I WOULD LIKE SOME ADVISE ON SOMEONE WHO HAS COMPRESSED AN MP-3 VOICE-OVER FILE. AS TO SEND IT BY E-MAIL. ARE THERE PEOPLE HERE THAT MAY BE LEARING THIS PROCESS WITHOUT FORMAL INSTRUCTION THAT MAY BE ABLE TO HELP ME. I THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRICELESS KNOWLEDGE.
If you over-compress it, quality will suffer. Short duration files can be emailed but typically audio & video files are uploaded/downloaded directly to/from a particular website or to/from an online file sharing service.
File size is directly related to playing time and bitrate (kbps = kilo_bits_ per second). There are 8 bits in a byte so divide by 8 to get file size in kilo_bytes_ per second.
If you need to hit a specific file size or specific bitrate, choose constant or average bitrate. With variable bitrate you are choosing a quality setting and the resulting bitrate is uncertain.
Using MP3 or any other compressed files in production is not recommended. Their sound quality gets worse and worse as you edit. Use WAV or uncompressed/lossless filetypes and send through a file sharing service (DropBox??) rather than email.
If you’re sending a simple voice file, use Mono (one blue wave) instead of stereo, and use 44100 sampling rate rather than 48000 or higher.
If you have to use email, break the show up into chunks that fit and send those. Reassemble at the other end. My email has a 25MB attachment limit. That’s a little over 4-1/2 minutes of mono voice at perfect quality WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit.
Select pieces of the show so the boundaries fall between words and then File > Export > Export Selected Audio. You can use Labels to make sure everything comes out even. Labels are sticky/magnetic. Make sure you link the label and the show tracks.
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/label_tracks.html
Koz
What’s the problem with simply packing it into an archive and sending it as an attachment?
And yeah, as far as I know, maybe it’d be a lot better to send at least WAV instead of MP3?
The obvious problem is size. Audacity projects can be huge. An MP3 is typically less than 10% of the size of an Audacity project.
But to answer the original question, find out what your email limit is.
Open the work in Audacity. Make sure it’s mono (one blue wave) and 44100 (lower left window).
File > Export > Export MP3
Do it to these settings.
Play it to make sure it’s close enough. It’s not going to be perfect. We’re not going for Academy Awards here. Use your machine’s Get Info and see how big it is. If it fits, you win. If not, they you’ll have to find anther way. File Hosting Services or mail the work on a thumb drive.
You need to find out what the client or customer needs.
Koz
I AM ASKED MOST BY THESE CLIENTS,TO SEND THESE VO SOUND FILES AS MP-3. AS I AM AWARE,THE FILE MUST BE COMPRESSED TO THE LEGAL.ONLY BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO SEND IT E-MAIL WITH A DECENT SOUND.THANK YOU FOR THE ADVICE AND YOUR KINDESS.
Post back if you settle on a process that works well for you.
Koz