Ahh, that was the first mp3 I ever downloaded illegally!

This song has officially been stuck in my head all day. Definitely have to save as MP3 and add it to my 80s playlist. They should make it available for sale.

*doublepromote the epicness.

Hamster, I find its heavy cymbal use, especially during fairly busy pieces that is where mp3 falls apart. Even at 320k it still suffers a warble sounding artifact.

tl;dr: No, not really and no, probably not.

-

MP3 compression methods are pretty good these days. A well encoded mp3 sounds quite good at 224k. 320k is ideal, but 224k sounds fine to me.

I think most people would be incredibly hard pressed to tell the difference between a well encoded 320k MP3 and a FLAC file.

To showcase this and hopefully answer your question through demonstration, I've put together an odd sound file here for ya: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/837649/soundtest.wav

It's a 24bit 48kHz wav file of a piece of bright and full audio thrown together just for this (using 24-bit 48kHz audio sources). The audio loops a few times and each time it loops it's in a different format or quality.

The odd part is that I've dropped the audio volume down all the way to just barely above the 16-bit noise floor before exporting into each format, then cranked the volume back up again. Just to see what would happen.

Anyway, the play order is as follows:
1. Original 16-bit audio (sound normal, as it should.)
2. 16-bit audio re-gained (noise city - the 16-bit FLAC was the same.)
3. 24-bit audio re-gained (Sounds as good as the original.)
4. FLAC 24-bit re-gained (Sounds as good as the original.)
5. MP3 8 k re-gained (What?)
6. MP3 64 k re-gained (Sounds like a bad MP3, because it is. but, do note it's mostly just dull and a bit unstable sounding, not all weird like the 8k one.)
7. MP3 128 k re-gained (Pretty good, but still a bit dull. Not horrible though.)
8. MP3 224 k re-gained (Sounds as good as the original? Pretty close, I'd say.)
9. MP3 320 k re-gained (Sounds as good as the original as far as I'm concerned.)

This is just one test though. There are most certainly songs or sounds out there that wouldn't fare as well as this one. No idea what those would be though, as everything I've MP3-ified in the last decade or so sounds absolutely fine to me.

I am still going through his last video which I think he takes on compression, but I can tell you right now as for mp3, it is cd-quality, but it is not cd. Even at high bitrates, the high frequencies get hit hard. It is pretty sad we continue to let our music suffer with a lot of people still compressing to mp3. If you look hard enough though you will find people using FLAC, and apples high bitrate AAC files are great. Anime fansubs which are probably more fickle about quality and standards then the Hollywood movie pirate scene are now all using AAC in their mp4 file instead of bad old mp3. Although in its defense, MOST movie rips are AC3/DTS, or at least offer it aside long its MP3 stereo track.

Thanks for the reply and sharing your expertise -- sounds like you'd confirm everything that the video said.

This probably just displays my ignorance more, but specifically with regards to the MP3 format, do you think it adds any noticeable compression artifacts even at high-quality settings? Part of my problem was that I was thinking of MP3 *bit*rate as sampling rate (128 kbit/s = 128 kHz, which is not at all correct). But still, MP3 is a lossy format (obviously since one can turn a 650M CD into ~60M of 128k MP3s, or still a large filesize savings even for 320k) and even my relatively untrained ear can sometimes hear the difference at low (say, 128k or lower) bitrates.

I guess that a music producer wouldn't record/master anything in a compressed format like MP3, so that is sort of entirely separate from the point of this video and your comment. But just out of curiosity, do you think that people can detect differences between a 16 bit 44 kHz uncompressed digital recording (flac maybe?) and a very high quality MP3 (say, 320 kbit)?

This goes beyond my knowledge level of signals and waveforms, but it was very interesting anyway.

That being said, OK, I'm sold on the concept that ADC and back doesn't screw up the signal. However, I'm pretty sure that real audiophiles could easily listen to several copies of the same recording at different bitrates and frequencies and correctly identify which ones are higher or better quality with excellent accuracy. I bet that is true even for 16bit vs 24bit, or 192kHz vs 320kHz -- stuff that should be "so good it is impossible to tell the difference".

Since some people that train themselves to have an ear for it CAN detect differences (accurately), the differences must actually be there. If they aren't artifacts of ADC issues, then what are they? I'm guessing compression artifacts?

