Welcome to the forum, aspektx
And thanks for your message.
aspektx wrote:First, I'm new to this and was wondering what about mp3 files kept them from being added as an import option for sample editing.
The reason why the mp3 format has not been added is simple.
The mp3 compression algorithm works basically by removing the data that would usually not be heard by us.
The problem is that the result is always a quality loss, in every case, without exception.
Also importing mp3 files requires at least twice as much RAM than wav or aif does because there's no clear header definition in an mp3 file. In other words, in order to import an mp3 file, it's required to first stream the complete file into memory, only to know how large the actual data is, and then it must be converted to linear pcm (uncompressed audio data).
In short: This takes long, it sounds at best average, and it uses twice as much RAM.
Therefore we stick with wav and aif, which are the general professional audio formats.
aspektx wrote:Second, is there a community preferred converter from mp3 to wav files?
On Android, I don't know, there are many available.
On Windows, I use Wavelab 9 Pro from Steinberg, if I really need such a conversion.
But to be honest, I'd never ever use an mp3 file at any stage of music production.