Software to change bit-rate of MP3's

Faltermyer

Most of my MP's are 192 or 160kb/s.

Ive ripped all my CD's at 192, and try to download my MP3s at 192/160 kb/s (128 if stuck).

Im going interailling for a month on Monday week and want to take a decent bit of music with me. But its got to fit on a 256mb MMC. At the moment I get 40-70 songs on it, depending on which quality. Id like to get as close to 200songs as possible.

So I want to reduce quality to 96kb/s ... possibly even a woeful 64kb/s .

Can anyone recommend some good software to change the quality of MP3's to reduce the file size?? (preferably thats available free). Its not important that I can return them to their original quality as I can just make copies first.

leeroybrown

dBPowerAMP. Free and gives very high quality VBR results.

Faltermyer

Which of those programs is it?

-dBpowerAMP Music Converter ?
"Convert from one format to another, just about every audio type is supported: mp3, mp4, .... "

or

Sveta Portable Audio ??
-"Convert high bitrate files to lower bitrates"

?

Thanks.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Faltermyer
Most of my MP's are 192 or 160kb/s.

Ive ripped all my CD's at 192, and try to download my MP3s at 192/160 kb/s (128 if stuck).

Im going interailling for a month on Monday week and want to take a decent bit of music with me. But its got to fit on a 256mb MMC. At the moment I get 40-70 songs on it, depending on which quality. Id like to get as close to 200songs as possible.

So I want to reduce quality to 96kb/s ... possibly even a woeful 64kb/s .

Can anyone recommend some good software to change the quality of MP3's to reduce the file size?? (preferably thats available free). Its not important that I can return them to their original quality as I can just make copies first.

If you've got an mp3 that's been encoded at 128 kb/sec and you intend on re-encoding that at 64 kb/sec you're going to lose LOTS of quality, the reason is because you're making a copy of a copy. If you can, I suggest that you get the original CD's and re-encode the songs, thus, the quality won't suffer as much. As for a tool to do this, I recommend Easy CD-DA Extractor, if you're online it'll even search a database and sort out the naming of albums and songs and stuff. I think it's better than dBPowerAMP. By the way, if you really want to maximise quality and minimise size go with a variable bit rate.

Faltermyer

Majority of the MP3s I dont have CDs for. They are either downloaded, or I borrowed the CD at some stage. The ones I do have, I had just planned on using MusicMatch to re-rip at a lower quality.

Variable bit rate?? How does it choose? Do I set an upper and a lower limit?

CyberGhost

EAC! by FAR! the best encoder!

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/


Onyone has is an "above average" skills and knowladge in audio convertions and stuff, is using EAC

CyberGhost

but you have to set it up correctly

this guide will help you!
http://www.chrismyden.com/nuke/modules/MP3DB/uber.html

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Faltermyer
Majority of the MP3s I dont have CDs for. They are either downloaded, or I borrowed the CD at some stage. The ones I do have, I had just planned on using MusicMatch to re-rip at a lower quality.

Variable bit rate?? How does it choose? Do I set an upper and a lower limit?

I don't know anything about MusicMatch but with Easy CD-DA Extractor things are ridiculously easy, you can encode from mp3 to anything (mp3, aac, ogg, wav, etc) at CBR or VBR, with lots of different bit rates for each type of encoding, very powerful. The only thing that'll suck for you is the making a copy of a copy. Encoding with VBR on CD-DA Extractor is easy, there are 9 levels of encoding from high to low, you'll have to experiment with a few songs to find what's the lowest file size you can get with tolerable quality loss.

Faltermyer

Cheers.

Just downloaded all of those.

Will take a look through em all and choose, when I have some time at the end of next week.

Mr E

I use dbPowerAmp to do exactly what you are trying to do. Works a treat, and its free.

By the way, I can fit 172 songs on a 512mb player at 96k (WMA). You can expect to get about 85-ish at the same bitrate. If you can live with 64k, you might just get above 100 songs.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Faltermyer
Cheers.

Just downloaded all of those.

Will take a look through em all and choose, when I have some time at the end of next week.

For fun, I tried encoding a 128 kb/sec mp3 to the lowest VBR setting on Easy CD-DA Extractor, the original file size was 1.35 MB's, new size is 850 KB's. Suprisingly enough, the quality didn't suffer too much.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by TmB
I use dbPowerAmp to do exactly what you are trying to do. Works a treat, and its free.

By the way, I can fit 172 songs on a 512mb player at 96k (WMA). You can expect to get about 85-ish at the same bitrate. If you can live with 64k, you might just get above 100 songs.

WMA does compress better than mp3 but if you're player supports ogg files then you'll get even greater compression.

Mutant_Fruit

I don;t believe there are people hear recommending a CD ripping program to re-compress mp3's. Feckin eejits is all i can say

Don't use CDEX, don't use EAC, don't use MusicMatch, don't use Easy CD-DA Extractor.

Grab DBPoweramp. That program is specifically designed for what you have in mind. Dont forget to grab the free file selector add-on from their site. It makes selecting loads of songs very easy.

Basically, for optimum quality at that low a bitrate i'd recommend WMA if your player supports it. Its very likely it does. If not, then do ABR mp3 using the lame codec (which is the default one that DBpoweramp uses). That is the highest quality mp3 encoder and will give the best sounding recompresses, but mp3 at 64kbps is going to be bad. If you want it to sound better, you could convert them to mono, that means that the quality will be better (as its one channel of audio@64kbps rather than 2 channels each at 32kbps).

WMA can handle files at 64kbps and give good quality, so use that if you can. Alternatively, if your player plays Ogg files, then definately use that, as it provides the best quality at such low bitrates.

EDIT: Each program is just a GUI for the encoders, they all use the same encoders (except maybe CD-DA extractor thingy, that might use proprietry stuff). I just prefer DB Poweramp as it is handy, and supports loads of different codecs with free add-ons. Very handy. And it definately uses Lame, which is the best mp3 encoder.

hostyle

winLAME

Matt Simis

Originally posted by Raskolnikov
WMA does compress better than mp3 but if you're player supports ogg files then you'll get even greater compression.

?

Filesize of 64kps OGG = 64kps WMA

OGG may have a great "grassroots" following, but much of that stems from the fact that is open source and many people are anti MS, which have nothing to do with quality.

I believe it was Aces that did a round up of codecs (via blind tests), WMA9 was generally accepted as sounding better than OGG at both high and low bitrates. Both are vastly better than MP3 at low bitrates of course.



Matt

Civilian_Target

Don't recompress! What happens if you get a document and photocopy it (like MP3-ing it) and then photocopy that photocopy at lower quality (recompress it). You WILL regret it.

But if you must recompress, use dbPowerAmp. For future encodes, I recommend Exact Audio Copy

Civilian_Target

Originally posted by Matt Simis

I believe it was Aces that did a round up of codecs (via blind tests), WMA9 was generally accepted as sounding better than OGG at both high and low bitrates. Both are vastly better than MP3 at low bitrates of course.

I suspect you're wrong. Here are the results of the largest blind listening test to date.



http://www.rjamorim.com/test/multiformat128/results.html

BAM! Evidence! Vorbis IS the best.

Faltermyer

Well I used the DBPowerAmp , the portable audio one.

Got 127 songs @64kb/s on my 256card, and another 19 on a 32mb card.

Quality is kinda bad. Its not as bad on dance tracks though(simpler sounds).

But its just handier than taking my MiniDisc and having to record 7MDs and then changing discs, and more importantly having to worry about the MD itself when in hostels/out etc, the MP3 add-on for my phone is only like 3cmX4cmX1cm and weighs nothing.

Cheers for the help!