In a visual version of this, I remember watching digital satellite TV around 10-15 years ago. The digital TV signal was fine and clear -- almost certainly better than what you'd get from an analog OTA antenna. BUT, the satellites used (I believe) mpeg compression to reduce channel bandwidth, and that compression created some artifacts that were easy to notice once somebody pointed them out to you. I specifically remember onscreen people getting "jellyface" anytime someone would nod slowly, or make similar periodic motions. I've got a feeling that some of the artifacts that we (or at least those of us that are real hardcore audiophiles) can notice in MP3 audio files are similar to an audio version of that jellyface kind of issue.

Here's mine:
01/21/2008 06:35 AM 1,126,396 Activision-Aliens C64's Drop Ship Soundtrack.mp3
02/13/2006 01:00 AM 2,836,608 Day of Defeat Source Theme.mp3
12/19/2000 04:31 AM 5,318,656 EMPEROR-BATTLE FOR DUNE -- HARKONNEN THEME.MP3
05/27/1999 06:01 AM 5,095,424 Lee Jackson - Duke Nukem Theme (Grabbag).mp3
11/01/2009 05:05 PM 3,183,221 NIGHTkilla - Tetris Remix.mp3
11/12/2005 06:34 PM 1,646,592 No One Lives Forever 2 theme.mp3
10/31/2009 02:16 PM 2,971,316 Parkerman1700 - Tetris Remix.mp3
10/21/2007 11:27 AM 4,893,946 THC Flatline - Rastan Saga (Song 2).mp3
09/24/2006 12:49 PM 2,105,472 The Maniacs of Noise - Golden Axe Level Music (C64).mp3
9 File(s) 29,177,631 bytes

10/27/2007 01:41 PM 5,012,365 Christopher Tin - Baba Yetu (Civilization 4 Opening Menu).mp3
08/16/2008 03:19 PM 12,081,866 Christopher Tin-Video Games Live - Bab Yetu-Civilization IV Medley.mp3
2 File(s) 17,094,231 bytes

Command & Conquer Series\Red Alert 1 (RA)
01/04/1998 06:55 AM 6,132,818 01 - RA Hell March.mp3
05/22/2000 05:14 PM 3,914,378 02 - RA Radio.mp3
01/04/1998 06:56 AM 3,662,510 03 - RA Crush.mp3
01/04/1998 06:55 AM 3,750,914 04 - RA Roll Out.mp3
01/04/1998 06:56 AM 4,611,184 05 - RA Mud.mp3
01/04/1998 06:56 AM 3,761,018 06 - RA Twin Cannon.mp3
01/04/1998 07:12 AM 5,368,542 07 - RA Face Enemy.mp3
01/04/1998 07:12 AM 4,996,076 08 - RA Run.mp3
05/22/2000 05:07 PM 5,031,520 09 - RA Terminate.mp3
11/04/2000 03:37 PM 6,295,552 10 - RA - FRANK KLEPACKI - BIGFOOT.MP3
05/22/2000 04:59 PM 4,537,792 11 - RA Workmen.mp3
05/22/2000 05:07 PM 1,757,236 12 - RA Militant Force.mp3
05/22/2000 05:07 PM 7,784,138 15 - RA Smash.mp3
13 File(s) 61,603,678 bytes

Command & Conquer Series\Tiberian Dawn (TD)
05/22/2000 04:55 PM 2,760,538 01 - TD Act on Instinct.mp3
05/22/2000 04:56 PM 3,214,652 02 - TD No Mercy.mp3
05/22/2000 04:56 PM 2,769,296 03 - TD Industrial 1.mp3
05/22/2000 04:56 PM 3,029,086 05 - TD We Will Stop Them.mp3
05/22/2000 05:14 PM 2,894,396 06 - TD Radio.mp3
05/22/2000 04:57 PM 2,908,990 07 - TD On the Prowl.mp3
05/22/2000 04:57 PM 4,195,436 08 - TD Re-con.mp3
04/05/2013 05:18 PM 3,714,765 10 - TD In The Line of Fire.mp3
05/22/2000 05:00 PM 2,899,334 11 - TD Prepare for Battle.mp3
05/22/2000 05:09 PM 4,070,336 12 - TD Depth Charge.mp3
05/22/2000 05:12 PM 2,465,302 13 - TD Rain In the Night.mp3
05/22/2000 05:13 PM 2,757,620 15 - TD Target.mp3
05/22/2000 05:11 PM 2,281,406 16 - TD Just Do It.mp3
05/22/2000 05:08 PM 3,079,126 17 - TD C&C Thang.mp3
05/22/2000 05:13 PM 2,646,698 18 - TD To Be Feared.mp3
05/22/2000 05:09 PM 4,265,074 19 - TD Drilled.mp3
05/22/2000 05:10 PM 2,511,458 21 - TD In Trouble.mp3
05/22/2000 05:08 PM 2,281,274 22 - TD Airstrike.mp3
18 File(s) 54,744,787 bytes

