Guides, Tips & How-Tos for Audio
Step-by-step guides on converting, compressing, and editing audio. No jargon, no fluff, just what works.
Recording Oral Histories: Capture, Convert, and Archive
An oral history project needs two outputs: small MP3s people will actually listen to, and lossless archival copies for the next fifty years. The dual-format workflow.
All Articles
The Journalist's Field Recording Workflow: Recorder to Newsroom
Field recorders write huge WAVs; editors want small files five minutes ago. The convert-trim-send pipeline for filing audio from a phone tether at deadline.
Preparing Interview Audio for Transcription: Format, Bitrate, Cleanup
Transcription accuracy — human or AI — depends more on your audio prep than on the service. The mono conversion, level normalization, and bitrate floor that cut error rates.
Turning Wedding Video into Audio Keepsakes: Vows, Toasts, and Speeches
The videographer delivered four hours of MP4; the part people replay is ninety seconds of vows. Extracting, trimming, and sharing the audio moments worth keeping.
Rescuing Audio from Old Camcorder Files: AVI, MPG, and VOB
MiniDV rips, DVD-camcorder VOBs, and early-2000s AVIs hold family audio nothing modern plays. The conversion path that saves the soundtrack before the files rot.
Screen Recordings to MP3: Repurposing Tutorials as Audio
OBS and Loom output WebM and MKV files that most audio tools reject. Converting screen-capture audio into podcast-style MP3s for listeners who don't need the screen.
GoPro and Drone Footage: Extracting Usable Audio
Action-cam audio is buried under wind noise and mounted-case rumble. What's actually recoverable, and the extract-and-normalize workflow for the parts worth saving.
From iPhone Video to Audio: Pulling MP3 from MOV Files
Concert clips, kids' recitals, and interview snippets shot on iPhone hold audio worth keeping on its own. The MOV-to-MP3 workflow, plus trimming down to just the moment.
Turning Recorded Lectures and Webinars into MP3 for Revision
A semester of lecture recordings won't fit on your phone as video. Extracting audio cuts sizes by 90 percent, and speed-shifted playback turns commutes into revision time.
How to Extract Audio from MP4 Video: Every Method Compared
FFmpeg, VLC, online converters, and QuickTime all extract audio — with very different quality and effort. An honest comparison, plus when 'extract' beats 're-encode' and how to tell.
Selling Beats Online: MP3 Previews, WAV Masters, and Delivery Specs
BeatStars and Airbit sellers ship tagged MP3 previews and untagged masters. The two-tier export workflow, including the preview bitrate that streams instantly without sounding cheap.
Cleaning Up Live Show Recordings for Your Fans
Board mixes and audience recordings need different rescue jobs. Trimming dead air between songs, normalizing wildly uneven levels, and choosing an export that respects the room.
Backing and Practice Tracks: Tempo Changes, Trims, and Loops
Slowing a solo to 75 percent without pitch shift, cutting a track to just the section you're drilling, and chaining a set list into one file for stage playback.
DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby: Audio Formats for Streaming Distribution
Distributors demand lossless masters, but bands often only have MP3s of old releases. What each service accepts, and what to do when the WAV masters are long gone.
Rehearsal Recordings: From Phone Memo to Shareable Track
Phone recordings of band practice are quiet, boomy, and stuck in Apple's format. The five-minute cleanup that makes them good enough to share and learn from.
Bouncing from Logic, Ableton, and Pro Tools: MP3 Settings That Match Your Mix
Your bounce sounds different from your session because of encoder defaults, not your ears. Sample rates, dither, and bitrate settings for each major DAW.
Bandcamp vs SoundCloud: Upload Formats and What Fans Actually Hear
Bandcamp wants lossless and transcodes for you; SoundCloud streams a compressed version of whatever you give it. What to upload to each so your mix survives.
Sending Your Band's Demo: The MP3 Specs Venues, Blogs, and A&Rs Want
Nobody opens a 400 MB WAV folder from a stranger. The file sizes, bitrates, and naming conventions that get your demo listened to instead of deleted.
Repurposing Video Content into Podcast Episodes
Your webinars, YouTube uploads, and livestreams are podcast episodes waiting to happen. The extract-trim-normalize pipeline that turns video into feed-ready audio in minutes.
Mono vs Stereo Podcasts: Halve Your File Size Without Losing Listeners
A voice-only podcast in stereo wastes half its bitrate. When mono is the right call, when it isn't (music shows), and how to convert an existing back catalogue.
Intros, Outros, and Mid-Rolls: The Podcast Merge Workflow
Stitching pre-recorded intro music, episode audio, and ad reads into one file without editing software. Includes the level-matching step most people skip — and hear.
GarageBand to Podcast: Exporting the Right MP3 Every Time
GarageBand's share menu hides the settings that matter and defaults to M4A. The exact export path, and what to do when a client or host insists on MP3.
Podcast Loudness Explained: Hitting -16 LUFS Without a Mastering Engineer
Apple Podcasts and Spotify normalize to different loudness targets, and quiet episodes get skipped. What LUFS actually measures and how to hit the target with free tools.
Remote Podcast Interviews: From Zoom and Riverside to a Clean MP3
Remote recordings arrive as mismatched M4A and WAV tracks at wildly different volumes. The align-convert-normalize workflow that turns them into one broadcast-ready episode.
Quick Format Guides
Short answers to common audio format questions. Part of our full FAQ.
MP3 vs WAV: Which Format Should You Use?
When to use each format, file size differences, and what lossless really buys you.
MP3 vs FLAC: Lossy vs Lossless Explained
FLAC keeps every bit of the original. Here is when that matters and when it does not.
M4A vs MP3: Apple's Format vs the Standard
Why your iPhone records M4A, what it means for compatibility, and how to convert.
MP3 Compression Guide: Bitrate vs File Size
What bitrate to use, how much size you can save, and when compression hurts your audio.
How to Convert MP4 to MP3 (Extract Audio)
Pull the audio track out of any video and save it as a clean, portable MP3.
FLAC to MP3: Converting Lossless Libraries
How to convert FLAC to MP3 for phones and car stereos without losing more quality than you must.