interesting fact

i noticed there are lots of stuff that sound better at low bitrate. it gives a more human feel to sounds

What is sounding "better" anyway to you ? Talk about psychoacoustics... sheesh :)

It was just a couple of years ago that I understood it is completely useless to talk about bitrates or how some people hear crappy 128kbps mp3 on crappy ipod earphones. It is only *my* system and my own file organisation that counts. As long as I have the tools to control it (= not AAC), I have no problem with anybody's compressing rate. Moore's law still applies to HD size (or price) and it got up way faster than the one of my music consumption. The only reason mp3 exists is because of HD space or size, always remember that.

It's their loss in the end, the same way of all the unintelligent people who bought pan&scan DVDs, got themselves 16:9 HDTVs a couple of years after and just zoom their pan&scan movie to fill up the screen.

mp3 compression cuts out the frequencies that are less dominant, so it could be a bit like another level of mastering cutting out the mud. in stuff like rock where a lot of the emphasis is more on rhythm and melody it might sound better to have a less "detailed" sound.

I think flac sounds better than cd but I also have some youtube rips in my library... just don't care. I listened to some xenakis on youtube yesterday and I really wanted it to be in mono more than in higher quality.

One people will wistfully reminisce about 'The You-Tube Sound' and the way it evokes the early 21st century for them.

  spraaaa said:

I think flac sounds better than cd

LOL

I think a zipped TXT reads better than the original TXT file

Is this new?

Remember how shitty cassette tapes would sound after, oh, a week of frequent use? How cymbals would get washed out and the sound became gradually saturated over time?

as far as I'm concerned shitty 128kbps mp3 is a step up from older portable listening technologies

  spraaaa said:

I think flac sounds better than cd

i rest my case. i rest all my cases, forever.

on a somewhat related note i vaguely remember my friend telling me that he heard someone (think it was grant from rephlex) saying that bouncing tracks to a pendrive rather than the hard drive improves the sound quality. Is this bollocks or is there some truth in it?

  Shit Attack said:

ok well reading it anyway its mainly talking about how people prefer rock records at low bitrates which is totally understandable. rock music isnt meant to be polished sounding shit it sounds better when its grungy and nasty sounding. its no accident most of the best rock records were made 40 odd years ago when the sound and equipment was shittier.

.....

it has come to my attention that low bit rate mp3s are preferred by the youths. is this FACT or FICTION?

  essines said:

  Shit Attack said:

ok well reading it anyway its mainly talking about how people prefer rock records at low bitrates which is totally understandable. rock music isnt meant to be polished sounding shit it sounds better when its grungy and nasty sounding. its no accident most of the best rock records were made 40 odd years ago when the sound and equipment was shittier.

 

.....

this is why nirvana sucks.

  Betty said:

One people will wistfully reminisce about 'The You-Tube Sound' and the way it evokes the early 21st century for them.

in 20 years boc will shift their focus from crackly old 70s films to shit quality youtube vids.

  kokoon said:

  spraaaa said:

I think flac sounds better than cd

i rest my case. i rest all my cases, forever.

Exactly, people are idiots. He's probably re-encoded his mp3s as FLACs for extra definition too.

192 is where my ears can't tell a difference. Most of my collection is 192... My friend and I were in a disagreement about compression when I decided to rip a song as an uncompressed .wav and an mp3 @ 192. After arguing for an hour or so, I played them both on a pair of studio headphones for him, mixing them up... Big surprise, he couldn't tell a difference.. @ 160, we both could pick out the .mp3..

128 is a shame...