DOOM soundtracks\Bigfoot-Tunes
11/01/2009 04:32 PM 2,565,059 Bigfoot-Tunes - Doom 2 M9 - The Pit.mp3
11/01/2009 05:26 PM 1,534,372 Bigfoot-Tunes - DOOM E1M1 Remix.mp3
11/01/2009 05:26 PM 728,129 Bigfoot-Tunes - DOOM E3M1 Remix.mp3
3 File(s) 4,827,560 bytes

DOOM soundtracks\DOOM1
06/02/2000 12:14 PM 1,704,148 DOOM - At Doom's Gate.mp3
06/02/2000 12:33 PM 3,483,818 DOOM - Hiding The Secrets.mp3
06/02/2000 04:57 PM 4,609,382 DOOM - Into Sandy's City.mp3
06/02/2000 05:36 PM 3,722,055 DOOM - Kitchen Ace.mp3
06/02/2000 05:52 PM 1,534,874 DOOM - On The Hunt.mp3
06/02/2000 06:31 PM 3,992,056 DOOM - Running From Evil.mp3
06/02/2000 07:14 PM 4,850,544 DOOM - Sign Of Evil.mp3
06/02/2000 07:44 PM 2,952,174 DOOM - Sinister.mp3
06/02/2000 08:20 PM 3,352,161 DOOM - The Demon's Dead.mp3
06/02/2000 08:53 PM 2,861,477 DOOM - The End of DOOM.mp3
09/11/2002 10:43 AM 1,230,848 E1M2 - The Imp's Song.mp2
09/11/2002 10:42 AM 1,187,840 E1M7 - Demons on the Prey.mp2
09/11/2002 10:42 AM 1,198,080 E2M1 - I Sawed the Demons.mp2
09/11/2002 10:42 AM 1,202,176 E2M2 - The Demons from Adrian's Pen.mp2
09/11/2002 10:44 AM 831,616 E2M7 - Waltz of the Demons.mp2
09/11/2002 10:44 AM 764,032 E3M1 - Untitled.mp2
09/11/2002 10:45 AM 934,016 E3M2 - Donna to the Rescue.mp2
17 File(s) 40,411,297 bytes

DOOM1\Sonic Clang's Classic DOOM Soundtracks
12/18/2005 12:02 PM 3,850,240 Sonic Clang - Classic DOOM E1M2.mp3
12/18/2005 12:02 PM 3,928,064 Sonic Clang - Classic DOOM E1M5.mp3
12/18/2005 12:02 PM 2,197,504 Sonic Clang - Classic DOOM E1M6.mp3
12/18/2005 12:02 PM 3,715,072 Sonic Clang - Classic DOOM E1M7.mp3
12/18/2005 12:03 PM 5,836,800 Sonic Clang - Classic DOOM E1M8.mp3
5 File(s) 19,527,680 bytes

DOOM soundtracks\DOOM2
09/11/2002 10:48 AM 1,820,800 Map01 - Running from Evil.mp2
09/11/2002 10:52 AM 2,308,224 Map02 - The Healer Stalks.mp2
09/11/2002 10:52 AM 1,816,704 Map03 - Countdown to Death.mp2
09/11/2002 10:53 AM 2,054,272 Map05 - DOOM.mp2
09/11/2002 10:53 AM 2,039,936 Map07 - Shawn's Got the Shotgun.mp2
09/11/2002 10:54 AM 2,375,808 Map08 - The Dave D Taylor Blues.mp2
09/11/2002 10:55 AM 2,420,864 Map18 - Waiting for Romero to Play.mp2
7 File(s) 14,836,608 bytes

