Shorten (extension .shn) is an audio compression scheme written by Tony Robinson of SoftSound that can compact wav files (music CDs) without subtracting out any frequencies. It's "lossless"- everything in the original wav is there, so that full quality is maintained. For many traders of live music, Shorten files (shns) therefore have an undisputed advantage over "lossy" mp3-format files. A shn file made from a wav is quite a bit larger than the corresponding mp3, with a size perhaps ~50-70% of the orginal wav.

There is allready a huge community sharing "bootlegs" in the .shn format over the internet, but with permission of the artists, so called trade-friendly artists !

To get you started, you need some additional software:

• Shnamp a plugin for winamp, so you can listen to your files on your PC.
• mkwACT To convert .shn files into .wav files, if you want to creste "Normal" CDs. It's also possible to use mkwACT to create .shn files from wave files.