Re: Variable bitrate MP3 files

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On Mar 6, 8:18 am, Swifty <Steve.J.Sw...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
cwdjrxyz wrote:
It might be interesting to record the same audio in all of these 42
mp3 variations, see the file size, listen to them on a very high
quality audio system, and see what problems, if any they may cause on
computers players such as WMP, Real etc and various stand alone mp3
players.

I'm only interested in the MP3 files for listening on my PC as I work. I
play the original CD (or a bitwise copy of my original) in my HiFi.
Whilst my PC speakers are excellent I notice no degradation in sound
quality when recorded at 160bps or above.

This is one advantage of getting older -- I've lost the higher
frequencies, so can get by with MP3 just fine. I also have to be careful
that the music doesn't get too involving, and distracting me from my work.

I'm interested how the variable bitrate affects the sound quality
though. For 10 minutes of silence, you could compress that down to
almost nothing, with no loss of quality.


I forgot about mp3PRO. It tends to give better quality at lower bit
rates. You need a PRO encoder for it, but it is supposed to play back
on normal mp3 players. Since it uses the normal .mp3 extension, you
may well have heard mp3PRO recordings and not been aware of it. Some
of the more recent Nero suites will convert to mp3PRO. You have the
choice of both constant and variable bit rate. For either, you first
select a fast, medium or highest encoding quality. If you then choose
constant bit rate, you can select from hundreds of conditions ranging
from 8kbps, 8000 Hz to 320 kbps, 44100 Hz in mono, dual mono, or
stereo formats. Many mp3 encoders do not include the mono format, but
this can cut your file size in half if you select to record in mono
rather than stereo. If you select variable bit rate for mp3PRO, there
are 5 quality settings to choose from. For your application, mp3PRO
VBR might result in the smallest file size for acceptable quality. I
do not know how much file size you would save if you use mp3PRO rather
than standard mp3. If you happen to have a mp3PRO encoder in a Roxio
or other program suite, it likely would be worth a try. If you do not
have it, my guess is it would not be worth buying it for your
application, but that is just a guess, and I could be wrong.
.

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