DOOM soundtracks\Remixes

09/09/2002 06:04 PM 1,524,884 Doom 02 - Victory Music.mp2
09/09/2002 06:08 PM 2,276,594 Doom 2 03 - Endgame.mp2
09/09/2002 04:45 PM 4,961,175 doom02.mp3
09/09/2002 04:50 PM 4,522,736 doom03.mp3
09/09/2002 05:01 PM 4,745,090 doom05.mp3
09/09/2002 05:18 PM 5,329,397 doom08.mp3
09/09/2002 05:23 PM 5,015,510 doom09.mp3
09/09/2002 05:28 PM 4,664,424 doom10.mp3
09/09/2002 05:34 PM 4,929,410 doom11-victory.mp3
09/09/2002 05:38 PM 3,540,950 doom2_06.mp3
09/09/2002 05:47 PM 4,001,123 doom2_09.mp3
09/09/2002 05:51 PM 3,520,470 doom2_10.mp3
09/09/2002 06:02 PM 2,594,272 doom2_18.mp3
13 File(s) 51,626,035 bytes

DOOM soundtracks\Steve Rot's DOOM Tribute\Hell On Earth - DOOM 2
08/14/2010 01:44 PM 6,738,831 2-05 Map02.mp3
08/14/2010 01:44 PM 5,600,937 2-06 Map03.mp3
08/14/2010 01:44 PM 6,491,713 2-12 Map09.mp3
08/14/2010 01:44 PM 6,168,840 2-13 Map10.mp3
08/14/2010 01:44 PM 7,026,701 2-14 Map18.mp3
5 File(s) 32,027,022 bytes

DOOM soundtracks\Steve Rot's DOOM Tribute\Phobos Anomaly - DOOM 1
08/14/2010 01:43 PM 2,912,778 3-02 E1M1 Hangar.mp3
08/14/2010 01:43 PM 4,202,189 3-03 E1M2 Nuclear Plant.mp3
08/14/2010 01:43 PM 2,672,463 3-07 E1M6 Central Processing.mp3
08/14/2010 01:43 PM 4,302,500 3-09 E1M8 Phobos Anomaly.mp3
08/14/2010 01:43 PM 3,731,463 3-10 E1M9 Military Base.mp3
5 File(s) 17,821,393 bytes

Duke Nukem 3D
12/27/2009 05:23 PM 1,599,197 Potorrero - Aliens, Say Your Prayers (Rock) [Duke Nukem 3D E2M7].mp3
12/22/2009 11:42 PM 2,668,975 Robert C. Prince III - Aliens, Say Your Prayers! from Duke Nukem 3D E2M7.ogg
2 File(s) 4,268,172 bytes

Duke Nukem 3D\Bobby Prince and Lee Jackson
12/27/2009 05:54 PM 1,020,895 Bobby Prince and Lee Jackson - Grabbag (Short Duke Nukem 3D Theme).wma
12/24/2009 01:56 PM 2,646,367 Bobby Prince and Lee Jackson - Stalker (Duke Nukem 3D E1M1).wma
12/24/2009 02:04 PM 5,777,791 Bobby Prince and Lee Jackson - The City Streets.wma
3 File(s) 9,445,053 bytes

Duke Nukem 3D\Mark McWane and others
12/24/2009 02:01 PM 3,039,203 Mark McWane and Lee Jackson - Stalker (Duke Nukem 3D E1M1).mp3
12/23/2009 11:09 PM 3,045,302 Mark McWane and Robert C. Prince III - Aliens, Say Your Prayers! - Episode 2, Level 7, Duke Nukem.mp3
12/24/2009 02:02 PM 5,729,412 Mark McWane and Robert C. Prince III - The City Streets - Duke Nukem 3D (E1M3).mp3
3 File(s) 11,813,917 bytes

Golden Axe Soundtracks
09/17/2011 08:04 PM 4,340,464 Aki Jrvinen - Golden Axe - Path of Fiend Metal Remix.mp3
09/17/2011 07:55 PM 4,359,400 Aki Jrvinen - Golden Axe First Level Metal Remake.mp3
09/17/2011 08:10 PM 8,840,613 daXX - Golden Axe Orchestra Remix.mp3
01/29/2001 06:20 PM 4,757,504 DJ Pretzel - Golden Axe Death Adder Trance - OC ReMix.mp3
01/29/2001 06:20 PM 3,768,320 Golden Axe - Battlefield.mp3
01/29/2001 06:21 PM 2,515,072 Golden Axe - Fiends Path.mp3
01/29/2001 06:21 PM 3,440,768 Golden Axe - Wilderness.mp3
10/14/2012 09:44 AM 3,891,182 Jeroen Tel - C64 - Golden Axe - Battle Field (Boss).mp3
10/14/2012 09:45 AM 7,150,427 Jeroen Tel - C64 - Golden Axe - Wilderness.mp3
02/20/2013 07:19 PM 7,241,856 MusicWizard - Golden Axe - Stage 1 v.2 FINAL [Remake].mp3
10/29/2006 02:38 PM 2,492,544 Sega - Golden Axe 05.mp3
10/29/2006 02:38 PM 2,328,576 Sega - Golden Axe 09.mp3
12 File(s) 55,126,726 bytes

