How to check quality of MP3 files

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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How to check quality of MP3 files

So I was DJing with a friend of mine & I kept complaining about his shitty Mp3 files, I mean the track selection was tasty but the sound..ouch!

Anyway, he did some research and came back with this!
http://www.walterdevos.be/how-to-check-quality-of-mp3-file

Freakin fantastic and it works :eek:

I found a freeware spectrum analyzer over at http://www.spek-project.org/. This is great to confirm your suspicions about your dodgy files before drilling a hole in everybody’s head on the massive soundsystems.

Cheers,

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Nice find.

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or just pay for your tunes. crazy idea i know.

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you could also use your ears, they are what most people would use, you shouldn’t need to rely on a computer program to tell you what something sounds like, once you start you will never develop the ability to do it naturally.

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ahh yes spectrals :smiley: i had a program that some one made at an audio forum that was made to spot trannys(transcodes :stuck_out_tongue:) it would basically analyze the spectral of a track and tell you what the original quality was . it was pretty useful, but i forgot the name of it :disappointed:

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Still that is pretty interesting!

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also this reminds me… i need to check my top40 collection for transcodes. i had a subscription with DMS but canceled when i started noticing that some of the songs i was getting from there sounded like complete crap… if i come across that program again i’ll be sure to post it here.

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I understand that ‘once compressed/lost - always lost’, but what if one has a track (a legitimate paid for one Jes :slight_smile: ) that is only available in 256kbps (the extended mix of “Torch” by Soft Cell) - can that file be ‘enhanced’? I see lots of reference to Audacity, which I have not used, but do have the latest version of Nero.
Thank you.

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Audacity is free dude!

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Prefer Nero Mr.P, but Audacity sure seems the choice here. But, will I get an ‘enhanced’ version of my 256kbps file with EITHER?

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Well it’s impossible to repair the damage but I’mm sure there are ways to make it sound a little nicer. I couldn’t tell you how though.

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second.
if someone told me they depended on an app to identify poor quality id probably laugh in their face.

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That’s fair - I’ll read RTFM :slight_smile:. Would you describe the ‘loss’ created by encoding as ‘damage’ though?

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Good point - but aren’t you analysing to confirm what you hear? I HEAR that the odd MP3’s that I have do not sound like my WAV files, but it’s interesting to SEE why.

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256 is the roof of the sound and the music is compressed to fit within that range, if you increase the range you would just find the same level of quality in the sound, and if you could uncompress it you would be left with a grainy sound… you could try to remaster it but essentially you will probably just muddy up the mix with effects that don’t need to be there…

In the case of soft Cell - torch, why not buy it on vinyl, and record it yourself, there are 42 copies available on discogs
http://www.discogs.com/Soft-Cell-Torch/release/94801

it’s also available on this cd in far better quality than mp3, there are 4 copies available
http://www.discogs.com/Soft-Cell-Say-Hello-Wave-Goodbye-91/release/993937

that is only a 2 minute dig.. you could also check hardtofindrecords if it still exists..

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@ JonathanBlake.. I get your point, but an mp3 will never sound as dynamic as an uncompressed wav when played through propper flat response studio monitors, but the difference is very minor on standard speakers and club systems, as they are designed to overdrive and warm up the sound anyway..

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Spec is very useful!

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Vinyl is still an inferior format, analogue doesn’t always mean better.

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:open_mouth:

Nicely done. Cheers for the link buddy

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freshly pressed immaculate vinyl, played through perfect needles does lol… but only for about 10 plays before it degrades, considering that would have been pressed in the 80’s I cant argue…