dBpoweramp Music Converter Help

dBpoweramp 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.

If the codec required is not present in dBpoweramp (such as Ogg, or Windows Media Audio), it can be installed from [Codec Central].
Converting From Explorer
The simplest way to convert is through Windows File Explorer (press and hold Windows Key then E key to open Windows File Explorer):

Note on Windows 11 Convert To and Edit ID Tags will appear under a dBpoweramp menu. Browse to your audio tracks (normally in Music) 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, see the help file for AIFF, Apple Lossless, FLAC, m4a FDK (aac), Monkeys Audio, Mp3 (Lame), ogg vorbis, opus, Wave, Wavpack, Windows Media Audio, [Multi-Encoder], [ID Tag Update] and [Replay Gain].
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. In the above example all tracks are written to Artist then Album folders, whilst preserving the source filename. Further Naming Details [dBpoweramp Reference required]

DSP Effects / Actions
DSP (Digital Signal Processing) process the 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. Each DSP Effect Details
Converting
Convert >> begins conversion:

Overall progress is shown at the top, 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).
dBpoweramp Reference encodes using multiple CPU cores at the same time (in the above example 7 cores are used), however multiple CPUs are sometimes not used depending on audio format (such as a lossless format, as the hard disk is likely to be the bottleneck not CPU). It is possible to force usage of specific CPUs with the DSP Effect 'Multi-CPU Force', especially if reading and writing to SSD drives. Whilst converting the number of cores in use can be changed by selecting Options >> Encoding and choosing a different core count, this change is only for the current encoding queue, use the DSP effect 'CPU Force' to make permnanent.
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. [Reference required]
File Selector

Another way to select files for conversion is with File Selector (run dBpoweramp Music Converter from the desktop) a traditional Open File selection window shows to select tracks.
Hold down the CTRL key whilst selecting to select multiple tracks.
Press CTRL + A to select all files.

Batch Converter

Convert folders of tracks effortlessly

- Select folders and sub-folders with a single click,
- Filter file types,
- List files for conversion, sort on bit depth, etc,

Batch Converter Help

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