when an mp3 has a weird bitrate what does it mean?

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when my slsk search pulls up files that have a bit rate of, say 213 VBR, what does that mean?

― frankE (frankE), Monday, 26 July 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

should i even care?

― frankE (frankE), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

VBR is "variable bit rate", so it means the bit rate is higher for the parts of the music that require it, and lower for others that don't.

So if there's an album you want to download from someone, and the details on each track say VBR, followed by a different number for each, it just means that whoever ripped it did so with a VBR, not that they messed it up and ripped each track differently.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

There was recently a thread discussing this stuff, read on from Mikhail's comments here: How are Hi-Fi Magazines Dealing with MP3s?

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

awesome. thanks!

― frankE (frankE), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't make a habit of ripping things to VBR, because those files sometimes decompress to .wav in an unpredictable manner.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

i only rip with LAME VBR alt-preset standard

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

bullshit (xpost)

― Whiskeytown Littlecock (ex machina), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

unfortunately, windows is unable to deal with vbr, leading the bit rate to appear as some multiple of the real thing and the duration to appear as some portion of the real thing in the explorer window. why is this so hard to fix?

xp why would you decompress anyway?

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

bullshit (xpost)
-- Whiskeytown Littlecock (░▒▓█▌...), July 26th, 2004 4:31 PM. (ex machina) (link)

Okay, whatevs. But I've had cds be fucked when processing a bunch of 192s and then going to a VBR.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

xp why would you decompress anyway?

Just the automatic decompression that happens when burning a regular (non-data) cd.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I love it when VBR advocates get mad.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I'M FIRED UP

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

i guess in the long run, ignorance is bliss? some people don't even know what a bit rate is to begin with.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never noticed a severe filesize difference and definitely no quality difference between filed ripped VBR and files ripped 192. I think VBR advocates just like to watch the bitrate flicker around when a song is playing.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

you are wrong!

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean, there is tons of research on the lame algorithm which proves you wrong.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

well, there is that. i wish it flickered in smaller increments than 32 too

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i bet all the people complaining that VBR doesn't work have this installed

http://www.infopackets.com/graphics/gator.gif

― Whiskeytown Littlecock (ex machina), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.earcom.com/news/tech/pbt012803/images/ads_full.gif

― Whiskeytown Littlecock (ex machina), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

roffle!

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

My comp is Gator-free! And I rip everything using LAME...I just use the CBR 192 setting.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.thaifast.com/Microsoft_Books/images/608555f.jpg

DO YOU HAVE THIS

― Whiskeytown Littlecock (ex machina), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Nope. It wouldn't do me any good since I run XP Home edition.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

do you use windows media player

― Whiskeytown Littlecock (ex machina), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Nope. Winamp 5.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

GAY

― Whiskeytown Littlecock (ex machina), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

To rip files, you mean? For that, I use the QCD player. I'm sure there are smaller, less flashy apps for ripping, but I like the file naming flexibility QCD gives.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 26 July 2004 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

MPEG-3 is for saddos who can't afford to own music

― TOMBOT, Monday, 26 July 2004 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

what do you think about people who put all their music on their computer?

― Whiskeytown Littlecock (ex machina), Monday, 26 July 2004 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

buy a giant RAID and straight copy that shit AIFF 2 AIFF like a real audio gangsta

― TOMBOT, Monday, 26 July 2004 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

well, there is that. i wish it flickered in smaller increments than 32 too

Yes, why does Winamp do that? Nero Media Player bounces around in smaller increments - lessee now...173, 187, 201, 192, 183, 187...

VBR just appeals to me cos it seems to be a neat logical extension of the notion of psychoacoustic encoding - concentrate on capturing the frequency bands you really need to give decent quality from moment-to-moment and then only allocate resolution where it's necessary. The later versions of Sony/Sharp's ATRAC had something called 'intelligent bit allocation' which may have been a gesture towards the same thing (though ATRAC in its original form was fixed rate 224k). It's just efficient, innit?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 26 July 2004 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

michael jones,

i like you

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 26 July 2004 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I like VBR because you can do 192-256K CBR quality- in 160K CBR filesizes!!!!!!!!

