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MP3 Info

The Technical Stuff

If you don't know about the MP3 audio format, then you should read this!

MP3 stands for MPEG 1 Layer 3. (Not MPEG 3, which is completely different standard.) It is used for compressing audio so that it takes up less space and can be transmitted more efficiently. It is not a lossless method of compression - the quality is not as good as the original. But at MP3 bit rates of 128 kbits/second, you would barely be able to tell the difference between the original and the compressed version.

The table below compares the amount of storage required for normal WAV and MP3 formats:

Format Storage required for 1 second
WAV - 44.1 kHz Stereo 16 Bit 172 kBytes
MP3 - 128 kbit/s 44.1 kHz Stereo 16 kBytes

OK, So How Can This Help Me?

You can get nearly 2 hours of CD quality audio onto a 100Mb Zip Disk!
 If you've got a CD-writer, you could get over 12 hours of music onto one CD.
 MP3s can also be distributed over the internet.

How Do I Make MP3s?

First, you need a good quality WAV file. Ideally, this should be 44.1 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo, for most successful compression.

You can get programs which allow you to read audio data straight off a CD into a WAV file which are ideal for this, although beware of copyright.

Next, you need an encoder. A very good one is called Plugger. This is Freeware and available from members.xoom.com/mp3nkoder/

Depending on the speed of your computer, it can take a long time to encode. On a P120, it takes 4 times as long to encode an MP3 as the length of the WAV!

How Do I Play MP3s?

A very good MP3 player can be found at www.winamp.com. Winamp can also play other formats such as MOD, WAV, MIDI, CDs and lots of others too.

Winamp can also be customised with 'skins'. See 'Winamp Skins' on the left to see some of the ones that I've designed.

If you've got Linux, you can find a similar player called XMMS. This comes with most distributions of Linux, such as Mandrake 7.2, or you can get it from www.xmms.org. I believe there is also a Macintosh version - probably at www.macamp.com.