vB Easy Archive - Question regarding .MP3 bitrates

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Question regarding .MP3 bitrates
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Posted by: OpenWave

Taken from Wikipedia:

Quote:

Audio (MP3)

* 32 kbit/s – MW (AM) quality
* 96 kbit/s – FM quality
* 128–160 kbit/s – Standard Bitrate quality; difference can sometimes be obvious (e.g. bass quality)
* 192 kbit/s – DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) quality.
* 224–320 kbit/s – Near CD quality.

Other audio

* 800 bit/s – minimum necessary for recognizable speech (using special-purpose FS-1015 speech codecs)
* 8 kbit/s – telephone quality (using speech codecs)
* 32-500 kbit/s -- lossy audio as used in Ogg Vorbis
* 500 kbit/s–1 Mbit/s – lossless audio as used in formats such as FLAC, WavPack or Monkey's Audio
* 1411.2 kbit/s – PCM sound format of Compact Disc Digital Audio

When downloading music I try to look for 128kbit/s or 192kbit/s however I sometimes only see bitrates like 181,197,198,201,202,206,209,213,214,216,221,224,233 and 266.

Are these irregular bitrates and will I have trouble playing these should I transfer my library?
And if I wish to convert any bitrate over 192 to a lower one, which software would you recommend.

Posted by: Mango808

Just about any audio editing/converting software will do the job to get them to a standard bitrate. I've seen Audacity mentioned many times to create ringtones, but I haven't tried using it.

I downloaded a free converter from Downloads.com several years ago and still use it to this day whenever I need to convert any of my ringtones to a lower bitrate. It's a simple program you drag and drop the files you need converting and it exports them into any directory you have or create leaving the original intact where you have it. It's no longer available for download though, but I have it uploaded on Rapidshare.

Cheetah Audio Converter

In regards to those irregular bitrate files, I have several on my media/audio devices and haven't had any problems using them. Only on older devices that have a bitrate limitations (i.e. couldn't play higher than 192kbit/s) were where I may have had issues. A simple conversion on all my higher bitrate ones and then transferring them solved that problem.

Most of my audio files I transfer to most of my devices are usually 128kbit/s to 192kbit/s as to conserve space on them and anything higher isn't much difference in quality.

Posted by: OpenWave

Thanks Mango808 for the reply. I just wanted to make sure before I added any of those Mp3 bitrates into my library.
And thanks for the Cheetah Audio Converter, just tried it and works perfectly and is very simple to use. I also agree that anything over 192 is not really noticeable, some may disagree however.

Posted by: chorro

those other bit rates might be that the mp3s were recorded as the variable bit rate option

Posted by: Music Legend

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phantom

Thanks Mango808 for the reply. I just wanted to make sure before I added any of those Mp3 bitrates into my library.
And thanks for the Cheetah Audio Converter, just tried it and works perfectly and is very simple to use. I also agree that anything over 192 is not really noticeable, some may disagree however.

only thing you would really use over 192 for is digital DJ equipment at a club

Posted by: UrbanBounca

iTunes is perfect for converting to a smaller bitrate. I do prefer WMP over it, but iTunes has a few features that I wish WMP had.

Posted by: Scottish Skyedance

I'd go for Winamp
the current version has ogg vorbis support
now I use 192kbps for ogg vorbis, it's nearly impossible to tell difference from CD, or use 256kbps VBR mp3, or 128kbps VBR mp3 for phones

memory card is rather cheap ($30 for 16GB SDHC CL4), bitrate is no longer a concern