Cool edit?

[David P. Schwartz]

Jason wrote:

> "David P. Schwartz" wrote:
> > All that said, there's a HUGE debate going on within the audio recording industry about what the next standard recording format should
> > be that will supercede the CD format (44.1 kHz, 16 bits, 2 channels).  Given the incredible "success" of services like Napster that are
> > fueled by people plugging their Walkman into their computer and recording the output direct-to-MP3 format, it's amazing anybody is even
> > concerned!  The fidelity of cassette-to-MP3 is somewhere between AM radio and shortwave radio.  People consider this "state of the
> > art".  Nobody will even notice the difference that 96 kHz, 24 bits, 5.1 surround THX encoding has over this if they think this is about
> > the same as "CD quality"...
>
> Come on... a QUALITY codec like l3enc (Fraunhoffer), run with the -h
> option, does better than FM radio, in my opinion, even at the 128kpbs
> rate. Agreed, however, that most Winblows CD Rip programs sacrifice
> EVERYTHING in return for codec speed, and as a result, the typical
> pirate MP3 file makes anything over 3KHz sound like it was piped thru
> one of those "performance honda exaust systems" ...
>

Actually, I agree with you 100%.  I was referring to a "Walkman" as in a cassette tape device, not a CD player.  And, most of the stuff on
Napster is NOT being encoded with Fraunhoffer's stuff.  (Every time I've tried L3ENC, it says it's expired.  Anyway, it's obsolete.)  Most
folks are using stuff derived from free source code versions of several encoders.

If I recall correctly, a 128-bit encoding gives about a 50-60% reduction over the equivalent WAV file size, which is STILL a large file.
Higher encoding rates yield larger files.  These are difficult to manage over 28.8 or 56k modems.  (I read somewhere that over 50% of Napster
users are not in the USA, and their access is limited to dial-up modems.)

> Personally, I think the next "standard" for released material (DVD
> Audio) ought to be flexible in nature. Variable channels, variable
> sampling rate, and variable bits per track (or even, support for the
> MPEG standards of audio compression). Stick headers in each track.
>
  MP4.

> Ive heard that there is a CD-walkman sized gadget that plays MP3s
> burned onto a CDR. I want it.
>
  Mee too!!!  Actually, I've seen four or five of them on the market.  Unfortunately, they're still in the $200 range.  I'd say in about six
months we'll see them for around $100.  Some chip mfgrs announcements indicate that just about every new portable CD recorder being designed
today will have an MP3 decoder chip built-in, so we'll see 'em on sale for next Xmas.

-David