Audio files too big!

D

devi0s

Guest
Basically, i've been recording tracks with sound forge. Then i've been throwing em into SF acid. Each song is only about 3-4 minutes long, but the file size of each is huge. i can only fit like 2 songs on a CD.

does anyone knows of any programs that shrink wav. file size?

R rated hi-fives,
devi0s
 
A 3-4 minute song recorded at 16bits and 44.1kHz should end up at 30-40Mb in size. Check your bit-depth and sampling rate (if you're recording at 32-bits and 96kHz, it'll be humongous no matter what you do!)

You could also save as an MP3 but that's a lossy compression scheme and you'll lose quality.
 
A CD holds 74 minutes of music at 44.1 16-bit so you must really be recording at high quality. To change the "quality" just resave the file using the 44.1 16-bit settings. If your software doesnt allow you to "save as", then just create a new file with the right settings and paste the original into that.

an MP3 is 1/10th the size of a WAV file so you do lose some quality but if you record (rip) it higher than 160 kbs, no one will no the difference if its your music. Since its your music no one has any other version to compare it to right? There is a sacrifice but it comes with 1/10th the size. MUCH easier to work with. The only downside is alot of pro audio software doesnt work with MP3's very quickly (at least not compared to WAVs because MP3's need to be de-compressed.)

ON ANOTHER NOTE: since you use ACID, you probably want to mix your music. This is how I do it (since you cant mix those huge files in ACID).:::

I create my songs in ACID, save as MP3. Then I use MixMeister ( www.mixmeister.com ) and "mix" them with that software. generate one big mp3 and you've got YOUR music MIXED non stop.
 
A point of clarification?

Are you talking about two songs onto an audio CD or are you talking about two ACID project files (with all the audio embedded) on a CD in data format (CD-ROM)?

(The latest version of ACID [3.0] can work with mp3s in their native format. I haven't saved any project files that used mp3s but I assume it would leave them in the compressed format when saving. OTOH, it doesn't seem very good at exporting trimmed mp3 loops... and SoundForge 5 has the annoying habit of adding a little dead air at the beginning of any mp3s it saves... makes it a hassle to create loops for Flash use, that's for sure!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top