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  dhunay.mp3

    What is MP3?

    A compressed audio format that is popular for downloading across the internet and for use with memory-based audio players. Files may be recorded on CD-R or CD-RW media for playback in compatible DVD players, audio CD players, and CD-ROM drives. Files are usually named as "*.mp3". Sound quality varies as a function of the recording/encoding bit rate. In our opinion, anything recorded with less than 128 kbps data rate will sound degraded. For a high fidelity home audio system, we would recommend MP3s encoded at no less than 256 kbps data rate. Anything less would mean too much compression was used at the cost of sound fidelity. See Windows Media Audio (WMA).


    What is the best MP3 Encoder?

    It depends largely in part as to what you are looking for. Some encoders are optimized for speed, others for quality, and still others for optimal quality at a certain bitrate. Since I prefer to use a fairly high bitrate, I've found that LAME does the job very nicely. LAME does not do well for bit rates less than 128kbps. I've found that in general I can't tell the difference between music encoded at 192kbps and 320kbps, but I can sure tell the difference between 192kbps and 128kbps. So I encode most of my music at 192kbps. Now I said "most of my music". I've found that classical music, such as Antonio Vivaldi or Johann Strauss sounds much better at the higher bit rates of 280kbps or 320kbps. This is probably due to the extreme highs that you find in classical music.


    Ensuring Downloaded MP3 are Clean?

    Quite often when you download MP3s from the Internet, your not absolutely sure of the source, or the original encoders skill level or understanding of MP3s. Additionally the MP3 could have been transferred around multiple times, across poor connections resulting in some corruption in the file. I recommend the use of Ashampoo MP3 Check & Convert software to check and clean MP3s that may be corrupted.


    Editing MP3 ID Tags

    MP3 files are capable of storing information about the song directly in the MP3. Information such as artist, album, track number, title, track number, release year and genre. These can be edited by using an MP3 tag editor. I recommend Tag&Rename by Softpointer. In addition to allowing you to edit MP3 tags, Tag&Rename also allows you to rename the file based on information stored in the tag.


    Naming Conventions

    Although it's a personal preference on how you name MP3s, I've found from experience, that some naming conventions make it easier to organize a large collection than other naming conventions. In addition, the naming convention you use for MP3s can help you quickly identify a file and know all of the important details of that file. What I recommend is the following:

              Artist - Album - Track Number - Title.mp3

    This naming convention gives you most of the pertinent details by simply reading the file name. In addition, files are grouped first by Artist, and then the album. Providing greater organization.


    Organization

    If you have a very large collection, then the file naming convention alone will not keep you organized. Therefore I recommend using folders to help keep things organized. Here is an example of a folder structure that I use:

              B\Black Eyed Peas\Elephunk\Black Eyed Peas - Elephunk - 01 - Hands Up.mp3

    In addition to storing my MP3s this way, I also store the cover art in this manner. In the above example, I would put the front cover art in the Elephunk folder and name it cover.jpg. If I had a back cover art I would store it in the same location, but name it cover-back.jpg


    Sound Check

    Once you have all of these great MP3s stored in a nice organized manner, your probably going to want to listen to them. You can pretty much use any MP3 player you'd like. I personally use Windows Media Player for ad hoc listening while I work, an iPod for listening while I am on the go, and I use J River MediaCenter for streaming MP3s throughout my house. Once you start playing your MP3s in random orders (aka shuffle) you'll quickly discover that you'll be running to the volume knob quite often. Some of the MP3s will play louder than others. This is a direct result of how the original music source was encoded. However you can overcome this. By using MP3Gain, you can set a consistent volume level across your entire music collection. No, one song will be overwhelmingly louder than the next. The great thing about MP3Gain is that it doesn't directly affect the file, so it's modifications are completely reversible.


    If you follow these instructions to a "T", I am confident that not only will you have great sounding music, but that you'll be able to find and track down your music much easier.


    Happy MP3ing.