My Winamp Skin

[Liquid Snake]

EAC does not come with an encoder (I think). It can use the codecs that are installed in Windows and any external compression program.

On some songs, I can hear the difference between 192 and CD with my headphones (Sony MDR-V600).

[Ghydda]

Sorry for bringing this thread to the top again, but I simply must throw another couple of lines here.

First, thank you SteveC for backing up my statement that MP3's does not sound as good as the original. I know what y'all gonna say, he used 128kbit and U can just use a higher bitrate. Well, even if SteveC did use a splended compressor at 192 kbit, he still would be able to tell the difference.


To nehalmistry

I've got an SBLive! in my PC, and it is hooked up to my stereo, and belive me when I say; I do know how to encode a audiofile with good results. They are just not good enough.
I spend alot of my time traveling to and from work, and I use my minidisc for entertainment. This has given me the oppetunity to record alot to my minidisc, and thus also music gathered through the net. And of course I record it to the minidisc through a digital interface.

To my frustration it is impossible to stop paying attention to the compression artifacts MP3 introduce (and for that matter the minidisc's native format itself, however it seems to cope better with the problems (I suspect it is using the same scheme as MPEG1 Layer2 audio, which by the way are miles away from MP3 (MPEG1 Layer3) in sound quality because it does not attempt to compress as hard)) and thus I have tried many different encoders to determine which gave the optimum result. And indeed Fraunhofer is one of the very best.

Still it is very easy to hear the difference. Yes as DentyCracker said, some songs/sounds compress very well with min. loss in quality, and others are completely destroyed by the compression. It all depends on the complexity of the audio. However, if you listening to mainstream pop/rock/dance I would suspect this to be why you can't tell the difference. Most studio productions are of such low quality (multi-mono recordings/mixing + dynamic compression), that the sound is already screwed up, and adding the MP3-bit will not do much. However, try ripping a Michael Jackson or a Madonna CD, they are of very high technical standard (wether you like the music or not) and they should provide a good basis for a comparison.

Hope these arguments make my statements easier to swollow.


Ghydda

[Gurm]

Gyhdda,

You also have to remember that even the supposed audiophiles of the internet world are listening to Creative 5.1 speaker systems, or Altec Lansings.

And while these little speaker systems rock for what they are, they don't stack up against even the cheapest of real speakers. My power-hungry Technics blow away ANY miniature system I've heard.

In fact, even Bose is having a hard time keeping up. Their little cubes put out a lot of sound, but for full range you STILL need real woofers and midranges and tweeters.

And car systems are really catching up, which is what makes it so easy to hear the deficiency of MP3's and minidiscs.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[nehalmistry]

Ghydda, if you can notice the difference, you have encoded a mp3 using a good encoder at a high bitrate, and you have good speakers/soundcard, that leaves only one thing left,

you're blessed with better ears than me



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P5A-B AMD K6-266@300
Matrox Milleniumm G200 AGP (oh, lets party)
Creative SB Awe32 (a classic, superb card)
Realtek 8029A NIC Card
64meg Ram
Ali V agp chipset
ICQ UIN: 24730025

[Kaj]

Originally posted by Gurm:
In fact, even Bose is having a hard time keeping up. Their little cubes put out a lot of sound, but for full range you STILL need real woofers and midranges and tweeters.

Sorry Gurm; old news.
Bose-speakers are tiny, overpriced pieces of sh1t. And the same goes for Bang & Olufsen-kit; they suck!
I used to be a sound-engineer(I resigned a year ago); therefor I worked with differend brands of speakers, amps and such. Nothing but trouble with Bose (you know, the ones with those little pipes at the front); Cerwin-Vega and EAW rule. As for the tiny milk-cartons; I've listened a few times, and I know one thing for sure: even if they gave them away, I wouldn't take them.

And car systems are really catching up, which is what makes it so easy to hear the deficiency of MP3's and minidiscs.
- Gurm

You're totally right on that one. The company I work for, sells RTO-carHiFi. Not only the stuff you find in boomcars, I must add.
It's amazing what they can pull out with a few good woofers, tweeters and amps. In fact, it sells like crazy.

/edit; typo



[This message has been edited by Kaj (edited 29 October 2000).]

[DuRaNgO]

I kinda like this one:

[nehalmistry]

here ya go, the only skin i found which i like more than the base one..... if only they would skin the playlist...

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P5A-B AMD K6-266@300
Matrox Milleniumm G200 AGP (oh, lets party)
Creative SB Awe32 (a classic, superb card)
Realtek 8029A NIC Card
64meg Ram
Ali V agp chipset
ICQ UIN: 24730025

[orangejulius]

Looks like a Google skin with all those colors. Looks like it loads fast though.

I still use good old MatroxAmp that Kruzin put up -- looks sharp with white-on-blue controls. Hope Mr. Oros updates it for Winamp 3.

MatroxAmp Winamp Skin
---------------------
Version 1.00 - 04/25/00
by Danny Oros
(Matrox Developer Relations Group)

Feedback welcome at:
webmaster@matrox.com

Please visit the Matrox Graphics
site for updates and product info: www.matrox.com/mga/

Note from the author: This is my
first skin, but most likely not
my last. I wish NULLSOFT would
fix their bitmap overlay bug (3rd
header bitmap) in TITLEBAR.BMP
which causes display errors by
bitmap source overlap in the
minimized main window header when
active. Hope you enjoy the skin!

[McRhea]

All right, all right, now HERE'S a skin! It's called Mercury, and it has NOTHING to do with any anieme or however you spell it.

With no further introductions, I proudly present:

MERCURY!!
http://skintacular.com/skins.php3?lo...y&area=winamp2

I have used this skin for over 3 years now, and it's still refreshing to look at... AHHHH...

[impact]

My Sonique skin - a request done for a few online friends of mine, who all share a common interest in Pokemon...

[McRhea]

??? o_O

WHY?? That's such a nasty skin. I mean no offense to you, but why would anyone want that yellow thing on winamp? Are they 10 years old? Oh my GOD... Ugh.

If you used your talent to make something better, I'm sure I'd give it a try. But not
Suck'emon.

[impact]

Well, I don't know how old are they, they just think that Pokemon is fun (I mean the game for GBC and N64). Yes I admit the PKMN marketing is getting a bit extreme, but at least PLAY THE GAME BEFORE YOU SAY SOMETHING.

[Taz]

I do find it funny when people say things like it's CD quality, WTF is CD quality. Is it the level of quality you get when listening to a CD on a Hi-Fi because that varies greatly depending on the Hi-Fi used. The CD's themselves aren't recorded to exactly the same level so one can sound better/worse than another. Even the speaker cable can have an effect on the overal sound so what are they using as a reference. I guess they mean it's a stereo 16bit sample at 44,000Hz which Isn't the same thing.

[impact]

CD quality means it is very accurate.


Wait for the DVD-audio quality. I wonder whether mp3 can keep up with that.

[SteveC]

CD quality = 16 bit stereo sampld at 44khz. Some people now say that's not high enough and 48khz (or more!) is needed... come on! That's total crap - 44khz sampling rate means that CDs can reproduce sound at up to 22khz - that's more that (virtually) all of us can hear anyway!

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"