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Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?

03 Feb 03 - 05:27 PM (#881763)
Subject: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: Joe Offer

I'm still in the process of moving into a new computer, which is somewhat more complicated than moving into a house. I got my scanner problems solved, but now I find I can't make compact RealAudio recordings like I used to.

For the last several years, I have used RealProducer. I'd extract a WAV file from a CD and come up with a 50-megabyte file, and then use RealProducer to convert it to a file that took about 500 kilobytes for a 3-minute song. I tried to find RealProducer to download for my new computer (with Windows XP), but all I could find is a replacement product called HelixProducer. It works almost the same as the older program, but it produces a file that's about 1.5 Mb.
Yes, I've tried e-mailing MP3's, but it takes at least a megabyte to make a decent sound file.
Any advice?
-Joe Offer-


03 Feb 03 - 10:13 PM (#881984)
Subject: RE: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: mack/misophist

I don't know anything about Real but there's another sound format called Ogg Vorbis. Said to produce better sound that mp3's with smaller files. I just started experimenting myself so I can't say how much smaller. The first cd I ripped (for practice only) came to 235M for 73 minutes. If you're interested, I think everything is available for Windows for free.


03 Feb 03 - 10:23 PM (#881988)
Subject: RE: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: Tweed

Joe,
I think I posted this link before but I'll do it again. I've used the free AnalogX wav to MP3 converter for all the bad recordings at my place. It generally produces about half a meg's worth of space for a three minute song and is easy to use once you get your settings in place. Here's a link
AnalogX
Also some other freebie ware there. I grabbed the Rhyme software and it will jog your brain if you ain't as good as Thomas the Rhymer at that sorta thing;~)

Yerz,
Tweed


03 Feb 03 - 10:41 PM (#881998)
Subject: RE: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: JohnInKansas

Joe -

It does depend on the email service, especially on the "receiving" end. We have a couple of contacts that we can attach "almost" 2MB stuff to, but the "econo" services like Hotmail commonly only give you about 2MB total, so if their mailbox is full it will get bounced.

If you're using html mail - like Hotmail - the "sent messages" are stored on the sending server, so you may also need to empty your own box in order to get larger ones through. If you have a server that accepts POP3 mail - and use Outlook Express for example - the sent messages are only stored on your own machine, so it's just a pass-through at your service end - and then it depends mainly on the recipient's service and box space (if the net isn't too busy to pass it on in real-time).

Some music files seem to compress significantly with WinZIP (or one of the freeware alternates), but others aren't much affected. It might be worth trying, but I don't think you can rely on that method of compression for "routine" stuff, since you'll run into stuff that just doesn't shrink any.

On most email services, you should be able to send 1MB or a little over, if both sender and receiver have empty mailboxes on their services. (You don't have to empty whats on your own machine.)

I know this doesn't address your real question, which is "how to make the files smaller," but I don't have anything useful on that.

John


04 Feb 03 - 03:08 AM (#882033)
Subject: RE: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: open mike

i was warned that some of the later versions of real audio
actually allow you to do less..not always a good idea to
get the updates...some capabilities are not built in to
new versions...sometimes harder to duplicate--built-in
copy-write blocker or something like that...


04 Feb 03 - 04:15 AM (#882055)
Subject: RE: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: treewind

Two advantages of Ogg Vorbis:

  1. It will always be free, and updates will always be improvements - there will never be stupid copy protection issues or other restrictive practices
  2. Whereas some cheap MP3 encoders produce less than optimal code and may infringe patent/licensing requirements, the latest Ogg encoder will always be the best there is, at no extra cost.

I must say I am amazed at the quality of sound achievable by RA at low bit rates compared with MP3 - I haven't investigated scientifically but it does seem to work well on the subjective judgement of listening to BBC webcasts.

But just for moving files from one computer to another - why not burn them onto CDRs and move them that way? (as MP3, OGG, WAV or whatever)

Anahata


04 Feb 03 - 04:31 AM (#882060)
Subject: RE: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: Deckman

I just LOVE IT when you folks talk dirty! CHEERS, Bob


04 Feb 03 - 12:36 PM (#882357)
Subject: RE: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: Bill D

Joe...read here

(hope that works)...


04 Feb 03 - 12:37 PM (#882360)
Subject: RE: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: Bill D

(that does not solve your problem, but it gives some background)


05 Feb 03 - 02:08 AM (#882857)
Subject: RE: Tech: How Can I E-Mail Recordings?
From: Joe Offer

I'm glad I didn't read Bill's message earlier. Good old Gene Graham e-mailed me an old version of RealEncoder. Bill's link says RealEncoder doesn't run on Windows XP - but it runs just fine on mine. It made a 3-minute recording into a 428 Kb file, which e-mails very nicely. Thank you, Gene; and thank you, everybody!
-Joe Offer-