Posted by Ty Roberts on 10/15/07 12:35

I'm new to MP3 encoding, so please bear with my basic question.

I'm bouncing some lossless audio files to MP3 format and my question
is: how do I get optimal sound quality for a given target file size?

The original recordings are 24 bit at 44.1 kHz.

My MP3 encoding software allows me to set a number of parameters,
like bit rate, variable bit encoding, joint stereo or normal,
and "quality."

I don't know anything about the MP3 format, so I'm not sure
exactly how these different parameters affect quality and file size.
After experimenting a bit, I've found that when I get a significant
reduction in file size, the sound quality degrades pretty
severely.

Do different MP3 encoders give different results? Are some better than
others at compressing files, or are they all producing the same result?

Any advise appreciated.

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