[CLUE-Tech] better ogg sound quality

[Jed S. Baer]

On Wed, 28 May 2003 21:06:22 -0600
Jeffery Cann <fabian at jefferycann.com> wrote:

> Here's the oggenc command line specified in grip:
> 
> -o %m -a "%a" -l "%d" -c "genre=%G" -b "%b" -d "%y" -N "%t" -t "%n" %w
> 
> Most of these values have to do with track, title, etc. and the values
> of "%x" are specified by dialog boxes in the grip gui.  
> 
> The -b specifies the bit rate.  I am under the misconception that a
> higher bit rate = better sound reproduction.  I have tried encoding the
> same song at 4 different bit rates, from 128 to 387 kbps - all sound
> similar and have the same distortions.

Well, it's hard to say. I'm curious about the recording itself. Wayback,
when I first started ripping mp3s, I noticed distortions on some material,
primarily female vocals (Sarah Brightman, for example). But that was using
bladeenc, which has known problems, except at high bitrates. FWIW, these
problems went away using lame, and I got very good compression/quality
using the R3Mix preset: http://mysic.net/269--R3mix.net.aspx

It's too bad there isn't a similar site for ogg, at least AFAIK. But, I
experimented a bit with ogg vs. mp3, and, at least on my computer's sound
system (Soundblaster and Altec speakers), I found I can't hear the
difference between similarly sized mp3 and ogg files for the same audio
material.

I note the lack of the "q" switch in the grip command line. FWIW, I tend
to rip CDs to wav files first, then encode to ogg. I don't find the extra
step a problem, cuz I rip the CD when I'm going to be away from the
computer for a while anyway. However, using this method, one doesn't get
the CDDB (err, FreeDB) interface for getting the title, genre, etc.

I wrote a cheesy Perl script for batching the wav2ogg conversion, which
I'll be happy to send to you if you like. The only "quality" parts of the
command line:

  $ oggenc -b 128 -q 5

jed
-- 
I wouldn't even think about bribing a rottweiler with a steak that
didn't weigh more than I do. -- Jason Earl