Keep in mind that you don't know the history of anything you get free from the web. For example, if you find a site with higher bit rates, you don't know if there wasn't a point where it existed at a lower bit rate. You can't really get sound back that was once lost. When you convert something to MP3 from YouTube, you really don't know what the bit-rate of the audio is that was part of the video. Some of what you are hearing could even be left over from how the audio was encoded as part of the video. Changing the bit rate on the YouTube to MP3 conversion would very likely do nothing in many cases to help the sound because of how it existed before it was converted to MP3. Lots of YouTube stuff sounds good to me, especially compared to old cassettes that I have, but if you are going to analyze how something sounds, whether you can hear the encoding, you have to consider the entire history of the recording. . It is even conceiveable that you could find another 128KB MP3 recording that sounds better than what you got from YouTube because it existed at a higher bit rate before being converted to MP3.
Best regards, Steve Jacobson On Sat, 1 Oct 2011 07:56:16 +0200, Andr van Deventer wrote: >Dave >I use a NAD amplifier with a good pair of british speakers and an older >Emagic USB sound card which was when it came out supposed to be very high >quality. >So you will understand why I am asking about bit rate now. >Also another thing that prompted my question: I am getting some stuff from >utube now - quite old stuff from the 50s and 60s. I use the automatic >youtube to mp3 service to convert them and it does seem if they use only 128 >kbps and that there is no way to change the encoding there. >The problem is that I now find myself taking some of the stuff simply >because I cannot get it anywhere else. So I would be prepared to take the >slightly lower quality and then look for something better later. >After all - what is the most important thing in the end? The absolute >correct sound or the music itself? >But you are correct - with a sound system like mine you can actually hear >the difference in sound quality between different encodings. >-----Original Message----- >From: pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] >On Behalf Of Dave Scrimenti >Sent: 30 September 2011 10:08 PM >To: PC Audio Discussion List >Subject: Re: encoding older music >Once music started being recorded on tape, (1950 and later), the quality is >sufficiently good that you might not want to compromise. Prior to that, you >can get away with it more. On the other hand, do you want to risk >introducing even more degradation to something that's already pretty bad? >Also, no compromise in sound quality assumes you use a stereo system capable >of letting you discern the difference. Sometimes people obsess over bit >rates, and then listen with their computer's built-in sound card with crap >converters, a junky amp, and cheap speakers or headphones. >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Andr van Deventer" <andred...@webafrica.org.za> >To: "PC Audio Discussion List" <pc-audio@pc-audio.org> >Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 11:55 AM >Subject: encoding older music >Hi folks! >I again dare to open the can of worms which is the encoding of music which >is downloaded from the internet. >But today I have a different slant. >For reasonably new stuff I do not believe that you can compromise especially >when it comes to music with large orchestras. 320 mp3 3encoding is the >least that is acceptable. >But what happens if you work with music from the 40s, 50s and even the 60s? >Is there really an appreciable difference between 128 kbps and 320 kbps >encoding - even with music which is recorded in stereo? >I realize that this is mostly a matter of personal preference and the kinds >of music I am talking about would be say before 1970. >Andre >To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: >pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org >To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: >pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org >To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: >pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org
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