save edited mp3 without re-encoding?

[coyote2]

If I edit an mp3, when I save it will it be re-encoded?

I've been using Cool Edit Pro 2.1 for years. In it need to silence a bit of noise on a 48000 Hz 128 kbps mp3 (I demuxed from an .avi). Do I need to use a dedicated mp3 editor if I want to avoid re-encoding?

 

[TimOBrien]

You cannot avoid re-encoding if you are editing the file.

As long as you dont do it a LOT on a single file, you'll probably never notice it.

 

[archons]

You cannot avoid encoding, fact.

 

[Bobbsy]

Cool Edit/Audition always converts files (whatever the source) to its native format (essentially a form of wave file) for any processing so you can't avoid the re-encoding. Once and you're probably okay but the effects are cumulative so avoid sequences of opening and re-saving.

There are a few simple software packages out there that can do basic editing (basically just things like trimming durations etc.) that can work natively in MP3 but I don't know of any that can do the complicated things like noise reduction. This is down to the way MP3 works...files are in "frames" rather than discrete samples. Basically MP3 was developed as a method of handling audio along with MPEG2 video compression--its evolution to to a pure audio format was by accident because it's far from ideal for this purpose.

Basically, MP3 should never be part of the production process--it's designed for distribution only, not for files you wish to work on.

 

[espritbonne]

Thanks, Bobbsy!

Jeez, Bobbsy, for a "boring old Git", you sure do have a vast repertoire of awesome knowledge and a gift for sharing it concisely and understandably here. Not just in this thread, but all over the forums pages I've been enjoying your posts and learning from them this afternoon. Thanks!