Audacity Forum

How do I make the AIFF file smaller?

Thanks!

If you converted the song from something seriously compressed like Apple AAC, the conversion to Stereo Uncompressed will make your nose bleed. Let's see 700MB per hour on average.

You basically don't. The advantage of the uncompressed formats is that they don't fall apart when you do production on them. All the compressed formats create damage and the damage adds up rapidly as you do editing.

WAV and AIFF are production formats. MP3, AAC, etc. are delivery formats.

Audacity always does production internally uncompressed no matter what you start with. That's why your computer can fall over if you open enough music with a tight hard drive. Audacity will not directly edit MP3.

There are some silly ways of making AIFF smaller. Converting from Stereo (2-channel) to Mono (1-channel) will roughly halve the file size. You can seriously compromise the quality of the performance. You can make a low sample rate AIFF that has a small file and sounds like a telephone.

Why do you need a small file size?

Koz

I have about 700 old LPs and I'd like to be able to listen to some of these great old songs on my computer system and also put the songs onto my iPod.
A typical song in iTunes takes about 4 or 5MB, but when I record a song from LP to Audacity it's about 140MB.
I realize the Audacity file is an uncompressed AIFF file and that iTunes is an compressed AAC file.

But is it possible to go from the LP straight to a compressed AAC file or to
convert the uncompressed AIFF file to a typical 4 or 5MB compressed AAC file?

Thanks!

GAK62

GAK62 wrote:But is it possible to go from the LP straight to a compressed AAC file or to
convert the uncompressed AIFF file to a typical 4 or 5MB compressed AAC file?

Not with Audacity. The possibilities for editing when using compressed audio formats are far too limited, which is why Audacity (an audio editor) uncompresses the files.

There are some free audio recorders that can record direct to MP3 (such as MP3myMP3 Recorder ) but editing in these programs is extremely limited.

Has anyone created an application that records from an LP or 45 directly to typical compressed AAC files, instead of MP3 files?

Thanks!

Record your LPs (or portions of them) using Audacity. Edit to make tracks for each song. Use the Metadata editor to name the album, artist and song. Use Export Multiple to make an AIFF for each song. Drag and drop the AIFs onto iTunes - iTunes will pick up the metadata and name the tracks appropriately. In iTunes go to Preferences, General tab, and click the Import Settings button. Choose the format you'd like to convert the AIFs into. Right-click on the imported AIFs and choose "Create AAC version" (or whatever you chose in Import settings). Once the conversion is finished, trash the AIFs.

-- Bill

Thanks Bill...

A friend of mine and I just figured out that same solution together!

It seems like a lot of work just to convert one LP into iTunes, but I guess it's the best solution.

Thanks again for posting though, I'm sure other Mac/iTune users have experienced this same problem.

<<<I guess it's the best solution.>>>

It's one solution. After about the 100th album, you begin to wonder if you shouldn't download the music from iTunes in the first place.

Unless you have seriously odd taste in music, many of the original albums are posted.

With that much of a collection, please tell us you're not trying to use a cheap, throw-away USB turntable...

Koz

By the way, how does the Audacity (LP to iTunes) system stack up against the Griffin iMic2 & Final Vinyl solution?

I realize the Audacity application is free, while the iMac2 is about $35, but is one system easier
and is one system superior in sound quality or is the quality pretty much the same?

Thanks!

This is where you tell us what you're doing. You didn't hit that yet.

"I'm putting a record on my [__________] Turntable, etc."

Pretend I'm trying to buy and build your system. Model numbers are good.

Koz