Making an MP3 smaller?

  • Thread starter Thread starter elenore19
  • Start date Start date
elenore19

elenore19

Slowing becoming un-noob.
So we just recently mastered our CD and we want to upload them onto our myspace...(yeah yeah....) And the file size of the song I want to upload is too large...It is 10.3 Mb...How would I go about making the file size smaller without reducing the sound quality by too much?

Thanks for the help!

-Elliot
 
You need to make it smaller by using a different bitrate. I'm not sure what Myspace uses, but it's probably no more than 128k, maybe less. If you go less than 128k, it will sound pretty low-fi....128k is about the minimum you want to have anyone really listen to and enjoy. 192 would be better if you can.
 
Yeah that's correct. I'd recommend re-encoding them to around 160kbps.
 
I wouldn't be too worried about myspace sound quality

A lot of people going through myspace will be playing the songs from their computer speakers which have pretty poor quality in general. I agree that you really don't want to be below 128 and if you want it to sound alright on a good system it should be at 192. It's too bad myspace doesn't use a newer format than mp3. AAC files will sound better at a lower bitrate than an mp3. I think WMA does as well. Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot I know of that you can do to reduce the size without a reduction in quality, but for myspace purposes it probably doesn't matter much if the quality is dropped a bit.

Another option would be to make a clip of the song at a higher quality and upload that rather than the full song. Then people can still sample your music without a large drop in audio quality. That might actually be a better option, if they want the full version they can buy your CD. I've had to do that before for some websites. Add some fades and it sounds alright.
 
Alright, so how do I lower the bit rate?
 
I hear MySpace uses 96KBPS. That means you will want to upload them to MySpace at 96 KBPS. Otherwise, it will automatically convert it to 96KBPS.

A 96 KBPS version of a 128 KBPS MP3 would sound like ass (double loss in quality).

What are you using to convert to MP3? There should be a bitrate option in there.

I use cDex cause it's free and supports a lot of MP3 codecs. LAME is the best free one to my knowledge.
 
danny.guitar said:
I hear MySpace uses 96KBPS. That means you will want to upload them to MySpace at 96 KBPS. Otherwise, it will automatically convert it to 96KBPS.

A 96 KBPS version of a 128 KBPS MP3 would sound like ass (double loss in quality).

What are you using to convert to MP3? There should be a bitrate option in there.

I use cDex cause it's free and supports a lot of MP3 codecs. LAME is the best free one to my knowledge.
Click to expand...

I'm not using anything to convert it to mp3...the company that mastered our cd sent us a cd with mp3 versions on it...
 
elenore19 said:
I'm not using anything to convert it to mp3...the company that mastered our cd sent us a cd with mp3 versions on it...
Click to expand...

Well, surely they sent you a mastered WAV file, correct? If so, then convert that WAV to MP3.

Otherwise, you will probably have to convert that MP3 to a WAV, then back to MP3 at a different bitrate, which is much worse.

Or just upload that MP3 to MySpace and MySpace will do it automatically.
 
If you have iTunes you can convert it to any bitrate. Just change the import uptions under prefernces to mp3, pick a bitrate, right-click on the songs and hit "convert selection to mp3". Windows Media can probably do the same thing.
 
elenore19 said:
the company that mastered our cd sent us a cd with mp3 versions on it...
Click to expand...



did they only give you a CD with mp3s on it?
 
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