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Topic: Programs like MP3Packer? CBR to lower quality VBR (no re-encoding). (Read 2484 times) previous topic - next topic
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Programs like MP3Packer? CBR to lower quality VBR (no re-encoding).

I have some 320 CBR MP3s and want to reduce them to VBR. MP3Packer does this, but does not reduce the file size very much. Is there a program I can use to select a target bitrate without re-encoding? Sorry if this comes off as naive.

Re: Programs like MP3Packer? CBR to lower quality VBR (no re-encoding).

Reply #1 –
No, you cannot. Reducing the complexity of frames to reduce the bitrate significantly requires re-encoding. The most that MP3Packer can do is remove padding.

Re: Programs like MP3Packer? CBR to lower quality VBR (no re-encoding).

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Sham 69 on
Sorry if this comes off as naive.
Bitrate peeling is not more naive than finding its way into the Ogg Vorbis specification - but so naive that nobody ever implemented it.

If you are looking to make it fit on, say, an Android phone, then a suggestion could be to transcode to Musepack or Opus, presuming that you don't have any such files from other sources. Then you can start at low bitrate, knowing instantly from the file type that these can be thrown away if they sound bad.
 

Re: Programs like MP3Packer? CBR to lower quality VBR (no re-encoding).

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Sham 69 on
MP3Packer does this,
MP3Packer reduces CBR files to the same quality in VBR. As far as I know, there are no programs that can reduce an MP3 to a lower quality MP3 without re-encoding.