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apps > ipod
document updated 16 years ago, on Sep 3, 2007
I finally ran out of space on my 8GB iPod. Enabling the "Bit Rate" column in my music playlist, I see that some are encoded at rediculous rates (eg. 320kbps for songs I don't care much for).

This thread suggests that foobar2000 is a tool that can be used to batch-re-encode MP3's.

  1. install foobar2000 + lame.exe
    1. find the latest lame.exe version here
    2. google for {lame.exe 3.97} (that's just an example... substitute in whatever is the latest LAME version there)
  2. within foobar2000:
    1. File > Add Directory
    2. hilight all
    3. Right click > Convert > Convert to Same Directory
    4. More Settings
      1. MP3 (LAME) = V5, fast (or whatever setting is most appropriate)
      2. Single tracks = %filename%_new
      3. close
    5. okay
    6. Overwrite all
    7. write a quick perl program to rename "*_new.mp3" to "*.mp3"
      • dir /s/b *_new.mp3 | perl -nle "my $a=$_; s/_new//; print qq[move \"$a\" \"$_\"]" > rnm.bat
      • rnm.bat
  3. within iTunes:
    1. hilight all songs changed
    2. right click > Get Info
    3. click on "okay" (without changing anything!) [at this point, you'll see all of the bitrates all of a sudden change]
    4. sync iPod