an mp3 question

[Rusty K]

Hello,

I originally posted a question in another forum dedicated to my multitrack software. I haven't really resolved the problem that I was asking about however it has morphed into a larger more general question that I though would perhaps best fit here.

The larger general question is....How do professional retail music sites prepare mp3's for sale? Or perhaps a better way to state the question is...Technically how are the original wav files perpared and encoded to insure optimum quality?

My original problem arose when I discovered wav files that I had mastered to -.49db where clipping after mp3 encoding.

Thanks,
Rusty K

[Rusty K]

Hello,

Just wanting to keep this one alive....I'm still interested in finding this out. I was turned onto Mp3Gain on another thread by LogicDeluxe....thanks for that. I haven't had time for a test run but at least it's a start.

Rusty K

[NL5]

What encoder do you use?

Professional MP3s are probably done with the Fraunhoffer codec. You can either convert your WAV down to 44.1KHz/16-bit before MP3 conversion, or have your MP3 converter software do it. I don't know which way is better, you probably have more options for Sample Rate Conversion and dithering in your DAW software so it might be best to do it there. Although if you render to MP3 from your DAW, it will probably do it before converting to MP3.

I've never heard of clipping happening after MP3 conversion. Maybe someone else knows more about that.