I was having trouble posting a reply in another thread, and seeing how this is a different subject than i originally started over there, it is fitting to start an entirely new thread.

I'm sure Lord Of The Rings will find this thread, he/she seems fairly active in these forums.

The discussion regards MP3 encoding to be inferior to lossless formats, and i am starting to agree. Last night i was playing with some Windows Media Player 10 features such as Quiet Mode, Auto Volume Leveling, and most importantly, SRS WOW effects.

I won't go into details about each one, as i'm sure they explain themselves especially to anyone familiar with WMP.

First, know that I record music as a small-time hobby and a big-time dream. This affords me the rare glimpse into behind the scenes problems with recording, producing, and mastering music to perfection. It is not an easy thing to achieve, hence the high dollar value nature of the business.

Usually I mic a person wearing headphones, and depending on certain settings and situations the mic will pick up the headphones and other ambient room noise like the computer and other equipment (my fault for not having a soundproof room). To eliminate these noises I run Noise Reduction over the track. If it is not done perfectly, there is a noise called "burble" introduced, which is usually inaudible except at louder volumes. The point is, there is a strange noise there that interferes. For an example on this sound, try listening to Launch Cast Radio from Yahoo! on a free account, which is by default broadcast in "medium quality." If you are listening to a track that you have heard on the radio or off the CD then you will know the extra noise that I'm talking about.

Back to last nights tweeking experiment. SRS is probably the major key to bringing out the "burble" noise in many of 5000 MP3/WMA tracks I have ripped onto my computer at 128bit compression. So I feel the simple fact is 128bit compression is not equivelant to CD quality. If it were, then why would WMP have a mathematically lossless format of 470 - 940kBps??

I am at this very moment ripping a CD into Lossless 470-940kBps, and it is taking very much longer, first. Second, this format has a file size of 27.8Megs for 4:49 minutes as opposed to 4.44Megs at 128kBps and 4:50 minutes.

The benefits for having the lesser quality are first the medium users wish to play their tracks, that depending on their usage poor quality may go unnoticed. The second benefit is sharing, since smaller files transfer faster. But, since patience is a virtue... well you know what i'm going to say.

The other thing to worry about is harddrive space. I have 250 Gigs of storage, and with everything in 128bit i have hardly dented my quota. I could, I think, store 1 million tracks of music on this disk at 128bit, and that seems beyond my ability (). On the other hand, not everyone has such massive storage space, or a DVD drive to back things up on. 5000 tracks fit on 3 DVDs (4 gig capacity), or 15+ CDs (700 meg capacity), take your pick.

If i were not the type concerned with other people, i would gladly rip CDs at the highest and best quality possible, and to hell with you and your patience. Yet I find convenience in lower quality and smaller files.

But as another experiement I think I will re-rip some CD's at the greater file size/quality and see how it goes with people downloading them. Don't most people burn CD's immediately after they get all the tracks then delete them off their computer? If that be the case then there should be a swelling of uploads on my part...

Peace.