Harvey, any suggestions for encoding mp3s?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ozraves
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ozraves

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I loved the mixing info from yourself and Mixer Man.

I've recently started trying to post mp3s for the first time. I have not been happy with the results.

I've been using Sound Forge. No matter how I prep the file it seems that mp3s make my mixes much worse than the wav. One of my dear friends and mentors says that mp3 is like someone telling you they just got a new CD, you ask them what it sounds like, and they begin singing it to you as best they can.

Do you have any insights or could you ask Mixer Man for some? Please!!!

Oz
http://www.piemusic.com
 
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Read This Thread.... It should tell you what you're looking for.

P.S.. In summary... try CDex (or one of the other front ends.. but I still recommend CDex.. :p), enable VBR, visit R3Mix for tips on how to tweak the VBR settings.

WATYF
 
WATYF said:
Read This Thread.... It should tell you what you're looking for.

P.S.. In summary... try CDex (or one of the other front ends.. but I still recommend CDex.. :p), enable VBR, visit R3Mix for tips on how to tweak the VBR settings.

WATYF
Click to expand...

I really appreciate the info. Anyone else?

Oz
http://www.piemusic.com
 
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mp3 for the mac

An excellent program called Amadeus uses the LAME encoder engine to make fabulous sounding mp3s.
 
Hey Deacon---where would us Mac users find that program? Is it a commercial release or freeware on the net somewhere? If you know, give us a shout! And, thank you!
 
ozraves said:
I loved the mixing info from yourself and Mixer Man.

I've recently started trying to post mp3s for the first time. I have not been happy with the results.

Do you have any insights or could you ask Mixer Man for some? Please!!!

Oz
http://www.piemusic.com
Click to expand...
I'm the last guy you should ask about MP3s - everytime I've tried to post an mp3, it's sounded like crap, with a ton of tics and pops and glitches.

I'm on a very slow phone line out in the country. Right now, my connect rate is showing at 26,400 bps, but when I send or receive, it runs between about 400 B/s and 1k.
 
Thanks Harvey, I appreciate your candor. Some of the other posters above gave some excellent advice I've found out.

I posted an inquiry over at the mp3 forum but I got berated over how what was wrong with my mp3s had nothing to do with encoding. I'm not sure how they'd know since they've never heard the wav files.

Oz
http://www.piemusic.com
 
ozraves said:
I posted an inquiry over at the mp3 forum but I got berated over how what was wrong with my mp3s had nothing to do with encoding.
Click to expand...
Man that drives me crazy! People get in agonized debates over subtle differences in mics and pre-amps and such............then they want to say Mp3s sound pretty close to cds and that it doesn't matter which encoder you use. There is no way that mp3s sound as good as cda files or wave files either. And I definately hear differences in encoders. I haven't ever really tried to decide which one I like best since I try to stay to cda when I can....but the differences are there.
 
oh, okay then

You are really a piece of work Ozraves. The truth is, a few of us posted some very helpful tips on how to make your mix better in your post in the MP3 Mixing forum (http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55260).

The problems we all pointed out had nothing to do with the MP3 conversion. In a nutshell, the high end on everything else (vocals, ac/elec guitars, organ loop) sounded fine, but the snare SAMPLE sounded wrong for the song. We all explained how we thought the mix could be bettered, and you just continued to blame the MP3 encoder.

Anyway I suggested LAME and CDEx as a frontend and let it go, but a lot of people were put off by the way you posted asking for help in the "mixing" forum, then basically dismissed all of our comments as amateurish, while touting your own wide breadth of experience and access to a bunch of experienced pros for mixing tips as superior to our comments. I let it go before, ozraves, but then I stumbled on this thread, and now I think you are either an ass in real life, or you play one on this forum.

If you don't trust anyone's opinion but a pro, message one of the forum pros privately. Or better yet, ask the question on rec.pro.audio, so all of us amateurs who aren't fit to critique your mix won't waste your valuable time.

Personally I find your attitude downright disrespectful, and I won't be bothered to waste any more of my amateur, unfit time on you.
 
Lt. Bob said:

Man that drives me crazy! People get in agonized debates over subtle differences in mics and pre-amps and such............then they want to say Mp3s sound pretty close to cds and that it doesn't matter which encoder you use. There is no way that mp3s sound as good as cda files or wave files either. And I definately hear differences in encoders. I haven't ever really tried to decide which one I like best since I try to stay to cda when I can....but the differences are there.
Click to expand...

I've really been fortunate to have some people like Harvey Gerst in my life who have wisdom and experience and love to share their knowledge. When I hit this mp3 thing, I hit a dry hole. I just never really paid attention to what mp3s do to a wav file. Now that I have a website, I now appreciate that mp3s are a different beast to be mastered.
 
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Re: oh, okay then

charger said:
Personally I find your attitude downright disrespectful, and I won't be bothered to waste any more of my amateur, unfit time on you.
Click to expand...

I thanked you for the info over there. You were genuinely nice and trying to help. If I said anything to offend you, then I'm truly very sorry.

I'm not entirely sure of how you'd know that the mp3 encoding wasn't problematic since you've never heard the original wav. The last couple of days have been an education for me. You took your valuable time to help me out and I do appreciate that.

Sometimes, on the internet, things get taken all the wrong way and it's no one's fault. Peace.
 
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Go with the CDex.

Its free and it works as well as any of the other encoders.

Been using it for years and have help cutomers post hundreds of their tunes to the web.

David
 
With Sound Forge 5.0 before converting to mp3, I knock off what it can't hear, which everything below 60hz and above 15Khz. It gives the data that's left a better shot of holding together.
 
I've tried to upload mp3s here before, with no success whatsoever, since some people might be interested as to whether or not my advice actually translates to real music recording. I still can't upload mp3s, but some of our clients seem to have better success at it, so here's a few samples of music coming out of our studio:

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/65/brent_mitchell.html "Take me back home" and "Angel of Flesh and Bone" was produced by my son Alex in the small room.

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/63/alex_whitmore.html The "Not at home on the range" CD was my arranging and production in the small studio. I really like the title track and "Borderline Nights".

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/45/slow_roosevelt.html All the songs from their new "Weightless" album were produced and recorded by Alex in the big studio.

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/153/project_232.html all of the tracks were recorded here.

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/139/alanmusic.html "Sigh" was recorded in the small room by me and mixed by Alex.

http://www.geocities.com/hothouse1_1999/main.html I produced, arranged, and recorded both songs in the small room.

http://listen.to/jennydick all of their tracks were recorded in the small room.

http://www.blitzt.com/sounds.html all of their tracks were recorded in the big room.

It's a small sampling, but hopefully you'll get a better idea of what I do here.
 
Mac users, don't forget that iTunes from Apple has the ability to encode mp3, although I don't know how the quality compares. It's free and it's a great app to listen to music, and it even burn cds.

Cheers, Andrés
 
Thanks for sharing Harvey. I really like "Take Me Back Home" by Brent Mitchell. My janitor just walked by and said it sounded like Creed. I'm guessing he's talking about the vocalist as this is some pretty good "real" country music.
 
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Re: Amadeus software. Find it at:

http://www.hairersoft.com/Amadeus.html

The program does a lot more than just compressive encoding, such as filtering and denoising, but it also allows you to tweak parameters to get the best possible results when generating MP3s.

Have fun.
 
deacon and crawdad,
have any of you ever compared Amadeus to the free Drop Mp3?

Cheers
/Henrik
 
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