For others who may be interested in creating some Christmas MP3
music files I have a 'clip' from an online article comparing
Windows MultiMedia Audio format with the newer MP3 format
(LAME). 

___-------------- 

Full article at: 

http://www.mp3-tech.org/tests/wma9/ 

"For low bitrates, WMA seems to be a better compression scheme
than MP3. But the difference is not as huge as Microsoft would
like us to believe. By listening to the sample, you will
understand that recent MP3 encoders are quite better than two
years ago. Even without additionnal parameters, the results are
way better than the MP3 samples provided by Microsoft. By using
additional parameters, the quality can even be pushed further.
You can also notice that medium and high bitrates (128kbps) do
not need any additional parameter than the preset value, when
using a recent Lame release, in order to provide optimum
quality. (note: for Lame 3.90-3.92 it was necessary to use
--alt-preset instead of --preset)" 

"Here's my little formula for calculating bitrate for
proper sounding mp3 audio.
Take the khz sampling rate of each channel and X it by two:
Mono 22khz:
22 * 2 = 44 which would be 40 or 48kbps.
stereo 44khz:
44 * 2 = 88. 88 * 2 = 176. so, either 160kbps or 192kbps.
Get it? It's pretty simple!"

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What the above refers to as a 'proper sounding MP3' is that the
MP3 will be very close in sound to what you heard when playing
the original WAV file used to create the MP3. 

The new release of LAME uses 'psycho accoustics' which attempt
to 'fake' some of the missing qualities that MP3 lacks. The
difference is really quite amazing if you compare older MP3s to
more recent MP3s using the same WAV file as the original. 

The RazorLame frontend is worth getting, it makes all of this
much much easier to do. :-) 

Enjoy! 

>
>        ,                                        ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich  - DOS Ghost       \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >  www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/faf/  < \   __\__
  

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... Xmas Music! www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/faf/snowsc.htm

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