Hey Jay,

Thanks for the cool resource. I'd like to share one with you, too. It's an mp3 trim program (free, yay!) that you trim the mp3 directly.

http://www.mptrim.com/index.html - I just started using this. Be careful, when you hit Save, it rewrites over the old mp3 file and you can't go back if you missed something. You can create a new file, however, by hitting "save as" just like any other program. Also, I found that you have to trim in "Samples" instead of "Seconds." "Seconds" does not allow you to remove sound in milliseconds. I discovered that 2 samples on the front end and 2/3 samples at the back end of the file gets rid of that padding just enough to make it unnoticeable.

Thanks for the tip!

George

Cool thanks I will check it out

The issue has been fixed! It turns out there was a problem with the mp3 encoding software. Here was my original process:

Bounce from PTLE 22khz/16-bit mono aiff -> Bounce to OGG from Audacity -> OGG to mp3 converter (with no control over bit-rate) -> mp3 quality reduction to save space

Already, I look back and laugh at my inefficiency. Here's the new process:

Bounce from PTLE 22khz/16-bit mono aiff -> Encode to mp3 via Switch (40kbs bit-rate)

PTLE lets you bounce to a lower-quality conversion rate for 22khz sampling, so I was able to save using half the amount of space from its 44khz counterpart.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts. Troubleshooting is always fun when you can share your grief with all those around :)

Take care,

George

Is the final MP3 actually twice as small when you start with a 22KHz file as compared to a 44KHz file? My guess is that it would be identical in size, given that you specify a 40Kbps output anyway.

*smacks head*

Oh Kylotan, if I only just read your previous post more carefully. You know, I work at a university where students are given advice of all stripes on how to be a successful student and, yet, they don't listen until it's too late. Sometimes you just have let the student fall flat until they learn.

I'm going to go back to the drawing board again and work on this conversion and see what happens. My suspicion is that you'll be right and I'll end up with higher quality files. Everybody wins!

Thanks for your patience and not sending your virtual insults my way. :)

Take care,

-George