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Joined: Jul 2007
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I need some suggestions of what is the most popular program to use to convert wave files to the mp3 format that will maintain the highest quality of sound. I ask this because I just finished my first song in PTPA-11, and established an account and uploaded the song on Soundclick.com, but the playback on soundclick sounds pretty bad as compared to the playback of the mp3 file here resident on my comp. And of course really bad compared to my original wave file.
I think maybe the bitrate probably comes into play here, but not being all that comp savvy, I'm really just guessing. If this is true then my question becomes what conversion prog do most of you use to do this
and at what bitrate should be used (the higher the better as I understand it)? I used the converter that's built into powertracks (Merge Audio and DXi Tracks to Compressed File). Is this not a good idea or does everyone use an independent prog of some sort to do this to maximize maintaining the highest quality audio as possible? There must be a way of producing higher quality mp3's as other's songs I have heard on soundclick sound really great and as good as mine sounds here (audio quality) in my wave format.
Again, as always any suggestions and/or help is greatly appreciated.
Larry
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Hi Larry, I think the below link will be of use to you. Powertracks and mp3s Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Quote:
... but the playback on soundclick sounds pretty bad as compared to the playback of the mp3 file here resident on my comp.
If both qre copies of the same identical mp3 file, they should sound identical.
Soundclick wants 16 bit, 44.1Khz mp3 files at 128kbps. If you have used another bitrate, that might be the problem.
The codec used to convert from wav to mp3 file may be the culprit.
i recommend the LAME encoder these days.
Easy enough to get, websearch for the free Audacity audio editing program and download both it and the LAME encoder posted there, follow the installation directions.
Using Audacity to touch up and Master your finished .wav stereo tracks, then also to save as mp3 using the LAME encoder is pretty easy work. Sounds as good as it can at that web streaming bitrate, too.
--Mac
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I've used 'Switch' for quite a while now, and I like it. It will convert into a wide variety of MP3 bit rates, including variable rates. It has worked flawlwssly for me.
My stuff on Soundclick is in the default and locked [ for the free accounts ] rate of 128 kbps, which is less than my preferred rate of 192 kbps. Variable rates are best for quality vs size, but many players cannot play the variabale rate MP3's.
The more complex harmonically the music is, the higher bit rate is needed to capture the nuiances of the recording. At about 320 kbps, even audiofiles have been unable to tell a difference between a CD and an MP3. Those that maintain that they can virtually always fail a blind A/B test. CD's are at 1411 kbps, so there is considerable compression, even at 320 kbps.
There is, as Mac has suggested, a variance in quality among MP3 converters, so you might try a few before you decide on a default one.
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