Need help/advice with mp3 editing

[swag]

I'm trying to get the Swag portion of my radio interviews posted to my site, with the rest of the hour edited out, so you won't need to sit thru the politacal chatter and last months traffic reports. (995webmaster: amanda okay'ed this).

What I'm stuck on is this: the original mp3 file was about 10M, and about a half hour long. I used Audacity (freeware) to cut out just my portion, which was a bit over 10 minutes. But the resulting, shortened mp3 file is almost exactly the same file size, within a few bytes.

Any idea why, or what I might have done wrong? Is there a better mp3 editing freeware out there?

Thanks in advance.

[chrisjoseph]

are you on mac or windows?

[breambob]

Try CDex, it a ripper but has some decent editing tools.
http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

You may need to install the ASPI layer on your PC, available at this site or also at adaptec.com .

With Audacity you may want to try and convert it to WAV first, edit it then convert back to MP3.

Ignore the CDEX info. It's great for an audio CD, but not a good editor for existing MP3s.
I'll go back through the freeware on my PC to see if I have any other goodies.

[Azeater]

I am not as savvy as you guys are but I have used this and like it. It seems to do what you are looking for swag. sample version can be downloaded for free and it only costs 39.95 for the purchase if you like it.

http://www.audioeditorpro.com/index.htm

[swag]

Windows XP.

The mp3 => wav => mp3 conversion had no effect. Maybe I'll try cdex next.

[Michelino]

Swagerino,

You should be able to change the MP3 compression rate using Audacity.

File>Preferences...>File Formats>Mp3 Export Setup> Bit

I just tried it myself and first cut your interview off of the RWE intro. Exporting to MP3 kept at 9 meg. After changing the bit rate to 64, it compresses to about 4.5 meg and then to 2.5 at a bit rate of 40. (When you first bring up the preferences box, look for little arrows in the right corner to get to "File Formats')

[AtPontchartrain]

Another thing to check. Some conversion programs don't come with the file lame_enc.dll ... and you need that to convert to mp3. If you don't have it, download the trial version of one of the full programs like Mystik's Blaze Media Pro, install it for trial use, copy the lame_enc.dll file, and uninstall. Then put that file (size just about 171 kb) right into the program files/audacity folder. Shhhhh.

[dank_bass]

If you havent yet figured it out ... email me, and I can do it for you ... just figure out a way for me to get the original file, I have to trim files like that all the time from my bands live recordings.

[aardy90210]

another quick and easy shareware tool for cutting mp3s can be found here:
http://www.codevisions.de/mp3splitter/readme.html

but it sounds like you are going to get it worked out with audacity...

[ohio]

Originally Posted by swag

I'm trying to get the Swag portion of my radio interviews posted to my site, with the rest of the hour edited out, so you won't need to sit thru the politacal chatter and last months traffic reports. (995webmaster: amanda okay'ed this).

What I'm stuck on is this: the original mp3 file was about 10M, and about a half hour long. I used Audacity (freeware) to cut out just my portion, which was a bit over 10 minutes. But the resulting, shortened mp3 file is almost exactly the same file size, within a few bytes.

Any idea why, or what I might have done wrong? Is there a better mp3 editing freeware out there?

Thanks in advance.

That's odd. I have used Goldwave (freeware) to edit wavs and mp3s, and the file size always changes...