I want to compress mp3 file as much as possible. What should i use?

[gil900]

Hello,
I want to compress a mp3 with the strongest compression.

What encoder should I use?
The goal is that the mp3 file will be small as possible.

EDIT:
I also want to know how to do a wav file that will be small as possible without losing much quality.

Thanks for helpers!

[yoda313]

I would strongly advise against this. Memory cards of any type are dirt cheap these days. You can buy used mp3 players with gigabytes of storage space for a very low price online.

You will be sacrificing quality for no real gain.

However if you must do this use 64kpbs in any of your regular mp3 ripping suites and go no lower.

I used to use what was known as mp3 pro back in the day at 64kpbs and was acceptable to me at the time when memory cards didn't have much storage space and were relatively expensive. Nowadays I just rip to 320kpbs mp3 and forget about it.

Either that or use wma instead of mp3 to go smaller. Though note wma is not as widely compatible as mp3 But it should still be playable on lots of devices, just check before going that route. I believe wma is supposed to be better qualty at the lower settings than mp3 at a similar low setting.

Edit - windows media player can rip cds into mp3 or wma. There are millions of cd rippers and file converters out there. Take your pick.

[poisondeathray]

Does it have to be MP3 ? AAC will give you better compression, especially at lower bitrates

[gil900]

I would strongly advise against this. Memory cards of any type are dirt cheap these days. You can buy used mp3 players with gigabytes of storage space for a very low price online.

You will be sacrificing quality for no real gain.

However if you must do this use 64kpbs in any of your regular mp3 ripping suites and go no lower.

I used to use what was known as mp3 pro back in the day at 64kpbs and was acceptable to me at the time when memory cards didn't have much storage space and were relatively expensive. Nowadays I just rip to 320kpbs mp3 and forget about it.

Either that or use wma instead of mp3 to go smaller. Though note wma is not as widely compatible as mp3 But it should still be playable on lots of devices, just check before going that route. I believe wma is supposed to be better qualty at the lower settings than mp3 at a similar low setting.

Edit - windows media player can rip cds into mp3 or wma. There are millions of cd rippers and file converters out there. Take your pick.

Thank you very much for this excellent input.

I prefer to choose the most powerful way to compress.
Even if I use wma file.

In my case, the issue is not about the compatibility. it does not matter to me because i need it for a very different purpose.


my sound files are not music.
They are a recording of text speech that made by machine (Non-human).

I would like a recommendation for the best compression method for my case.

• No matter the type of file (if it is not mp3 file so it is also good)

• File size must be small as possible.

• Quality of the file will not be affected significantly.

I I've attached an example.

Thanks for helpers!

[poisondeathray]

For low bitrate speech, opus is very good

Here are some quick comparisons at approximately the same bitrate/filesize ~15-17kbps

(message board wouldn't let opus file upload, so it's in a zip file)

[ozok]

Hello,
...
EDIT:
I also want to know how to do a wav file that will be small as possible without losing much quality.

Thanks for helpers!

You can try lossyWAV.

Also your topic title gives the impression that you want to re-encode mp3 files. If that is the case , you can try tools like mp3packer. I didn't use it but it should be a lossless process, AFAIK it doesn't compress data, just re-arranges data in a mp3 more efficiently.

As poisondeathray states, opus is the way to go for speech encoding with low bitrate. AAC-HE can be used for that purpose as well.

[jman98]

In my case I am developing a software. And I'm going to implement all the sound files in the exe file .
I can make that the software know how to play almost any type of sound files. So it's not a problem.

Smells like bs to me. If you truly know how to make this kind of software, you shouldn't need to ask people the types of questions you are asking. If you are smart enough to write this kind of software, you can at least find the answers on your own.

I think gil900 may be the guy I wondered some weeks ago if he was gamemaniaco in disguise. Still wondering...

[gil900]

I can.
But always good to ask other people for answers instead of breaking your head alone.

Now, I decided to use wav format for several reasons.
I need an offer on the strongest compression method for wav format which is not significantly lowers the quality of the sound.

