Is it possible to decrease the bitrate of an mp3 file?

[Booster]

The thing is, I got a bunch of mp3s which I ripped from my legally purchased CDs. They're either in 256kbps or 320kbps for decent sound. Now that I bought an mp3 player at a discount price, it only has 64MB of RAM, and I can't fit more than 12-15 songs on it. I need lighter mp3s. But I'd have to re-rip all my CDs then. It's kinda boring.

Does anyone know if there's a way to convert 320-256kbps mp3s into 64kbps ones?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Just convert them to wav's and re-encode them to mp3. They will be a bit lower quality than a 64kbps mp3 straight from a cd, but then again a 64kpbs mp3 is gonna sound like ass either way 😛

 

[Bulldog13]

I would re-rip straight from CD to 64 kbps. MP3 is a lossy compression system. Everytime you convert back to a wav and re-rip to your desired kbps you lose more than if you just straight encoded to the kbps rate you wanted.

ie.

Wav -> 256 -> Wav -> 64

will yield a much higher loss of sound quality than

Wav -> 64

 

[waitman]

They will be a bit lower quality than a 64kbps mp3 straight from a cd, but then again a 64kpbs mp3 is gonna sound like ass either way 😛[/quote]
Even ripping from a cd to a lower bitrate I wouldnt go under a 128 bitrate

 

[jaeger66]

Never, ever go under 128kbps. It's the bare minimum, and suitable only for portables. CDex will re-encode down to a smaller bitrate without the step of converting to WAV first.

 

[calpha]

Originally posted by: jaeger66
Never, ever go under 128kbps. It's the bare minimum, and suitable only for portables. CDex will re-encode down to a smaller bitrate without the step of converting to WAV first.

exactly. 64br is about as enjoyable as a melted tape on a hot summer day in a 1972 Pinto.

 

[GigaCluster]

Originally posted by: jaeger66
Never, ever go under 128kbps. It's the bare minimum, and suitable only for portables. CDex will re-encode down to a smaller bitrate without the step of converting to WAV first.

Note that this method still does not directly reduces bitrate -- it reencodes it, just as the mp3->wav->mp3 route. The MP3 algorithm does not allow direct reduction of bitrate. The best thing would be to re-rip from the CD.

The Ogg Vorbis codec theoretically allows "bitrate peeling", which can directly reduce bitrate without the damage of reencoding, although no implementations of peeling exist yet.

 

[LiekOMG]

Its really a shame that those flash memory portables don't support Ogg Vorbis. I did some testing with low bitrate music files, and a Quality Level -1 ogg (~45kbps) still sounded almost CD quality! meanwhile, the 45kbps mp3 sounded like it was comming through a telephone. Even the new AAC mp4 format didn't sound as good as the ogg.