How to download music?

me ^ | 6/22/08 | umgud

[umgud]

Old school Freeper needs tech help in downloading music. I've searched the net and can't find my answers.

[potlatch]

I have found most all MP3 files to be in the 1 to 5 meg file size. Most WAV files are under 1 meg and usually from 400 to 700kbs. They sound good and I combine both when I burn to CDs. I use good CDs and you cannot tell the difference in the final results.

I'll give you two examples Malsua;

IWalkTheLine-JCash.mp3     2.50MB    LINK

IWalkTheLine-JCash.wav     486kb     LINK

StandByMe-BenKing.mp3     3.45MB     LINK

StandByMe-BenKing.wav     433.kb     LINK

[potlatch]

I have hundreds of WAV music files under 1mb. I never go to the Canteen for music as the MP3s are 4 and 5 meg in size.

[Malsua]

>> IWalkTheLine-JCash.mp3 2.50MB LINK

IWalkTheLine-JCash.wav 486kb LINK<<

You’ll see that the one labeled .wav is a 24kbit audio rate and the one labeled .mp3 is 128kbit audio rate. 5 times the number of bits in the 128kbit mp3 and 5 times the file size of the 24kbit.

You may be ok with 24kbit recordings, but they sound tinny and hollow to me.

I just converted the MP3 to a genuine, uncompressed file and it was 57mbs. WAV files are uncompressed, all things being equal(like length, bitrate, etc) an MP3 will always be up to 10 times smaller.

[aft_lizard]

Correct me if I am wrong but he did say he has mp3 playback free already installed in his cd player, either way his OS came with a great free and easy to use program called WMP, and if he isn’t using drm tunes he can use that. WMP does everything that itunes does except sell you the songs. I know you are anti-everything MS but WMP is not that bad nad is very easy to use.

[potlatch]

I am certainly not an expert on sound quality. It is very confusing but as I said, I have hundreds of “wav” files under one meg and all my MP3s are triple that.

Therefor in my webhosting site I can have quadruple the number of files. They do seem to sound equally good on the burned CDs.

This is an ‘old Timmy’ site where I get many wav downloads and I have many sites like that that I go to.

http://www.pcdon.com/pop-country.html

[KevinB]

I may not know the whole story here, but that doesn't sound right. WAVs are uncompressed audio. If the WAV of a song is small, it's because the quality is very low or you really have an MP3 with a WAV file extension.

Yes, I agree that wav files can be small. I assumed we were talking about CD quality, which is what the original poster was talking about. The 1 meg wav file could be about five seconds of CD quality music or a couple of minutes of really bad quality music.

[potlatch]

Did you listen to some of the wav files I posted above?
Stand by Me and I Walk The Line

Do they really sound bad to you? I’m curious.

[gathersnomoss]

Let’s see. There were 45’s, albums, 8-track tapes, cassettes then CD’s. I have paid the RIAA a number of times for the same songs. I am finished.

[antiRepublicrat]

A CD-quality standard WAV file takes about 10 megabytes to store one minute of music. 44,100 samples per second at 2 bytes per sample times two channels equals 172 KB per second, *60 = 10 MB per minute. An MP3 at 128 kilobits per second takes only about 937 KB per minute, less than one-tenth the size, but with a somewhat noticeable loss of quality compared to the WAV. A high-quality 320 kbits/sec MP3 that’s hard to distinguish from CD/WAV quality (likely only audiophiles with high-end equipment will notice the difference) takes only 2.3 MB per minute .

So either yours are very low quality or they are compressed with MP3 or something else inside the WAV container. Later I’ll take some time to download your files, examine them, and tell you what’s up.

[Malsua]

So either yours are very low quality or they are compressed with MP3 or something else inside the WAV container

Both. Lame MP3 encoding in a Wav wrapper at 24kbits.

[potlatch]

OK. I get many old songs at this site;
http://www.pcdon.com/pop-country.html

As I said, they sound good to me so I guess it depends upon how discerning one is on the sound quality. The mp3s and wavs seem to sound equally good on my CDs.

[Malsua]

I thought it was initially just a mislabeled mp3, but the header shows that it's a wav format. Look at the bitrate and audio format.

[Malsua]

Oh, yeah, it’s Mono too. heh.

[antiRepublicrat]

I am certainly not an expert on sound quality. It is very confusing but as I said, I have hundreds of “wav” files under one meg and all my MP3s are triple that.

If the sound quality is low then the WAV will be small. But if you convert that to a constant bit-rate MP3 it will be larger. For example a WAV at 8,000 Hz 8-bit mono is about 470 KB per minute, but convert that to a constant bit-rate 128 Kb/sec MP3 and you're back up to 937 KB per minute. Basically, you just cut the quality more and wasted a lot of space.

[Fundamentally Fair]

Why not listen to XM? I spent 12 hours on the road this weekend and listened to XM the entire way. I listened to some music, a bit of talk, and the Red Sox-Cards game.

Curse you Kevin Youkilis!

[potlatch]

I thought it was initially just a mislabeled mp3, but the header shows that it's a wav format.

Soooo, if you thought it was an MP3 at first - it must not have sounded 'lame' to you, right? Lol!

I can understand that if you are in a quiet room listening to music you will want the sound to be excellent quality. If you are out jogging, walking or riding in a car the quality is not as obvious or necessary, I think.

But - I could be wrong!!

[potlatch]

OK, I give up, but thanks for the info.

I enjoy what I have and use and that’s all that’s important to me. If I were “20 something” again, I might be more finicky.

[antiRepublicrat]

It’s what I said in 89. WAV isn’t a format itself, but a container for audio, although mostly used to store uncompressed audio in PCM format. But it can also store an MP3 audio stream as yours does, and in that case you might as well have an MP3 file.

I saw it was mono, but you’re also using half the bit rate of a CD there. It is a 24 Kb/sec MP3, so 175 KB/minute, sounds about right for your file sizes. But since you’re doing mono the bitrate is the equivalent of a 48 Kb/sec stereo MP3 for quality. Normally below 128 Kb/sec in stereo (64 Kb/sec mono) distortion gets really bad as the compression tries to squeeze all the audio in that tiny bitstream; however, you’re using half the sampling rate so you’ll get less distortion (less data to squeeze) but can only reproduce up to 11,000 Hz frequencies according to the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem.

[Trailerpark Badass]

ping for later reference

[KevinB]

Did you listen to some of the wav files I posted above?

I just did, Potlatch. The mp3 file is substantially superior to the wav file. The wav file lacks crispness and sounds like it's being played in a tunnel from a distance. I'm not an audiophile by any means, but the wav file would not provide a satisfactory listening experience for me. If it works for you, though, that's great.