SONG: Netsky - Detonate

Converted from FLAC to MP3 320 CBR with both encoders.

Results:



dBpoweramp Music Converter:

Picture

Size 8.81MB.

http://www.dropbox.com/s/9elnmgs0k2oiwzr/dBPoweramp.mp3


NCH Switch Sound File Converter:

Picture

http://www.dropbox.com/s/wtdpte2ltt2g470/NCH.mp3

Size 8.80MB

Based on the pictures it would seem NCH is better would it not?

 

Sorry if audio doesn't go. Im struggling to get it to stream from my dropbox

 

It's only about how you set up the bandpass filter. I presume both programs use lame encoder. You should be able to set both steepness and frequency (can't remember the command line option, but it's in the documentation).

I was able to achieve best quality using super-old lame-enc.dll from Aug-2000 - new versions have deprecated "Do Not Filter Spectum", so they always apply some filtering - not in case of this dll.
The result is almost like lossless, no artefacts visible on spectrum at all. *yes*

 

dBPoweramp uses LAME 3.99r and the NCH one uses LAME3.82U which i know nothing about that stuff. What i don't get is how the second one (NCH) looks almost lossless but is 24Mb less then the flac and just smaller then the dBpoweramp one?

P.S. They were both with mp3 cbr 320, i know nothing about setting up a bandpass filter etc. Thanks for the reply

 

To properly answer your question - that's hard to say.
It might look OK on the spectrum, but on the audible domain you may experience phasing or stereo image compression.
There are many things going on with the encoding process - also how you set the Stereo parameter -
"Stereo" always keeps stereo image intact
"Joint Stereo" lightly compresses stereo image to preserve maximum frequency response, but it might be noticeable on high volumes
"Dual Channel" processes both channels independently - each one has half the bitrate

In most situations Joint Stereo is OK, but tracks with wide stereo would rather benefit from Stereo. Dual Channel is not advisable to use on music sources. *yes*


Needless to say, OGG Vorbis succeeds MP3s in every way imaginable apart from compatibility. 500kbps OGG is just like lossless. Also OGG is open-source

 

audio doesn't Work

 

I thought you can swap In / out different LAME versions of your choice, with whatever App you use?
Also can you point different Apps to a same LAMEenc ?

By the way - Foobar2000 does FLAC > MP3 conversion too.

MrAnonymous:
Wwhy do you want to convert your FLAC to MP3?
To reduce file size storage?

Andrew:
I agree about the 'Stereo' setting - makes a big difference to my ears, how wide the 2 channels are.

Andrew:
Is there any advantage to use the latest versions LAMEenc compared to the one (Aug-2000) you mention ?
What is the LAME version of Aug-2000?

 

Sure, older versions of LAME may look better on the FFT, but you may hear artefacts. Any bandcut past 20k is probably inaudiable. And 192kps Mp3 should be mostly transparent (which has a lower bandpass). There's also AAC.

 

No im still going to keep all my FLAC albums but i need to convert them down for my ipod and that cant read FLAC.

Maybe with coding?,under advance it says "Additional CLI" and then a place to enter commands. I cant see another way to do it.

Yea i know i tried to stream it from dropbox but cant get it to go. Do you know any other sites i can stream it from? as i cant upload due to copyright and i think it would be breaking AudioSex rules?.

Sorry if i misunderstood you but were you meaning you cant tell the difference between 192 and 320? I think i can but who knows i might not be able to on crappy headphones on a ipod.

Huh didn't think of that..

 

Quote:
"No im still going to keep all my FLAC albums but i need to convert them down for my ipod and that cant read FLAC"
- There's several apps for iDevices which can play FLAC. Did you consider an alternative media player for audio?


Quote:
"I thought you can swap In / out different LAME versions of your choice, with whatever App you use?"
"Maybe with coding?,under advance it says "Additional CLI" and then a place to enter commands. I cant see another way to do it"
- A few encoder apps I tried did not have LAME built in. You had to download it separately, and tell the encoder app where LEMEenc.dll is located. So it's semi-modular ie. independent of which version of LAME you want to use.

 

Dont judge sound using pictures...