Music Compression and Quality

[SkankinMonkey]

Originally posted by Pearl Jammzz@Mon, 2005-01-31 @ 10:27 PM

So no loss/gain in quality? Just lower file size?

[post=128832]Quoted post[/post]​

It actually ends up being a bit larger and higher quality.

 

[Parn]

If you are comparing with an equivalent quality CBR MP3, a VBR MP3 is smaller.

If you're comparing alt-preset-standard VBR MP3s to a 192 kbps CBR MP3, file size can go either way, but the VBR MP3 will always sound better. Some of mine average as low as 168 kbps while others average as high as 238 kbps with alt-preset-standard. It just depends on the song.

 

[Borisz]

Originally posted by SkankinMonkey@Mon, 2005-01-31 @ 09:58 PM

This is not true and you have not based this on any tests. I have seen tests comparing, and I have done tests myself with 300 dollar sennheiser headphones. Ogg retains its higher fidelity at higher bitrates, until the point that you can't tell the difference between the compressed and uncompressed audio.

[post=128824]Quoted post[/post]​

I have based this on my own experience and on the developers point of view at Hydrogenaudio. Ogg is good, bot not that good as people make it out to be. In fact, as you go higher with quality, ogg will use more and more bitrate, at max quality an MP3 roughly sounds the same as an Ogg - while the MP3 is "only" 320k, the Ogg files can hit 500k in some cases. I've managed to spot difference between q10 vorbis, 320k mp3, and the original in the past, more then one times, so believe me when I tell that Ogg loses its high edge as the bitrate goes higher.

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

hmmm, gunna have a go at VBR, On the quality part of the encoding tab in CDex(what I use to rip) it has selection of quality. VBR 9 = highest or VBR 0 = highest?

 

[ExCyber]

Mostly a nitpick, but Ogg is a container format. The audio codec usually used with it is called Vorbis (this is important because Ogg also supports FLAC and Speex, which have completely different characteristics).

 

[racketboy]

Like I said before, I don't care if OGG is slightly "better" (sound-wise).

Compatablity should be a major concern, considering this ins't an archive for one person.

192kbps LAME MP3 should be a no-brainer

 

[Curtis]

Not if your goal is to minimise bandwidth utilisation and maximise quality. Compatibility is only one part of the equation.

 

[mal]

192kbps mp3 kthxbye

 

[Borisz]

Originally posted by Pearl Jammzz@Tue, 2005-02-01 @ 05:56 PM

hmmm, gunna have a go at VBR, On the quality part of the encoding tab in CDex(what I use to rip) it has selection of quality. VBR 9 = highest or VBR 0 = highest?

[post=128861]Quoted post[/post]​

Just use alt preset standard instead of messing with the switches. the presets are precompiled to give you the best possible quality, using VBR 0 and such will only mess with it, and no other set of commands can get results as good as the alt presets. Someone already posted the guide on how to set up Exact Audio Copy to do rips with LAME, and I have a version of it on my site too.

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

well it has an option so I have to choose one :-\.

 

[Alexvrb]

Make up your minds, ladies. I ripped all 4 Grandia OST discs with EAC. I encoded them to 192 kbit ABR Ogg Vorbis (it stays remarkably close to 192kbit on average). But I should still have the masters on my HD. So if you want ABR MP3, or something else like AAC in either .aac or .m4a containers... let me know.

That reminds me... Skank, did you ever get to look at those scans? Were they legible? There's a couple of song names that I've seen different translations of, different enough to bother me.

 

[Borisz]

Originally posted by Pearl Jammzz@Thu, 2005-02-03 @ 11:08 PM

well it has an option so I have to choose one :-\.

[post=129004]Quoted post[/post]​

Use External Encoder, set the path to your LAME.exe, and use the parameter string "%1 %2 --alt-preset standard". I believe thats how it works in CDex.

Alex: Lame 3.90.3 alt preset standard please.

 

[Alexvrb]

I appreciate the input, Boris, but I've gotta wait for da boss too. He's the one hosting it, and we're gonna try and keep everything standard I guess. Except where it would require transcoding (if we can't re-encode from masters), in which case we MUST leave it as-is.

 

[Drenholm]

Everyone seems to be saying LAME 3.90.3 at --alt-preset-standard - that seems like quite a good option here?

I would recommend Vorbis 1.1 at -q 6, but that's not widely supported enough!

One day, when everyone has broadband and server space is a hell of a lot cheaper, you can put up lossless files!

 

[Borisz]

Well, if you use Vorbis, at least make sure you use the aoTuV version. I found it to be a lot better then the original Xiph.orgs version.

 

[Drenholm]

LAME 3.90.3 at --alt-preset standard is actually pretty damn good! My (finally) upcoming NiGHTS Into Dreams... tracks will be in this format.

 

[s8n]

Musepack MPC .......... --quality 9.00 --xlevel

 

[Borisz]

Originally posted by s8n@Fri, 2005-02-11 @ 11:32 PM

Musepack MPC .......... --quality 9.00 --xlevel

[post=129540]Quoted post[/post]​

the newest version of the encoder, 1.15t has the xlevel switch built-in, so its unneeded.

 

[emazur]

I'Ve found the best best lossy audio codec (at least for low bitrates).

It's mp4 encoded with AAC plus. Good quality even at 24 kbps stereo, unbelievable (such low bitrates are great for pda or other portable music players where space is a concern. That's why I started researching this topic in the first place). See my page for details and samples:

ogg vs mp4l

 

[Drenholm]

For anyone who may be interested, Hydrogenaudio's recommended LAME version is now 3.97 beta 1. Tests found that it produces equal or higher quality for the majority of test samples (not including exceptional cases).