You’ve downloaded a concert or two from http://bt.etree.org and now you want to convert the shn files to mp3 to take with you on your iPod or MP3 player. This tutorial will walk you through the steps to do just that, using Microsoft Windows.
First things first, make sure you’ve downloaded and installed Winamp, the ShnAmp plugin for Winamp, and iTunes, all of which are free.
There are two steps in converting your .shn files to .mp3. The first is to decode the .shn’s into .wav files. After that’s done, you’ll encode the .wav files into .mp3’s.
Decoding .shn files with Winamp
Encoding .wav files with iTunes
Decoding .shn files with Winamp
- Open Winamp and select Options and then Preferences… (note: if you’re using the “classic version” skin, open the Winamp Preferences by clicking the Control and p keys on your keyboard)
- Select Output from the Plug-ins section of the left window, and then select Nullsoft Disk Writer. Click Configure.
- Click the Directory: button so you can choose a location to save the .wav files
- Navigate to the folder you want to save the .wav files in. I usually save them in the same folder as the .shn files.
- Click OK to return to the Preferences window, and then Close to return to Winamp. Now select File -> Play file… and navigate to the folder with your .shn files. Select all of the .shn files by single-clicking the first file, holding down the Shift key on your keyboard, and then single-clicking the last file. When all of the files are selected, click Open
- Press the Play button if Winamp doesn’t automatically start to decode the files. Winamp will now decode the .shn files and turn them into .wav files. It typically takes about 20 seconds to convert a 5 minute song, but this depends on how “fast” your PC is.
Once Winamp is done decoding the files, make sure to set the Plug-ins -> Output back to DirectSound output, or the next time you try to play a file using Winamp, it will decode that file instead.
Check to make sure all of the .wav files were created.
Encoding .wav files with iTunes
- First you need to make sure that iTunes will encode the songs to .mp3 (rather than the default, which is .aac). Start by selecting Edit and then Preferences…
- Select the Advanced tab, and then the Importing tab. Select MP3 Encoder from the Import Using: list, and then choose a quality from the Setting list. You may want to remove the check-mark from Play songs while importing (I find it annoying, and it makes the encoding time slightly longer). Click OK when you’re done.
- Back in the main iTunes window, select File and then Add Folder to Library…
- Navigate to the folder that you saved the .wav files in and select it. Click OK
- Find the newly imported .wav files in iTunes and select them all (single-click the first file, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, and then single-click the last file). Right-click on any of the selected files and choose Convert Select to MP3. You may want to get a cup of coffee right now, as this step will take a while (depending on the number of files you’re converting).
- iTunes will let you know it’s done converting the files by playing a little “beep”. Now is also a good time to remove the .wav files from your iTunes library so you don’t confuse them with the (identical looking) mp3 files. With the .wav files still highlighted, click the Delete key on your keyboard. If prompted, click the Remove button.
That’s it, you’re done! Rename the files in iTunes (if you wish), give them a listen or transfer them to your iPod/mp3 player. Don’t forget to delete the .wav files if you no longer need them – they’re pretty big and take up quite a bit of space on your hard drive.
The .mp3 files can be found by going to My Documents -> My Music -> iTunes -> iTunes Music -> Artist Name -> Album Name
interesting
Just a friendly note that the actual href of your bt.etree.org link is broken due to a typo (be.etree.org). Cheers.
Travis,
Thank you! What’s worse is that I cut/pasted that into several other of the articles here, so I just went and fixed them all. Thanks again,
Ross
Hello,
Great info… just one question…
How come on both this and the flac guide it says to convert to MP3 instead of AAC ? Should I be doing that for regular CD’s (to put them into my iPod) I put into iTunes too?
Thanks
Joe,
If you have an actual iPod, you can choose AAC or MP3 – it doesn’t make a huge difference. I used mp3 throughout these tutorials because not all portal mp3 players can play aac files… Hope this helps,
Ross
Hi,
Just the info I was googling for. But my newly installed Winamp, plug-in and all, doesn’t seem to ever finish decoding the shn’s. What could be wrong?
Mads
Thanks! These instructions ROCK! Simple and concise.
Again thanks for taking the time to put these together.
PG
hey guys
well i tried this and the winamp program cant read the .shn files of my music
HELPPPPPPPPP
when I go to the “output” section under plug-ins of the winamp preferences, I don’t seem to have the Nullsoft Disc Writer plug-in as an available option. Can anyone help me out with this?
Ross:
Thanks so much for the easy tutorial! I was aghast when I saw the .shn filename on my new Wilco that I’d been looking forward to!
thanks for the simple directions!
I think I made a mistake though and my itunes ended up converting a TON of stuff I didn’t want it to. Now I can’t tell which files are which in itunes in order to delete them. Help anyone?
Thanks!
1. If your files won’t convert, try restarting Winamp after configuring the Nullsoft Disk Writer plug-in.
2. There’s an option on version 2.0 of the Nullsoft Disk Writer plug-in to convert directly to MP3.
hey michele, all you need to do (which may take some time if you haven’t done this already), is right click on each file and click “Get Info”, and it will tell you what type of file it is.
I see you commented a few weeks back, so hopefully you got this solved already! otherwise, hopefully this will help someone else
It wont do it because it says shn files are not registered with winamp.
I have done this before but for some reason the files when being decoded on winamp all show 0:00 time length, is this due to corrupt shn files. I also noticed that Aol now seems to support winamp, and also I am using vista which i don’t normally use.
Crystal clear instructions – thanks for posting them!
thanks a million!
just going to repeating what’s already been said, but this is so simple to follow that it’s genius.
Its not working for me. I just downloaded Winamp and its not recognizing .shn files. I’m on Vista, anyone have any ideas whats wrong?
Looks like winamp stopped supporting its conversion of this file type in some previous version update. Too bad since it decreases the functionality of the program.
u have to use an older version of winamp for the .shn plugin to work the newer one doesnt support it however etree.org has a dll only on thier site which doesnt function as well… so go to http://www.oldversion.com n dl a 5.1 version of winamp n run the .shn plugin u dld from etree
hey I’m on a windows 64 bit computer w/vista home premium and I cant even open the .shn files…they all start at 000.000, is there anything I can do?
Thank you so much for making the tutorial, I see it’s been helpful to others
Thank you so much for posting this. 3 years later and still works perfectly for me using WinAmp!!
thank you, worked great