[CUBE] iTunes4/AAC again

[mentholiptus]

On Thursday, May 15, 2003, at 10:49  AM, a l a n t h o m p s o n wrote:

> has anyone noticed that AAC encoded files appear to have an inherently 
> lower volume level?

A few points:

> typically, i encode/rip my cds at 192/vbr/etc..

VBR (IMO) is a bad deal. It varies the bit rate by cutting out silence 
and real quiet sounds...it *could* effect volume in some cases, but 
probably not like you describe. VBR is ok if you're short on HD space, 
but otherwise, I'd leave it off. It does nothing for quality, only 
helps shrink file size.

> last night i encoded nothing's shocking (janes addiction) with AAC 
> just to play around.  i used 160kbs/48Khz sampling rate, stereo/using 
> velocity engine (whatever that means).

Also, the CD's sampling rate is 44.1, so to go 48 won't help the 
original resolution of the sound at all, and can only do harm to the 
song overall...resampling is pretty crazy...at 44.1KHz, it breaks 1 
second up into 44,100 small chunks, and each chunk gets a pulse. So to 
resample, it has to take those 44,100 chunks, and somehow re-size them 
all into 48,000 chunks (each with it's own pulse). Damage can be done 
in this process.

> classic girl

I have a pretty slick maxi-single of classic girl, with some cool live 
JA songs, I think one of the live tunes is a cover of LA Woman from the 
doors. ....ahem ;)...wanna hear it?

> so anyone?

That's all I can say. Otherwise, AAC sounds great to me. Try grabbing 
one of your encoded songs, and rip the same song as an AIFF, then drag 
them both to quicktime and choose "play all movies" from the movie 
menu, and switch back and forth between the songs to see if they sound 
the same. Be sure quicktime is set to only play the sound of the movie 
up front.

Let me know what you find....I'm interested to see what's happening.



jesse




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