Does anyone know of any freeware that can convert mp3 audio from a high bitrate to a lower one?

It's just that my iPod mini is almost full with 600 songs and I don't want to re-copy all of my CD's to the computer at a lower bitrate level.

Thanks.

Google search of "MP3 bitrate converter"

This one appears to be what you're looking for:

CDMaster32

Note that re-ripping songs always gives better quality than re-encoding compressed ones (when the target bitrate is the same). Then again, it shouldn't be too noticeable unless you're a quality freak.

Anyway, any audio converter should be able to re-encode MP3s.

You can with dBpowerAMP music converter. It's free (Cnet) although it says partly trial on homepage, but it works very nice:

Homepage: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm
Download.com: http://www.download.com/dBpowerAmp-Music-Converte...subj=dl&tag=button

dBPowerAmp also has the advantage of full integration with the Windows shell i.e. you can just right-click a media file, and launch it from there (in fact, that's the only way you run dBPowerAmp).