Re: MD: Is 128kbps MP3 bad? MD has loadsa life yet!
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thing is I have been using Napster lately, to download mp3 music most of which has been at 128kbps, and to be honest it is to my ears quite acceptable, provided it was recorded properly. Having just downloaded and listened to Kate Bush Wutheing Heights, there were definite probs with the high freq stuff, sorta muffled artifacts added to them but overall, in any listening environment other than my home I doubt they would be detectable. With 90% of the population that doesn't even hear the difference between an FM broadcast and a CD, I bet that's not a big problem. No way is solid-state media gonna replace MD in the forseeable future unless some breakthrough happens, and I think that is rather unlikely. I mean, they said 10 years back disks as storage would be dead by now, too slow, no real improvements on current speed and capacity likely, blah blah blah. Just look at hard drives now- 30gig drives for about UKP110/US$180 with seek speeds of under 10mS, the heads can find the data in under a hundredth of a second- that is one helluva engineering feat! Thanks to our good friends at iNtel, AMD, they find each year a marvoulus sollution that allows us to run software faster. Thanks to our good friends at Micro$oft, Corel, Lotus etc, they use that sollution to add more features to our beloved software. It seems that software tends to follow the same principles as CPUs. It's complixity doubles each two years. The reponse to this demand is bigger harddrives. If the software didn't grow this fast, I bet we had enough... (remember, 20 years ago, a 20MB (mega-bytes) harddisk was uge!) How has solid-state storage progressed? The answer is not very much. It slowly comes down in price. Very slowly. Very slowly indeed! The cost of HDDs seems to be tumbling now, capacities are rocketing and prices tumbling, whereas increased use/demand for solid-state media is holding their prices high. Well, it follows the trend of memory... It doubles in capacity each two years. All we need is for the next generation of portable MD to have a PC interface of some type, and the ability to playback mp3 files and the current breed of mp3 players will be as dead as the do-do. Surely the MP3 decoder is pretty straightforward and could be included in parallel with the ATRAC codec? Yep... Can't add anything more... Ralph - where have I been. -- === Ralph SmeetsFunctional Verification Centre Of Competence - CMG Voice: (+33) (0)4 76 58 44 46 STMicroelectronics Fax:(+33) (0)4 76 58 40 11 5, chem de la Dhuy Mobile: (+33) (0)6 82 66 62 70 38240 MEYLAN E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] FRANCE === "For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the powers of our imagination: We learned to talk." -- Stephen Hawking, later used by Pink Floyd -- === - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Is 128kbps MP3 bad? MD has loadsa life yet!
Oh, I did realize that there would be some distortion, but I find it varies from song to song. Some songs while be perfect, others will be terrible. The reason I putting my mp3s to to MD is because I *don't* have a CD burner, otherwise I would just put everything to CD and only MD the stuff I like when I get an MD changer for my car. -- NP: Brett Tyre [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.geocities.com/brett_tyre London Drugs, Comp. Dept. "There's too much booty in the pants." -Soundmaster T - Original Message - From: "las" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2000 9:14 PM Subject: Re: MD: Is 128kbps MP3 bad? MD has loadsa life yet! Brett, you can't rely on anything in between the mp3 and the mini disc. Even the best sound card with a digital output might still create some distortion. Right now the best way I see to make good copies of Mds from mp3 files is to convert them to wave files and transfer them to CD then to MD. Or to have a player like the Apex DVD player that will read mp3 files and has a digital output (unfortunately not optical on that model-that's why I ordered a coaxial to digital converter from Nate White, hint, hint-Nate, I still didn't receive it yet). Larry Brett Tyre wrote: - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Is 128kbps MP3 bad? MD has loadsa life yet!
I've found that mp3s of songs with vocals sometimes do not transfer over to MiniDisc well (analog), especially 128k files. Although it is partially dependant on the EQ settings on my home stereo, even if I drop the bass down and boost other parts up, with some songs the vocals are kind of muddled and hard to hear amongst the music. On other songs at 128, some of the higher stuff is muffled, or "combed" or really sharp. Fortunately, I record a lot of instrumentals which seem to pick up better than vocals. No complaints on a digital CD copy yet. -- NP: Brett Tyre [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.geocities.com/brett_tyre London Drugs, Comp. Dept. "There's too much booty in the pants." -Soundmaster T - Original Message - From: "PrinceGaz" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, July 14, 2000 8:19 PM Subject: MD: Is 128kbps MP3 bad? MD has loadsa life yet! Thing is I have been using Napster lately, to download mp3 music most of which has been at 128kbps, and to be honest it is to my ears quite acceptable, provided it was recorded properly. Having just downloaded and listened to Kate Bush Wutheing Heights, there were definite probs with the high freq stuff, sorta muffled artifacts added to them but overall, in any listening environment other than my home I doubt they would be detectable. Cheers, Gareth Bell - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Is 128kbps MP3 bad? MD has loadsa life yet!
