Two ways to split
Split by count and you say how many pieces you want; the file is divided into that many equal parts. Split by duration and you set a length; the file is cut into consecutive segments of that length, with whatever is left over forming a shorter final piece. Count is the right mode when you know the structure — four equal parts of a rehearsal recording. Duration is right when you know the constraint — ten-minute chunks that fit an upload limit.
Either way the result arrives as a single ZIP containing all the segments, numbered in order, so you download once rather than once per piece. Segment count is capped at 500, and duration mode has a half-second minimum, which stops a small mistake from generating tens of thousands of files.
What people split and why
- Long lectures or audiobooks broken into chapter-sized pieces that a phone can resume between.
- A DJ set or live recording separated into tracks for individual listening.
- A rehearsal or practice recording cut into takes so each can be judged on its own.
- Files too large for an email attachment or an upload limit, split into pieces that fit.
- A long field recording divided so several people can transcribe different parts in parallel.
Splits land at exact time positions, not at musical or spoken boundaries. Equal parts will cut mid-sentence or mid-bar unless the material happens to line up. For cuts that land where you want them, use the MP3 Cutter on each section instead.
Every segment is encoded into the format you pick, so the decision multiplies. Twenty WAV segments of a long recording will be very large; the same twenty as MP3 will be a fraction of that. For speech, MP3 keeps the ZIP manageable. For music going into further work, FLAC keeps it lossless at roughly half the size of WAV.
If you need cuts at specific points rather than regular intervals — the start of each song rather than every four minutes — this is the wrong tool. Use the MP3 Cutter repeatedly, selecting each region by ear against the waveform. Splitting is applied on the server at export and the uploaded file is deleted as soon as the download completes.