Shorten reduces the size of waveform files (such as audio) using Huffman coding of prediction residuals and optional additional quantisation. In lossless mode the amount of compression obtained depends on the nature of the waveform. Those composing of low frequencies and low amplitudes give the best compression, which may be 2:1 or better. Lossy compression operates by specifying a minimum acceptable segmental signal to noise ratio or a maximum bit rate. Lossy compression operates by zeroing the lower order bits of the waveform, so retaining waveform shape. Permission is granted to use this software for decoding and non-commercial encoding (e.g. private or research use). If you intend to use shorten, be sure to check the full license, which can be displayed by "shorten -l". WWW: http://www.softsound.com/Shorten.html