Before my Dad died, about ten years ago, I did a series of interviews
with him on cassette tapes -- the large ones, that measure about three
by five inches. I'm sure the recording was mono, and the tape
recorder was not very expensive. I now want to transfer that to .wav
files, but I notice the files get large fast -- a test recording, at
16 KHz, using 16 bit sound, created a 4 Megabyte file for under three
minutes of recording time.

My question is, is 16 KHz and 16 bit recording overkill? Will I be
retrieving and saving essentially all the available audio information
if I step down to 11 or 12 KHz (or even 8 KHz)? I assume the bit size
refers to the magnitudes that are recorded, with 8-bit sound giving
256 magnitudes, and 16 bit giving 65,000 magnitudes. For voice, is
8-bit really good enough?

Thanks in advance for all replies.
Steve O.


Standard Antiflame Disclaimer: Please don't flame me. I may actually *be* an idiot, but even idiots have feelings.