MP3 - MPEG-1 Layer III (or MPEG Audio Layer III)
MP3 was introduced as a part of the official MPEG-1 standard in 1992 and until today it is the most successful audio-standard since WAV.
Using MP3-compression PC-users are able to compress an ordinary music-CD to one tenth of it's original size - thus 12 hours of music could be stored on a recordable CD that on the other hand could be played by a MP3-CD-player or an ordinary PC.
The MP3 format is very versatile; it can be hosted on any storage media and can be transferred on demand over the Internet. You use a ripper (www.musimatch.com) to encode MP3 files. These files can be played using a player like Winamp, MusicMatch or Windows Media Player. The MP3 files can also be decoded an used for CD-recording:
The most important principle in MP3 compression is the psychoacoustic selection of sound signals to cut away. Those signals, we are unable to hear are removed. These include weaker sounds that are present but are not heard because they are drowned out (masked) by louder instruments/sounds.
Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is different from these other formats because it is completely free, open, and unpatented.
What do all the names mean?
Ogg
Ogg is the name of Xiph.org's container format for audio, video, and metadata.
Vorbis
Vorbis is the name of a specific audio compression scheme that's designed to be contained in Ogg. Note that other formats are capable of being embedded in Ogg such as FLAC and Speex.
WMA - Windows Media Audio Windows Media Audio is the Microsoft's version of MP3 format. Most players support this sound file.
Microsoft promises with this version almost CD-quality with just a third of the source-file's size.
Above all WMA offers the advantage that copyright-protected songs cannot be published any further (Digital Rights Management). Thats not the only reason why many music- and movie-corporations meanwhile decided in favour of WMA instead of MP3. Like MP3 WMA is almost predestined for the internet by offering streaming capabilities (see MP3 for details) both with WMA and WMV (Windows Media Video).
Why do I need MP3 or WMA or OGG ? With MP3, you can compress audio data to 1/10th of its original size with no or minimal loss in sound quality. This means that you can fit 15 audio CD's into just 1 CD. What does this mean? Downloads take half as long. PCs and portable devices can store twice as much music with the same amount of memory. For device manufacturers, where memory tends to be the most expensive part, this means significant cost savings that can be passed along to consumers.
One of the key parameters in your MP3 encoding software you must get to know intimately if you want to flexibly produce audio for the web is known as the "bit rate."
When your MP3 software encodes audio, it uses an algorithm to analyze a soundfile, isolate its distinguishing characteristics, and build a reasonable likeness to the original in the form of a smaller file. Your MP3 player then decodes this file and reproduces the sound of the original.
The bit rate tells you how fast audio data is sent from the storage medium (where your file resides) to the decoder. Another way to put it: bit rate is the average number of bits consumed by one second of audio. Bit rate is expressed in terms of Kbps, or kilobits per second (that's 1000 bits per second). The most common bit rate for MP3 audio is 128kbps, or 128,000 bits of audio data per second. A file encoded at 128 kbps is generally considered CD quality and is safe to use as a benchmark rate.
Logically, the higher the bit rate used when encoding mp3s (that is, the more bits per second) the more audio data per second is coming down the pipe. In digital audio, more means better - which means audio of higher fidelity, closer to the original sound. If your MP3's are going to be streaming over a live connection, keep in mind that higher bit rates require faster connections; otherwise, the sound file is going to "break up" in transit because you don't have enough bandwidth.
How many MP3 tunes I can get into my player?
| Transmission rate (Kbps) | Mode | Audio Quality | File size / per minute | Notes |
|---|
| WAV | Stereo | CD Quality | 10MB | If the wave wav file was sampled at 16 bits/44.1kHz, you've got CD quality sound |
| 128 Kbps | Stereo | CD quality | 1MB | The standard "CD quality" bit rate |
| 96 Kbps | Stereo | Near CD quality | 700k | Considered "near CD quality" |
| 64 Kbps | Stereo | Near FM quality | 400K | About the same quality as an FM radio station |
| 24 Kbps | Stereo | Boom box FM quality | 150K | 5.5 kHz |
| MP3 Player Size. | Recorded Bit Rate. | No of CD's. |
|---|
| 512MB | 128 | 10 |
| 256MB | 128 | 6 |
| 128MB | 128 | 3 |
Note : All values are given above are an approximate.
Flash Memory or Hard Disk? Both Flash and Hard disk have their advantages and disadvantages.
Most of the Hard Disk players come with higher capacity memory but this comes at a price both in size and life of the product.
Hard disk players tend to be a lot more bulky and heavier. Not to mention the pre- built battery they contain can be an annoyance with the added expense if the battery life deteriorates
Flash players are very small and hardly weight anything (a bit more than a bag of crisps). There are a lot of good players out in the market that provide a very stylish look and identify the problems with Hard Disk players.
The only draw back with flash players is the size of memory. However with the standard battery slots and no specialist software interface needed for PC they are definitely moving things forward.
What is a Flash Based MP3 Player? Flash based MP3 Player: this is the most common kind of MP3 Player. A flash based MP3 player has no moving parts(=longer life!). This means that a flash based MP3 player is normally extremely small, lightweight, but doesn't normally feature more than 1GB of memory.
A flash based MP3 player is also completely skip free and is packed with functions (FM radio, voive recording, direct line encoding, digital clocks, address books and a lot more) Flash based MP3 players are also popular for traveling, commuting. Theses type of players will not weigh down your pocket and are normally extremely stylish.
What is a Hard disk player Hard Drive MP3 Player contain a hard drive which means they do have moving parts, similar to your HD in your computer but much smaller. Hard drive players have up to 60GB of storage space, which means that they can store up to 15,000 songs. This type of MP3 player is normally used to store your entire music collection. Hard Drive MP3 players are typically larger, heavier and more bulky that their flash counterparts. And have the added unisons of built in batteries that will not last long for the demand you require.
Since hard drive based players are heavier, they are normally used for listening to music at home or while traveling.
What do I need to download MP3 tunes from my computer to my player for later playback? All you need is a good Internet connection and legal freeware download applications like www.mp3.com (encoder) or (encoder).
You simply copy(download) the tunes to your pc then transfer the tunes from pc to your music device. You could even download the tunes directly to your player!!
Try playing around with your player settings to see which process you like best.
If you're still having trouble downloading MP3s we will be happy to answer any of your questions (href="contact us " target="_blank">encoder).
What is needed to make MP3
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Uncompressed
CD Music (WAV) |
PC software -- Ripper (encoder)
Converts CD(WAV) to MP3 |
MP3 Player |
From the diagram above, simply stick your CD (WAV) into your PC. Your PC will be running ripper software. Click on rip. Wait a few minutes and you got MP3 songs. Just for your reference check the size of all the created mp3 files compared to your CD wav file.. impressive eh?!
From your PC youre ready to go portable, If you have a flash player simply plug it into your PC ( USB/Fire wire/Bluetooth) and drag and drop your files. Like you would do in a directory of your PC
If you are using hard disk players remember to install the manufactures software and then just follow the instructions.
Enjoy...
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