Maybe when “professional” artists/labels release songs commercially on mp3 they remix the song before encoding to mp3.
Or if not doing a full remix at least put it through some sort of EQ/processing to try and mitigate the effects of encoding to mp3 (eg. maybe put it through some sort of standard eq that bumps the highs up so that once it’s encoded to mp3 it sounds closer to the original wav than if they just encoded the original wav).
Or it could be that when studios mix now they just have mp3’s in mind and do the mix in a way that means it won’t lose too much if y convert to mp3 (not sure what that would entail…)
Rich
I am a memeber at Emusic and they use LAME for their encodes.
I have never had a quality problem with any of their stuff, or the stuff that I encode using LAME.
I use these codes “-V 2 --vbr-new” This has replaced the -alt preset standard in the newest versions of LAME.
Check out hydrogenaudio.org for the latest and greatest settings for any audio compression codecs. Those guys are as crazy about compression as we are about "n."
And one more random comment about the file size. I have noticed that file size varies greatly based on the kbit size (duh), but also the way the encoder hanldes stereo. There is a great difference between a file encoded with “forced stereo” and “joint stereo.” Of course, this dependeds on the way the original source was recorded.
| Quote (random_id @ Jan. 07 2006,08:46) |
| And one more random comment about the file size. I have noticed that file size varies greatly based on the kbit size (duh), but also the way the encoder hanldes stereo. There is a great difference between a file encoded with "forced stereo" and "joint stereo." Of course, this dependeds on the way the original source was recorded. |
This is true but only if you're using VBR (variable bit rate).
If you're using CBR (constant bit rate), you specify the bit rate and only other thing that affects the file size is the duration. However, things like joint stereo can affect the quality. For material with a lot of center-channel stuff -- like lots of music, frankly -- joint stereo increases the quality with CBR. Likewise, it reduces the file size with VBR. You would not want to use it on songs where left & right channels are very different, like some old Beatles mixes.