dBpoweramp Music Converter { Help Index > Music Converter }
dBpoweramp converts a multitude of formats, consider this when converting:
Converting from lossless (FLAC, AIFF, Wave, Apple Lossless, etc) is the same as re-ripping a CD,
Lossy (mp3, aac) conversion to other formats is not recommended, when compressing audio quality is lost forever,
The bitrate sets how much quality is lost when converting lossy,
Lossy to lossless does not recover lost quality,
Lossless to lossless conversion does not lose quality.
Converting From Explorer / macOS Finder
The simplest way to convert is through Windows File Explorer (press and hold Windows Key then E key to open an Explorer Window), or macOS Finder:
Windows 11 Convert To and Edit ID Tags will appear under a dBpoweramp menu. For macOS the option is called Convert with dBpoweramp
Browse to your audio files, select one or more files, right click on a selected file and choose Convert To, dBpoweramp Music Converter is shown:
Encoders are listed under Encoding, chosen encoder settings are shown below and change depending on encoder selected, each has a help button, click to receive help on that encoder.
xx Files shows all files queued for conversion and allows renaming.
Output To sets the folder and file naming converted files are saved:
Existing Source Folder: converted tracks are written to same folder as the source file,
Single Folder: all files written to a single folder of your choosing,
Preserve Source Path: allows the selection of a base drive or folder, into which the full source path is added and source filename,
Edit Dynamic Naming substitutes programmable elements, such as [artist] and replaces with real values from the ID Tags, dynamic is very flexible. Further Naming Details
DSP Effects / Actions
DSP (Digital Signal Processing) process audio, or perform actions, example effects are Delete Source File, ReplayGain, Volume Normalization, Graphic Equalizer, etc (there are more than 20 effects).
Effects are performed in a top to bottom order. DSP Help
Converting
Convert >> begins conversion:
Overall progress is shown at the top, and time remaining is also presented, with encoding speed showing the combined real time speed (example: a 10 minutes long track takes 1 minute to convert, has a 10x Encoding speed).
Multiple CPU cores will be used at the same time by each encoder, in the above example eight encoders are running side by side. However multiple CPUs are sometimes not used depending on audio format (such as a lossless format, as the disk is likely to be the bottleneck not CPU).
It is possible to force usage of specific encoder count, or CPUs per encoder with the DSP Effect 'Multi-CPU Force'.
Whilst converting the number of encoders in use can be changed by selecting Options >> Encoding, this change is only for the current encoding queue.
Encoding Priority instructs Windows how much time it should give to dBpoweramp in relation to other programs, set to Idle to allow the conversion to progress in the background and not interrupt your work. Even on a lower setting, 100% of the core is used.
After conversion there is an option to show the error log (on by default), to add a Windows notification detailing completion or to shut down the computer.
File Selector
Another way to select files for conversion is with File Selector (run Music Converter from the Control Center) a traditional Open File selection dialog shows.
Hold down the CTRL key whilst selecting to select multiple audio files.
Press CTRL + A to select all files.
Batch Converter
Convert whole audio collection effortlessly
Select folders and sub-folders with a single click,
