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Audio compression software

cooljethro

cooljethro

Well-Known Member
Are there any good, free options out there, that can reduce the size of mp3 files significantly, but without a great deal of quality loss?

It would be good to recommend only software that you have tried personally, if applicable.

Thanks!
 
cooljethro said:
Are there any good, free options out there, that can reduce the size of mp3 files significantly, but without a great deal of quality loss?
Click to expand...
Actually a complex question.

There's no such thing as more compression with no loss of quality.

Reducing the size of MP3s (more compression) reduces the quality of the sound, in some instances this is more acceptable than in others. If your recordings are complex sounds such as a full orchestra playing you'll notice the degradation in the quality of the sound quite dramatically, where as if you're recordings are just voices such as audio books you can compress them quite a bit without them becoming too bad.

I have no experience with audio specific editing software but a lot of video editors also have quite a range of features to deal with the audio. An MP3 is literally the sound track from an MP4.

Especially if you're using Linux, give KD Enlive a go. Just remember to only work on copies of files and not the originals until you work a out a system that's suitable for your needs.

Kdenlive - Free and Open Source Video Editor
 
I use Audacity audio software or ffmpeg from the Linux terminal.

Audacity is free, runs on everything and has plenty of options. You might need to experiment a bit to find the balance of file size vs quality to suit your own personal taste, using presets or going deeper into all the options.

Here’s a nice tutorial on how to do it in Audacity that covers some good stuff:

How to Export Audio with a Lower Bitrate in Audacity (Reduce File Size) - Hollyland

If you want to go the terminal route, the command I use is:

ffmpeg -i name_of_input_file.mp3 -b:a 96k name_of_output_file.mp3

The 96k is the bitrate. Choose a lower one for lower file size. 32k, 64k or 96k are what I use.
 
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