Hi Folks. I am looking for , what I hope, is a simple task to accomplish. We would like to alter our hold music at my company but the file size limit is ridiculously small (Under 250kb total) I want to convert multiple MP3 files into a single wav that I can load into my system. The company that makes the system wants $250 for a license upgrade to upgrade the size limitation within their system and honestly , with the amount we already paid, that is BEYOND ridiculous.
I have found some tutorials but they only reduced the file sizes to half. I need to take about 7MB of mp3 and reduce it to somewhere around 250k. This is for hold music over our phone system so quality is not really a concern.
What’s the total duration (in seconds)?
1 minute of mono, 32 kbps CBR MP3 is about 240 kB.
For calculating the size, the critical number is the “kbps” (kilobits per second).
Each “Byte” is 8 “bits”, so 32 kbps = 32/8 = 4 kB per second = 60 x 4 = 240 kB per minute.
It is possible to go lower than 32 kbps, but the sound quality gets really bad.
The MP3 export options are described here: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/mp3_export_options.html
I’d recommend using the “Force mono” option, and set the “Bit rate mode” to “Constant”. Set the “Quality” as high as possible without going over your size limit. (Lower kbps give smaller file size but worse sound quality).
The best course of action might be to pay the extra money… Or don’t put your customers on hold too long…
into one WAV for hold music
Regular (uncompressed) WAV files are generally bigger than MP3s.
As long as you know that there are 8-bits in a byte, files you can calculate the file size of a WAV file as Sample Rate x (bit depth/8) x number of channels -
For example, “CD quality” WAV files are 44,100 samples per second, 16-bits and 2-channel stereo.14 So, that’s 176,400 bytes per second, (or a bitrate of 1411kbps.)
P.S.
If you are playing commercial-copyrighted music this could be a legitimate license fee. I believe music-on-hold is considered a “public performance” and here in the U.S. it might require an ASCAP/BMI license.
I found instructions on how to do the conversion but I am coming up just a bit over the 16MB limit. Basically this conversion changes everything from stereo to mono, decreases the bit rate etc etc. I will keep playing and keep trying. Thanks!!
