mp3 bit rate

[rwest]

I'm kinda' just getting started in the mp3 business. I just got a new phone, and it'll play 'em. So I've downloaded a converter, and am curious about the settings.

1. first off... What is joint stereo?

2. Sample rate?

3. Bit rate was easy to figure out. Obviously the higher the bit rate the better quality of recording. But what I'm concerned with is how much quality is lost and what range of bit rate is generally used for space to quality? In a nut shell, what's the lowest bit rate I should use?

[Lespaul20]

Joint stereo from what I understand is a method to enhanced the perceived quality of the mp3 while keeping the same bit rate. Some say it hurts the sound quality, but for a phone I doubt you will notice.

Sample Rate is how many time a second the music is converted. For example, when encoding an analog wave this is how many time a second the wave is "looked" at and then given a digital value. mp3's should be at 44,100 Hz.

[TwoRails]

You got my curiosity up :)

Joint stereo

The term joint stereo has become prominent as the Internet has allowed for the transfer of relatively low bit rate, acceptable-quality audio with modest Internet access speeds. It should be noted that there are many types of joint stereo encoding. Not all of them are forms of joint frequency encoding. Two types are described here, both of which are implemented in various ways with different codecs, such as MP3, AAC and Ogg Vorbis.

from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_stereo

[rwest]

Thanx for the input. It makes sense now. Obviously, it's all about compression and less data loss.

While my new toy is a phone, it is a Sony Ericson. It's a walkman first. I was excitedly suprised at it's sound quality. Shoulda' known better, being Sony.

So how bout bit rate? What setting do you guys use? Or suggest? My choices are 8 kbs up to 320 kbs. Default was at 128 kbs. I also had a choice for a variable bit rate, but this was a much larger file size when converted. I do understand why and that a variable rate will give better quality, but I'm kinda looking for what's considered an acceptable range to work with.

Also; any clues if a variable bit rate set between 8kbs and say 32kbs would sound better than say a flat bit rate at somewhere around 128kbs(default).

Or am I gonna just have to convert, load, play and hear what happens? :)

I'm really just trying to avoid the last scenario, and am hoping to get it right the first time.

[coldplay055]

Well to give you an idea an audio cd is 1411kbps, 128 is fair at best. To me quality means alot but i know what you mean about space, so i would say that 192kbps should be fine, I listen to that most of the time and seems ok. Also see if your phone takes wma. To me there was a difference with this and to me sounded the same at 192kbps for mp3 when wma was at 128. Also bitrate determines battery life, so if you have 160kbpsmp3 to 320kbps mp3 you will get more life from using 160 on the phone than the 320 because it is processing less data. I think you will be fine though with 192 mp3s.

Hope this helps

[perkster]

i use 192

[TwoRails]

I think 192 is pretty standard if you're into quality. Most folks can't hear a diff at 192 or higher but can hear a loss of quality at, say, 128.

[Lespaul20]

I don't like variable bit rate, I think the premise behind that is to lower the overall size of the file. My mp3 player doesn't like them. I'd agree with the other and go with 192 if you can.

[Tin]

If Im doing mp3s, I always use LAME 256kb VBR. It sounds better than 192kb CBR and consumes a tad more space. Other than that, most of my music is in FLAC...which is a lossless audio format. A full CD in mp3 format will be around ~50MB, in FLAC, theyre about 300MB to 500MB.

[rwest]

That's the kind of info I needed to hear! Thanx alot.
Now I've got a way better understanding, and can use the settings accordingly.

[yoloksky]

hello,

what model is your sonyericsson phone? i use 192kbps for playing mp3 songs, but my mp3s are a mixed up of different bitrates/mono/stereo. I guess your phone supports storage card but some sonyericsson phones have only their internal memory w/c would limit the number of songs stored on your phone (depends of bitrates too). Bigger capacity memory cards mean you can add more songs regardless of size and bitrates of you mp3.

wbr,

[Lespaul20]

The number of songs a particular sized card can hold is directly related on the size and bit rates of the songs. The higher the bit rate, typically the larger the size of the song.

[rwest]

Sony Ericson i810. Supports Memory Stick Pro. So far I've seen a 2 gig card. Which if I understand, is not a lot of space for mp3s.

[Lespaul20]

~36 Hours of music not enough? I wouldn't expect a phone to store Ipod sized libraries.

[rwest]

Fair enough. I do appreciate all your info. Thanks.