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Converting an mp3 to a lower quality

BillieTheBotBillieTheBot Posts: 8,721 Bot
in General Chat
Hey guys, i used to have a program where i could convert an mp3 to a lower quality bitrate, like from 192kbps down to like 50/60 or something. It was freeware and worked well, but i have vista and i lost the old program when my other machine died, and now the most recent version of it is shit.

Would anyone be able to do me a favour, would it be possible for them to receive an email from myself of an mp3 track, convert it, like to 64kbps and then send it back?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ok problem solved :P
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Clever clogs!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Plugged in my mp3 player to the computer, set windows media player to sync one track to it, after it had converted it to wma, i got the track back into the computer, and set itunes to import it (which converts to mp3) of which i set the import quality really low.

    Obviously i changed any altered settings back to how they were afterwards, and it was a long awkward way of doing it.

    But it worked, just had one of those brain waves!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I use Mpeg Suite to encode, decode and change bitrates. Been loyal to it for 8 years.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I don't see why if you were going to use iTunes at the end, why not just convert it using that from the start?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Because it would just add the mp3 to the itunes music folder.

    The importing in the sense of from a cd or a wma changes the bitrate, but when i just add a song to itunes that is allready on the hard disc it just adds to the library and doesnt do anything else. (ps the original file was just mp3)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    MrG wrote: »
    Because it would just add the mp3 to the itunes music folder.

    The importing in the sense of from a cd or a wma changes the bitrate, but when i just add a song to itunes that is allready on the hard disc it just adds to the library and doesnt do anything else. (ps the original file was just mp3)
    It doesn't matter what the original file format is, you can still choose "convert to..." and it will just make a copy using whatever encoding preferences you have set. Then you can just cut the file from your iTunes folder.

    If you recode to wma then recode back to lower bitrate mp3, you will lose more quality than going straight from e.g. 128 kbps mp3 -> 64 kbps mp3.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Cor... an MP3 re-encoded again to a dismally low bitrate. I'll bet that sounds... awful. :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If you're going to re-encode an MP3 to a lower bitrate it's best if you do it with the minimum amount of encodes possible. Encoding to WMA to encode back to MP3 again will reduce the quality more than going straight to a lower bitrate in MP3.

    If I want to encode MP3s I usually use RazorLame which is a free frontend for LAME: an open source MP3 encoding app (also free).

    Also, if you're concerned about filesize but don't want to lower quality too much you might want to consider encoding in a variable bitrate (VBR). That way you won't be using 192kbps for a section of silence or sound that would sound the same at a lower bitrate.
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