Isn't technology wunderful!!!!!!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 09:58 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, LAME VBR Alt-Preset-Extreme is good space/quality compromise. otherwise i rip CBR 256 or 320
but these days it's mostly VBRAPE

― rentboy (rentboy), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

cutty you are LAME

― pher (pher), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i am LAME 3.95

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

Not quite the right thread for this maybe, but how much does lowering bitrate really decrease volume? I feel like my iPhone is really quiet these days but guessing it might be because I check the box in iTunes to convert to 128 AAC. Or am I going deaf?

― Salted gnocchimole (admrl), Thursday, 8 July 2010 19:14 (fifteen years ago)

do you have the official iphone headfones with the remote and mic?

― ♥ ᶫᵧᵒₒᵛᵤᵉ ♥ (LOLK), Thursday, 8 July 2010 19:27 (fifteen years ago)

If your conversion only changes the bitrate (no normalization or anything), then I don't see how that would have an effect on volume. ?

― StanM, Thursday, 8 July 2010 19:31 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, it shouldn't affect volume at all.

― rennavate, Thursday, 8 July 2010 19:33 (fifteen years ago)

do you have the official iphone headfones with the remote and mic?

No wai, I use Koss Portapros

― Salted gnocchimole (admrl), Thursday, 8 July 2010 19:35 (fifteen years ago)

interesting...

― Salted gnocchimole (admrl), Thursday, 8 July 2010 19:35 (fifteen years ago)

lower bitrate shouldn't affect the overall volume, it'll mainly just muffle the high frequency bits (cymbals, the 'edge' on harsh synth sounds maybe, etc)

― ciderpress, Thursday, 8 July 2010 19:37 (fifteen years ago)

sometimes mine don't "connect" all the way and they are quiet until i jiggle or twist the connector around

― ♥ ᶫᵧᵒₒᵛᵤᵉ ♥ (LOLK), Thursday, 8 July 2010 19:38 (fifteen years ago)

Use MP3Gain or Replaygain to set the volume the same across your entire library. Bitrate has nothing to do with volume - the "normalization" option when ripping will affect volume, though.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 8 July 2010 20:48 (fifteen years ago)

don't apple still have a software sound limiter thing on european ipods/iphones? or is that not a thing anymore?

― thomp, Thursday, 8 July 2010 20:51 (fifteen years ago)

Supposedly but my ipod is loud enough. I mean I have to have it near full volume on the tube to be able to hear it and it's not that loud (I can't really hear much coming out of the earphones if I take them out of my ears, compared to some people) but I wouldn't want it any louder for the sake of my hearing.

― a fucking stove just fell on my foot. (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 8 July 2010 21:32 (fifteen years ago)

yah thomp is right, apple has the sound limiter thing for european markets, make sure yours isn't turned on by accident

― like a ◴ ◷ ◶ (dyao), Thursday, 8 July 2010 21:33 (fifteen years ago)

settings -> ipod -> volume limit iirc

― like a ◴ ◷ ◶ (dyao), Thursday, 8 July 2010 21:33 (fifteen years ago)

MP3Gain is def the way to go though.

― a fucking stove just fell on my foot. (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 8 July 2010 21:34 (fifteen years ago)

I had a Creative mp3 player and the European firmware adjusted the available volume levels so they were way quieter than the US firmware. On Euro firmware, I'd have it turned to about 24 of 30 to hear it above the bus engine on my commute; when I upgraded the firmware and ended up with the US version, 5 or 6 was about as loud as was comfortable. Kind of a shock finding that out!

So yeah, I think there is some kind of European ruling about mp3 player volumes, strange as that may sound.

― atoms breaking heart (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 8 July 2010 21:48 (fifteen years ago)

that's pretty interesting, would like to investigate more! it makes sense to me.

― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Thursday, 8 July 2010 21:53 (fifteen years ago)

Aha, maybe:

While most of the world lets iPod users blow out their ears in peace, Apple has already implemented a volume limit on their European devices, of 100dB – equivalent to a bulldozer groaning by. This was implemented to comply with French legislation, passed in 1996, that limits music-player volumes. Users quickly developed hacks to disable the cap.

- http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/dec/14/eu-mp3-volume-restriction

So France and not the EU for my old mp3 player, at least. Not sure if the EU has now implemented the ruling the main part of this article is about.

― atoms breaking heart (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 8 July 2010 22:01 (fifteen years ago)

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