From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sun Oct 30 14:38:52 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A1BC9C25490 for ; Sun, 30 Oct 2016 14:38:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from brandon.wandersee@gmail.com) Received: from mail-it0-f45.google.com (mail-it0-f45.google.com [209.85.214.45]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 776BC1353 for ; Sun, 30 Oct 2016 14:38:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from brandon.wandersee@gmail.com) Received: by mail-it0-f45.google.com with SMTP id u205so60219233itc.0 for ; Sun, 30 Oct 2016 07:38:52 -0700 (PDT) X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20130820; h=x-gm-message-state:references:user-agent:from:to:cc:subject :in-reply-to:date:message-id:mime-version; bh=2nRRBqmQs+hwBmhV7FR2H3Fgccs4WUElh8Cy+xEKM/E=; b=HTTBIq0uqYUDkALMj2IDkXjJw8YNYY2T6AYlSAl3aS3fM8H47l374PFlT8XZ5ua2vE Gij1bgmJX2JpVS78hyEda57AQH7KiiYthiHBLBfbccUACmmmDdkAMyd7zB3trkRxAHAS XNkbP77rbvdNTY7gyYUxXhXSEJjm1k6dp1TSeCSzAhPBF7t8/k72SPzqYZBF3n+XG8pA 0C/OcDpx2Zu3nTnSA0uzlu2dhZBlLkReBEGue9pcEmjGf+QQzG6brdp9avpZ9WbufJfV TBwi7XKK0c1bLknhSEDbJntEE9LEi1W8aqIwLxL0mafZuTozSx50Yy0cuju7x9iPPH59 BYAA== X-Gm-Message-State: ABUngvf3sm7XEJ2wycZT36FUhM1WHn3T6TfIucBF9W7Suf0aJmnpgBgluF2OQZpTKuDA+Q== X-Received: by 10.36.67.8 with SMTP id s8mr5928585itb.50.1477837936120; Sun, 30 Oct 2016 07:32:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: from WorkBox.Home (174-30-233-74.mpls.qwest.net. [174.30.233.74]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id f9sm6790770itb.8.2016.10.30.07.32.14 (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128/128); Sun, 30 Oct 2016 07:32:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (WorkBox.Home [local]) by WorkBox.Home (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTPA id 62700324; Sun, 30 Oct 2016 09:32:16 -0500 (CDT) References: <20161030231906.C13445@sola.nimnet.asn.au> User-agent: mu4e 0.9.16; emacs 25.1.1 From: Brandon J. Wandersee To: Ian Smith Cc: Polytropon , Allen , "Brandon J. Wandersee" , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: LAME Package Question In-reply-to: <20161030231906.C13445@sola.nimnet.asn.au> Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2016 09:32:16 -0500 Message-ID: <867f8px5zj.fsf@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2016 14:38:52 -0000 Ian Smith writes: > > > As a side note, transcoding MP3 to WAV---or any other lossy format to > > > any other loss-less format---isn't really a good idea. > > > > Except you want to create audio CDs from MP3 files (to play > > them in a device that doesn't read MP3 data CDs). :-) While this isn't an unfair point, it is a bit off-base. Transcoding audio files and burning them to CDs is something of a dying art. ;) > > Urgh :) Try using sox' spectrogram effect to visually compare original > .wav files to those converted back from even highest-quality .mp3s .. Just to be clear, the fidelity of the audio won't change when going from MP3 to WAV, as it would when going from WAV to MP3 or MP3 to another lossy format. But the file size will explode. You'll have exponentially larger files taking up much more space with no gain in audio fidelity or "quality." But there's no loss compared to the source, either. That's why I said it wasn't really a good idea, as opposed to it being a bad idea---under some circumstances, it's a trad-off some might be willing to make. Transcoding from one lossy format to another (like from MP3 to Ogg Vorbis) is always a terrible idea. -- :: Brandon J. Wandersee :: brandon.wandersee@gmail.com :: -------------------------------------------------- :: 'The best design is as little design as possible.' :: --- Dieter Rams ----------------------------------