Question About Librivox Recordings' BitRate

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AdhiraamBose
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Joined: March 8th, 2021, 10:41 am

Post by AdhiraamBose »

As far as I have experienced,the recordings of Librivox are at 64kbps only.

Why is that Librivox has Audio Files of 64kbps only(While it can use BitRates like 128kbps and 256kbps)?

And,Does BitRate affects the Clarity and Loudness of The AudioBooks?
mightyfelix
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Post by mightyfelix »

We submit our files to the Internet Archive in 128 kbps format. From there, they create a variety of different formats. So the 64 kbps files you've seen most likely come from there.

I don't think the bit rate affects the quality or sound of the recordings, or at least not noticeably. I think it's primarily a difference in how much memory the files take up. But that's not my area of expertise. :)
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

16 kbps sounds like a recording from an old analog phone. :lol: (I've tried exporting an audio to that, just for giggles. It's horrible.)

Bit rate does not affect the loudness. It does affect the clarity.

128 kbps (which is what we submit) is more than sufficient for good vocal quality. Even the 64 kbps are sufficient for our purposes. 256 would be overkill for speech.
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knotyouraveragejo
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Post by knotyouraveragejo »

The main difference is the size of the files. The 64kb derived files are half the size of the original 128kb files. So the 64 kb files are there for people with limited bandwidth for downloading files or limited storage on phones, hard drives or other listening devices. If that's not an issue, then by all means download the 128kb files instead.

If you are downloading individual files from the LV catalog pages, right clicking on the play button in the table of files will give you the option to download a 64kb file, while right clicking on the section title in the table will give you a link to the 128kb file. Tricia has responded in your other thread in regard to downloading zipfiles of the entire book as either 64kb or 128kb individual files.

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