foobar2000 Music Format / Codec Conversion Guide by REKULOUS

This is a foobar2000 guide on how to transcode music from one codec to another while being able to save your conversion settings for whenever you want to use them again.

Step 1:

Select an album or the tracks that you want to transcode in your FB2K playlist and then right click them.

I am using the Fusion-Beta theme, so this may look different than your theme.
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Step 2:

In the right-click context box, go to convert > ...
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Step 3:

A pop-up that looks like the image below should appear. You're gonna want to click Output format.
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Step 4:

You'll be prompted to pick a codec to transcode your music to. Pick any codec you want, but for this guide, I'll be using Opus.
Note: Opus doesn't transfer album covers, so you're gonna have to manually add them yourself once you finished transcoding.

After selecting your codec, click the Edit button circled in the image below.

NOTE: Transcoding one lossy codec to another lossy codec like MP3 > AAC isn't recommended due to quality loss resulting in conversion.
It also isn't recommended to transcode a lossy codec to lossless codec because it doesn't increase audio quality at all. Instead, it bloats / increases file size.
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Step 5:

An encoder setting popup should appear. Select the bitrate you want, and then select your bitrate management. I just use VBR and 160K Opus. When you're done, click OK.
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Step 6:

Once you pressed OK, press Back. Now that you've finished setting up your output format, go to Destination
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In the Destination settings, you're gonna want to change the output style and name formatting. Make sure to check Convert each track to an individual file and then put one of these file output variables in the text box:

  • %track%. %title% = Track Number. Track Title
  • %album artist% - %track%. - %title% = Album Artist - Track Number - Track Title

Once you done that, check the track previews to see if you like what your output filenames are gonna look like, then press Back.
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Step 7:

Click Other
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In the convertor setup, check Show full status report, Transfer metadata (tags), and Transfer attached pictures. Then press Back
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Step 8:

Everything is finished and set for conversion. Everything from here on out is pretty straight-forward. All you have to do is press the Save button first and then the Convert button.
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You should be able to see your converted music in your selected folder now. Test it out by playing and then enjoy.

Edit
Pub: 19 Mar 2022 02:54 UTC
Edit: 28 Mar 2022 22:47 UTC
Views: 1459