{"id":1424,"date":"2020-06-14T15:15:07","date_gmt":"2020-06-14T15:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mp4gain.com\/mp4gain\/?p=1424"},"modified":"2020-06-14T15:15:07","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T15:15:07","slug":"what-exactly-is-an-mp3-music-file","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mp4gain.com\/mp4gain\/what-exactly-is-an-mp3-music-file\/","title":{"rendered":"What exactly is an MP3 music file?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mp3 is a method of compressing digitally stored music. Uncompressed storage of a stereo digital music file takes up a lot of disk space. An average of 10 MB of disk space per minute of recorded music.<\/p>\n

However, if you compress a music file and save it as MP3, only a tenth of the original file size remains.<\/p>\n

\"mp3<\/p>\n

Since the introduction of the CD, music has been digitally recorded in the form of samples or measurements. Sound is no more or less than vibrating air. These vibrations are also known as sound waves. Sound waves can be measured, recorded and stored.<\/p>\n

However, when creative sound waves are produced, there is music.<\/p>\n

The number of vibrations per second determines the pitch of the sound. A large amount of vibration produces a high tone, a small amount of vibration produces a low tone.<\/p>\n

The number of vibrations per second is expressed in Hertz. Human hearing can perceive sounds between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz.<\/p>\n

Once it has been scientifically established that to capture the highest tone, a measurement must be taken 44,100 times per second. Therefore, the number 44,100 is the sampling frequency expressed in hertz needed for a good quality recording.<\/p>\n

In addition to the high and low tones, a piece of music also contains hard and smooth passages. The difference between the highest and smoothest passage is called the dynamic range. For dynamic range on a digitally recordable track, you can choose 256 steps (8 bits) between the softest and loudest part, or 65536 (16 bits).<\/p>\n

The dynamic range is highest when recording with 16-bit samples or 65536 steps.<\/p>\n

If we then add a calculation to this data, we see that it takes 44,100 measurements for a second of music. Each measurement (sample) is 16 bits (2 bytes) in size. That means that 1 second of music takes up 88,200 bytes or 88 KB of disk space.<\/p>\n

But since we like to listen to music in stereo, we can multiply that number by 2. For example, a second of music in stereo already takes up 176 Kb of disk space and, as said, 10 MB per minute.<\/p>\n

When a compressed MP3 file is made from an original music file, it is done with a lossy compression method.<\/p>\n

Data is lost on lossy compression. With an MP3 file, this means that the information is outside the file that is beyond human hearing range.<\/p>\n

For example, people are more sensitive to sounds between 2 kHz and 4 kHz. And we can’t hear loud, soft sounds at the same time. Therefore, only loud sound needs to be preserved. In technical terms, this is called psychoacoustic masking.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Table of Contents<\/p>\nToggle<\/span><\/path><\/svg><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n