Hardware music players (was: Moving files)

[pll at lanminds.com]

In a message dated: Mon, 06 Jan 2003 13:59:20 EST
"Travis Roy" said:

>>
>> In a message dated: Mon, 06 Jan 2003 13:34:22 EST
>> Mark Komarinski said:
>>
>>>I'm not *that* anal about my music.  I just want to hear it.
>>
>> but if you've got a
>> soundboard recording of a live show that's been converted to mp3 from
>> wav, you've lost a lot data in that, and the resultant file sounds
>> like crap compared to the original.
>
>Huh? If you have a live show that's a .wav file and convert it to MP3 you
>lost a lot of data?

Yes. MP3 is a lossy compression format.  Compare that to SHN which is 
lossless.  

>How is going from a high quality .wav file to mp3 any different then CDDA to wav

CDDA is a raw bit-rate formate, wav format adds header information 
for software readers.  wav is basically the raw format with extra 
information added.  MP3 is a (lossy) compression algorithm which 
means that data gets lost during the compression.  To compress to 
mp3, then convert to ogg, you basically have to re-expand to wav.  
But since some information was lost, you don't get exactly what you 
started with.  When you re-compress as ogg (or back to mp3 for that 
matter) you lose more data.  Try it.  Rip an mp3, convert to back to 
wav, then back to mp3.  Compare all the file sizes.

>since most wav files can be same bitrate/freq as a CD?

Yes, the wav file is, the mp3 usually is not.  The bit rate is 
usually lower.  Additionally, the mp3/ogg compression algorithms lose 
data during the compression.

>And I would think somebody recording a live show to edit/burn
>would have it in a high quality format.

It is, it's .wav, then compressed to SHN, which is a lossless 
compression.

>Early rippers and even ones now that work with drives that don't support
>CDDA will record the audio off the CD into wav format and then convert it to MP3.

Yup, there's no argument there.  Converting to mp3 isn't a problem.  
It's the conversion from wav->mp3->ogg or wav->ogg->mp3 that's the 
problem.

Think of it this way.  The high quality media is a cassette tape.  
You have the original.  You don't want to ruin the master by playing 
it too much, so you copy it.  Then a friend wants a copy.  So you 
copy your copy.  Then a friend of his wants a copy, so he copies his 
copy of your copy....

Converting between lossy compression schemes is very much like 
copying analog media.
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
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