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Topic: My MP3 low bitrate encoding guide (Read 4533 times) previous topic - next topic
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My MP3 low bitrate encoding guide

My MP3 low bitrate encoding guide

goal:

-take max advantage of mp3 universal compatibility 
-provide acceptable 'radio' not bad / not transparent quality
-Use more aggresive lowpass to reduce size and distortions.
-Use -f or -q7 as alternative way to reduce ringing
-No hacks or experimental switches etc.. used.
-target bitrates 80..128k


Suggestions:

-V6 --lowpass 12 -f ( ~ avg 96k )
-V6 --lowpass 15 -f

-V5 --lowpass 13.5 ( ~ avg 96 k )
-V5 --lowpass 15 ( ~ avg 103 k )
-V5 --lowpass 15 -f



--abr 100 --lowpass 12 -f
--abr 110 --lowpass 15 -f

-b96 --lowpass 12 -f
-b112 --lowpass 15 -f
-b128 --lowpass 15 -f

Re: My MP3 low bitrate encoding guide

Reply #1
Simpler and more failsafe settings based on --lowpass 15  ~ avg 100..110k:

-V5 --lowpass 15
--abr 110 --lowpass 15 -f
-b112 --lowpass 15 -f

Re: My MP3 low bitrate encoding guide

Reply #2
When it comes to lower bit rate encoding, I figure keep it simple with MP3...

v7 (100kbps) (AAC equivalent = 64kbps) = THE minimum I would use for music.
v5 (130kbps) (AAC equivalent = 96kbps) = the safe minimum for music.

I say that because v8(85kbps) becomes fairly easy to spot differences between that and the lossless source on a decent set of speakers.

but unless someone must use MP3, if one is trying to get maximum amount of songs into the least amount of storage space, chances are if they can play MP3 there is a good chance they can play AAC and in that regard one could do 96kbps with AAC as that's about the equivalent to MP3 @ v5 (130kbps) based on listening tests around here (which seem to be the general safe minimums for most people with those two formats). plus, one could even use 64kbps AAC (AAC-LC of course to keep compatibility high) as I would say that's roughly equivalent to v7 (100kbps) MP3 as that's (64kbps) THE minimum I would consider using for AAC as going any lower you can notice more obvious drop offs in the overall sound quality vs the lossless source.

but with that said, since your talking more 'radio' range of quality for MP3, I suspect one could use lower than v7 (100kbps). but I would generally avoid that and switch to AAC since unless one has a fairly old lossy playing device chances are it can play AAC.
For music I suggest (using Foobar2000)... MP3 (LAME) @ V5 (130kbps). NOTE: using on AGPTEK-U3 as of Mar 18th 2021. I use 'fatsort' (on Linux) so MP3's are listed in proper order on AGPTEK-U3.

 

Re: My MP3 low bitrate encoding guide

Reply #3
I agree about aac and I would prefer it to mp3 esp @ 100k .  I played around with faac (96k) recently using -b96 -c16000 and would take it over mp3 for same bitrate. I tested roughly higher rates around 160k vbr: - q 100 -c 17500. I would take that over mp3 considering much better handling of my problem cases like angels fall 1st sample. In my mind at rates of 90..200k I would opt for lc-aac for compatibility and lightweight [decoding] operation.