File Formats

MP3 / OGG Formats

• Sample frequency and bitrate
• The higher the value of these parameters the better the quality and the bigger the file.
• The most popular setting for is 44,100Hz 128Kbit.
• Fixed Bit Rate (FBR) versus Variable Bit Rate (VBR)
• VBR means the bit rate changes during encoding to produce higher quality sound and bigger file size.

MP3 Presets

• The MP3 presets will automatically set frequency, bit rate and quality to match the preset name. Select the preset and click Apply.

OGG Vorbis

• This is becoming an increasingly popular format and is said to produce better quality sound than MP3. Encoding time is a little slower. This format is free and open source.

WMA Format

• The Windows Media Format has 33 presets giving a range of frequencies and bit rates, stereo and mono.

WAV Format

• The WAV format has a large range of frequency and bit rates. You can match this format to another WAV file. From WAV format click Set… , select a wav file and click Open. The frequency and bit rate will be extracted from the file and used in conversions.

M4A / AAC / MP4 Format ( Apple Audio )

• AAC is the raw format for iPod players and cannot hold ID information.
• M4A is the new standard for iPod players and can hold ID information and artwork.
• MP4 can also contain ID information and artwork and is also used by the QuickTime player.
• Encoding is Variable Bit Rate (VBR) and has quality settings from 50 to 500.
• The standard encoding setting for this is 100 giving an average of 120Kbps.
• Frequency is set automatically from the file being converted.

Typical average bit rates for quality settings:-

50 = 71Kbps
100 = 129Kbps
200 = 209Kbps
300 = 245Kbps
400 = 273Kbps
500 = 294Kbps

Other Formats

• Select a frequency for other formats and the information for each format will change to show the setting details for each format.
• Some formats are not available with certain frequencies and the information for that format will be blank.

How to judge sound quality

As we get older we gradually lose the ability to hear frequencies from both the top and bottom frequency ranges, so judging sound quality is really up to the individual. Your playback system is also a big factor, small computer speakers do not require the same audio quality as a hi-fi system.