Why mp3 is enough for you, but Lossless is not necessary


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Why mp3 is enough for you, but Lossless is not necessary

Mp3

Did you finish the greenhouse? So you don’t need to lose, listen to high quality mp3.

MP3

Very often there are people who, in principle, despise compressed formats. You should not be guided by your opinion. The following mods that in the studio with a 90% probability will not hear the difference between compressed and uncompressed audio.

What is mp3

MP3 isn’t just about cutting quality. It was developed by the Fraunchhofer Society, an association of applied research institutes in Germany. Later they came up with AAC, which could become the main compressed audio format … But it didn’t work.

Did you know that MP3 comes with variable (VBR) and constant (CBR) bit rate? The constant bit rate, due to the operation of the algorithm, is encoded each time as the first. Therefore, it can produce uneven quality, which means that not all sounds in this situation will be recorded in high quality.

Since MP3 has been around for a long time, it has many limitations. Bit width is 16-24 bits. The sample rate is represented by the following set of options: 8; 11,025; 12; sixteen; 22.05; 24; 32; 44.1; 48. The maximum bit rate does not exceed 320 kbps. The maximum number of channels is 2. But we are still talking about music, we still have to search for multi-channel recordings.
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Now let’s see how MP3 is encoded. The illustration shows the time-frequency distribution of sound. Same recording: Audio CD, OGG file, MP3 well encoded. What we observe is that the pieces on the right and left almost completely coincide. This means that the MP3 file sounds almost the same as the original CD recording.

Human hearing and its limits – psychoacoustics

The fact is that the main task of the Fraunchhofer Society is the development of psychoacoustic models of human perception of sound. And here are many subtleties. The main thing is that we are not dolphins.

Second, there are certain restrictions on the number of sounds perceived simultaneously. A person cannot simultaneously hear more than 250 sounds of 24 ranges (in addition, the number of simultaneous sounds in the range is also quite small).

Third, the audible range is 16 Hz to 20 kHz and at the age of 60 it is reduced by almost half. Ideally, and during training (yes, you have to train it!).

All frequencies below 100 Hz are perceived not by the hearing cells, but … by the skin. Then the low waves are reflected in the ear canal; these waves are perceived as infrabass. (This is from the bone conduction area).
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Also, the number of cells that register acoustic waves is different for each one. But what is there? For each individual, their number in the right and left ear is different.

By the way, the perception of each ear is different. Change channels of your favorite song – get a new sound.

If you dig deeper, it turns out that each sound frequency is perceived only at a certain volume. When it is reached, the silence is replaced by a sharp and quite different sound. After that, a person can hear a lower sound of this frequency.


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MP3: features and alternatives

The peculiarities of the MP3 format and some clues about other solutions of equal or even higher quality.

Impossible to deny, the MP3 format is the most common and most enjoyable to listen to music on the go or, as it has been for some years, streaming. We use it everywhere now and any device can play it today.

MP3 is part of the family of audio files called “lossy”, that is, the types of formats that can also reduce the amount of data that should contain a sound, in any case try to maintain at least an acceptable quality.

The peculiarities of the MP3 format and some clues about other solutions of equal or even higher quality.
The parameters that determine the quality level of an MP3 file are: the sampling rate, bit rate, encoder and of course the source. Now let’s move on to the order.
At the origin of everything is the source, that is, the support or source from which the MP3 file can be downloaded. The higher the quality of the source, the greater the end result: purchasing MP3s from particularly reliable sites or extracting them from compact discs in good condition is the basis for a successful MP3. What becomes crucial is the encoder (the most famous and free is LAME) or the software that takes care of creating the file after properly configuring its parameters.

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The sampling rate is measured in Herz and expresses the number of times per second. Second, as the analog signal is measured and digitized; for MP3 it must be as faithful as possible on a CD, ie 44 100 Hz (44.1 KHz).

Bitrate is the number of binary units flowing, measured every second. The value of the bit rate is not fixed: as it increases, the similarity to the original file will also increase proportionally. The higher the bit rate, the higher the quality, the larger the file size. The bit rate range ranges from 32 kbps to 320 kbps, the maximum that can be obtained from an MP3 file.

The ones we’ve just listed are an important part of the tricks that allow us to have an MP3 quality; however, be aware that a lost file is by no means faithful in all respects to the original source. The most famous lost alternatives are: AAC (the format Apple uses to sell music in the iTunes Store and since July to stream audio from the Apple Music service); WMA; MPC; OGG (excellent quality open source format).

If you are looking for maximum faith in digital audio, give up MP3 and its loss-free alternatives to switch to “loss-free” audio formats, ie loss-free quality. Overall, this file type compresses the original sound while keeping the number of bits intact. Needless to say, quality comes at a cost in terms of the space taken up: a lossless file takes about half of the original audio file, but “weighs” nearly three times as much as a 320Kbps MP3. Of these, the most famous and used are: FLAC; ALAC (Apple Lossless Format); BEE; WavPack. The “lossy” and “lossless” file distinctions are extremely applicable to images and videos as well, not just audio files.

On several occasions it has been said how absolutely difficult it is to distinguish an MP3 at 320 kbps, obtained under the best conditions, from its original version on CD or in lossless files; It is only possible to notice it with instruments at a certain level and with a good ear. When noted, the MP3 format is excellent for listening on the move, as highlighted above; On the other hand, to better preserve our music or listen to it on systems of a certain level, it is better to resort to lossless formats such as FLAC or ALAC.