Compressing mp3 files to fit more songs onto my Ipod

Hi,

I just got a new 16gb 2nd gen Ipod Touch for my birthday, and am excited to start using it. I also have one of the black mac laptops (the older ones that i don't think they make anymore).

I'm not very knowledgeable about computers in general, so apologies if this question sounds ridiculous. The 16gb is advertised as being able to hold about 3500 songs. However, my dad informed me that with a 16gb harddrive, i should be able to fit way more than that as mp3 audio files can be shrunk to a very small bit rate (i don't know what a bit rate is).

I'm confused with this whole 'mp3' concept. I know the average mp3 is about 4-5MB, but is this in it's 'uncompressed' form? Is there a way that I can compress my mp3's into a smaller format so that I can fit MORE than the standard 3500 songs onto my Ipod?? Apparently with a PC this is more obvious but I'm not sure how to do this on my Mac, or if I have to download some special software to do this. I'm also aware that the sound quality can diminish with more compression, but that's only noticeable if you play the songs on really high-quality speakers (which i won't be doing).

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Welcome.
Yes you can compress the files down if you so wish, but you lose sound quality, and the lower the bit rate, the worse it gets, because the way compression works by removing supposedly inaudible frequencies drastically affects sound quality.
Now, you don't say what source you are going to use for your music. If you are going to import CD's via iTunes you can set the bit rate to what you want in preferences. I would not recommend using anything below 192 MP3. By the look of your file sizes this is the bit rate that you currently have. However, it is not uncompressed. All MP3 is compressed, regardless of bit rate/file size, it's a compressed format.
It is possible to compress down to stupidly low bit rates using iTunes. You simply change the preferred bit rate in preferences, highlight the songs you want to compress, and the go into the file menu>advanced and click "create MP3 version". This makes a duplicate file of the songs and then you can delete the original and be left with the poorer quality version to export to your iPod.

Now, if you buy songs from the iTunes store, the bit rate is now 256 by default I believe, so that is higher quality still, but you can alter them if you so wish, by using the method I suggested.

16 GB is a fair bit of music to carry around, especially @ 192, so I think you will have plenty, and it's very easy to change it around when you need to.
I created an iPod only playlist, which automatically syncs when I plug my pod in, and I just swap things in and out as I see fit. That said I have a 60GB iPod

Anyway, I hope that's a little clearer.

thanks for the responses.

kevriano - there was no option under Advanced to make an mp3 (probably cuz the song i tried it on was already mp3), but there was a 'create an AAC version" option. so i tried that and it reduced the bit rate, but doubled the size of the file to 9 mb! this is not what i wanted, i wanted to shrink the size of the file... i guess changing the bit rate is not the way to go to fit more songs onto the ipod. it's true that 16gb is a lot, but apparently not enough for me, and it's all i've got right now

lyracool - i will check out this software and see if it's what i'm looking for.

Rainbow. You will only get the option if you reduce the import bit rate to one below that of the original file.
So, if your original file is at 192, you open preferences and click the import options button, select the custom bit rate, say 128 for example, and then close it.
Now you can create 128 versions of all of your current MP3. I wouldn't but you can!