Question about how the "information" in a file is saved -- or not saved

[greenblue03]

I am currently in the process of editing a large, recently recorded wav audio file into individual tracks. I save each track in both wav and mp3 formats. I'm not sure why but for some reason I am missing the wav version of a track. I have the mp3. Here is my question: When you save a file in the mp3 format, is the missing information lost forever in the compression? Or, if I load the mp3 into the software and save it as a wav, will I have a file that's equivalent to what it would have been had I saved the file when I should have, that is, when it was initially created?

 

Many thanks to anyone who has an answer.

[vapors]

Unless you have limited disc space, or intend only mp3 usage going forward, it is best to save as .wav files. You can always convert them to mp3 later.

[greenblue03]

Many thanks for the response. However, that wasn't my question.

 

In fact, I wouldn't have asked a question had I lost the mp3 file and not the wav file. My question is -- during the compression process -- when the mp3 is made -- is all information lost forever? Or, can the missing information be recovered if I load the mp3 into the software and save it as a wav file?

 

In other words, I don't know how the compression process works.

 

You may want to know why I just don't make another wav file since I have the original audio file. Well, I tried that yesterday, and the new wav file has some "static pops" on it that somehow I managed to eliminate when I made the previous (lost) wav and mp3 files. I know the pops are from amplification, but while normalizing the file got rid of them the first time, normalizing did not get rid of all of them yesterday.

[vapors]

There are better resources for understanding audio compression than I; however, you cannot add back in what was taken out.

Sorry I cannot address your specific issues or methods, but an mp3 file is in a "lossy" format and converting it back to a .wav will never restore it to it's original (.wav) quality.

 

I couldn't count all the times that I have had to redo time consuming tedious editing. Best of luck!

[greenblue03]

Thank you!

 

I am currently doing a batch of about 30 tracks from this one audio file, and this particular track is probably the most time-consuming because of its length and having to remove several sections of applause. But fortunately it's not among the most important. After I'm finished with the batch, I'll probably go back and try again to get a clean wav file.