Hey all! Im a part time DJ/full time student at the moment. I rarely download songs on P2P netorks but when I do I try to stay away from anything under 10MB on MP3 format. Most of my music collection I have actually bought in record stores(im afraid to think what I've spen just on cd's let alone the dj equipment) Anyway, Im currently using CD Decks for mixing - So I am in the process of ripping my entire music collection onto my PC for copying to discs(ie. one track per disc, more veratile for a DJ) I know it'll take alot of discs but it'll be worth it. Anyway, Ive started on a few cd's and plan to rip them at 320kbps MP3 format(the highest mp3 ripping option on Windows Media Player) I was looking for opinions on quality issues regarding the music itself as i understand that a single track on a Music CD you buy in the shops are something like 40MB, whereas my ripped songs end up as 10MB. I need to know what sort of degrading is done to the music - bearing in mind that it will be played on large/quality systems not little pc speakers. Im in the process of deleting all my downloaded music as its not really up to scratch quality wise - Can any give me info on very good "QUALITY" tracks I can download legally - i dont mind paying for them Thanks Darrell
The highest quality mp3s do not result from ripping them at 320kpbs. Don't use WMP to rip either. Use EAC, and encode with LAME @ 192VBR. Use this guide: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/mydeneaclame.cfm This setup makes the best quality of mp3s.
djscoop is correct but I beleive that there is a difference between 192 kbps VBR and 256 kbps VBR in terms of audio quality. I always encode at 256 kbps VBR. Also if you will be listining to the music in your car or "boom box" I recommend using the "Joint Audio" setting instead of the default Stereo setting. Ced
i use VBR but at the maximum quality. 320 kbps is good, but VBR is cool with little pc speakers you won' barely notice the difference. but if you go too much there will be. since you have great speakers to hook up too, theres no harm setting at the max quality. try vorbis, musepack, HE-AAC (nero), FAAC (free aac). and try lossless codec, flac, aac-lossless, etc. i use vorbis. http://www.rarewares.org/ as for buying them online, i don't have a clue. try itunes store.
The main point though it to set your minimum bit rate very low and your maximum very high. That will allow you to use the VBR scheme to its full potential. I set my minimum to 64 and my max to 256. If your min and max are the same then your just encoding at whatever making the VBR scheme useless and ABR like. Ced
Thanks for the replies. Unfortunatly I cannot use many of those programs because all CD DJ equipment can play MP3. It a recognized format. Im trying to think ahead too. Is MP3 gonna be around much longer ie I hear MP4 being talked about Another Question - Is there a different speed a computer can read different formats. eg. I have a mp3 song thats 10MB 320kbps and I've a format of some other kind say .ogg(doesnt really matter) same size 10MB and same bitrate 320kbps. Im wondering, which would load the quickest on an identical system or would they load the same ie are other formats than mp3's like aac etc. more detailed/have different compression techniques, that will take a pc longer to load to play them that sounds like crap but hopefully ya get my drift
Actually I'm totaly confussed. What do you mean take a long time to load? Encoding in VBR Mp3 is encoding a Mp3. Any software that plays and edits Mp3 will be able to edit VBR Mp3s. The best souding codec right now is MusePack but due to the LAME encoder Mp3 will be around for a long time becase there is so much support for it in commercial products. Even if the Mp4 based AAC becomes supported by more than just the iPod it will take a long time for people to realize the difference. My guess is as long as the LAME codec keeps improving the Mp3 format will never get old. If it weren't for the LAME encoder, Ogg Vorbis and WMA would have takin over years-ago! Ced
thanks diabolos, thats all I needed to know really - is MP3 good enough quality at 320kbps and how long is MP3 gonna last until it is replaced. Just needed to know these becoz as i said b4 im currently ripping my whole music cd collection to MP3's
MP3 format will be around for a long long time. Sometime this year/Summer they will be improving the quality to include surround sound (5.1). Of course, this will increase the size of the MP3 file; but, I really don't care; size vs quality? If you are that concerned just spend a weekend ripping 500 of your favorites and stop and that point. Research, read, and then attempt to improve what you have until you are perfectly satisfied. No sense in spending alot of time burning your entire collection and then being dissatisfied. ... just a thought. Regardless, stay "Tuned".
i set my vbr from 32 to 320 kbps. decoding them for playback takes little cpu power. there won't be any lag, unless you're running a dinosaur age pc about mp3 5.1 i've read them at fraunhofer page. didn't see much detail. i think it won't be a real 6 channel audio. but more of like dolby pro logic.
