Reduce bit rate permanently

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hello. I do a lot of modding with an older game that specifically desires .WAV files in a 22050 rate, but despite my efforts Audacity seems to be resetting my files to a 44100 rate no matter what I do with it. I should note that I also desire my files to play at the same speed (quality loss is very much acceptable), but even when I set tracks from 44100 to 22050, and the file necessarily plays back at a speed twice as slow as the usual, the displayed rate for the new file is still 44100. Both the speed when making the track rate change (though this by itself is easy enough to fix) and the inability no matter what is done for the new file to put out at 22050hz are obviously unacceptable to me for my purposes. Quality loss would be acceptable, but playback speed loss is not, and obviously the fact that the rate does not change anyway is unacceptable.

Is there an option I am missing here? I have not found any effect or option capable of reducing the bit rate (I specify again that I require .WAV files). Changing Audacity preferences had no effect besides changing bit format. Even attempts at converting to .MP3 (as to convert back to a .WAV file) do not seem to have worked to this end.

If this program is not capable of effecting this change, does anyone know of any programs that are?

2

You can change the Project Rate in the lower-left of the Audacity window. It will re-sample properly when you export without altering speed or pitch.

Note that this is the sample rate (Hz or kHz) is samples per second and that’s different from the bit rate (kbps). Bit rate (kilo bits per second) is related to file size and as long as you know that there are 8-bits in a byte you can calculate file size (ignoring any metadata such as embedded artwork). With uncompressed files the bitrate and sample are directly related. The bitrate for a compressed file depends on the compression.

3

I think I just saw that tab for the first time in my life, as though it was invisible to me this entire time. Nevertheless it seems to have worked for me.

Thank you very much, and my apologies for my lack of knowledge regarding all these different rates. You have been extraordinarily helpful.
Cheers