Tag: mp3 rocket

Audio quality: Bitrate in MP3 files

In many cases, the term Bitrate is used, which is the bit rate per second that a multimedia file (Audio or Video) has. Currently the MP3 music format is one of the most widespread (Although there are currently other more current formats such as OGG Vorbis, AAC, Flac, Monkey Audio, …) however the audio quality is variable, this is due to the characteristics with which the MP3 in question has been compressed, including:

Mode: It can be of two types mainly:

Mono: With a single channel (The right and left channel go together, not separated which gives worse audio quality).

Stereo: Two channels (Right and Left, improve audio quality).
Sampling frequency: Audio CDs use 44,100 Hz (22,050 Hz per channel), although there are higher frequencies such as 48,000 Hz used in DVDs and lower, the higher the frequency, the higher the quality.

Bits: Audio CDs have 16 Bits (Although MP3 can be compressed at a lower quality such as 8 Bits).

Bitrate (Bit Rate per second): Audio CDs have about 1,400 Kbps (44100 Hz * 16 Bits * 2 channels), meaning that an Audio CD would have a bitrate of 1,400 Kbps (In MP3 format the maximum Bitrate is 320 Kbps, however, it is assumed that an MP3 with a 128 Kbps Bitrate has a quality similar to CD, although in many cases to achieve a quality similar to CD it is necessary to use a Bitrate of 192 Kbps, and to obtain CD quality it is necessary use 256 Kbps or 320 Kbps). Some of the most common Bitrates are:
8 Kbps Mono: Telephone Sound.
16 Kbps Mono: Better quality than shortwave.
32 Kbps Mono: Better quality than AM.
64 Kbps Stereo: Better quality than FM.
112 – 128 Kbps: Quality close to CD.
160 Kbps: Quality closer to CD.
192 Kbps: Virtually CD quality.
256 Kbps: Quality CD practically undisputed from an original CD.
320 Kbps: CD quality.

Coding method: It can be of two types:

VBR (Variable Bit Rate, Bit Rate Variable): Encodes the file in MP3 with a variable Bitrate.

CBR (Constant Bit Rate, Constant Bit Rate): Encodes the MP3 file with a fixed Bitrate.
In addition, another factor that influences the encoding of the MP3 file is the CODEC (Encoder-Decoder) used, one of the most common and the best result is LAME (Lame Ain’t an MP3 Encoder) which is also free.
One point to keep in mind is that if we recompress an MP3 file that originally has a 128 Kbps bitrate and convert them to 192 Kbps for example, audio quality is not really gained because the MP3 format has some quality loss (MP3 is a loss algorithm, also called lossy). which has occurred when converting the original file (Ex: CD Audio or a 320 Kbps MP3 to a 128 Kbps MP3) so this recompression does not make much sense since we will not gain in audio quality (As they say where there is no one can not get) and the only thing we will achieve in any case is to increase the initial size of the file.
The opposite case (Recompress a 320 Kbps MP3 file for example at 192 Kbps) if it makes some sense because in this case although we lose some audio quality we reduce the weight (Kilobytes or Megabytes) of each MP3 file somewhat.
In conclusion, it can be said that if we need to encode / compress an MP3 file with good quality, the “ideal” would be to do so:
To be able to start from an Audio CD, although an MP3 at 320 or 256 Kbps could also be valid for a recompression of the file.
In stereo mode (With two channels, right and left).
With at least 44100 Khz sampling rate and 16 Bits.
With a minimum bitrate of 192 Kbps or at most 256 Kbps (Using 320 Kbps would give higher quality but also increase the file size considerably).

Mp3 Patent: goodbye

The MP3 format that revolutionized the music industry is already free as the wind: goodbye to patents

When you download video on the internet sometimes you use AVI or MKV but do you know the differences between them? When you download video on the internet you sometimes use AVI or MKV but do you know the differences between them?


This was the first industry guy to realize that the MP3 they had rejected was killing them. This was the first industry guy to realize that the MP3 they had rejected was killing them.
Services like Spotify already have more customers than digital music buying Services like Spotify already have more customers than digital music buying

The MP3 format revolutionized the world of music. For better or worse, this audio coding format made it possible to listen to (and share) music through the Internet so that the entire industry ended up adopting this or other solutions to end up making the leap to a model in which the physical format gave prominence to downloads and streaming.

The technology, however, was subject to patents that were defended by Technicolor, but those patents – still valid for encoders, for example – expired on April 16, 2017 completely. The MP3 is now freer than ever.

Until never, MP3 patents

Those responsible for Fraunhofer IIS explained a few days ago how “on April 23, 2017, the Technicolor mp3 licensing program for certain Technicolor and Fraunhofer IIS patents and software related to the mp3 has expired.”

Fraun

In that message, all those who have licensed the technology were thanked for their support of a format that became the “defacto audio codec worldwide over the past two decades,” and highlighted that even with more efficient audio codecs, mp3 is still “very popular with consumers”. The success of MP3 was parallel to that of the legendary Winamp, the player that became that symbol of a change of air in the audio industry.

These patents have been very beneficial for their owners: it is estimated that thanks to them the Fraunhofer Society achieved revenues that reached 100 million euros in 2005. Those amounts of money made many others try to take a piece of that juicy cake, and the lawsuits and lawsuits surrounding who owned what in the MP3 segment have been frequent.

Linux distros, among the big winners

These alternatives still fail to undermine the popularity of the MP3 format, which for the purpose of patent validity can be used without restrictions in all types of scenarios.

Fedora
One of the best known cases was that of Linux distributions, in which we often found ourselves without native reproduction of MP3 content by those patents. In the Fedora documentation, for example, it was indicated how since October 11, 2016 this distribution could already include MP3 players since the patents for music reproduction had expired.

The encoding of MP3 files – creating them from a CD in Fedora, for example – was not “permissible because it requires proprietary technologies and the patent owner has not provided licenses compatible with Fedora requirements.” Neither Technicolor wanted to assign, nor Fedora (or any other distribution) to pay for those licenses.

It was possible to install a posteriori players that provided this option, but the developers of the distributions preferred to be cured in health in this section: now any “distro” may finally include native support for reproduction, but now also for coding.

The alternatives exist, but MP3 does not seem to lose strength

The MP3 format (MPEG-1 Layer 3) has undoubtedly been the “lost” audio format — we lose data in encoding — the most popular in history, but it is certainly not technically the best. The rise of the format and its deficiencies made in fact that many others tried to develop alternatives with which to conquer the market.

Mp31

Among these codecs is the AAC family of formats, which does not require the payment of licenses to stream or distribute content in that format. Of course, there are patents for the development of AAC codecs, which forces those who implement Open Source software that takes advantage of this format to distribute it only with the code, as in the case of the famous FFMpeg.