MP3

[sjusk]

I feel about ready to upload a recording, but the one I got is 3MB, and I have a feeling that´s too much. The normal size is between 700KB and 1500KB I think.
A while ago I read in another message (forgot which), that a guy said he had just found out how to minimize MP3 files.
Could anyone please enlighten me here?

PS: My recording is not a "big-band", only a mandolin and a backup guitar, 2 tracks that is.

Thanks,
sjusk

[Bluegrasstjej]

If you use Audacity to convert the file to mp3, I'm not sure how to do it. I have something called dBPower AMP music converter, and you can use it to minimize in the same way as you convert it to a mp3. It's quite easy to find out how. It's a free little simple software you can download from the internet. I got it from www.download.com. (search on mp3 converter or something like that)

[sjusk]

Thanks tjej, I´ll look into that very soon. We are having a Folk festival tomorrow in Bogense, on the North coast of Fyn, but I guess I´ll have time to do it Sunday. No bluegrass there, but still a lot of good music, a lot Celtic!

So nurses rule? O boy, did you ever see the TV-miniseries "The Singing Detective" starring Michael Gambon and written by the late (and genius) Dennis Potter? Talking about nurses that rule!!!
Dennis Potter was the British soulmate to America´s David Lynch.
Not any bluegrass in that story, but just about anything else that matters in this world.

Dennis Potter rules too!!

sjusk

[Ken Sager]

Audacity can be used to change the bit rate. If you have Audacity, that is...

Open the MP3 in Audacity and go to File > Preferences. Click on the File Formats tab. The MP3 Export Setup section on the bottom of this screen allows you to change the default MP3 export setting. A 3 minute song at 128kps will be roughly 3MB in size. Change it to 96kps and it's 2.2MB. Then simply go to File > Export as MP3.

You can open a file of any bit rate and export it as another bit rate.

Best,
Ken

[dasspunk]

Most of the tunes folks have been uploading don't need to be stereo. You can always convert it to mono and thus save 1.5MB off your tune...

[sjusk]

Thanks to you all, it solved my little problem.

(but when will I find time to play with the new tools?


sjusk

[levin4now]

sjusk,

log off immediately and just start playing with the new tools.

then play some mando.

[mad dawg]

If you change your format from MP3 to WMA, you can decrease your file size by 50% without impacting your sound quality/reference standard.

[dasspunk]

If you change your format from MP3 to WMA, you can decrease your file size by 50% without impacting your sound quality/reference standard.

Not true.

WMA can be better than other codecs at really low bitrates (eg. 22Hz, 20kbs) but this will absolutly sound worse than the original. The problem with WMA is that it doesn't scale up as well as it does down. At 128kbps, MP3 just sounds better than WMA, regardless of what M$ would have you beleive. Read more here...

If you really want to cut your file size by 50% without sacrificing audio quality, create mono files rather than stereo (eg. 128kbps stereo is really just two 64kbps mono files).

In addition, Fraunhofer makes one of the best mp3 encoder out there... if you want to be sure to use it, download iTunes.