Why move from WMA to OGG
WMA is a proprietary Microsoft format, and support for it outside Windows is uneven. OGG Vorbis is open and free of licence fees, which is why it is the native choice for many Linux music players, free software such as Audacity and Godot, Android sounds and countless games. People convert WMA to OGG when they move to Linux, prepare sounds for a game or app, or simply want their files in an open format.
Vorbis quality levels
Vorbis is usually set by quality rather than a fixed bitrate. The converter offers quality levels from q0 to q10, and each one shows its approximate bitrate:
| Vorbis quality | Approximate bitrate | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| q3 | 112 kbps | Speech, background music |
| q5 | 160 kbps | Most music from WMA rips |
| q6–q7 | 192–224 kbps | WMA Lossless or Pro sources |
Vorbis is variable bitrate by design, so the actual size varies with the music: quiet, simple passages take fewer bits than dense ones. A typical song at q5 uses about 1.2 MB per minute.
Quality notes
WMA Standard and Vorbis are both lossy. Converting adds a small loss on top of the original, so do not go much below the source bitrate. If the WMA is lossless, Vorbis at q6 or higher sounds transparent to most listeners, though for a lossless open archive WMA to FLAC is the right choice.
Tags and game audio
WMA tags (title, artist, album, track number) are written as Vorbis comments. Linux players and most Android players read them directly.
For game development, short sound effects are often better as mono files at 44.1 kHz; set the channels to mono for effects and keep stereo for music. Looping background music needs clean edges, so trim silence at the start and end in the audio editor before converting. If you need even smaller files for voice lines, WMA to Opus is more efficient at low bitrates. DRM-protected WMA files cannot be converted and will show an error.