If anyone knows about such a compression method, I'd love to know about it as well.

Thanks for helpers!

EDIT:
I think that i found it on post #6 on this thread..
I missed post #6

[Hoser Rob]

In my case I am developing a software. And I'm going to implement all the sound files in the exe file .
I can make that the software know how to play almost any type of sound files. So it's not a problem.

Smells like bs to me. If you truly know how to make this kind of software, you shouldn't need to ask people the types of questions you are asking...

Exactly what I was thinking ... compressed WAV?

[hello_hello]

WAV is a container, not an audio type. Mostly it's used for LPCM audio, but it can hold compressed audio too. Apparently you can even put MP3 audio in a wave file.

WAV file compression codecs compared

[Mephesto]

Smells like bs to me. If you truly know how to make this kind of software, you shouldn't need to ask people the types of questions you are asking. If you are smart enough to write this kind of software, you can at least find the answers on your own.

I think gil900 may be the guy I wondered some weeks ago if he was gamemaniaco in disguise. Still wondering...

Not necessarily, when I was 12 I was asking newb questions of what the best cryptos and pseudorandom gens were so I could combine them and make the uber bestest leet encrypter in the world. I used readily available binder tools to combine the applications without knowing much of any programming. Whatever this guy is doing reminds me of it.

To answer the OP's question, opus is probably best for speech. At 16 kb/s it defeated HE-AAC.

[gil900]

You are wrong in your approach.

Each is the best at what he does.
I'm no expert on this topic of audio encoding.
I'm good at other things ..

My approach is to use the advice from the right people when I know that the answer i think myself in a limited time, might not be the best answer...

WAV is a container, not an audio type. Mostly it's used for LPCM audio, but it can hold compressed audio too. Apparently you can even put MP3 audio in a wave file.

WAV file compression codecs compared

Thank you!
I will try to continue from that point.

It is very helpful!

[2Bdecided]

You can try lossyWAV.

LossyWAV doesn't make the WAV files smaller at all - it's a pre-processor that makes the result of subsequent FLAC encoding (and most other lossless formats) smaller. It's not targeted at low birtrates.

For wav, you'd just use a low sample rate (8kHz?), 8-bit with a-law or u-law compression. That's what it's designed for.


For mp3-in-wav, you'd just use a very low MPEG-2.5 sample rate and bitrate, and wrap it into .WAV - though there's really no point to this last step in this scenario, or most other scenarios! Just use mp3 file format.
Wrapping mp3 into wav container is a legacy of the days where no PC had an mp3 player installed, could only play wav, but could have codecs added via windows ACM.


For maximum compression, use a newer lossy codec, as others have suggested.


Or just include the text2speech processor in your program and don't store any actual audio.


Cheers,
David.

[jman98]

For wav, you'd just use a low sample rate (8kHz?), 8-bit with a-law or u-law compression. That's what it's designed for.

Lowering the sample rate will not save any space, although as I am not familiar with a-law or u-law I suppose using them might help a little. The sampling rate itself does not determine the final file size. But using 8kHz will sure make the audio suck. There is no doubt about that.

[Cornucopia]

For LPCM wav, YES IT WILL (sample rate, bitdepth determine filesize & save space when lower). There are many ways to get the sound to be very small size, but in general quality is proportional to filesize, so if you drop filesize, you drop quality.

Advanced lossy compressors are MORE EFFICIENT at the job of maintaining as much quality while lowering the bitrate (and filesize). The tradeoff there is complexity & compatibility. The a-law and mu-law are early (aka INEFFICIENT) forms of lossy compression.

As already suggested, one could use abstraction (text, midi) to further reduced the footprint (compared to "concrete" formats), but those would have to be rendered in realtime at output (TTS, Midi Synthesis).

[Frank_Broughton]

I have compressed thousands of voice files over the years.

WMA has an excellent compression to quality ratio, I would use wma if I was doing what you are. I can get the same quality sound (with voice only) in one third the size file over mp3 using wma.

Use MP3 these days because of podcast use. Sure miss the file size of the wma files I used to create.