Test Pressing [Level 2]
Have a few MP3's I'd like to clean up, (ie: raise or lower level, get rid of pops & clicks, equalize, redo the fade out - ect). I haven't had much luck with any editing software on this process, as the edited song sounds worse that the original (garbled, lossy)... would my best bet be to burn these mp3's onto a CD, & re rip them back to a wave file for editing?
I have had better luck with editing Wave files. The MP3 files are done typically in 128Kbps, I have some mp3's that I hadn't been able to detect any loss over the Wave at this rate (depending on the source), however after an edit, the mp3 will exhibit losses.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Editing lossy files will almost always give poor results because most audio editors have to first convert the file to a regular PCM file, and then convert it back to MP3 when you save it, resulting in more signal loss. Whenever a file is converted to MP3, there is always loss, so editing it and re-saving it doubles that loss.
Test Pressing [Level 2]
True there is a loss going to an MP3, but should there be another loss going from a what I would consider good MP3 (non lossy IMO) over to a CD, then back to a WAV?
Usually when I convert from a good Wave file from a CD source to an MP3 I cannot detect any loss (my hearing going ...maybe??)... but if I play around editing an MP3 later the losses now become noticable on the edit.
We all have to bear in mind the equipment this being played on, most of these disco songs sound great on a 128k mp3 as I likely was listening at the time to them on a monoral car radio or a cheap compact stereo, so I now hear passages in a 128k mp3 conversion I never knew existed! The losses I get in editing seem more like a time shift garbling or choppiness that must be occouring wnen I resave the mp3 file... now I don't notice this in editing waves... well at least not as much! :icon_razz: does this still convert to a PCM file in this process too? & what I gather no matter what, every time there is an edit there is some sort of loss (which would make sense).
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
CD is WAV, at least in the sense that it's uncompressed PCM audio.Originally Written by Bismarck318
Yes, because to edit an MP3, the audio editor has to transcode back and forth, so you're getting double the loss.
There is when dealing with lossy files.
128 kbps MP3 is horrid IMHO; it's as bad as cassette. Everything above 17KHz stripped out, attacks smeared, stereo image ruined, hi-hats reduced to gurgling swirling effects. 256 kbps AAC ("iTunes" format) is my minimum. Hard disk space is cheap these days; there's no reason to ruin recordings by using such low bit-rates.
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