Sync large .mp3 files as smaller .mp3 files?

[The_Horak]

Hi, this is my first time posting on this site forum, but I've used the information on it a lot, so I just joined up.

In the music software for Microsoft Zune, it has a cool syncing feature: "When a song exceeds Standard Quality (x) kbps, convert it to Device Quality kbps when syncing it to my Device." So I had mine set so that if I was syncing a file to my Zune player that was larger than 192 kbps, it would convert the file down to be 192 kbps. This way my source files could be as large as I wanted them, and I wouldn't have to worry about excessive space usage on my Zune. No files on my Zune would be larger than 192 kbps, and the format, .mp3, would stay the same.

Windows Media Player has a similar feature, but unless I am doing something wrong, after it drops the file down to 192 kbps, the file is now a .wma, no longer a .mp3. Sucks, right? I have 15+ albums under "Unknown Artist" now.

IDEALLY: I would like a program that does exactly what the Zune software does with the ability to sync the converted files directly to my SD Card, not the Internal Memory. But I know that may not happen, so I'm willing to consider other options, such as PC software that syncs the converted files to Internal Memory, an Android music app that handles .wma well, or a good PC program that converts .mp3 to lower bit-rate .mp3 without the sync ability (I think I have Audacity, does that work well?).

Sorry for the opening thread post length, but I just wanted to make sure I made myself clear on what I'm asking. Thank you in advance for your time and advice.

 

[Marvintheparanoid]

WMP does has an Options settings that lets you choose a file format to rip to (the Rip Music tab)

Does that make it behave as you want it to?

 

[The_Horak]

Yeah, ripping is no big deal. But when I sync my SD Card with WMP, the large files are turned into .wma, though they are .mp3 originally. So the files on the SD Card become .wma, while the original files on my hard drive are still .mp3.

Thank you, though.

 

[The_Horak]

bump, just for one more shot

 

[Usta]

I love to listen to high quality audio. Any conversion to smaller files (that is what Zune is doing) decreases the audio quality. Therefore I avoid doing such things.

If you however value smaller files size more than audio quality, you can simply select all those files on PC and convert them in one go (like from 320kbps mp3 to 192kbps mp3). There are different software available for this. Try Format Factory, which is also very useful for video conversions.

 

[fightingirish]

I do music folders individually. Much of the music on my PC are mp3s encoded at 320kbps (or VBR 256-320). To save space on the phone, I downgraded those to 192kbps m4a (I think it's better-sounding than mp3 at lower comparable bitrates, but still a downgrade from 320). I use a program called fre:ac, which will perform batch conversions by folder. You can find it here:

fre:ac - free audio converter

 

[Usta]

Yes, I've used its previous version, when it was still called BonkEnc.
The m4a is Apple's initiative to differentiate audio MP4 files from video mp4 files.
What's important is that the music is then encoded with AAC codec.