To those creating mp3's from n-Track

[Slackmaster2K]

Man, I've been using BladeEnc for creating mp3s because it's free and is integrated with n-Track. I figured that there couldn't be enough of a difference between various freeware encoders to really warrant my time investigating them.

Well, let me tell you that Blade sucks...at least with my music. I downloaded SCMPX and man, what a difference! The ride actually sounds like a ride! The hihat doesn't get washed out! At 128kbps SCMPX encoded mp3's are so much clearer than those created with Blade.

I'm so glad I found this out since I'm going to be adding another song to my mp3.com page today. I just wish I had known this before I posted the Window. Live 'n learn!

Off hand I can't remember where I found SCMPX, but it's out there and easy to find with minimal searching. If you're still using Blade (n-Track uses Blade) then please check it out.

Slackmaster 2000

[hongteck]

How about the size ? Any difference there ? People are kinda upset that they have to spend a long time downloading my MP3s. Most of them dun't know that they could be downloading wavs instead. :-)

[Slackmaster2K]

The size of the two files I used turned out to be the same, as they should be. They were both encoded at 128kbps. The one created by Blade was much less defined, however.

Can't do too much about large file sizes. Cramming 40MB into 4MB isn't too bad when you really think about it I'm still crossing my fingers for DSL access though ....sooner the better!

Slackmaster 2000

[dmcsilva]

Also,

On a song that I encoded with Blade Enc, it seemed to add an unwelcomed flange effect to the guitar and bass lines in the mix in addition to the whooshy sound on the cymbals. Very pronounced when just drums and bass were unaccompanied(sp?) on the song. It made the bass sound as if it were detuning (flanging) at a pretty fast rate (~6Hz or so). Kinda sickly sounding, like a cassette deck that isn't playing at a consistent speed.

dmc

[Dondello]

When I get home from work I'm going to a/b BladeEnc and SCMPX, and see if my opinions differ from yours ... I've been using Blade too, and I'll admit I've found nothing wrong with it, but my ears will have no problems hearing better, if SCMPX indeed does produce better. I'll post later tonight with my findings.

[dmcsilva]

S2K:

Thanx for the tip on SCMPX; I downloaded it last night-took about 2 min @ 48K. I did A/B
them @128Kbps and there is a significant difference.

End result: Blade Enc is no longer welcome on my hard drive.

dmc

[Slackmaster2K]

dmcsilva:

Yeah the fact that it's so small is an added bonus. Reminds me of the good old days when you could uninstall an application with the delete command And of course it's free...I love those opensource kinda guys.

Dondello:

Listen closely to your drums when you do the comparison. You should notice that the cymbals and such will sound much clearer with SCMPX. With Blade they seem to have a "whooshy" sound to them. I'm thinking of doing a comparison of some of these encoders on a short drum sample alone. More than any other instrument, the drums really need to be crisp or your entire mix will sound wishy washy. I think I'll crunch a short drum loop with both Blade and SCMPX and stick them both on Juston.

Slackmaster 2000

[Slackmaster2K]

Yep. I still notice a little bit of that with SCMPX...must be an unavoidable MP3 thing. It's not NEARLY as pronounced though as it is with Blade....in fact if you're not listening closely you don't even notice it.

Slackmaster 2000

[Emeric]

Going to have to check this out. Currently using Xing encoder, and sometimes audio active production studio.

Here is a link for those to lazy to search for it...
http://www.netins.net/showcase/phdss...yers/scmpx.htm

Emeric

[Slackmaster2K]

From what I've read, Xing is one of the best encoders out there...and fast too. It's just not free. 20 bucks isn't bad but I wish they'd let you download a trial version of the encoder by itself...I don't want to download their big software package. Let me know how it compares to SCMPX though. If you think it's noticably better, maybe I'll fork out some dough.

Slackmaster 2000