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Changing Bitrates of MP3's


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One thing I really hate about file sharing programs is that many of the songs come in different bitrates. So to conserve space, one must re-encode MP3's so that all have the same bitrate. I like to re-encode all mine to the following setting:

112 Kbps @ 44.1 KHz Stereo

If you know of a program which would let me do that or even if it can get just the 128 Kbps bitrate, please post a link!

Thanks in advance.

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I would suspect that converting a 96kbps song into 128kbps, you'd lose quality. Because you are starting from much less and you're going to lose quality in the final product. You're better of getting it at better quality from the get-go.

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either way you're gonna lose quality re-encoding mp3s. you might as well start burning cds or get a big 'ol hard drive to store all your mp3s on. :)

it's like resaving a jpeg over and over at 70% quality...eventually it's just gonna look crappy

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lol, if you don't like different bitrates, then only download the songs at the bitrate you want.

Also... I definitely wouldn't go any lower than 128.

I usually encode at 160, but I download files at 128, 160, and 192.

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nah you cant reencode in cdex, cdex is a cd to mp3 ripper, now with lame (wich cdex uses) you might but like others have said it's futile to re encode an encoded file like that.

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Opio the music police are gonna come get you :paranoid:

Oh yeah, use CDex.. It's great.. never use anything else

... why would you use anything else? 160 lame is good enough for me and my cd archive

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What's so wrong with having different bitrates? And I agree with the previous post, anything under 192kbps is worthless, that's why I won't use Kazaa, because of the 128kbps limit (not to mention the spyware and viruses). But if you must convert them, the best program is Dbpower AMP Music Converter. When installed, you just right click on the mp3 and the options for converting are right there in the context menu.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

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Originally posted by shouck

Opio the music police are gonna come get you :paranoid:

Oh yeah, use CDex.. It's great.. never use anything else

... why would you use anything else? 160 lame is good enough for me and my cd archive

Oh but I own all the original cds of course ;)

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petsounds, just use kazaalite.. there's no bitrate limit and there's a bunch of people with >128k files. and no spyware.

actually opio i've set up a server at work that's a dedicated mp3 server with spare parts & a huge drive all at 160, and everyone pitches in with cd's that i rip.. it's great. and when i quit, they're all mine muaahahaha :evil:

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what you could do is convert in CDex from mp3 to wav, then back to mp3.

i wonder how bad the loss would be if you went:

96k mp3 -> wav

wav -> 128k mp3 (or 112k)

I assume it would sound as good as a 96k but the bitrate would be 128. correct?

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Originally posted by shouck

what you could do is convert in CDex from mp3 to wav, then back to mp3.

i wonder how bad the loss would be if you went:

96k mp3 -> wav

wav -> 128k mp3 (or 112k)

I assume it would sound as good as a 96k but the bitrate would be 128. correct?

I don't suggest you do this, since the loss will be even greater than your initial plan. I'm betting Easy CD-DA Extractor will do the trick for ya. And by the way, WinMX is a Great p2p for getting good quality music, just remember to load that Ad-Aware.

Again though, I do stress you may be better off re-getting these songs in the higher bitrate, perhaps using WinMx.

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I don't think you'll ever gain quality by upping your mp3 bit rate.. it only goes downhill from the cd. The encoding rate is in the thousands or something in an original wav file. I think.

Anyway like these guys I am even pickier.. I don't download a lot of music from the net (only rarities and stuff, I generally don't rip music like I used to) becuase I need 256 variable bit rate. I use Easy CD_DA Extractor. With the Lame Encoder, it has just about every bit rate you could think of. If you have a decent sound system, and mine's not even decent, you'll want more than 128.

For the longest time I coudln't tell the difference either.

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