I agree completely. I see 128kbps as an absolute minimum.

I have been using 192kbps for my podcasts so that the intro music pops and hopefully keeps people’s attention. But the files are getting a bit large with interviews, and I agree with most of the points you made; so I’m going to switch down to 128kbps (I just can’t bring myself to do 96 or 64 **shudder**). I have lots of audiobooks that use 96kbps, and the music transitions are just horrible. I would rather they just skipped the music when using such a low bitrate. I also have a bundle of highly produced audiobooks that use 256kbps and sound great (but I admit that it’s probably overkill).

Thanks for saving me from lots of future headaches!

Hi Rich, from purely an audio point of view yes, but if you’re making a podcast most media hosts advise against VBR so you might run into some issues further down the line. I’d go with CBR!

Re. Constant/ Variable Bit Rate, if Constant Bit Rate is fine for spoken word podcasts, would it make sense to have a variable bit rate where there’s a variety of audio sources (am thinking a mix of music, outside field recordings, studio speech, and audio beds).

Thanks again

Rich

This is a historically proven quality level that has been used by shoutcast streams for a number of years.

The alternative is to use more cutting-edge file formats suited to your content, but that may be a technical limitation for your audience.

It depends how long your old episodes are Johnathan? If they’re 45min plus the file sizes will be fairly big yeah. You could maybe replace a handful each week in that case.

I host on Soundcloud Unlimited, but I’m guessing I should lower my bit rate. Would it be a good idea to replaces the episodes that I do have up with a lower rate, or just lower it going forward?