PC Sound formats?

[Squeaky]

This may need moving to another forum..but I'm sure this is where all the experts reside :D

Most music I have on my PC is standard mp3 128kbs, but I do have one or two in other formats, including VQF, WMA and OGG ..as well as non-loss SHN...the question is, and i know you are waiting for me to get to it ;) is which of the alternatives to mp3 would you recommend if i wanted to trim down my file size without losing any of the quality (128 is good enough for me)?

[jozzer]

Hmm....maybe you wont do much better than mp3 old friend....I once took W.M.Players advice and converted to wma...it halved file size, but, contrary to its claims, sound quality suffered tooo much.
May be worth a test though.....if you hang on to the originals till you are sure its ok.

[JDErickson]

I have the exact opposite problem. I want to save my music in the best quality I can.

I either use MP3 with the -r3mix option or use Monkeys Audio. This way I can have the best quality for burning my CD's.

I have always found that 128 losses too much quality when listening on high end equipment.

Jim

[The Therion]

I think the best compression formats are ogg vqf and mp3.
You can try also mp3 pro but i heard it doesnt help much.

There must be some more advanced ones ,but are not circulating much.

[mackerel]

I guess the old "try it and see" is probably the best option. A lot claim better sound for the same size, or smaller files for the same quality but they probably sound different.

Personally, I would stick with mp3 as I doubt the file size savings are going to add up to much. Also you wont have to worry about having the right player or plugins if you should take them elsewhere.

As a further thought, have you tried VBR mp3s? It may or may not help...

[speculative]

btw - whatever happened to mp4?? I thought there were coming out w/a new one, or is that the MP3 Pro that Mackerel mentioned?

[The Therion]

you mean the mp3 pro I mentioned :)

i think they were the same thing, not betting on it though ...

[speculative]

Originally posted by The Therion
you mean the mp3 pro I mentioned :)

Doh! That'll teach me to exceed the 60 second speed limit lol... :D

[The Therion]

LOL If i have 1 ninjamicros browser open and i want to post twice consecutively...i need more than 60 seconds anyway :D