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Hello, first of all I want to apologize to all of you for I may don't post this in the correct section. Secondly, please forgive my ignorance and satisfy my curiosity. I have several questions for codecs, bit rates, frequencies and all related stuff to an audio file. So, let's begin! As far as I know, there are two types of audio files - lossy and lossless. Each one of these types have different codecs, bit rates and frequencies. As I know that lossy's best codec is MP3, I wonder which is the best lossless codec. Also, what is the difference between - VBR (variable bit rate), CBR (constant bit rate) and ABR (average bit rate); is there any difference between MP3 320kbps VBR/CBR/ABR and which one is the best? How do I check if it's VBR, CBR or ABR? If lossy's highest bit rate is 320kbps I wonder what is it for lossless. Does the frequency reflect the quality?
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Re: Best audio file - parameters.
Best lossy is not necessarily mp3. Some would argue that AAC is better. But even with this one must be comparing lossy at certain bitrates. Many folks like VBR because it optimizes use of space. Bits of audio that need more bitrate get the extra bitrate and the parts than need less bitrate, use less (i.e., the "variable" in VBR). LAME mp3 using VBR seems to be the "gold standard" for folks that like mp3 (including me). And one only needs to select -V0, -V1, -V2, etc. to choose an optimum "target" bit rate.
Regarding lossless, it doesn't matter. Lossless = lossless = lossless. So a FLAC file is decoded to the same audio as a WAV file, as an ALAC file. That's why this is called LOSSLESS. They are all bit perfect back to the original CD. I use FLAC (it has the benefit of standard metatagging scheme, the files contain their own CRCs so the audio in a FLAC file can be automatically self checked after copying to another drive, and the size is less than a WAV file). Don't get confused by the compression levels of a FLAC file (1-8). These are ALL lossless; the compression relates only to trying to get a smaller file size.
Lots to read about regarding your questions. For example:
If you are starting to rip your disks, my recommendation is to rip to LOSSLESS (I recommend FLAC). Make sure the metadata (tags) and artwork are what you want on these lossless files. Then you can easily create a mirror of lossy files for use on portables with a couple of mouse clicks. These can be mp3, AAC, etc. and can be of lower quality (to fit more songs on portables). Because these are NOT your archive. One can always easily create new lossy files of whatever quality you want from the LOSSLESS (e.g., FLAC) files you created when ripping. -
Re: Best audio file - parameters.
Thank you garym.Comment
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