On Monday, May 12, 2003, at 05:02 PM, Kelly Svarstad wrote: > I hear that AAC is a little bit nicer as far as size is concerned. I > like songs to hover around 160kbps. I guess my question is two-fold: > > 1. Can I use iTunes to re-encode all my mp3s into aac-ish files?
Yes. There are also new utilities out that will do this for you. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19495 > > 2. because I noticed that 160kbps isn't a 'native' quality of AAC (I > had to go into the custom setting), will that affect how it's size (in > relation to AAC encoding) is determined? More clearly, will the > custom bit rate mean that the eventual file size is bigger, in > addition to the bigger size because of the desired sampling rate? > Some thoughts on this... It would most likely be better to go back to the originals and encode into AAC from there, because MP3, AAC, and yes CD (aiff)* are all lossy formats. This means that by saving into the smaller file size, some music information is thrown away. AAC, being a newer format, is supposed to be better at giving you a much nicer sounding song when it is played back than MP3 is when both are saved AT THE SAME BIT RATE (this is important). Now the problem with transcoding (converting from one format to the other) is that you are starting with a lesser quality thing and trying to turn it into another lesser quality thing so you may find some songs do not sound as good after going from MP3 into AAC. So, go back to the CD and encode into AAC from there, you will get much better results. * Yup, CD is also a lossy compression method, it samples the sound at 44.1 khz and saves it from there (if it was digitally recorded to begin with --- which is why you need to take the various-posted-comments-scattered-around-the-internet-lately about which sounds better (AAC or MP3 as compared to the "original") with several heaping shovels of salt!!!!! Darned few of these postings are coming from folks that actually know about things like this). Most audiophile CDs these days use a format that will not play in any but very high end CD players, and these players don't play MP3s... Your idea of using 160 Kbs should give you good output, but why not use 192kbs? Other thought to keep in mind: AAC playback is not yet available in many car stereos or home CD players, so you are presently limited to playback on your computer and your iPod... This should change very soon. Jerry > thanks in advance > > -Kelly > > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > | be May 27. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be May 27. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
