I opened up a 7mb (45 minute) mp3 in Audacity and the only thing I did was to delete 7 seconds from the beginning. When I exported the mp3, now it's HUGE - 37 mb. Eeek! I tried it a few times but each time it adds 30 megs to the file size even though I haven't done anything but delete 7 seconds of noise that was in the file. Help! Is there any way to make this file smaller, closer to it's original size?
Thanks so much for your help with this!
Audacity created gigantic mp3 file
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Audacity 1.2.x is now obsolete. Please use the current Audacity 2.1.x version.
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Audacity 1.2.x is now obsolete. Please use the current Audacity 2.1.x version.
The final version of Audacity for Windows 98/ME is the legacy 2.0.0 version.
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kozikowski
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Re: Audacity created gigantic mp3 file
<<<Is there any way to make this file smaller, closer to it's original size? >>>
Stop using Audacity.
<<<the only thing I did was to delete 7 seconds>>>
Well, no. What you actually did was import your MP3. Audacity uncompressed it to its original size, probably closer to 550MB. You operated on it and then Audacity recompressed it to a new MP3 using its own very different MP3 settings.
You can mess with the MP3 settings, but you're far better off just using an MP3 editor in the first place.
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... ows#p47134
Koz
Stop using Audacity.
<<<the only thing I did was to delete 7 seconds>>>
Well, no. What you actually did was import your MP3. Audacity uncompressed it to its original size, probably closer to 550MB. You operated on it and then Audacity recompressed it to a new MP3 using its own very different MP3 settings.
You can mess with the MP3 settings, but you're far better off just using an MP3 editor in the first place.
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... ows#p47134
Koz
Re: Audacity created gigantic mp3 file
For anyone else who may be looking for the answer to this question, I wanted to share here what I discovered. You can go into preferences, under "mp3 export" and change 128 to 24 to reduce the file size ... it brought it back to around 7 megs. Yahoo! 
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waxcylinder
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Re: Audacity created gigantic mp3 file
Yes but ....
128 is normally regarded as the minimum acceptable quality for audio and 64 for spoken work. Below that you will undoubtedly get digital artefacts - it will sound bubbly/gargly (viz. the many, many posts on this forum discussing this). Even my old ears can hear the difference between 128 and 192 and 256 on a good set of speakers or headphones ...
So yes a lower bitrate will definitely give you a smaller file - but you may end up with rubbishy sound to listen too.
WC
128 is normally regarded as the minimum acceptable quality for audio and 64 for spoken work. Below that you will undoubtedly get digital artefacts - it will sound bubbly/gargly (viz. the many, many posts on this forum discussing this). Even my old ears can hear the difference between 128 and 192 and 256 on a good set of speakers or headphones ...
So yes a lower bitrate will definitely give you a smaller file - but you may end up with rubbishy sound to listen too.
WC
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kozikowski
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Re: Audacity created gigantic mp3 file
<<<it brought it back to around 7 megs. >>>
To build on that. MP3 is a destructive compressor. Every time you get into and out of a highly compressed MP3 file, the damage goes up. Using a simple MP3 editor eliminates two compression passes.
If really small files are important to you, you probably shouldn't be using MP3 to begin with. You can get much better music with a more modern compressor.
How are you listening and what is the show?
Koz
To build on that. MP3 is a destructive compressor. Every time you get into and out of a highly compressed MP3 file, the damage goes up. Using a simple MP3 editor eliminates two compression passes.
If really small files are important to you, you probably shouldn't be using MP3 to begin with. You can get much better music with a more modern compressor.
How are you listening and what is the show?
Koz