Convert audio to MP3 or WAV, without uploading it
Most converters send your file to a server. This one converts it on your own device: open, listen, pick a format, save. Free and instant.
Convert a file nowHow to convert an audio file
- Open the editor and drop your file in. Anything your browser can play will load: WAV, MP3, M4A, OGG, FLAC, and AMR voice memos too.
- Press play to confirm it is the right file. You are converting what you can hear, not a filename.
- In the Save panel, pick WAV (lossless) or MP3, and if MP3, a quality from 96 to 320 kbps. 160 is plenty for a voice, 192 and up suits music.
- Optionally change the sample rate or fold stereo to mono to halve the size of a single-voice recording.
- Press export and choose where to save it. Done.
Why convert here
- No upload, ever. The conversion happens in your browser, so a private recording stays private and a big file converts without a long upload.
- You can hear what you are converting before and after, in the same page, and even trim or clean it first.
- Real settings: bitrate, sample rate and channels, not just a format dropdown.
Which format should you actually pick?
Almost every conversion question comes down to one decision: are you keeping this file to work on later, or sending it somewhere to be listened to? That answers it.
| Situation | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sending to a person, a podcast host, a phone | MP3, 160 kbps | About a tenth the size, plays everywhere, indistinguishable for speech |
| Music that matters | MP3, 192 to 320 kbps | Cymbals, strings and reverb tails are where low bitrates audibly fall apart |
| Feeding into another editor or a transcription tool | WAV | Lossless, so the next tool starts from the full signal rather than compression artifacts |
| Archiving the only copy you have | WAV | Storage is cheap; a re-encoded original cannot be un-re-encoded |
| A long spoken recording where size is the problem | MP3, 96 to 128 kbps, mono | Speech survives this well, and mono halves it again |
What the sample rate actually changes
Sample rate sets the highest frequency a file can contain, at roughly half the rate. 44100 Hz reaches about 22 kHz, past the top of human hearing, which is why it became the CD standard. 8000 Hz reaches 4 kHz, which is why phone calls sound like phone calls.
The practical rules are short. Leave it matching the source unless you have a reason. Raising it never adds detail that was not recorded, so converting an 8000 Hz voice memo to 44100 Hz gains nothing but file size. Lowering it genuinely shrinks a file, and for a voice, 22050 Hz is usually indistinguishable while halving the data. Below 16000 Hz speech starts sounding thin and muffled.
Things conversion cannot do
- It cannot recover quality. Converting a 64 kbps MP3 to a 320 kbps MP3 produces a bigger file containing exactly the same damage.
- Every lossy-to-lossy hop costs a little. MP3 to MP3 means decode and re-encode. Convert from your original whenever you still have it.
- It cannot make a mono recording stereo. Splitting one channel into two is not the same as having recorded two.
If the underlying recording is the problem rather than its format, the fixes that genuinely help are removing the background noise and levelling the volume, both of which are one press each in the same editor.
Common questions
Which formats can it read?
Anything your browser can decode, which in practice covers WAV, MP3, M4A, OGG and FLAC, plus AMR phone voice memos which TidyAudio decodes itself.
Why only MP3 and WAV as output?
Those are the two encoders that fit in a page with nothing to install. WAV is lossless for further work; MP3 is small for listening and sharing. Between them they cover nearly every real use.
Does converting MP3 to MP3 lose quality?
A little, always, in any tool: the file must be decoded and re-encoded. Convert from the original when you still have it.
Is there a file size limit?
No fixed limit. Audio takes roughly 10 MB of memory per stereo minute while editing, so hour-long files are more comfortable on a desktop than a phone.