WEBVTT - How Mp3 Files Work

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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<v Speaker 1>tech stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Hey there,

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<v Speaker 1>and welcome to the podcast. This is Jonathan Strickland, writer

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<v Speaker 1>with how Stuff Works, and with me is editor and

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<v Speaker 1>percussionists extraordinaire Chris Pullett. Hey there, and we're gonna talk

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<v Speaker 1>to you today a little bit about m P three's,

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<v Speaker 1>specifically r MP three's destroying sound quality in the music business,

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<v Speaker 1>in the world at large, and should we all throw

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<v Speaker 1>our iPods in the garbage. Well, it's easy to say

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<v Speaker 1>that the MP three is the number one most used

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<v Speaker 1>audio format because you know, it's it's not everybody's. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>it's easy to say, though there are tons of other ones. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>but MP three is by and large it. But you

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<v Speaker 1>can't say, in my opinion that the MP three by

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<v Speaker 1>itself is destroying music. There are a lot of other

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<v Speaker 1>things that have gone up to this point. Well, yes,

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<v Speaker 1>there's that, um but you know, the c D itself

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<v Speaker 1>is already clipping a lot of a lot of the

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<v Speaker 1>frequencies that we normally hear. Now the human ear can

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<v Speaker 1>hear between twenty and twenty thousand hurts basically, although you

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<v Speaker 1>know there are there's some differences person in person, and

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<v Speaker 1>apparently females can hear a little more frequency than than males.

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<v Speaker 1>But uh, you know, the the CD started that because

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<v Speaker 1>to fit a song on a CD or a whole

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<v Speaker 1>album on a c D, artists UM artists and producers

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<v Speaker 1>had to start compressing the music, and basically they're cutting

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<v Speaker 1>out frequencies that we can't hear. Well. An MP three

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<v Speaker 1>D twenty eight, which is the standard kill a bits

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<v Speaker 1>per second uh encoding for MP three's to fit the

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<v Speaker 1>uh you know, the thousands of songs on our MP

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<v Speaker 1>three players and a D kill a bits per second UM,

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<v Speaker 1>and MP three cuts out a lot more frequency. UM.

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<v Speaker 1>So you know that's that's a lot of what's going

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<v Speaker 1>on here. But why would that be destroying music? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>it's interesting. You see, first of all, what the once

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<v Speaker 1>you get when you compressed down to the MP three

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<v Speaker 1>format is Yes, first of all, you you look at

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<v Speaker 1>the frequencies that humans can't hear at all, and you're like, well,

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<v Speaker 1>let's just throw those out because how could that possibly

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<v Speaker 1>affect sound quality? Well, after that, you start looking at

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<v Speaker 1>frequencies that you could hear, but you're not likely to

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<v Speaker 1>hear because there are other frequencies being played at that

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<v Speaker 1>same moment that would cover it up. So let's say

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<v Speaker 1>it was a really soft guitar part under a really

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<v Speaker 1>loud drum part. You said, well, let's just get rid

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<v Speaker 1>of the guitar part, because who's gonna hear it. And

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<v Speaker 1>you start making more and more compromises like that, and

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<v Speaker 1>that eventually starts to affect sound quality. Well, they also

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<v Speaker 1>start to may being being codex essentially, when you're when

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<v Speaker 1>you're compressing down to MP three format, you start to

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<v Speaker 1>cut out the high end and the low end of

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<v Speaker 1>the frequencies, and so the song, while it may it

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<v Speaker 1>may sound good enough for someone who wants, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>a portable solution to to carrying music around, um, they

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<v Speaker 1>don't sound nearly as good as the original version would have. UM.

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<v Speaker 1>And you can really tell this when you're using high

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<v Speaker 1>end music equipment. If you're using crappy little speakers or headphones,

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<v Speaker 1>you may not be able to tell the difference because

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<v Speaker 1>the output's gonna be pretty lousy across the board. But

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<v Speaker 1>if you're listening on really nice equipment, you'll be able

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<v Speaker 1>to tell the difference between an MP three version of

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<v Speaker 1>a song and an uncompressed version of that song. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and as as a user, you have some control over

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<v Speaker 1>this if you're if you're taking your CDs or vinyl

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<v Speaker 1>albums or whatever else and encoding them into MP three's

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<v Speaker 1>you can change the the bit rate, which is the

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<v Speaker 1>amount of information essentially that the computer is using to

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<v Speaker 1>uh encode the file. So you could, you know, crank

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<v Speaker 1>it all the way up to u kbps. Now that's

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<v Speaker 1>going to make your MP three files that much more

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<v Speaker 1>you're and take up that much more room on your

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<v Speaker 1>MP three player, but you'll be able to get a

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<v Speaker 1>lot more information in there. And um, you know, MP

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<v Speaker 1>three is a lossy format, which means that you're already

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<v Speaker 1>losing a lot of information in there. You could use

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<v Speaker 1>other formats, uh the one that comes to mind would

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<v Speaker 1>be the Free Lossless Audio codec or flak UM, and

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<v Speaker 1>that is a lossless format, but again, it carries a

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<v Speaker 1>lot bigger file size because it has a lot more

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<v Speaker 1>digital information in the file. And more importantly, to some people,

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<v Speaker 1>it's not necessarily compatible with the equipment you have like

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<v Speaker 1>an iPod like an iPod UM. So that's but Apple

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<v Speaker 1>does have its own lossless UH file format as well,

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<v Speaker 1>UM that you can look into. But as for m

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<v Speaker 1>P three's, you're gonna be dealing with a little bit

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<v Speaker 1>of a reduction of sound quality. How much depends mainly

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<v Speaker 1>upon the bit rate. But if you want to learn

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<v Speaker 1>more about m P three's, check out our article on

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<v Speaker 1>how MP three's work at how stuff works dot com

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<v Speaker 1>for moralness and thousands of other topics. Does it how

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<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com? Let us know what you think.

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