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[Scandanavian War Machine]

today i made a myspace for my music, but was only able to upload two songs because the rest exceeded the size limit.

what would you technical wizards recommend for reducing the size of an mp3 without loosing too much quality? i mean, a little quality loss is unavoidable and acceptable but i don't want it to sound too shitty.


edit: also, changing bitrate? i don't know what bitrate is exactly but apparently mine is too low for last.fm so i can't upload there, either.

[KharBevNor]

Bit-rate =/ sampling rate. Most programs have a default sample rate of 44100hz (CD Red Book Standard). The kbps is enforced by the encoder, and it gets it down my compressing frequencies, kind of the same way that jpegs compress colour information to save space (though not really). You can try playing with several factors other than the bit rate. You can change the sample rate and the sample format (ie, the size of each sample) in most decent mp3 encoders. However, this might impair the quality a little too much. The most obvious thing I can think of is to crunch the tracks down into mono, if they're not already: stereo takes up double the space of mono in the mp3 encoding system.

[bicostp]

Try using a variable bitrate, with quality around 6 or 7. It should sound better than a fixed bitrate copy, while still having a comparable file size. Mixing the stereo tracks to mono will cut the file size down, but in my opinion the loss is more noticeable than bumping the MP3 down from 192k to 128k.

If you need a tool, I recommend MediaCoder. (There's also a dedicated audio version if you don't plan on doing videos with it.) It will turn just about any media format into any other format, run batch operations, and is pretty simple to use.

[Hat]

Doesn't the myspace player compress everything down to 96kbs anyway?

Even if it doesn't, unless you're producing lushly produced orchestral post rock or some shit, a lot of people won't be able to tell or won't care about the difference anyway, I've stolen a lot of mp3s through myspace and they were all 96kbs so just knock it down to that. If it sounds unbearable to an impartial third party coming out of a shitty pair of computer speakers, you are probably making music good enough that you don't need myspace to promote your band anyway.*

Remember, this isn't the medium in which your music is going to be listened to, this is just a taste to get people to buy your album/go to your shows. People aren't going to be too judgemental if the quality is a bit rough anyway, anyone that cares enough would be able to tell it was because of file compression and not just because of shitty mixing and mastering anyway,

*I should probably clarify here that I am assuming your music isn't utterly unlistenable rubbish to begin with.

[Caspian]

Another idea is to cut parts of the songs off. You don't need 10 minute samples on your myspace; get sound forge or audacity and trim the samples down to 5, leaving the catchier moments of your tunes.