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Quick question about ripping CDs

DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
edited October 2009 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
Ok I need to reopen this since I have a related question.

Ok so I'm updating some of my music to higher quality to replace the ones I've had since 8GB HDDs were the norm. But some of the songs I rip or get off ITunes that are 320KBps are equal or smaller in file size to the ones I'm replacing at 128-192 KBps. That's not right, right? Or is compression just a lot better?

These are MP3s btw.

DarkWarrior on

Posts

  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited September 2009
    Bump for Update.

    DarkWarrior on
  • ButtcleftButtcleft Registered User regular
    edited September 2009
    The ones you are buying are probably variable bit rate, Meaning they are 320kbs bitrate, but where it can cut the bitrate down it does without affecting quality. Alot of Amazon MP3 downloads are like this too.

    Buttcleft on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited September 2009
    So a 320KBps file being the same size or smaller than a 192 file is possible but probably not worse in quality?

    DarkWarrior on
  • CokebotleCokebotle 穴掘りの 電車内Registered User regular
    edited September 2009
    DarkWarrior wrote: »
    So a 320KBps file being the same size or smaller than a 192 file is possible but probably not worse in quality?

    Basically. In a nutshell, Variable BitRate encoding uses more data when there's a lot going on in the music, and less when there isn't. You get a really nice copy with a lower filesize.

    I'm pretty sure that's right, at least.

    Cokebotle on
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  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited September 2009
    Great, thanks guys.

    DarkWarrior on
  • DaedalusDaedalus Registered User regular
    edited September 2009
    Honestly, if you've got the space and you're reripping anyway, rip it to a lossless format so you never need to again.

    Daedalus on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited September 2009
    Im not sure if something like FLAC would work on my MP3 player.

    DarkWarrior on
  • DírhaelDírhael NorwayRegistered User regular
    edited September 2009
    Just wanted to note that nothing you rip or purchase in iTunes will maintain a perfectly constant bitrate, no matter what settings you use. iTunes just doesn't work that way, despite what the settings dialogue may lead you to believe. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

    A true 320 Kbps track will always maintain that bitrate, no matter how simple or complex the music is, and will always have a 100% predictable file size. Thus, a 4 minute track will always be 9600 KB, excluding tags/container overhead, no matter if the format used is AAC, MP3, OGG or something else.

    Dírhael on
  • DaedalusDaedalus Registered User regular
    edited September 2009
    DarkWarrior wrote: »
    Im not sure if something like FLAC would work on my MP3 player.

    ALAC will work on the iPod.

    Daedalus on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited September 2009
    Dírhael wrote: »
    Just wanted to note that nothing you rip or purchase in iTunes will maintain a perfectly constant bitrate, no matter what settings you use. iTunes just doesn't work that way, despite what the settings dialogue may lead you to believe. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

    A true 320 Kbps track will always maintain that bitrate, no matter how simple or complex the music is, and will always have a 100% predictable file size. Thus, a 4 minute track will always be 9600 KB, excluding tags/container overhead, no matter if the format used is AAC, MP3, OGG or something else.

    Well this is what I figured, I'd expect a 320 file to be at least 2MB per minute of music.
    Daedalus wrote: »
    DarkWarrior wrote: »
    Im not sure if something like FLAC would work on my MP3 player.

    ALAC will work on the iPod.


    I'm gonna experiment with this but very little music of mine is ripped out of like 1600 songs and thus I dont have the original source to produce a lossless copy.

    DarkWarrior on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited October 2009
    So a follow up. With the bought 320 songs I can notice the volume audibly changing throughout the song. I might just be mishearing but it seems to happen in more than one song while on headphones.

    Is this something that might happen with a VBR song? Quality is dipped a bit at certain parts and it sounds different for it? I've tried it without headphones and while its less obvious it does seem to remain while on a 5.1 setup.

    DarkWarrior on
  • SeeksSeeks Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    I'm not an expert, but I'm going to assume it's the fact that higher-quality rips have more and better defined "peaks and valleys," or whatever you want to call them. They aren't as normalized.

    It's for this reason that for me and my shitty hearing, sometimes a 128 kbps rip is preferable to a 320.

    Seeks on
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  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited October 2009
    Well I went with 320 because it seemed to avoid the degradation that comes at higher volumes. The volume seems to be different, like if I play them at work, 320 songs will play while 128 tend to be a little quieter so if you turn it up for them you'll then get a very loud blast of 320 song.

    DarkWarrior on
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