Hey I’m new to audacity and I want to know if there is a way to compress MP3 files to make them smaller. I want to record for an hour and a half. I want to compress it to it’s smallest size. Can you do this in audacity and if so, how do I do it?
Without finding out any more about the show, the first step is installing the “lame” software from here…
http://audacityteam.org/download/
That will allow Audacity to export to the MP3 format.
When you get to the end of your show capture or production in Audacity, Tracks > Stereo Track to Mono. Then File > Export > MP3 > Options and start out with 32 quality. If that’s a little too bubbly, gargly and honky for you, increase the quality until you get to one you like – or dislike least. MP3 works its small file compression magic by throwing away quality. If your goal is without question the smallest files you can get, then you can go smaller than 32 until you can’t understand what people are saying any more… If you insist on a stereo show, then the smallest quality you can get away with is 64. Double.
You might also try Variable Compression instead of Constant. You might be able to push the files slightly smaller with that.
Again, not knowing anything about the show, I would Export a very high quality WAV of the show and save that as a backup. Once you make an MP3, that’s it. The quality will never be better than that and you can’t do production with it any more. No such thing as opening up the show and making changes to it and re post it without the WAV file.
Koz
Thanks Koz!
That’s just what I needed to know. I’m going to working on this asap.