Greetings all,

I recorded our PAS marching percussion committee meeting using
Wiretap Pro and my Snowball USB mic.  The file is an
mpeg layer 3 audio file. 

The file size is 51.6 mb


Is there a way for me to convert to an mp3 and compress
it for email purposes?

Is there a way to compress it as is and send it and then
have others open it?

The recording contains nothing but those of us at the meeting
speaking.

I have a desktop PC at work and a Mac Powerbook G4.

Any help would GREATLY appreciated!

Take care!
Neal

[email]nflum@music.ua.edu[/email]

Hi Neal - An MP3 file is already in a very compressed format. True, full-quality audio files are usually in a format that will take up a whole lot more space (like AIFF or WAV). Depending on what bitrate the MP3 was saved at, you may be able to downsize it a bit by decreasing the bitrate (which will also decrease the quality). You can do this for free with something like iTunes.

I think you were initially asking about compressing it using a tool that will archive it as a .zip. While you can do this, since the MP3 is already very compressed, you'll probably see minimal reduction in size. You can right-click (or control-click) the file on your Mac, and the ARCHIVE feature built into OSX will do this for you. On Windows, you can probably use a program like WinZip to create the zip, but again, you may not see much reduction in size since the originating file is so compressed already.

For a 50MB MP3, my guess is that it's fairly long (which would make sense if it's a recorded meeting). If it's possible, the most convenient way to share this would simply be to upload the file to a web directory, then send the URL to your colleagues so they may access it via the internet. Either that, or it may be better to chop it up into smaller bits before emailing, but you'll still be emailing the same amount which can be a drag for people to receive via email, and some email providers may reject them.

There is an online storage website that is FREE and you can use it to share files with those you choose:

http://www.xdrive.com/

You get 5 GB of storage free when you register an AIM webmail address.  I never use the email address, but that's all you have to do to get the 5 GB free.  I've had it for over a year now, so it's not one of those free for a year online storage sites. 

There is a function where you can give access to certain individuals to download one or more files.  Or you could give some one your username & password if you wanted them to upload files for your use.  I have done that with trustworthy persons since I don't use the email address.

Just another option.

- OT

Since the recording is of people talking, you should be able to reduce the bitrate quite a lot and still be able to understand the conversation.

Do some tests - start really low and work your way up until you are satisfied with the sound. That way will probably be quicker than starting with high quality and trying to work your way down.

64K / mono works just fine for voice recordings.

Agreed; a mono format of mp3 is much better than stereo.�� If it's voices, you'll only lose the spacial location, and that's probably no big deal.

I've found that speech is best done at 24k mono if vocal quality isn't a big concern.�� It tends to drop the frequencies not used in human voice, and saves [b]5x[/b] a 128kbps file.�� It's like a great am radio signal...

As it has been said, there's really no point in ";zipping"; an mp3.  In fact, most network ";speed tests"; use .mp3 files because they are so squished already, the network can't use its own compression to falsely improve the network bandwidth results!