{"id":447,"date":"2006-07-11T18:30:12","date_gmt":"2006-07-11T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/http:\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/archives\/2006\/07\/2006_07_11_1830.php"},"modified":"2006-07-11T18:30:12","modified_gmt":"2006-07-11T10:30:12","slug":"allofmp3-did-you-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/07\/11\/allofmp3-did-you-know","title":{"rendered":"AllofMP3 &#8211; did you know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After watching Lewis Blacks&#8217; <em>&#8220;gay banditos&#8221;<\/em> skit on YouTube, I decided to buy his albums. Hahaha, don&#8217;t you just hate it that I can now use the word <strong>buy<\/strong> without batting an eyelash? Anyways, the variable pricing scheme AllofMP3 has on its encodes made me realize something when I was comparing them with one another.<\/p>\n<p>You see, when it comes to simple <em>audio<\/em> (as against <em>music<\/em>) I tend to pick the lower bit-rate to save on money. Because lets face it. A live performance by someone who simply <strong>talks<\/strong> doesn&#8217;t need much fidelity to be appreciated. Since I love comic acts so much, the process of analyzing a good price-quality ratio seemed very relevant to my predicament.<\/p>\n<!--more-->\n<h2>Did you know<\/h2>\n<p>&#8230;that the <code>CBR<\/code> <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_447_1('footnote_plugin_reference_447_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_447_1('footnote_plugin_reference_447_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_447_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_447_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Constant Bit-Rate<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_447_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_447_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> prices of downloads are the <em>same<\/em> as their <code>VBR<\/code> <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_447_1('footnote_plugin_reference_447_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_447_1('footnote_plugin_reference_447_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_447_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_447_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Variable Bit-Rate<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_447_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_447_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> counterparts? It&#8217;s true! I thought <em>&#8220;Hey 128kbps should be enough for a stereo file of non-musical content.&#8221;<\/em> I mean honestly, I don&#8217;t need full resolution for speech, the human voice in itself covers a very narrow frequency range in the audio spectrum, what are you going to do with all that additional fidelity from a higher bitrate? That&#8217;s not to say of course that a low bitrate is enough to properly represent the sound of human speech.<\/p>\n<p>My point is that if you listen to music, you listen to the <em>actual audio content<\/em>&#8230; when listening to speech, you&#8217;re listening to the <em>content of the audio.<\/em> There&#8217;s a difference.<\/p>\n<p>A decently recorded band with decent sounding instruments, when recorded. It is important to capture as much as possible (if not completely) resolution you can get out of the audio they produce. Because the different instruments <strong>require<\/strong> it. Cymbals (or any high frequency instrument) will not sound proper if you can&#8217;t represent the frequency range they &#8220;live on&#8221; properly. Which is exactly what lowering the bitrates does to the material.<\/p>\n<p>However, someone talking. For as long as the recording doesn&#8217;t sound too terrible, and people can understand what the hell you&#8217;re saying, no one would really mind. You can go as low as 64kbps on a mono frequency (128 stereo) and still get a somewhat fair representation of human speech.<\/p>\n<p>Hence, for audiobooks, stand up comic albums, I choose to go the best value bitrate. Which at first I thought was 128kbps <code>CBR<\/code> &#8211; which is the lowest AllofMP3 can offer. But for the heck of it, I tried selecting 128kbps <code>VBR<\/code>, the price didn&#8217;t change! It was a dead ringer. Here I was justifying the possible &#8220;floor&#8221; at which I would sacrifice quality to save some money, when a <code>VBR<\/code> version, which can give more resolution (since it bumps up the bitrate when there are parts that require more resolution) at the same price!<\/p>\n<p>So the tip is, when getting from AllofMP3, <strong>don&#8217;t bother<\/strong> with CBR, unless you&#8217;re <em>really<\/em> strapped for hard drive space (because they <strong>can<\/strong> be smaller) &#8211; always go VBR &#8211; because you get higher quality at the same price. And logically, when you&#8217;re already considering the highest bitrate (pseudo CD quality, as they would say), <code>VBR<\/code> might just end up being <strong>smaller<\/strong> <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_447_1('footnote_plugin_reference_447_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_447_1('footnote_plugin_reference_447_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_447_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">3 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_447_1_3\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">As VBR allocates more bitrates to areas that require more resolution, it can also decrease the bitrate for areas that do not require much at all (like silence, or low-fidelity sources) <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_447_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_447_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> with the <em>same<\/em> quality. It all depends on how good the encoding algorithm is of course, but I believe they use the LAME codec, which is known for it&#8217;s <code>VBR<\/code> encoding.<\/p><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_447_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_447_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_447_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_447_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_447_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_447_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_447_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Constant Bit-Rate<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_447_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_447_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_447_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Variable Bit-Rate<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_447_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_447_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_447_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">As VBR allocates more bitrates to areas that require more resolution, it can also decrease the bitrate for areas that do not require much at all (like silence, or low-fidelity sources) <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_447_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_447_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_447_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_447_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_447_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_447_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_447_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_447_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_447_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_447_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_447_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_447_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_447_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_447_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After watching Lewis Blacks&#8217; &#8220;gay banditos&#8221; skit on YouTube, I decided to buy his albums. Hahaha, don&#8217;t you just hate it that I can now use the word buy without batting an eyelash? Anyways, the variable pricing scheme AllofMP3 has on its encodes made me realize something when I was comparing them with one another. &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/07\/11\/allofmp3-did-you-know\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;AllofMP3 &#8211; did you know?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,8,13],"tags":[79,227,352,793,1250],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-internet","category-music","category-technology","tag-allofmp3","tag-cbr","tag-download","tag-mp3","tag-vbr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}