hi to one and all , have about 7.5 gig of mp3's that i need to compress to a dvd-r .Whats the best or simplest tool to achieve the best results. thanks in advance andmerr
What's the goal? Playback on DVD player? backup? ... For reducing size of mp3 files transcoding is necessary. This will reduce quality, no matter what you do. The best solution would be to use 2 DVD-Rs or something completely different (for backup) like external USB/firewire HDD. If you have to transcode - there are several free tools that can be (ab)used for this, e.g. dbPowerAmp. The final quality will mainly depend on the encoder used and the bitrate/quality setting. For > 128kbps bitrates lame 3.90.3 (CBR/ABR settings: see sticky thread about recommended lame settings) or 3.96b1 with VBR presets (-V ... commandline) should give best results, for < 128kbps bitrates some fraunhofer encoder like Musicmatch Jukebox's or Adobe Audition's will probably give better results quality-wise. I can't tell how to use these encoders in a simple way for your task, though.
hi tigre thanks for the response. Initially i guess i probably would like to use the dvd-r to store my mp3 collection.I have recently tried to do it as raw data and found i could fit about 1003 mp3's onto the disk.However if i compress it will i get more on and if so will the quality suffer,and then will the quality be the same when you uncompress them. I have winzip and win rar but is lame the way to go .I am looking down the track as i have 7.5 gig to compress now but will have 30gig+ to do shortly. Havent done much compression on audio as i havent had the need, usually i just burn my mp3's to a standard cd and then pop them in my car mp3 player which then converts it back to digital audio.But i now need to store them . I will look at the lame and dbpoweramp programs that you suggest but are there other alternatives that you would recommend as well thanks for the info andmerr
Mp3 compression is a combination of lossy (=throw away inaudible/ hardly audible information) and lossless compression (store remaining information in as little space as possible - the same as e.g. WinZip or RAR do). So if your 7.5 GB source files are mp3 already, you can't compress them to smaller file sizes without loosing quality. Lossless compression (WinZip / RAR /...) won't help much, as the data is already stored in a very effective way - you'll gain ~ 1-2%. When you compress to smaller mp3s, you throw away more information. There is no way to bring this information back, that's why it's called "lossy" compression. By "uncompressing" the transcoded mp3, the quality won't improve at all. To give some numbers: If your source mp3s are 320kbps and you compress to ~ 160-200kbps VBR, you won't hear a difference in most files. But if your source mp3s are 128-160kbps and you transcode them to ~ 64-96kbps, there'll be clearly audible problems like audible lowpass, high frequency ringing, metallic sounding noise like sounds (e.g. applause), smeared transients. I'd just spend the money for as many DVD-Rs as it takes. Since optical media like CD-R and DVD-R aren't as reliable as manufacturers tell (the majority of CD-Rs has read errors after 5 years of storage under decent conditions) using a part of the space on DVD-Rs for PAR2 error recovery files might be a good idea (-> Quickpar), or use RAR archives with error recovery information.
thankyou use are wealth of info, my mp3's vary in range.Most are 128-160 but i had a lapse stage where i got a fair few in the 192 bracket.So i guess i will have to use dvd-r discs at the moment Tigre i take it that you work in this field , is there some links you can post so i can do some reading on this subject. thanks again andmerr
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org Probably the best resource for audio compression and related topics. Lots of valid* information (*forum rules force people to back up their claims with evidence), many knowledgable people (codec developers, sound engineers etc.) posting regularly. The FAQ and the Wiki (-> "Knowledgebase Project" on Portal) are good points to start reading.
