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Matt, I don't have the Audiophile version but I'm wondering, if I converted the WMA files to WAV would it speed up the rendering at all? Quality shouldn't be any different, but if it speeds up the process, it might be worth it.

Thanks



Converting the compressed WMA format files to WAV files yields no sonic advantage - because there isn't the "extra" sonic information available from the WMA format.

Converting those files to WAV in an attempt to gain faster loading speed isn't all that important with modern pc's either, I tried it once just to test and found that any loading speed advantage will be slight indeed.

--Mac



Converting pretty much any digital audio to another format will involve some degradation of the sound. Even if it's from a lossy (wma, mp3) to an uncompressed format (wav, aiff). There's always changes made to the waveform and none of those changes improve the sound. So the answer to your question is don't convert your wma's. The conversion WILL harm your sound, albeit pretty marginally.

As an aside, mixing/rendering your final mix to a wav WILL give you a better sound than mixing to wma. It's because you're summing all those various tracks to an entirely new mix. A wav mix will capture more of the detail intact. A wma mix will capture less detail. It's because you're expanding and then re-compressing compressed files. Even I, with my not exactly 20-something ears can hear this process.

Peace,

Ian

My main soundclick page