Silly as it sounds, after each of the three Story Shuffles, we’ve taken a bit more time than we’d like to admit remembering the easiest way to compress the audio of each story for best playback and most versatile size.

This time, we’ve learned.

This is a simple process for those who know it, but, you know, give us a break, this is for the future, my friends.

Steps from Story Shuffle contributor and Temple University MURL adjunct professor Shannon McDonald:

• Download audio onto computer with fully-functioning Audacity
• Open each audio story file in Audacity
• Save as a compressed file with an .aup file extension
• Reopen the compressed file in Audacity
• Export — with mp3 as the default extension — and click options and lower the bit rate to, say, 64, which seems to not reduce quality too much while reducing the size by half or as much as two thirds.
• Change Meta Data — In Audacity, while exporting, change the track and album title.

Here’s to this being an easier process in the future.