MP3 Compression Issue

Special Interest Groups Audio Processing
1

I need your help. I just downloaded the program today and have seen good answers other topics I needed. I have compiled multiple songs to be output to MP3. No problem there. Problem is that my MP3 file is 15mb and I need it to be 10mb. I tried to ‘save compressed copy of project’ but it didn’t make the file any smaller.

I have to get this file compressed pronto so I can upload the music for a funeral presentation that is, yes at 2:00pm CST July 1. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get this file smaller? I have not had time to delve into every single feature yet - I have delved into some cutting but afraid I don’t have time to make it perfect.

I’ve never done this before and if anyone would like to personally help me, please e-mail me at LMFONTANASBCGLOBALNET.

Thanks - Michelle

Moderator note: email address disguised to prevent spam.

2

How to do that depends on which version of Audacity you are using.
You can find the version number if you look in the Help menu > About Audacity.

3

If this is because the maximum size of an email attachment is 10Mb you could use a file sharing site to distribute larger files.
I recommend “Drop io“ : 100Mb storage, free of charge , no ungodly adverts, (appropriate Drop IO example here)

[Other file sharing sites are available, “Google docs” is free of charge and adverts, but the downloaders may have to have a Gmail (Google email) account]

An alternative quick fix: if your music MP3 is stereo you could convert it to mono in Audacity, [see “Tracks”, “Stereo Track to mono”],
which will half its file size to ~7Mb. The sound will be monophonic but better than no sound at all.

4

Some MP3 encoders do that and some don’t. Audacity doesn’t.
What happens in Audacity is that if you encode a mono or a stereo track at, say, 128kbps, then the MP3 will be encoded at 128kbps. For a stereo track those 128k bits get shared out between the left and right channels, but for mono tracks all 128k bits are used for just that one channel. That means that the mono MP3 will have better sound quality than a stereo track at the same bit rate. If you compress a mono track to 64kbps, then the sound quality will be roughly the same as for a stereo track at 128kbps, but half the size (and mono).

5

Just checked and you are correct (as usual :slight_smile: ): no reduction in mp3 file size just by converting to mono, (you’d have to halve the bit-rate too).

My mistake, I was thinking WAV format not MP3.