!!! Just what I want and so easy to use, particularly the batch processing. As 'tg' said, forums comment favourably on it as being one of the best resamplers. Comparative data from src seem to agree (http://src.infinitewave.ca/). My only concern is that the freeware version has not been updated since 2005.

Thanks to all who contributed to my question.
That's GSP forum 1: Google 0.
Marsh

Posted By: suede
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2013 at 1:37pm

You should see a button named "Configure selected" above the DSP list when highlighting or selecting the DSP in the Active list.