Shawn Riley wrote:
> Having noticed the poor frequency resolution, does MP3 format still have
> the capability of storing frequency/volume information about frequencies
> that are not whole multiples of the number of blocks per unit time? Or can
> it only store those specific frequencies?
No, it can store other frequencies as well, but having higher frequency
resolution allows lower quantization noise for clean tones. However,
using long blocks has a disadvantage, too: it will introduce time-domain
artifacts, such as pre-echo. This pre-echo effect, at high bitrates
(>256k) can actually outweigh the advantages of long blocks. That's
why Layer 2 (which uses only 32 bands, and has a freq. resolution
worse than 600 Hz) can sound better than mp3 at very high bitrates,
especially when encoding noise-like signals with sharp attacks
(e.g. percussion instruments).
> "--noshort --resample 24 --lowpass 9.6" is looking increasingly more
> useful for encoding Enya's music. Unfortunately 160kBit/sec is sometimes
> not enough for 24kHz sampling (but it's close), with or without the --noshort.
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