About MP3s? What's best?

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 8:58 pm

I've been using Altomp3 gold to reformat. I've been doing them at 192 kbps and 44kHz, because I've been told it's a good rate and downloads faster than the higher rates that don't make much of a difference. Ever since someone ask that we tag our songs, I've started exploring the property features more. Well I just recently reset my settings to the VBR (variable bit rate) option because they made it sound good. With VBR, it sets it to a minimum of 192kbps and if needed will peak at 320kbps. Sounds great, right? Well I just noticed that my "Ten Lies" MP3 I sent in says it's only 90kbps and 32kHz. WTF? It doesn't sound bad I don't think. Also, it says the duration is 7:19, when it's really 3:30, so maybe it's confused.

Anyway, what does everyone use for their entries here at SF?

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 9:17 pm

8 bit 32k 12.5Khz mono. That sounds the best, IMHO.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 9:29 pm

I use fluffy's secret sauce.
-b 32 -V 5 -q 5 -m j

I input this into the LAME dialog of iTunes for processing my mastered WAVs.

Billy's Little Trip · Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:35 pm

OK, I just read a little bit of Fluffy's method. So it sounds like my VBR setting is doing it's job, but my Windows Media player and properties doesn't like the VBR setting.
I also just noticed, when listening on Windows Media player, that at the end of the song, the little progress slider thingy, only goes half way across.

Steve Durand · Post by **Steve Durand** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:39 pm

I use LAME with a front end called Razorlame.

I usually use 128kps. I can't hear the difference between this and 192.

16 bit, 44.1 kHz

Since VBR is just that, variable, it means that there is a different bit rate for every part of your song. That's why your player can't figure out how long it is. It can only do that if the bit rate is constant.

I also use a program called AudioTT to do my tags,

All of this stuff is free. ( I'm cheap)

Steve

Billy's Little Trip · Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:59 pm

I use a free program too, Steve. I'm not sure how I acquired it, but I've never had to pay, even though it asks me every time, if I'd like to pay, lol. I've been using it for months now. AltogMP3 Gold

Steve Durand · Post by **Steve Durand** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:10 pm

That's interesting.

The site says that you can only do 12 tracks before you have to register.

Steve

Billy's Little Trip · Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:22 pm

Maybe a glitch. Because it asks to register or enter a key. But on the same pop up box there is a tag that says "continue" which seems to bypass the pay stuff. All I know is it's a pretty good program and I've been using it since last Oct, 06.

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:22 am

I'm a fan of WinLame, which is just a simple Lame frontend that handles drag'n'drop.

I've also been doing some ABX tests recently, and I've noticed that on headphones and cheap speakers I can't tell the difference between lossless and Lame's '-V5 --vbr-new' setting (which averages around 130 kbps), and on my monitors '-V4 --vbr-new' (aka 160 kbps average) is arguably transparent. I can't imagine there being much need to go above that for songfight.

blue · Post by **blue** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:50 am

Puce wrote:I'm a fan of WinLame, which is just a simple Lame frontend that handles drag'n'drop.

I've also been doing some ABX tests recently, and I've noticed that on headphones and cheap speakers I can't tell the difference between lossless and Lame's '-V5 --vbr-new' setting (which averages around 130 kbps), and on my monitors '-V4 --vbr-new' (aka 160 kbps average) is arguably transparent. I can't imagine there being much need to go above that for songfight.

ditto.

deshead · Post by **deshead** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:50 am

http://www.cdburner.ca/digital-audio-fo ... o-test.htm

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/003993.html

ken · Post by **ken** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:01 am

I just export an mp3 as my final mix out of Nuendo. Cubase users should be able to do this as well. I throw Voxengo Elephant on my mastering buss and I am good to go. For Songfight, it just isn't worth an extra step to export a master and then convert it to m3.

Ken

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:11 am

My Cubase does have a converter, but it is limited to so many, then you have to pay. The Cubase converter doesn't seem to have anything more to offer than my free program. But I will admit, it is a pain in the ass to go through 2 extra steps every time I finish a song.
#1. Final mix and export as a .wav
#2. Open the .wav file in Goldwave to edit start and end, maximize volume, check for any pops/clicks, etc.
#3. Convert to an MP3

So Ken, my question here. Are you doing the final mix, editing and conversion to MP3 all in the same program?

ken · Post by **ken** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:33 am

Odd, it isn't a converter, you just export-> as Mp3 instead of .wav. I didn't realize this was a speacial feature.

Ken

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:57 am

Actually, you are right. But when I try to export as an MP3, it says I've reached my maximun of 20 MP3 downloads and I need to order to continue....barstids.
Ken, you said, "Voxengo Elephant on my mastering buss". Is that like a plug in, so my Cubase recognizes it and uses it for exporting MP3s?
Also, what do you think is best for mastering, and what all do you do when you master a song. I'm calling editing and mastering the same thing here. I could be wrong.

ken · Post by **ken** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:09 am

Voxengo elephant is a mastering limiter. I put it on the master and export mp3!

http://www.voxengo.com/product/elephant/

Ken

Steve Durand · Post by **Steve Durand** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:38 am

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Actually, you are right. But when I try to export as an MP3, it says I've reached my maximun of 20 MP3 downloads and I need to order to continue....barstids.
...
Also, what do you think is best for mastering, and what all do you do when you master a song. I'm calling editing and mastering the same thing here. I could be wrong.

I have the same issue with SONAR, the MP3 encoder is an add-on and not part of the basic package.

You should check out Izotope Ozone.

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/

It is a great mastering tool.

Steve

Billy's Little Trip · Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:49 am

Looks like a great program Steve. Do they have a free full version somwhere.....Ken?

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:53 am

I master with Ozone, but barely scratch the surface. It is amazing. And not cheep. I believe you can download a full demo version, though, which inserts noise after 20 seconds or something like that.

Billy's Little Trip · Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:57 am

Yeah, I saw that demo. But I guess I have to spend the money if it's something I need.

I also just played around with the Voxengo elephant. It seems like the Kjaerhus Audio Classic limiter I have. But the Elephant has a ton of factory pre sets. I like the Classic, but sometimes I feel it kills the dynamics. The Elephant says it doesn't effect the dynamics.

Steve Durand · Post by **Steve Durand** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:58 am

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Yeah, I saw that demo. But I guess I have to spend the money if it's something I need.

I also just played around with the Voxengo elephant. It seems like the Kjaerhus Audio Classic limiter I have. But the Elephant has a ton of factory pre sets. I like the Classic, but sometimes I feel it kills the dynamics. The Elephant says it doesn't effect the dynamics.

It depends on what you do with it. if you are trying to make your overall mix louder then it will affect the dynamics. If you are just trying to keep the peaks below 0 then you can keep the dynamics but your overall mix will sound quieter.

Steve

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:28 pm

Apparently, a lot of people here are either very honest, or don't know about alt.binaries.sounds.utilities