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Whats the deal with MP3 encoding?
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1:11



Joined: Oct 15, 2010
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 8:59 am    Post subject: Whats the deal with MP3 encoding? Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Last night i was dumping down some code:11 Wavs to MP3 and noticed a DRAMATIC decrease in bass information. Confused
i would have just chalked it up to mp3's having less of a freq range, but i listened to MP3's by other artists afterwards, and their bass is heavy and full.

-What could be happening?
-What can i do to retain as much quality as possible when going from wav to mp3?
- Does the character of the sounds have any effect on the encoding? (All my tracks tend to be quite dense, a lot going on).

It seems the mp3's always sound VERY washed out compared to the original.

i'm using the Apple iTunes converter.

Thanks in advance

edit: another note- i've also noticed that when other people have recorded our material straight to MP3 it sounds much better than when i do it.

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airlock



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

The MP3's I've done at 128kpbs sound acceptable, and it's mostly Bar Kays, Cameo, S.O.S. Band and the like, i.e. lots of bass. Weird.
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ian-s



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I am not sure how hard apple would work at making it's mp3 encoder as good as possible. Considering it's investment in the competing aac format.

I use LAME with VBR. Anything over 160k average bit rate sounds good to me.
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abstraktor



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I would try something other than iTunes to convert. If you have a Mac I'd recommend Snapper (its free). If you have a PC try Audacity (also free) with the LAME encoder (you will have to download separately).
I cant listen to any MP3's that have less than 256K bitrate, and always convert to 320 if possible, because the quality loss is so obvious. Even at 256 music sounds shit through a good system or PA. I bought a couple of songs from amazon recently (couldnt get them any other way) and for tracks that were praised for their original production the mp3 was a sad ghost of the CD/Vinyl.
Sad

(Even at 320K the mp3 algorithm ditches 75% of the musical information!)
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audiodef



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 6:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Can I convince you to try using Ogg? It's a technically superior format to MP3. For the same file size, you will have a higher quality. For the equivalent quality, you will have a smaller file size.

It's a well-supported format, too. A lot of game creators use it because it is license and royalty-free.
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1:11



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 6:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Damien, i should start using Ogg for em posts, but will still want to do mp3's for friends at school.

i just noticed that my bit rate settings were at 160, which could be the problem i've been having.

Embarassed i swear, i miss the simplest stuff Embarassed Can't believe i had these settings on for a year...

Still going to try Snapper though.

Thanks Guys

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elektro80
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

How does it come out when you use aac instead of mp3?

It is hard to come up with a solution without having checked out the actual files.

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1:11



Joined: Oct 15, 2010
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

elektro80 wrote:
How does it come out when you use aac instead of mp3?

It is hard to come up with a solution without having checked out the actual files.


AAC comes out fine, pretty close to the original WAV.
i'll u/l a sample WAV to Soundcloud, and then i'll u/l an mp3 here, if you wouldn't mind checking between the 2(?).

Here's the WAV. A good point where for referencing between the two is @ 2:30

Code:11- Circles by AcidTrash

and the mp3 version.......


CirclesMP3.mp3
 Description:
code:11- CirclesMP3

Download
 Filename:  CirclesMP3.mp3
 Filesize:  5.59 MB
 Downloaded:  986 Time(s)


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[Q]



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

just a point of interest...

the stream from soundcloud has been transcoded [and normalized] so it will sound different to the downloaded wav from soundcloud. Sad
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audiodef



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 6:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

1:11 wrote:
Damien, i should start using Ogg for em posts, but will still want to do mp3's for friends at school.

i just noticed that my bit rate settings were at 160, which could be the problem i've been having.

Embarassed i swear, i miss the simplest stuff Embarassed Can't believe i had these settings on for a year...



I think electro-music.com uses Shoutcast, which doesn't accept Ogg, so if you want your stuff on e-m radio, you'll want to upload MP3 files. But Ogg is still a good format for many other places. I use Ogg and FLAC on my own site for "low" and "high" bitrate versions.

Dude, I miss simple stuff, too. I sometimes go from one room to another, and in the space of that time, forget why the hell I've walked into this room.
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audiodef



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 6:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

[Q] wrote:
just a point of interest...

the stream from soundcloud has been transcoded [and normalized] so it will sound different to the downloaded wav from soundcloud. Sad


This is true. Maybe upload the aac here directly, or upload it somewhere and provide a direct link to it.
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blue hell
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

audiodef wrote:
I think


o ... but ogg and flac will play fine on the radio.

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also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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audiodef



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I didn't know that. Cool! Smile

In that case, I remove all reservations for Acid Trash to experiment with Ogg. Cool
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1:11



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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 7:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

i'm gonna record everything on egg's from now on...
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audiodef



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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 2:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Fried or poached?
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1:11



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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Laughing Hard Boiled for code:11
Scrambled for Acid Trash Laughing

Thanx for your help guys, changed the import bitrate and it's starting to sound eggsaptable.

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audiodef



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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 7:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Eggscelent! It's eggscruciating when things don't work as eggspected.
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A E J O T Z



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PostPosted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Wow, talk about missing little things. I was having the same problem. And I knew that the bit-rate was adjustable on my mp3 converter but I didn't think to change it. I just increased the bit-rate from 160 to 320 !!!

Thanks for the much needed slap in the brain.

Now I have to re-convert and update all my music files.

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audiodef



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

A E J O T Z wrote:

Now I have to re-convert and update all my music files.


On Linux, there are ways to do this in batches. I'm sure programs exist for Windows and MacOS to run batch conversions. Obviously, not from 128k MP3's, but from source wav or flac.
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1:11



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

A E J O T Z wrote:
Wow, talk about missing little things. I was having the same problem. And I knew that the bit-rate was adjustable on my mp3 converter but I didn't think to change it. I just increased the bit-rate from 160 to 320 !!!

Thanks for the much needed slap in the brain.

Now I have to re-convert and update all my music files.


Laughing Cool, i'm glad i'm not the only one who's missed it!! Laughing

Good tip AudioDef!

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1:11



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PostPosted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 12:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

HUH!?!

Is this some kind of new spam bot? If so, it writes pretty cool.
(apologies if this is a real person)

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blue hell
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Spam bot.
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Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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audiodef



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

1:11 wrote:
HUH!?!

Is this some kind of new spam bot? If so, it writes pretty cool.
(apologies if this is a real person)


Did I miss something? Shocked
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1:11



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

A spambot message.
It had random text apparently based on the post...it was great though....

something about flushing divine sound poop audio files he bought from a chromozone dealer down the drain.
Laughing Laughing Laughing

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audiodef



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

We don't have enough chromazone dealers any more. Sad
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