WMA to text
The format of voice recorders and older Windows audio — taken without conversion, though not every WMA is the same thing.
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In short
You convert a WMA to text by uploading it without conversion — we take it exactly as we take an MP3. Worth knowing that one extension hides three different things. The voice-mode variant drops as low as 8 kHz in a recorder's economy profiles, and that one — alongside narrowband AMR-NB — is among the few cases where the recording itself genuinely lowers recognition accuracy.
How to do it
- Copy the file off the recorder — usually plugging it in as mass storage is enough.
- Drag the WMA onto the field above. No conversion to MP3 is needed.
- Pick the language instead of leaving detection on, if the recording is quiet or narrowband.
- Read the preview; unlock the full transcript with a one-off payment or subscription hours.
Three different things under one extension
WMA is not one format but a family. The same .wma ending can mean a lossless file, an ordinary lossy one, or a very low-bitrate voice mode — and the difference between them is far larger than the one between 128 and 320 kbps in MP3.
| Variant | Where it comes from | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| WMA Lossless | CD ripping, archives | a large file, flawless quality |
| WMA (lossy) | older Windows audio | like MP3 — no effect on the result |
| WMA Voice | a recorder in voice mode | narrowband, more mistakes |
Scroll the table sideways to see the remaining columns.
We take all three and will process all three. The distinction matters only for expectations: the first two behave like any other audio file, the third can be genuinely harder.
Why a recorder's voice mode hurts
Voice recorders have misleadingly named modes. “Voice”, “LP”, “long play” or “SP” usually mean low-bitrate mono, and in the most frugal profiles a sample rate of only 8 kHz — telephone bandwidth. The WMA voice codec itself covers 8 to 22 kHz, so the exact figure depends on the model and the chosen mode — 8 kHz belongs to the settings that promise the most hours on a card. Speech recognition works with whatever survives in that band, and what gets cut is exactly the high frequencies that separate sibilants — in Polish, “s”, “sz” and “ś”.
None of it can be recovered afterwards: converting to WAV or to 320 kbps MP3 adds no information that is not in the file. So with such a recording the one thing that genuinely helps is picking the language yourself instead of leaving detection on — narrowband audio makes language identification less certain.
- For the next recording, switch the device to a higher-quality mode — “HQ”, “PCM” or 44.1 kHz, depending on the model.
- A memory card today holds hundreds of hours even at top quality, so the economy mode solves a problem that no longer exists.
- If the recorder lets you choose a format, WAV or MP3 are more convenient than WMA — not for us, but for you: they play on every system.
Questions
Do I have to convert WMA to MP3?
No. We take WMA without conversion, and transcoding it to MP3 improves nothing — a lossy file re-encoded into another lossy one can only come out worse.
WMA will not play on my Mac. Is the file broken?
No. It is a Microsoft format that Apple systems do not support natively — the file is fine, only the player is missing. Upload it as it is; we can read it.
The recorder file came out poorly. What can be done?
After the fact, little: a recorder's economy modes drop to 8 kHz, and the high frequencies they cut cannot be added back by converting. Picking the language instead of leaving detection on helps, and for future recordings, switching the device to a higher-quality mode.