When bouncing- what's best method for smallest file size/highest quality?

MUYconfundido wrote:
I am in the process of embedding 3 mp3's into a PDF to submit as a portfolio. The PDF also has text, and two scores included, and with the 3 embedded mp3's it can't be more than 10mb.

So my question is: When bouncing a project out of Logic, what is the best method for getting the smallest file size, but retaining the best audio quality?

The highest bitrate that falls within your limits. You'll have to calculate how big your MP3's can be, then choose the bitrate that keeps the size within your limit. The formula is simple: bitrate is the number of kilobits per second, so a 46 second stereo file at 96 kbps would be 96 x 46 = 4416 kbits / 8* = 552 kBytes or 0.552 MB. (*8 bits = 1 Byte)
So if you know the length of your tracks you can calculate what bitrate you need to keep it within 10 MB total.
I consider 128 kbps the lowest bearable bitrate for popsongs and other modern drumkit based music. Deterioration of sound quality is often directly related to the quality of the initial mix and the type of instruments used in it. Piano(-like) tones tend to sound watery pretty quickly at lower bitrates, as do crash and ride cymbals. But don't take my word for it, try it out.

And once it's out of Logic and it is an mp3 or other type of audio file, is there a best format for compressing it further, and still maintaining the relative quality?

You can only ZIP the whole thing after that, but that is just for transport. You'll have to unzip it again to use it. And no, you cannot compress an MP3 any further and still play it.

I bounced out the three projects into wav's. Now I am using Switch for Mac to compress them down to smaller Mp3's.

That is silly, you could have done that in Logic, which has one of the best MP3 encoders built in. And how good encoders are will especially come out at bitrates around or below 128, which you might be looking at.

I basically need them to be about 3 mb each.

So, one more scrap of info we need here: how long are those three pieces, exactly? I'll calculate the bitrate for you - but please bounce 'm directly out of Logic as MP3's. They will very probably sound better than your WAV-conversions made with Switch.

!http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4084/4996323899_071398b89a.jpg!

Two of the recordings sound OK at that size, but they are just MIDI(one project is piano and string quartet, the other is just piano- all software instruments. The recording that combines MIDI and Audio and has more tracks (three audio tracks and 10 Midi/software instrument tracks)and sounds completely horrible if I get it under 5 mb as an mp3. The problem is that I need all three to equal around 9mb, but still sound good enough to submit as a portfolio for consideration into a Master's program.

Length of the piece? And does the .Wav bounce you have sound OK?

If it's an option, AAC compression will give you a bit better quality than mp3 at the same file size.

Does Logic really have better mp3 conversion than other apps? I thought it just used shared libraries, which many other apps use as well.

okay 1198 seconds for which you have 9 MByte = 72000 kbit per 1198 seconds boils down to a stereo bitrate of 60 kbps, which will always sound, well +(off to bounce at that rate...)+ ...AWful!

So why this 10 MB limit? Just a random teachers limit, or somehow system-related?

If you were to use 128 kbps stereo, it would all nicely add up to 20 MB and be of bearable quality. So I'ld simply ignore the 10 MB limit and explain why, referring to this thread...
So, to summarize: you cannot stuff 20 minutes of stereo music into 9 MB and expect it to sound good. If you had 19 MB it would work, or if you bounce to mono, or if you somehow can edit down your tracks from 20 to 10 minutes total.

AFAICR it is the old Fraunhofr (?) encoder, which for a long long time was the only encoder that didn't "submerge" piano's at 128 kbps stereo. But I'm no expert, and this info may be dated.
AAC is (sounds) definetely better, but is alas not very compatible with other players and OS's than iPods and OSX. The OP would have to verify if he can submit AAC, that would be a bit better, though not much, at 64 kbps.

Once you're down to 64k, you may need to consider mono or 22k sample rate.

Yeah , I looked at that, but Logic doesn't bounce MP3 at 22050. Funnily, you can bounce any PCM file at 22050, so maybe the OP would need to bounce a Wav or Aiff at that rate (for that is possible), and then use Switch (or iTunes) to make 'm into MP3...
Mike, don't you agree that they (OP's teachers) should specify it so he can simply use 128 kbps stereo MP3 for his files? Unless it is an exercise in downsampling & converting, of course... 🙂

Yes, anything at that size is definitely going to be very low quality, I'd let the teacher know that and ask if the files can be at least 128.