How to "Compact" wav file to fit on a cd

[msjordasn]

I was wondering if anyone could suggest how to compact a large wav file to fit on a standard audio cd - without removing any material

Thanks
MS Jordan

[steve]

For a "standard" CD, you can't. The maximum playing time for a standard CD is 79.8 minutes (and maximum 99 tracks) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_%28CD_standard%29

For CD-Rs it is less than this, usually around 72 to 74 minutes depending on the CDR that is used, though some high capacity disks will allow a little more. It is not uncommon for CD players to not play CDR disks with more than about 72 minutes.

Some CD players can play "MP3 disks", which allow a lot more (several hours, of audio depending on the quality) but these are not standard audio CDs and many CD players cannot play them.

[DVDdoug]

What's the playing time? You can fit about 80 minutes on an "80 minute" audio CD... That's it.

The "redbook" audio CD spec determines that the audio is 2 channels of 44.1kHz, 16 bit audio. There are 8 bits per byte, so 2-channels at 16-bits is 4 bytes per sample, and there are 44,100 samples per second of audio, for a total of 176,400 bytes per second (plus a small amount of "overhead" for the table of contents and error correction, etc.)

P.S.
You can burn WAV files in at lower sample rates or lower bit depths (or MP3 files, etc.) onto a CD, but it won't play in a regular-old CD player.

[kozikowski]

I was wondering if anyone could suggest how to compact a large wav file to fit on a standard audio cd - without removing any material

As above, you don't. You can make the show sound really crappy by compressing and playing games with it, but all you will get on the final CD is 78 minutes of crappy audio. Music CD -- specifically -- was designed in the early days before terrific compression systems were available. It's Perfect CD Quality and 78 minutes -- no variations.

Also as above, if you can make do with a non-standard Data CD, you can convert your work to MP3 or other compressed format and get hours of show on there. It turns your disk into a flat, shiny, unrestricted hard drive. If you're going computer to computer, this may work for you. It's only if you want it to play in the car that you run into troubles.

The kids, of course, are horrified that you want to use a CD anyway. Nobody does that any more. You make a carefully compressed, high quality show file and send that.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Just because I haven't been evil in a long time, if quality isn't an issue, you can compress the speed of the file so it sounds like Donald Duck, put two hours on the Music CD (still sounding like Donald Duck), and uncompress it later. Of course, you'll need Audacity on both ends of the shipment and know how to use it.

So in that sense, yes, you can force a Music CD to contain really bad audio past the 78 minute restriction.

Koz

[msjordasn]

Thanks all
I was hoping that thru the wave of something magical I could shove 5 lbs of stuff into a 4 lb can

[steve]

I was hoping that thru the wave of something magical I could shove 5 lbs of stuff into a 4 lb can

Nice analogy, but heck, if you don't need to worry about standards or compatibility you can squeeze 40 lbs of stuff into a 4 lb can, just compress it at about "quality level 3" as an ogg vorbis file and it will still sound reasonable. Only trouble is that it won't play on a CD player.