Compressing Audio Files For CD-R (SoundForge and CuBase)
 

Just recently I sold the CD recorder (deck) that I'd been using to record my mixes (from turntables). Up until a couple days ago I've been unable to record my sets and, well, it sucks!! However, today I installed SoundForge and CuBase to record the audio files. Now that I have this large file (about 1hr mix) stored, how do I compress this file to fit onto a 700mb disc? Is it possible to shrink these files using SoundForge or CuBase? Any info is appreciated. THX

how long is your mix? if its longer than 80 minutes, it wont fit on the disc regardless. If its more than 700MB you might have to compressed it down to a hi quality mp3(256kbps absolute minimum, if I compress I always go 320), and burn from there. But even as an mp3 longer than 80 minutes, it still wont be able to burn as an audio CD due to the limitations on the CD itself. If you have anymore questions, or I just didn't make sense, let me know, this is one of the few areas were I really know my stuff, especially with sound forge.

X_cody_X: Thanks for the info. However, I'm still curious as to how I shrink the audio file. Of course, due to the fact that CD-R's only hold 80 minutes of audio (mp3), my mixes don't exceed that time fram. So, I would like to know what program (maybe SoungForge and CuBasic) will shrink the audio file to less than 700mb?

First, what is it originally recorded as? If it's a wave file not much over 700 MB then you can just burn it as an audio CD with no problem. Keep in mind, compressing it to mp3 then trying to burn an audio CD is a complete waste of time. The mp3 file is decompressed to a wave file (which has now lost its original quality) and you aren't able to squeeze on any more music. However, if you plan to play this CD on an MP3-CD player, you can use a nice encoder like LAME and get well over 80 minutes worth of mp3s on a data CD.