Even before learning how to use any audio editing software, I discovered yet another technical issue: Olympus WM 300 series recorders save audio files in the Windows proprietary WMA format, which can't be opened with any of the free- and shareware audio editing software available to Mac users.
The WMA files would have to be converted into a compatible file format before the audio files could be opened by editing software available to me, and saved in the mp3 format before they could be used by the Soundslides software. There seemed to be very few cheap and easy ways for a Mac user to convert WMA files.
Although Internet searches for WMA-to-MP3 converters for Macs turned up no freeware, I did find a few interesting prospects among the shareware and one free website-based service. I wound up comparing the cheapest shareware I could find, EasyWMA for $10, to the free file format conversion service offered at media-convert.com.
It took EasyWMA seven minutes to convert an eleven-minute WMA file (2.5Mb) into a MP3 file of the same size. The online converter took 2.5 minutes to convert the same WMA file into a 10.1Mb MP3 file. The online service took about one third as long to produce a file four times larger than the shareware.
I don't know what to make of the difference in the sizes of the MP3 files, but the savings in conversion time was significant.
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