These are not the 3gp files you are looking for

January 20, 2010 12:23 PM

Problem converting 3gp audio files. (recorded on Motorola Droid)

I used Voice Recorder (that's the name of the app) to record some lectures on my Droid phone. The quality of the audio is not that great, therefore I tried to edit them in Audacity and convert them to maybe .mp3. I could not even listen to those audio files outside of my phone!

VLC recognizes the format but it doesn't play them and neither does Audacity. On my phone they play fine (albeit poor quality). My google-fu has shown that audio 3gp is really a PITA to deal with. Does anyone here have any experience converting/editing those files successfully? Any help is very welcome. Thank you in advance.

posted by jstarlee to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Awave should be able to convert 3gp files to a more agreeable format. It can pretty much convert anything to anything else.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 1:40 PM on January 20, 2010

3gp audio format is typically intercompatible with m4a. You could try just renaming the files like filename.m4a and then see if your audio player of choice will play them happily.
posted by doteatop at 1:52 PM on January 20, 2010

Failing that SoX can do it.
posted by doteatop at 1:55 PM on January 20, 2010

Best answer: Audacity will handle it but you need to install the FFMPEG library, I believe. I've just tried it with the 1.3.11 beta of Audacity for OS X and it does indeed work.
posted by Mo Nickels at 4:30 PM on January 20, 2010

PS: I tried it with the same type of audio you're using, 3gp, from the same program, Voice Recorder, on the same OS, Android.
posted by Mo Nickels at 4:31 PM on January 20, 2010

Response by poster: Audacity 1.3.1 + FFMPEG worked like a charm.

Thanks everyone!
posted by jstarlee at 6:04 AM on January 21, 2010