MP3 Encoding

All this started because of electrolytic and darryle. So I spent a couple of hours at the college today to talk about MP3 encoding. Basically what I wanted to know was what would get the best quality that we could get.

Now the two guys I talked to are serious computer geeks (I mean that with respect) and they also know audio.

Here is what I learned
Constant Bit Rate (CBR) is what most of us use. Basically we select a rate at which we encode and the software encodes at that rate. Variable Bit Rate (VBR) however can change the rate at which it encodes. During extreme musical passages, for example, VBR will increase the encoding rate so that nothing is lost. During soft passages it will decrease the sampling rate simply because a high rate is not necessary. VBR is ALWAYS superior to CBR

There is another VBR called Average Bit Rate (ABR). Like VBR it can and does adjust the bit rate at which it encodes, but the user selects an average. In other words if I select 192, then it will adjust the bit rate but the average bit rate for the whole song will be 192.

VBR is the best, ABR is second best and they ask me why I was even bothering ripping at a Constant Bit Rate

They both agreed that Lame is the best encoder and there is nothing close to Lame as far as quality

Here are the settings they recommended for Audiograbber and Lame



I'll try this here in the next couple of days and see what happens.

 

I just ripped 6 songs and the file size is just slightly larger. Remember it adjusts bit rate as needed during the song. The bit rate actually changes as the song plays.

I'm gonna see what it sounds like today.

Burn a sample disc, lets give it a try. To keep it simple download Lame and audiograbber, use them to rip 5 or 6 test songs, burn it as MP3 and lets compare notes.

 

I can download that song, no problem. But don't we want to compare what we encode to the original?

What I have done so far is encode a couple of songs
1. Seether -Gasoline
2. Sara Evans -Suds In The Bucket
3. Martina McBride -Independence Day
4. Damone - Outta My Way
5. Offspring - Hit that
6. Blue Plate Special - Night Out

I put all 6 on the Ipod twice. The first version of each song was ripped at a Constant Bite Rate of 192, the second was at a Variable Bit Rate.

Both sound like the original CD (I own these CD's) but the Variable Bit Rate has the depth and presence like the original. Now the VBR file size is about 1Mb larger than the 192 CBR. But I dont cosider that Significant.

So what did you have in mind? I'll download the song in a minute.
( the only problem I see with this is we don't know how the downloaded song was encoded)

 

OK got it.

 

My file is just a little larger, it is 6.8mB

 

I just noticed a minor problem, in your Advanced Lame Options in the Presetsection. Look at the quality setting. It says "NO Preset"

Type the following in that line %s %d -V2 --vbr-new

This setting will make Lame work like its supposed to

 

Don't use Windows Media Player. Its the worst one I've used. The sound was always tinny (AZN did I spell that right) regardless of bit rate.

Anyway with out that setting Lame is just another encoder, it is not able to encode at 100%



The sound quality with this setting is incredible.