iTunes Library is HUGE!

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Can anyone give me some ideas on how to scale down my iTunes library. I have a lot of files that are in wav format that I'd like to switch over to MP3 and I have a lot of higher bit rate MP3's that I'd like to be lowered so they save more space.

I know there is convert to MP3 in iTunes but that doesn't get rid of the original and I'm not sure what bit rate that would put my MP3's at. Any ideas?
 
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Go to iTunes->Preferences->Advanced and you can select your own bitrate.

Then select the wav files you want to encode and right-click 'covert to mp3'.

It'll create an mp3 of the wav file and you can then go ahead and delete the original wav.

I wouldn't recommend re-encoding your mp3s to a lower bitrate, you'll lose a lot of detail in the audio and won't save that much room.
 

bobtomay

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And personally, I would save all of those wav files somewhere. To an external, CD or something. Once you have converted them and delete those files, whatever quality was lost in moving to mp3 is gone and can not be regained.

Of course, if you never plan on listening to them through a good sound system, it probably will never be an issue for you.
 
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Unless you happen to be one of those "few" who have perfect pitch, set your encoder to convert those monster .wav files to 128 mp3, you will never hear the difference and you will end up with 1 to 2 meg music files.
 
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Seriously - 128kb Mp3? Most people can hear the difference...
160Kb and upwards is good enough for 95% of the people, but 128K is just not enough...
 

bobtomay

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And having perfect pitch has nothing to do with it. Pefect pitch has to do with being able to identify the pitch of sounds or in being able to sing a particular note on command. The pitch is not changed by going from a wav to mp3. The note 'C' is still a 'C'. It has not changed in pitch.

What has changed is a reduction in all of the overtones produced with the notes being played which causes them not to sound as full or rich in tonal/sonic quality. Quality of your equipment and speakers will all play a role in what may be acceptable. The better your equipment is in accurately reproducing sound the more you will notice the difference with lower bit rates.

edit: very nice theme song there James, just made me a subscriber
 

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