Best Ways to Reduce Filesize for Custom Sounds

[Melth]

http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/cat_usersubmit.php?view=39614

So I've of course read the above guide on creating custom soundsets and know how to do it. My problem is filesize. Somehow every sound the guy who wrote that guide is working with is just 2-8 kb. My sounds are just originally internal wc3 sounds but are almost all much larger than that for some reason. For example, a death sound I want to use which is from the footman is 53 kb. I can't import a bunch of 40-50 kb sounds without taking up a really inordinate amount of map maximum size obviously.

What's the best way to reduce a sound file's size for WC3 purposes?

 

[UgoUgo]

If you have audacity, open the file with that program, look into the lower left corner saying 'Project Rate (Hz)', change the value into smaller value (I think you have to replay the sound after changing the project rate). Export it again.

However, this can affect the quality of the sound. I'm not really sure any method that can be used to reduce sound filesize without affecting the quality itself.

 

[Binsu]

If they are mp3 file types, maybe I can suggest: http://download.cnet.com/MP3Resizer/3000-2140_4-10389111.html

I've been using this program, MP3 Resizer for optimizing or lowering the file size of my sounds by a decent amount. It's free but only available for 30 days as a trial

 

[Melth]

If you have audacity, open the file with that program, look into the lower left corner saying 'Project Rate (Hz)', change the value into smaller value (I think you have to replay the sound after changing the project rate). Export it again.

However, this can affect the quality of the sound. I'm not really sure any method that can be used to reduce sound filesize without affecting the quality itself.

Alright, I'll try fiddling with the project rate too. So far I've only tried changing the kbps. Cutting that down to 128 reduced the size by about half, but still nowhere near the approximately 10x I would hope for.

If they are mp3 file types, maybe I can suggest: http://download.cnet.com/MP3Resizer/...-10389111.html

I've been using this program, MP3 Resizer for optimizing or lowering the file size of my sounds by a decent amount. It's free but only available for 30 days as a trial

Problematically, WC3 doesn't seem to accept MP3 files as far as I can tell. Only WAV.

 

[Dr Super Good]

You can reduce sound file size by...
1. Reducing the length of the sound. Size is usually directly proportional to length.
2. Reducing sampling rate of the sound. Size is directly proportional to sampling rate.
3. Reducing the sample size of the sound. Size is directly proportional to sample size used (usually 16 bit I think).
4. Improving the compression used. Not always possible due to program constraints but some compressions give better compression for minimal quality loss.
5. Simplifying the sound. If compression is used it will compress better if sounds are well filtered so only the sound data is present (noise is random so will greatly increase file size).

In the end sound will just be large as it is a discrete sampled format like images (except they are 2D).

 

[muzzel]

Use a mono sound instead of stereo.