Solved 128 Kbps

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danny.guitar

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Why do my MP3s at 128 always sound like ass? I hear a lot of other people's in the MP3 clinic that sound a lot better. How do you do it? :confused:

On my acoustic songs it sounds real bad. Maybe it's the reverb?

Are there any steps you can take during tracking/mixing/mastering to help make it sound better in MP3 format?

Maybe this is a dumb question but I thought I'd ask anyway in case some of you have some tips.

And I know 128 sounds like shit in general, but mine always sound a lot worse than other people's. :(
 
I've tried LAME. I also tried MP3 Pro which is built into Adobe Audition. It says it uses the Fraunhofer IIS encoding. This sounds better than LAME but still not good on my songs. :(
 
I use LAME in Wavelab. That works totally fine for me.
In Wavelab there is setting for the quality of conversion. Have a look in your DAW for a quality setting and set it to highest.

Eck
 
Danny, what is it that sounds bad? And is it dramatic when you drop from 192 or 160 to 128, or is still bad at 192 or 160, but just not so much?

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Danny, what is it that sounds bad? And is it dramatic when you drop from 192 or 160 to 128, or is still bad at 192 or 160, but just not so much?

G.
Click to expand...

Sounds fine at 192. Haven't tried 160.

The guitar just doesn't sound good, it might be the reverb?

I'll try and post a clip in a minute so you can hear.
 
Sounds fine to me for an MP3. Not sure what you dont like in the clip.

Sounds clear, doesnt have a muddy low end, or washy high end.

Eck
 
Thanks eck but I hear kind of a "flange" or "phaser" sort of effect going on in the lead guitar. In that short clip it's not as noticeable but when playing the whole song it is. I think it's the reverb tails?

I'd be fine just using 192, but SoundClick only accepts 128. I guess I could buy the membership to upload 320KBPS but for now it'd be nice to get a better quality 128 if that's even possible. :(

Where did you go Glen? :mad:
 
To me, that sounds like a typical 128 mp3....it's pretty good, but some sounds get a bit washy at 128...I usually notice it with cymbals. Try 192....I use teh MP3 converter in Audition mostly, and 192 is very acceptable for something in the clinic.
 
You can always use www.yousendit.com
You can upload files up to a gig in size, so you could easily upload a song at 32bit 192K if you wanted to!
But your file is only available for download for a week unless you get an upgrade which costs money I think.

Eck
 
It sounds a little warbly/washy here. It's not too bad for 128. I think you might be a little more sensitive to the compression noise because it's your stuff and it's a sparse acoustic piece. I would move up to 192 if you can.
 
I use Sound Forge for MP3 encoding. I've noticed some "artifacts" in simple acoustic stuff - piano and voice only. Not much you can probably do at 128K.

You're going to get relatively crappier sound on any of the those services - SoundClick, Myspace, etc. It's good I guess to just get the music out there, and not worry about these type things - you more than likely won't be able to improve it unless you go with a higher bitrate.
 
warble2 said:
It's good I guess to just get the music out there, and not worry about these type things - you more than likely won't be able to improve it unless you go with a higher bitrate.
Click to expand...
Alot of people listen to MP3s these days on I-pods and MP3 players and I would say the average bitrate would be 128k.
So most folk are used to what 128k sounds like, and I would say that most people listening to their I-pods n MP3 players cant even tell the difference between 128k and .wav!!

I wouldnt worry about it too much.
Eck
 
Yea you're right. I guess I just hate how I spend a lot of time/work on my songs (with the exception to the sample I posted) and in the very end I just convert to MP3 and it completely destroys everything.

I'm not selling an album or anything though so I guess it's not a big deal.

I was just wondering how professional songs can still maintain good quality at low bitrates like 128 and even sometimes 96. Even sparse mixes like solo classical guitar.

I guess I should just accept this as something that goes along with recording at home with budget gear? :o :(
 
danny.guitar said:
Yea you're right. I guess I just hate how I spend a lot of time/work on my songs (with the exception to the sample I posted) and in the very end I just convert to MP3 and it completely destroys everything.

I'm not selling an album or anything though so I guess it's not a big deal.

I was just wondering how professional songs can still maintain good quality at low bitrates like 128 and even sometimes 96. Even sparse mixes like solo classical guitar.

I guess I should just accept this as something that goes along with recording at home with budget gear? :o :(
Click to expand...

I've never heard anything good quality at 96. :D

Something to try: lowpass and hipass the extreme frequencies. may help.
 
For what it's worth, your two tracks on Soundclick sound pretty good to me (I just listened to the MP3's). I haven't listened to anything on Soundclick for a bit, and I really don't think it sounded bad. I certainly wouldn't call it crappy by any means (sorry Soundclick).

I know you didn't mention Myspace, but man, their compression reminds me of when streaming audio hit the Web and was targeted at 14.4k connection speeds. Ahh, those were the days. I remember calling my hosting company and asking them to add a MIME type for this new streaming audio player that came out...

Anyway, another thought would be to get better audio quality versions of the songs at your own music site somewhere, and use the free sites for marketing to draw visitors in. I've got my own site (although there are no songs there yet) and intend to use it to give visitors quality samples and to sell quality digital downloads.

Just keep making music and getting it out there! :cool:
 
danny.guitar said:
Why do my MP3s at 128 always sound like ass? I hear a lot of other people's in the MP3 clinic that sound a lot better. How do you do it? :confused:

On my acoustic songs it sounds real bad. Maybe it's the reverb?

:(
Click to expand...

Danny, I found the same problem at SoundClick, and yes, I think it's the reverb - it just doesn't like 128. I don't use it on any SC stuff.
 
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