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New APPLE Music Download Service Coming (1 Viewer)

Seth_L

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Not true Camp.

There is an audible difference between an Itunes compressed MP3 and one compressed with FHG or LAME 3.92. Even the highest quality VBR mp3s from Itunes don't sound right. LAME far exceeds the quality.

Seth
 

Seth_L

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Winamp was used in the testing we did. Digital output from my PC to the digital input on my reciever. The receiver has 192/24 DACs and we used Sony MDR-V6 headphones.

Both my friend and I could pick out the CD from the apple mp3s easily (blind testing). On the LAME mp3s it was very difficult to do.

Seth
 

Joseph S

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now as far as itunes go, they didn't write that program from the ground up, it was bought from a guy that made a program called soundjam, which was, and still is far superior to itunes. but since the owner sold it to apple, soundjam was slowly killed.
Sound Jam was better than the first iTunes release and I had even paid for the MP version just a few months before iTunes, but it doesn't compare to recent iTunes releases. iTunes 3 does much more for me than Sound Jam ever could especially in coordination with my iPod and the new "smart" playlists. PodWorks shareware and a DVD-R drive has made backing up my music easy. The only wish I have is that someone convert the Lame applescript into a plug-in for easier use.
 

Camp

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Not true Camp.
I don't think you understood what I was saying.

Different encoders certainly have an effect on the quality of the MP3 (beyond simple encoding options like bit rate, etc.) but they're still MP3's.

Craig was saying Apple's version of mp3 was a different codec. That's just not true. It uses a different encoder but it's the same basic mp3 codec. Otherwise it wouldn't be an mp3.
 

Craig F

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Craig was saying Apple's version of mp3 was a different codec. That's just not true. It uses a different encoder but it's the same basic mp3 codec. Otherwise it wouldn't be an mp3.
A codec is just software. You can have different codecs that conform to the same spec. Apple's codec is not the same code as the official mp3 code, therefore it is a different codec.
 

Seth_L

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According to Encspot 2.0, Itunes uses LAME 3.61 for VBR rips. That means they're using an encoding engine from January 2000 when LAME wasn't very good. Unfortunately Encspot can't read any of the other information because they're missing LAME tags. Judging from how they sound they weren't using the highest quality settings that version of LAME had to offer either.

Seth
 

Joseph S

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According to Encspot 2.0, Itunes uses LAME 3.61 for VBR rips.
That's not correct.

The iTunes "About" display states:
"MPEG Layer-3 audio coding technology licensed from Fraunhofer IIS and THOMSON multimedia"

You can use any version of LAME you wish with iTunes however thanks to Applescript.
 

Seth_L

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That's what ENCspot says. If you hexedit the mp3 it has LAME 3.61 in the file header. I guess the question then is why does it put LAME 3.61 in the file header if it's not using LAME 3.61? For fixed bitrate file it uses something else.

Seth
 

Shane D

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my only problem with itunes over soundjam is the playlists. i miss my folders, i hate the play list in itunes
 

David Lawson

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eMusic just announced that it's moving from 128K encoding to 192K VBR encoding, effective immediately, and not a moment too soon. They've also released their own versions of the download client for Mac OS X and Linux.

Of course, I now have to redownload everything I've gotten so far.
 

BrianB

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Yup, good news from eMusic.

Of course, I can't grab anything till I get home tonight. Looking forward to d/l some improved Pedro The Lion ;)

Actually, that's something I wanted to know - what's the depth of the iTunes selection like? Does it have anything from the likes of Pedro The Lion, Opium Jukebox, Frontline Assembly, Pavement, Cinerama?
 

David Lawson

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:D

Pedro The Lion: none
Opium Jukebox: none
Frontline Assembly: none (mercifully)
Pavement: none
Cinerama: none

Stratford 4: none ;)
 

BrianB

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Thanks for the info, David. I was curious to get a feel for the "depth" of the iTunes selection & didn't want to go through the process of registering for a trial I can't use.
 

David Lawson

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There's no trial for the iTunes Music Store; the only requirements are a Mac and iTunes 4. As long as you have both of those, you're free to browse their selection and listen to samples as much as you like.
 

MarkHastings

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I just downloaded iTunes 4 and I'm browsing the music store now.:emoji_thumbsup: Pretty cool!

I'm watching the entire Sheryl Crow video "Soak up the sun" at a large res. :emoji_thumbsup: :emoji_thumbsup:
 

Patrick Larkin

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I just noticed the videos as well. They apparently are just in the featured artist section. I watched the Counting Crows "Big Yellow Taxi" video. This is GREAT. The web is sorely lacking a place for high quality music videos. I often wondered why there weren't more out there.

Major bummer noticed - you can watch the video for "Big Yellow Taxi" but you can't download the song. :confused:

One thing I want is a cross index of buyers. I use that feature on Amazon to find new stuff. You know, the "Customers that bought this title also bought the following:"
 

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