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[nathanchavez]

I am relatively inexperienced when it come to audio formats and the pros and cons of each.  I have an mp3pro collection (of around 1800) encoded at 80.  I have read many posts here by people who like and use Ogg Vorbis.  Is there any difference in terms of sound quality and size of a file encoded in mp3pro vs one encoded with ogg vorbis.

Would it be benificial for me to convert my library to ogg.  Size isn't really a problem  on my pc but I just bought a Neuros mp3 handheld and I want to be able to store as many songs as I can.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[GHammer]

The quick answer is:

Does your portable player support Vorbis (OGG) files?

Do not simply convert your existing MP3Pro files into any other format. You will have very poor sounding files if you do. That is called transcoding and should be avoided.

If you want to experiment with other formats, rip from the original CD again into the format you want to try out. Then you will have a useful comparison.

[enigman]

I'd go with a lossless format, such as APE for storage on the PC, and then convert to MP3 for the handheld player.  From what I've read, the latest presets in LAME are pretty impressive - you might get slightly better quality with MP3Pro or Ogg, but you lose bigtime in terms of compatibility.  There are a bunch of sites with direct sample comparisons of different audio compression schemes, so you can listen and decide for yourself.  There's no foolproof "technical" way to measure one compression format against another, since what you're measuring is always how "good" a particular compression algorithm sounds, so you'll really just have to trust your ears.  Hydrogenaudio.com has some interesting posts though, that might be worth reading.

MP3Pro is also commercial software, so there are plenty of good reasons to stick with a more open standard such as Ogg or regular MP3
(see this thread for a quick overview: http://www.cd-rw.org/news/archive/2958.cfm)

Whatever you do, don't reconvert your library to another lossy format unless you absolutely have to.  Lossy -> Lossy = Even more lossy.


--Tim

[nathanchavez]

I just bought the Neuros handhelp it supports Ogg.  I was just wondering if it would be worth the conversion

[GHammer]

I just bought the Neuros handhelp it supports Ogg.  I was just wondering if it would be worth the conversion

Probably not. You may want to try a few selections with ogg and see how you like the sound, see if the size difference makes it worth the effort.

I have the disk space available so now I rip into APE (Monkey's Audio) format and create a cue file for the CD. Now I have the original sound on my system and I can create any other format I need when I want.

I also use the APE fiels for listening day to day on the computer. To do that, I create APL (link) files from the cue file. That simply creates files that allow me to listen to an individual selection instead of the entire CD.

So far this requires using EAC for ripping and the standalone verions of APE for the MakeAPL program it comes with. MC so far does not create cue files, and I don't think it supports playback from the cue file either.

Long explaination, eh? Feel free to ask questions, lots of us have went down the same path.

[Sauzee]

I would go with ogg for new rips but it isn't worth converting your existing files.

[nathanchavez]

I tried converting a single album and all the files were 1/2 the size of the original and everything sounded like the chimpmunks.  Don't realyy know what I did wrong.

[GHammer]

I tried converting a single album and all the files were 1/2 the size of the original and everything sounded like the chimpmunks.  Don't realyy know what I did wrong.

Neither do we. What settings did you use? Do you mean the pitch was made very high or the speed was very fast? Or both?

Half the size of what original? Original WAV file?

[xen-uno]

Chipmunks?

The reason is that the source sample rate didn't match the encoder sample rate. For instance, if the source is 22kHz and the encoder defaults to 44.1kHz, then the encoded file will playback at 2x and track length will be 1/2 original...with Alvin taking the lead. Why Alvin? Not sure...IMO, Simon had the smoothest voice that could span like 5 octaves...he should have been lead vocalist. He was also the main creative force behind the band. Could it have been his tall lanky frame and the glasses that kept him out of the top spot? I guess we'll never know.

10^-27

[LonWar]

I tried converting a single album and all the files were 1/2 the size of the original and everything sounded like the chimpmunks.  Don't realyy know what I did wrong.

Do your other files sound ok?