Converting MP3s question...

[northwind]

Right, so, I've ripped all of my music as 256kbps mp3... Using the time honoured decision making process of listening for the bitrate that has no losses that I can hear with my battered ears, then going up to the next one just in case But unfortunately, it turns out that that's 65gb of stuff, and my MP3 player is just (just!) a 60gb. I do like to have all my music to hand when I'm away from home, but no way am I ripping them again... So, any recommendations for how to go about converting some of them to a lower bitrate mp3 to save space?

I'm sure someone will tell me I'm wrong...but you have already compressed your stuff down to a certain bitrate (size) and if you then try to compress the already compressed files any more you would suffer serious quality degredation and it just wouldn't be worth it. You'd end up with, say, 192kbps mp3s of such poor quality compared to 192kbps mp3s you ripped once directly from the source.

Basically you'd be trying to create a smaller mp3 using a larger mp3 as the source and since the source is not high quality the end product would suffer. But then again it depends what you mean by "battered ears"...

PS - I have no idea how to do what you want...just an opinion on whether you should!

It can be done though...little bit of shareware, 15 day trial

http://www.4musics.com/mp3-bitrate-changer.htm

If money is no object ... why not trade the 60GB mp3 player for a 160GB mp3 player?

If money IS an object ... I'd rip a selection of "less often used" tracks at a lower bitrate FROM SOURCE, until you can fit all ya music in 60GB

Pete

There is software arround that will convert MP3 back to WAV files. from there you should be able to compress it to MP3 with a lower bit rate.

no doubt i have tallked cr*p and someone will correct me sooon.

[mister c]

I used to use Musicmatch Jukebox
to change my music to mp3. It is freeware and will let you compress to any bitrate.... Could be worth a try

Adobe Audition will do anything you want with audio sources. Heck, Nero 7 comes with tools that would probably do the job.

Unfortunately though, you can't compress the audio so that your MP3 player can play it, without loosing quality.

Your choice really, listen to the music at the sort of quality where it's perfect, but leave some music at home, or listen to a couple of crackles that most people would find insignificant.

Or, as mentionned, buy a bigger MP3 player, have your cake, and eat it.

Got all mine at 224 which is good enough for me - do you really need everything on your mp3 at once? There's got to be stuff you only converted because you could

"Rebel yell" popped up on mine the other day...

Did you cry "more, more, more" ???

Originally Posted by neio79

There is software arround that will convert MP3 back to WAV files. from there you should be able to compress it to MP3 with a lower bit rate.

no doubt i have tallked cr*p and someone will correct me sooon.

Agree with the above.
I am sure you can get a heap of free/share-ware that could do that. I have searched but if you cant find anything I think I still have a couple of downloded programs I could send.