Golden Axe Soundtracks\Playstation 2
06/08/2004 10:05 PM 4,653,056 Golden Axe (PS2) - Battle Field.mp3
06/08/2004 10:05 PM 3,792,896 Golden Axe (PS2) - Fiend's Path.mp3
06/08/2004 10:05 PM 5,234,688 Golden Axe (PS2) - Wilderness.mp3
3 File(s) 13,680,640 bytes

Jonathan Coulton - Still Alive (Portal)
01/29/2008 06:18 AM 3,990,907 Jonathan Coulton - Still Alive (J.C. Version) [Portal].mp3
01/29/2008 06:17 AM 4,131,754 Jonathan Coulton and GLaDOS - Still Alive (Portal).mp3
2 File(s) 8,122,661 bytes

Stuart Chatwood - Prince of Persia: Sand of Times
03/17/2004 11:17 PM 7,262,208 Stuart Chatwood - The Fight (Prince of Persia-SOT).mp3
03/17/2004 11:10 PM 6,262,784 StuartChatwood-TimeOnlyKnows (Prince of Persia-SOT).mp3
2 File(s) 13,524,992 bytes

Total Files Listed:
124 File(s) 459,680,083 bytes


Also, I have Turbo Graphx 16/PC Engine and Sega Genesis' soundtracks for Aero Blasters and R-Type 1 games.

Get it sifted if it's not already on. The mp3 was really hard to find. Couldn't buy it as it was a strictly limited vinyl release. Best torrent I ever got.

Dailymotion = BS.

I had to watch one 30 second video to begin, another 30 sec advertisement to watch the last 30 seconds of the video (and another 30 second ad started when the video had ended).

There should be a rule about linking crap-infested videos but unfortunately it seems as if most of the TV-related ones are trying to use Dailymotion to make it harder to "steal" content via saving vids as ".flv" or by converting to ".mp3" (just an extra step for me if I really want it that bad).

Sensationalised BS here. The news about making guns is overly exaggerated right now, but won't be if the vision comes true that working, effective 3D printers are in every household with designs as easy to download as Napster did to fill mp3 players.

You can either print a non-working gun for a few hundred dollars, or laser-sculpt a working inferior gun for a few thousand dollars, or still buy a black market industry-standard gun for an amount in between.

American politics is pigeonholed into a linear spectrum, with points extending to the left and right of the Democrat and Republican goalposts. But it's really a wheel, and Cody & Glenn here don't overlap in between those, but at the other side with their Libertarianism.

I agree with you in general. I think it will be a successful product potentially. I just think people are going to find themselves disappointed given all the hype. I just don't think the technology is satisfactory even on the cutting edge. It would be like all (even the best) portable mp3 players sounded like finger nails on chalk boards. Apple came along and made an affordable "finger nails on chalk board sounding portable mp3 player" and we all expected everyone was going to be jumping to buy one rather than simply continuing to listen to their nice home stereo instead.

Just as a first order critique. Do you really think gamers are going to settle for 640x800 screens that subtend even wider visual angles? With 800 pixels over 90 degrees you're talking about a nyquist frequency of 5ish cycles per degree. That ain't exactly a retina display. That's like a tenth the resolution of a retina display on a linear dimension, or one one-hundredth the number of total pixels.

I think this thing will have a highly anticipated launch and peter out as people find themselves preferring to game with their traditional interfaces instead.

I'm not sure they need to do anything groundbreaking. Sometimes, it's just a combination of the right product, built from common components at the right price and put together with the right marketing.

Risking the ire of the apple haters here but look at the iPod. There wasn't really anything particularly special about it. There were plenty of other MP3 players around with similar (or better) specs at the time, but the iPod is the one that succeeded.

It could just be that the background level of technology has reached a place where it's now feasible to do decent HMDs.

absolutely love this song.been on my mp3 for ages.
*quality