MP3

[sisterstekland]

why are you always complaining about mp3?
if it encode properly, i don't see the difference

well i think if you get bad sound, you should put some money on your sound system

and for some of you who have mp3 players (like ipod or other), don' tell me you don't convert all your bootlegs on mp3.

[Izzy HaveMercy]

As long as it is a minimum of 192 kbps at 44.100 stereo, I don't care.

Although there is a difference (which you hear very well when playing either an MP3 or a WAV through dedicated monitor speakers), for every-day use I am not that picky. As long as you live up on said standard above...

IZ.

[Izzy HaveMercy]

and for some of you who have mp3 players (like ipod or other), don' tell me you don't convert all your bootlegs on mp3.

Oh, and I don't

Can't see why. I have the bootlegs on CD, I play them in my car or on the home stereo. Can't start converting them all to MP3. Takes me the whole week to do so...

IZ.

[eotunun]

A friend of mine and I once compared files of ogg vorbis an mp3 versions of the same audio track.
The ogg files were smaller, yet sounded better, high frequencies came out clearer.
You are right about the equipment though, a weak audio card and speakers will swallow the difference.

[boudicca]

why are you always complaining about mp3?

I'm not!

[aims]

why are you always complaining about mp3?

Because it's crap.

if it encode properly, i don't see the difference

If you encode properly, you used FLAC and not MP3

well i think if you get bad sound, you should put some money on your sound system

On the contrary, you'll notice the difference most when you put some money into your sound system. All of my bootlegs are MP3s because I don't have infinite harddisk space and tend to listen to them on my dodgy Goodmans speakers. For portable use, I still have a walkman and a pair of mid-end headphones. I also have an MP3 player, which gets used for quick transfer stuff, like if I want to show someone a rough demo at school, but the difference between the two is night and day.

[davedecay]

LAME

http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php

Today, LAME is considered the best MP3 encoder at mid-high bitrates and at VBR, mostly thanks to the dedicated work of its developers and the open source licensing model that allowed the project to tap into engineering resources from all around the world. Both quality and speed improvements are still happening, probably making LAME the only MP3 encoder still being actively developed.

http://lame.sourceforge.net/links.php#Windows

* CDex Ripper & encoder, includes LAME binaries (the Blade compatible dll).
* LameDropXPd OggDrop style drag'n'drop frontend.
* DVDx DVD to VCD/SVCD/AVI(XviD...) one-step converter.
* LAMEX An activex control for LAME, and a GUI. Source code only, includes LAME.
* m3w A live mp3 streamer for the WWW. Works with LAME, icecast, soundcard input.
* out_lame Winamp output plug-in. Create MP3 files directly from Winamp!
* RazorLame The RazorBlade front end now supports LAME.
* winLAME The only *nice* windows UI for LAME, according to the author
* bbc2mp3 a tool for saving BBC "Listen Again" programmes as MP3 files.

on a Mac, you can use iTunes-LAME or Audacity w/the LAME plugin.