=== = NB: Over 50% of this message is QUOTED, please = = be more selective when quoting text = === Brett, you can't rely on anything in between the mp3 and the mini disc. Even the best sound card with a digital output might still create some distortion. Right now the best way I see to make good copies of Mds from mp3 files is to convert them to wave files and transfer them to CD then to MD. Or to have a player like the Apex DVD player that will read mp3 files and has a digital output (unfortunately not optical on that model-that's why I ordered a coaxial to digital converter from Nate White, hint, hint-Nate, I still didn't receive it yet). If you are willing to spend $180.00 I really think that they DVD/ mp3 (or they also have portable CD/mp3 player but I don't know if the models they have out yet have a digital output) is the best way to transfer mp3s to MD. Larry Brett Tyre wrote: I've found that mp3s of songs with vocals sometimes do not transfer over to MiniDisc well (analog), especially 128k files. Although it is partially dependant on the EQ settings on my home stereo, even if I drop the bass down and boost other parts up, with some songs the vocals are kind of muddled and hard to hear amongst the music. On other songs at 128, some of the higher stuff is muffled, or "combed" or really sharp. Fortunately, I record a lot of instrumentals which seem to pick up better than vocals. No complaints on a digital CD copy yet. -- NP: Brett Tyre [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.geocities.com/brett_tyre London Drugs, Comp. Dept. "There's too much booty in the pants." -Soundmaster T - Original Message - From: "PrinceGaz" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, July 14, 2000 8:19 PM Subject: MD: Is 128kbps MP3 bad? MD has loadsa life yet! Thing is I have been using Napster lately, to download mp3 music most of which has been at 128kbps, and to be honest it is to my ears quite acceptable, provided it was recorded properly. Having just downloaded and listened to Kate Bush Wutheing Heights, there were definite probs with the high freq stuff, sorta muffled artifacts added to them but overall, in any listening environment other than my home I doubt they would be detectable. Cheers, Gareth Bell - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Is 128kbps MP3 bad? MD has loadsa life yet!
I've found that mp3s of songs with vocals sometimes do not transfer over to MiniDisc well (analog), especially 128k files ... at 128, some of the higher stuff is muffled, or "combed" or really sharp. I've noticed some minor problems with 128k MP3, sometimes sort of a "hard" sounding high end, but 99% of the problems with MP3s are with the source material (azimuth error on analog source tape, encoding from cheap computer sound card, etc). Some of the stuff I've picked up from MP3.com is fairly well encoded and very enjoyable to listen to. Mind you, *no* 128k file has ever sounded as good as a well made CD or even an MD, if care is taken when encoding, they can sound quite good. For transfer to MD, I've used an optical connection from the computer. I use CoolEdit2000 (Fraunhofer licensee) to decode the MP3 and play it back. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Is 128kbps MP3 bad? MD has loadsa life yet!
Okay guys, I know we are all md freaks (or at least enthusiasts) but please don't take this post the wrong way. I know MD encodes at something like 320kbps, using an algorithm at least as good as, and in ATRAC 4 and later probably better than even the best mp3 coder (Fraunhoffer?). Actually given Sony could throw an awful lot more man-power behind any project than an internet thingy, I bet ATRAC 3 is on a par with the best MP3 encoder at the same very- high (for MP3) bit-rate. Thing is I have been using Napster lately, to download mp3 music most of which has been at 128kbps, and to be honest it is to my ears quite acceptable, provided it was recorded properly. Having just downloaded and listened to Kate Bush Wutheing Heights, there were definite probs with the high freq stuff, sorta muffled artifacts added to them but overall, in any listening environment other than my home I doubt they would be detectable. No way is solid-state media gonna replace MD in the forseeable future unless some breakthrough happens, and I think that is rather unlikely. I mean, they said 10 years back disks as storage would be dead by now, too slow, no real improvements on current speed and capacity likely, blah blah blah. Just look at hard drives now- 30gig drives for about UKP110/US$180 with seek speeds of under 10mS, the heads can find the data in under a hundredth of a second- that is one helluva engineering feat! How has solid-state storage progressed? The answer is not very much. It slowly comes down in price. Very slowly. Very slowly indeed! The cost of HDDs seems to be tumbling now, capacities are rocketing and prices tumbling, whereas increased use/demand for solid-state media is holding their prices high. I could pop into the local city center (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England) and buy at least ten or more minidiscs from different outlets. It's not an enourmous metropolis, maybe 250k population but I could get disks from: Richer Sounds, Dixons, Virgin Megastore, Fenwicks, HMV, Tandy, Maplin, at least two other independent small hifi chains with shops in the center, and I've probably overlooked shops like Comet, a Co-Op department store which sells almost everything (inc MD) and a few others. Now where would I buy my MP3 players' memory card? With the exception of maybe Dixons, Tandy and Maplins I doubt I could get one, and even then I'd be dubious as to whether they'd have the correct type-- the flash media format battle is far from over I think. My most recent trip into the city showed even the previously expensive places for blank MDs like Dixons have dramatically cut prices, okay not to Richer Sounds sub 1 ukp per disk type level, but a lot better than the old ukp3 or 4. All we need is for the next generation of portable MD to have a PC interface of some type, and the ability to playback mp3 files and the current breed of mp3 players will be as dead as the do-do. Surely the MP3 decoder is pretty straightforward and could be included in parallel with the ATRAC codec? Sorry this email is far longer than I intended it to be, I guess I had a few things I wanted to get off my mind :-) Cheers, ___ ___ | || | | o || o | | | Gareth Bell - [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | | o || o | | | _ _ | | | o | | __ \ _ _ _ / ___| _ | O | | | | |__| )| __)(_)| _ \| __)| _ \ | | _ ( \|__ / | | | o | | ___/ | / | || | | || | | |_| | | | \ |/ _ | / _/ | O | | | | | | | | || | | || |__ | / | |_| || |_| |/ /__ | | | o | |_| |_| |_||_| |_||)|_) \_/|_||| | O | | || | | o || o | | | ICQ: 36892193 http://website.lineone.net/~princegaz/| | | o || o | | |"An it harm none, do what thou wilt"| | | o || o | |___||___| - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
