Audio converters belong to the category of software tools that are not likely to come in handy every day unless you need them for professional purposes. However, whenever there is a suitable task for an audio converter, nothing can really replace it. In this article, you will learn why you should have a free audio converter in 2024 and how you can choose the ideal one for your needs.
Why a free audio converter is a must-have tool
An audio converter is a software tool designed to convert an audio signal from one format to another. They range from simple programs for regular users to sophisticated software with advanced features and settings for professionals.
Audio converters can perform various tasks and are useful in many scenarios. You definitely need to have one at hand if you happen to find yourself in one of the following situations:
- You have the inspiration to create an audiobook;
- You like listening to your favourite songs offline on different devices;
- You don’t have time to watch videos and all you want is to be able to listen to them on the go;
- You want to create a new ringtone for your mobile phone;
- Audio files take up too much space on the hard drive of your PC and you would like to reduce their size;
- You want to create a unique soundtrack with unusual effects for your PowerPoint presentation;
- You are going to start a streaming career on Twitch or become a YouTuber and want to impress your viewers with stunning background sound effects.
If something sounds familiar to you, an audio converter is what you need. Take a look at the list below to learn more about some of the best free audio converters in 2024.
1. AVS Audio Converter
AVS Audio Converter is a powerful and reliable tool that allows you to convert audio files to different formats with ease. This program is available for free and comes with multilingual support so users speaking Japanese and some European languages (e.g. English, French, German, Spanish, etc.) will find it easy to use the app.
AVS Audio Converter is compatible with many popular formats, including MP3, WMA, WAV, M4A, AMR, OGG, ALAC, FLAC, AC3 and MP2. When converting audio files, you are allowed to delete unnecessary parts, apply various effectsand even modify audio file information if necessary.
If you work with videos, AVS Audio Converter won’t let you down. Using this program, you can export audio from DVD, MPEG, MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV and other popular formats.
Another useful feature of this converter is the ability to create audiobooks and ringtones for mobile devices. For example, you can create a unique M4R audio track for your iPhone.
What else makes AVS Audio Converter a good choice for audio converting is the built-in batch mode. It’s designed to automate routine work by converting or compressing a huge number of audio files in different formats at once. For more convenience, there is also an option allowing you to create your own conversion patterns and presets.
If you don’t feel confident while converting audio files, AVS Audio Converter has detailed user guides that you can refer to any time you struggle with a certain feature.
The only drawback is that there is no Linux or macOS support. However, if you run Windows, including early versions like XP or Vista, you will hardly find a better option for audio converting tasks than AVS Audio Converter. Download it for free from the official website:
2. Movavi Audio Converter
Movavi Audio Converter is a free program designed to help you quickly convert audio files to MP3 or other popular formats. Although the Movavi software is best known for its video editing capabilities, its audio converting tool is quite powerful when you work with audio files.
Movavi Audio Converter supports all popular audio formats, including MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, and more, which allows you to create audio files compatible with all modern devices, whether it be a PC or a mobile phone.
Movavi Audio Converter comes with an intuitive user interface so beginners will find it easy to get familiar with the program’s features. It works on all the latest versions of Windows and has a special version for macOS.
The app has comparatively low system requirements and is available in many languages.
3. Freemake Audio Converter
Freemake Audio Converter is another good choice for those who need to convert or compress audio files. This free app is compatible with more than 50 audio file formats due to its support for modern codecs, such as AAC, MP3, Vorbis, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless and FLAC.
Using Freemake Audio Converter, you can create high-quality music files for your PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet or any MP3 player. For example, when you convert files for your Apple device, the program automatically adds the output M4A and MP3 files to your iTunes library.
Extracting audio from video files is also possible, and you can convert any file keeping its original audio quality. The good news is that you can work with several files at once.
Freemake Audio Converter allows you to work with cloud-based file storage platforms so you can choose Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive as the location for your output audio files.
Freemake Audio Converter works on Windows and requires an Internet connection for some of its features.
4. fre:ac
fre:ac is a free and open-source audio converter that offers ready-to-install packages for Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD, and a portable version for USB sticks. It can also be directly compiled from GitHub if you are an advanced user and have the required knowledge and skills.
As other audio converters, fre:ac supports the most popular audio file formats, including MP3, MP4/AAC, Opus and FLAC, and some video file formats making it possible to extract audio tracks from videos.
fre:ac comes with an integrated CD ripper that converts your audio CDs to files and multi-core optimized encoders for more rapid file conversion.
As an open-source project, fre:ac is absolutely free and offers its full functionality at no cost.
5. MediaHuman Audio Converter
MediaHuman Audio Converter is a free app for macOS and Windows users that looks and feels very modern. It comes with all the required tools to convert between all key audio formats, such as MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, etc., and is compatible with lossless formats like FLAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV.
MediaHuman Audio Converter supports batch conversion so you can work with multiple files at a time. Another useful feature is the ability to keep the existing folder structure while processing several audio files.
Moreover, MediaHuman Audio Converter is capable of extracting audio tracks from videos and supports advanced file naming. For example, you can use ID3 tags.
The built-in Dark Mode makes it easier to convert audio files at night, which is a big advantage for many users.
6. Pazera Free Audio Extractor
Pazera Free Audio Extractor is a universal tool for audio conversion. Using this program, you are allowed to extract audio tracks from audio and video files without sacrificing the sound quality. The compatible audio formats are MP3, AAC, AC3, E-AC3, Ogg-Opus, Ogg-Vorbis, WMA, FLAC, M4A-AAC, M4A-ALAC, WV (WavPack), MKA-Opus, CAF-Opus, AIFF, WAV and others.
Pazera Free Audio Extractor provides a number of predefined profiles that can be of help to novice users. Experienced users can customize various converting settings to get output files with the desired parameters.
The program’s interface is very simple and user-friendly, with plenty of languages. Pazera Free Audio Extractor is free for private and commercial use, and there are no limitations.
7. VSDC Free Audio Converter
VSDC Free Audio Converter is a fast and feature-rich audio converter that is available for Windows users at no cost. It supports all popular audio formats audio codecs, including MP3, WMA and ASF, M3U, MOV, MP4 and M4A, RM and RA, OGG, AMR, VOC, AU, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, OMA, etc.
VSDC Free Audio Converter offers multiple ready-to-use export presets so you can always choose the required quality and format for your device. If the default presets are not what you need, you are allowed to create your own profiles with custom settings.
Like any other free audio converter, VSDC Free Audio Converter lets you process video files and extract audio tracks from them. Another strength of this program is the built-in editor that you can use to delete certain fragments of an audio file.
VSDC Free Audio Converter is compatible with all Windows versions and has no support for Linux or macOS.
How to choose the best free audio converter
All audio converters do the same job allowing you to convert files from one audio format to another depending on your needs. They usually come with different settings so that users can get the desired output quality.
When choosing a suitable program for audio conversion, what really matters is your operating system. For Windows, there are plenty of available tools to suit any taste. If you run macOS, there are fewer options for you. For Linux users, the choice is very limited.
Finally, all programs might perform differently on your PC or laptop. If you process the same audio file with different apps, you may notice that some programs work faster and some perform the same operation slower due to their system requirements.
The only way to choose the best tool is to try all the audio converters mentioned above and decide which one does the job better for you.