Soulseek and Bitrates

[rwphil]

Hello,

I have mp3's that I've downloaded from torrents, mp3sparks, etc. I typically download at 320kbps, and that is the bitrate that shows on my computer and the file tag. However, when I view my same files in Soulseek, the "Attributes" column shows various bitrates, anywhere from 128 to 256 for the exact same files that show 320 on my computer. Several of my albums in Soulseek show bitrates all over the map... no consistency from song to song.

I want to make my stuff available for sharing, but I'm concerned people will skip my files if the bitrates are too low or if they're non consistent from song to song on the same album. It just looks messy.

Anyone know what's going on here?

Thanks

[teflon05]

Most likely, they were encoded using variable bitrate. http://www.nathansheldon.com/xp-80/what_is_VBR.html

[anon]

Something similar happened with Ares. If a track has a variable bitrate, the one used in the first split-second of the song will be shown.

You can check this with Winamp and a few thousand other programs. Open the file info box and you'll see something like this:

Size: 15415635 bytes
Header found at: 0 bytes
Length: 648 seconds
MPEG 1.0 layer 3
190kbit (VBR), 24818 frames
44100Hz Joint Stereo
CRCs: No
Copyrighted: No
Original: Yes
Emphasis: None

[rwphil]

Thanks for the quick replies.

That makes sense, and some do show VBR, but others do not. Should I just forget about it and not be concerned? Or does anything need to be changed?

[teflon05]

Depends on how particular whoever downloads it is...Some people prefer CBR (constant bit rate )

I would say as long as you add that it is VBR in the description, you should be fine. I DL mostly Flac myself, but it seems to me after checking, that a lot of people go for the VBR anyway...

Also, as anon stated, there are many programs to check bit rates & so forth. MediaInfo is a good one & integrates into the shell, so if you hover over a sound or video file it gives you basic info, such as bit rate, etc. It's also free: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

[ca_aok]

Media Info will tell you that CBR files are -V 4 though if you look at the encoder options listed. Just keep that in mind. Trust the fact that it's "Constant" and X bitrate and ignore that line :P