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Old 12-05-2018, 12:15 PM   #1
zappsunzorn
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Default Rendering MP3's to single channel Vs 2 channel mono

I notice that a lot of spoken word podcasts download as stereo MP3 files and got to wondering if they could save some file size and therefore internet bandwidth by rendering to mono instead of stereo.

I used one of the audio files from "All Through the Night" (from the sample files for the Reaper manual) a single channel variable bit rate MP3 and rendered it once as stereo and once as a single channel MP3 using the same settings.

Single channel MP3 1.3 mb
Two Channel MP3 1.5mb

I did the same with another file that was a 2 channel (but still mono) fixed bit rate MP3 and both the one channel and two-channel MP3 renders came out as 21.5mb

I am wondering what goes on inside the black box related to this, and if there are any compatibility issues with mono MP3 files for some playback devices or software.
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Old 12-08-2018, 08:53 AM   #2
Philbo King
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Default

Usually MP3 encoders default to 'joint stereo' where the audio is encoded to Mid/Side for the encoding. The Mid contains all the mono info, and Side contains the small amount of data that is the stereo data.

For a mono source, there is no side info. So no data is needed to contain it.

There should be no compatibility problems.
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