What is Layer 3 Audio
(better known as MP3)?
MPEG layer 3 is an audio format that produces highly compressed
files without sacrificing audio quality. Perceived frequency
response and signal-to-noise ratio are retained. Without data
reduction, digital audio signals typically consist of 16 bit
samples recorded at a sampling rate more than twice the actual
audio bandwidth (i.e. 44.1 kHz for Compact Disks). So you end up
with more than 1400 kbit to represent just one second of stereo
music in CD quality. By using MPEG audio coding, you may shrink
down the original sound data from a CD by a ratio of 12 to 1,
without losing sound quality.
The compression ratio by itself makes the MP3 format ideal for
copying songs to computer. It is also ideal for compressing all your standard "WAV" sound files. Your hard drive will thank you. The main disadvantage of MP3 compression is that it takes a buttload of processor power to encode and play files. If you've got one of the newer Pentiums or Power Macs.. no problemo.
What do you need to play MP3 files? An MP3 Player. Several excellent shareware players exist throughout the web. To download one, check out my links below.
Once you download one of the players above, download some of the great sound files below that were created from several of my music CD's.
In order to record CD audio clips (or full songs) to your hard drive, you need software that can "rip" tracks from the CD and save them as WAV files. Several "CD Rippers can be found on the internet, but only a couple will let you actually record (rip) tracks fron CD's.
Once the WAV files have been created, you need an MP3 encoder that will compress (encode) the wav file into the MP3 format. I have a WAV file as large as 8.8 meg (about a minute and 48 seconds of music). Once encoded into the MP3 format it was 700kb, without loss of sound quality! All my sound files are recorded at 56,0000 bitrates and sampled at 22050 kHz which is one of the lowest settings you can encode and still have stereo sound. Once I upgrade to a Pentium II computer, I'll be able to encode at a much higher bitrate which will further improve the sound quality to almost that of the CD. Check em out & see what you think!!
Beavis & Butthead "Theme Song"