audio tech questions (mp3 sound quality)

[DevO]

I am converting some .wav fils to MP3 for a Kev's Cuts mix using Xilisoft Audio Converter. I want to make them of high quality (for mp3's that is), but I also want to keep in mind that people will be downloading this using YSI, which is slow. So I'd like to find a happy medium. I was hoping some of you could help me with this. Here are the options I have:

VERSION: MPEG I, II, or II.5

BITRATE MIN

BITRATE MAX

MODE: Stereo, J-Stereo, Forced Stereo, Mono

PRIVATE

CHECKSUM

ORIGINAL

COPYRIGHT

On-the-fly MP3 Encoding

(the above are all toggle boxes)

QUALITY (ranges from 1 to 10, 10 being the best)

VBR METHOD

ABR (kpbs)

VBR QUALITY

Output Samplerate

The other day I transfered a collection from WAV to MP3 and the mp3 files contained no audio. :crazy: Any help would be much appreciated.

Edited May 2, 2006 by Guest

[\/\/illy]

Download LAME and use the "--alt preset extreme" setting. Easy as pie.

[DevO]

Thanks Willy... Xilisoft Audio Converter does use LAME, and has that setting.

I'll give it a shot.

[mattm]

I do the same thing all the time when making mp3's. Use CBR rather than VBR (most compatible that way) and use 256kbs, that's it. That way the mp3's are about the best quality your ear can actually distinguish and they are compatible with pretty much everything. To save space, use vbr which should be just fine nowadays, I'm just old school and the size difference isn't huge so I stick with CBR (CBR means 256kbs for every second regardless of wether there are 256kb's worth of info in that second, VBR will check how much space the second needs and change the speed for that second). Some mp3 players will use up more batteries for VBR than CBR because it has to check the file for the different frame sizes but it's not all that noticeable.

[Esau]

Hey Kev0,

Have you thought about using lossless wma? Works in my CD/DVD player and isn't that much bigger then HQ mp3s. Plus, there are now better sites then YSI which handle bigger files and transfer (U/L & D/L) faster.

[ollie]

I stick with 192kbps CBR. It's good enough for my purposes. If I ever want to permanently digitize my collection it will be lossless and I don't have space for that now.

Something to keep in mind is that higher bitrate mp3s use more of your mp3 player's battery. That was something that I considered when deciding what bitrate to go with.