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Okay, here is a bit of introduction to this MP3 thing... Actually, it really is the extension for files of MPEG Layer 3 compression. Let's take for example, a recording done using 44kHz and 16bits in Stereo, anyone who has done this will know that every second of the song will take you 172 kilobytes. And this is equivalent to almost 50 to 60 megabytes for a four minute song! That is because the sampling is done almost close to 1400 bits per second but in actual fact, we do not need such.
Using this MP3 technology, we digitally copy (rip) a song from the CD at 1400 kbits per second and then, encode the song to only 128 kbits per second - maintaining the sound quality but the amazing thing is, the file size is shrunk by 12 times. That means, the same four minutes song will only be 3 to 4 megabytes big - at the same quality! This technology is produced by a German institution and is already going around the Internet rapidly and is projected to be the next trend in Internet sound and music section.
Sending four mins song by Email
But, we do not need CD quality sound all the time, right? Radio quality sound at 64 kbits per second is fine too. So, using your arithmetic skills, you can easily calculate that the four minute sound will be under 2 megabytes and then, you come to realise that you can send songs over to friends by Email! The drawback for this technology is that you must have a good processor to decode the songs so that you can hear it. I would recommend a Pentium to hear the songs and to close major applications like Excel or Corel Draw (which uses a big deal of processor as well) so that the song will appear 'smoothe' and not jerky...
The process of making a MP3 file is much more complicated than simply putting in your CD and pressing the 'Record' button. To maintain sound quality, we usually rip, which is to digitally record, a track from the CD using DA extractors such as CDDA which can be found on this web site: http://www.evitech.fi/~jukkatp/cdda . Next, after ripping the song out from the CD, we have to encode it to whatever bit rate you want.
Some typical performance data of Layer-3 are:
sound quality bandwidth mode bitrate reduction ratio "telephone sound" 2.5 kHz mono 8 kbps* 96:1 "better than shortwave" 4.5 kHz mono 16 kbps* 48:1 "better than AM radio" 7.5 kHz mono 32 kbps 24:1 "similar to FM radio" 11 kHz stereo 56..64 kbps 26..24:1 "near-CD" 15 kHz stereo 96 kbps 16:1 "CD" 15 kHz stereo 112..128 kbps 14..12:1 (data collected from Fraunhofer-IIS)There are several encoding engines available from the Internet but most of them are executable in DOS mode. There is one, however, that runs in Windows 95 environment in an easy to use graphical user interface. This one is called MPlifier and can be downloaded at http://www.tu-harburg.de/~sehs2010 .
After all the talk about the process and blah blah blah, it's time we get down to getting the most important thing of all - the player for the MP3 files. I recommend two players - the NAD player or the WinAmp version 1.8. The second is the most popular and best player for the MP3 files. Both the players I recommend features Graphics Equalizer but the WinAmp went one step ahead with multiple configurations for the equalizer and a spectrum analyser. Here is how the WinAmp looks like:
Since it is so popular, there are several new 'skins' which is actually, how the WinAmp looks and there are really cool...For example, this is one which is easily downloadable from the net and it just 'covers' up the above GUI into something like this...
So, you see, WinAmp is actually very 'flexible' and I'll advice you all to get programme for your computer. You can download this for free at http://www.winamp.com .
Okay, this is not a commercial er... what word to use.... Anyway, this site is not intended for commercial purposes and therefore you shouldn't expect to pay for anything at all on my web site. I have a pasttime these days collecting and transferring some of my CD tracks into MP3 files. Actually, I've sent some songs to my good friends and my buddy and girlfriend but I can't do that everyday because the files are big and it's costly to have to wait in front of the computer for 15 to 20 mins each day just to recieve and send the songs... So, now I'm sending them a song each week and the songs are mainly very special and rare Old songs from the 50's to the 60's and sometimes, I send them new songs which are popular. If you think you want to recieve these songs every week, drop me a mail and express your intention. I'll be most happy to include you to my list and of course, if you have a song request, I'll try my best to send it to you. This is provided the song is not under copyright laws and such things. Therefore, I'll recommend you all to download your songs from the following links. They have thousands of songs and I'm sure you'll find your song there.
To mail me some nice songs... (contact me first before sending, please. I'm not responsible for returned mails if you send without my knowledge.)
Now playing "Every
Breathe You Take" by the Police
