File Size for Sound Files

Recording Balance   Finding the Sound Recorder   Sounds Index

NOTE: See the page about Converting Sound Files for updated information about file sizes and file format conversions.

The Windows Sound Recorder forces you to save in WAVE (.wav) format. These files will be rather large, which means they will take a long time to download (for most users).

The good news: You can convert a .wav file to any other sound file format. All you need is the right software to do the conversion for you. An excellent open-source sound editor is Audacity, which runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. You can use Audacity to convert .wav files (and others) to .mp3 files. (You can also use Audacity to record files, so you could ditch the Sound Recorder.)

1_Open Sound Recorder
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47 sec.

2_Recording Balance Instructions
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93 sec.

3_How to Record
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34 sec.

4_Size Matters
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54 sec.

A note about how the files (linked in the chart above) will open:

• The MP3 links are normal links, and so the sound file will first download, then open in whatever player is configured to handle that file type on the computer you are using now. The way this occurs on YOUR computer is not necessarily the same thing that will happen on someone else's computer -- it all depends on how the individual computer is set up to handle MP3s!
   
• The RealAudio files will open almost instantly in a pop-up RealPlayer (you can download the free RealOnePlayer Basic if you don't have it).

A note about the file sizes shown above:

• Using Audacity (or another robust sound editor program) and the appropriate settings for voice narration audio files, you could get the file sizes for MP3s down to about the same size as the Real files.
   
• I encoded the files above using some software that didn't give me a lot of encoding options for the MP3 format.

Recording Quality

For voice quality equivalent to what you hear on these pages, you can record at 11.025 KHz 8-bit mono. This produces the smallest possible file, and the sound is acceptable for spoken voice played on a PC. For comparison, CD audio is recorded at 44 KHz 16-bit stereo (two channels) -- better quality, larger files.

See how to set or change these attributes in the Windows Sound Recorder.