Ok..guys thanks for all your comments..and I have a few answers for a few questions which rised up here..Like what member Arturo asked..Well if you want to download MP3s from the internet, MP3s that has the higher bitrate should have the best sounding capability..But when it comes to 'bitrate' there are 2 types..1 type is called CBR ( Constant BitRate ) and VBR ( Variable BitRate )..As the name suggests CBR which has a fixed bitrate for a music file..Whereas VBR, its bitrate flatuates as the song play..The purpose of having these 2 types of bitrate format is for the users to choose whether the want to save their precious hard disk space ( CBR ) or they want quality ( VBR )..Thats about it..
Another question that Arthuro asked was about the studios that use professional software to improve mp3 to CD quality..Telling you truthfully Arthuro so far no studios use these software for this purpose..Because I as a sound engineer never seen them do this besides me..A lot of sound engineer that I have met never even went close of trying it..Maybe you might know a few who I dont know..But dont worry I will tell the names of the softwares..You can actually use Cubase , WaveLab, Nuendo, or ProTools..But the problem is in order for you to use this software you need to have a hardware studio sound card like M-Audio which can cost you like RM2000 or studio console that comes with a soundcard built-in like DigiDesign which can cost you like RM8000..I know the price and name because I have worked on them..Buying them is not the big deal for those who have the cash but searching and buying the right plugins to use them is the big deal..Without plugins this software including the soundcard are useless..Lets say if someone has all this but without the right knowlegde on sound engineering is useless too..I'm telling you this based on my experience last time trying to play with these softwares when I knew nuts about sound engineering..I basically ended making MP3 sound worst then they already are..
And another reason why studio sound engineers try their level best not to listen MP3s is because since all MP3s clip, they can actually spoil their studio monitors..Studio monitors are speakers that are built to handle clipping and they do not 'freqency fold' which means one frequency band 'overtake' the other frequency band..i think many of us would have came across this situation..When you playing a song in your car or computer speakers..when you put the volume low you could actually here the bass but as you increase louder and louder the midrange and highs becomes louder than the bass..so what usually we do is we increase the bass in the equalizer so that the bass can be heard at high volumes and vice versa..This is what we call frequency folding..The speakers that we are listening the music limits the one band of frequency to allow the other band of frequencies to rise up..Studio monitors are built to eliminate this problem because when it comes to sound production and sound engineering frequency folding problem is a No No..Even studio monitors which are built to handle these sort of problem can still spoil if MP3 are played overtime on through them just imagine your car speakers..
Anyways I understand why we all download MP3s..sometimes not all the songs in an original CD is nice..we might like maybe 1 or 2 songs and for that 1 or 2 songs we have to spend a lot of cash..Since we can download, we might as well just download it..end of the day we save space and cash..I know this because I too download songs..But the result is that MP3s are damaging to our speakers due to its overloading of frequency signals ( CLIP )..So if you need help on cleaning them, pm and I'll help you..Just remember one thing even some original CDs clip..Like the latest Pitbull and Usher-Raymond vs Raymond which I bought also Clips because I have checked it..Thats why I prefer checking the songs first even its an original CD and cleaning them before re-burning them into a new CD..At least my original CD stays brand-new condition..
---------- Post added at 03:22 PM ---------- 6 hour anti-bump limit - Previous post was at 03:14 PM ----------
For reference you can check out from my blog at
http://raj-mastering.vox.com and click on the icon that says 'For Zerotohundred viewing'..you will find two song files :
1. Sexy Chick-Cleaned
2. Secy Chick-MP3
Play the both songs and you will find out that the Cleaned version of the song Sexy Chick will sound titer and smoother than the MP3 version. What i've done is that i've removed the DC offset in the MP3 and lowered its volume to -0.1 dB so that the song got more 'room' to breath when its volume is pushed louder.