(fax) MP3009: Ambient Cookbook II

[Torben Bjerregaard]

Are all the MP3 albums encoded in 320 kpbs CBR ?

While it's a noble cause to be able to say "we encode in the best possible 
bitrate", it's way overkill for most of the FAX albums ever released.
Both Bleep and Boomkat suffers from the same syndrome - more is better.

If you use a good encoder(LAME) and a well tested parameter setup ("-V 2" 
same as the old "--preset standard"), you could probably cram both Cookbooks 
down on one CD without anyone being able to hear the difference.
Instead of using Constant Bit Rate(CBR) you use Variable Bit Rate(VBR) which 
means that the parts that don't need that much information to be encoded, 
are compressed with ie 64 kbps, while other passages are compressed in 320 
kbps or whatever it takes to compress that instance of the tune/sound.

There are a lot of experts at www.hydrogenaudio.org that could tell you a 
lot more about encoding techniques and the joy of using 
OGG/FLAC/obscure-unsupported-but-open-source-scheme  over MP3, but they also 
know a lot about fine tuning MP3 encoding to the point where you are 
basically wasting space encoding in 320 kbps CBR("-b 320" same as the old 
"--preset insane").

Since I already own all the original CDs, I'm not interested in buying the 
MP3 CDs, but I could easily see a market for "Cookbook I+II" on one CD. 
Hell, throw in the recipes and the rest of the liner notes on a PDF file and 
with the added autograph it might start to get interesting.

/torben

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kyle Schrock" <monkeygra at gmail.com>
To: "faxlist" <faxlist at 2350.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 8:48 PM
Subject: Re: Re[2]: (fax) MP3009: Ambient Cookbook II


> putting both Cookbooks on one disc would mean that they would have to
> compress the files a lot more, most likely compromising sound quality.
> they try to have the MP3s at as high of quality possible, and so far
> the only discs to have *every* track at 320k have been
> Psychonavigation, Jet Chamber, and Air. Cookbook 2, with only 4 discs,
> is still longer than both of those series at more than 5 hours, which
> at highest quality will just barely fit on one CD.
>
> -- 
>
>       -schrock-
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