digital sound questions???

[ALTEC9846-8A]

A Cd you buy (prerecorded) can hold up tp 700mbs right? when I rip it into my laptop it goes into mp3 format(much smaller)right? IF i burn a blank Cd from my computer does it go back to the original size(like the cd or is it still the small mp3 format) If I rip on windows lossless ,is this exactly the same size as the origional Cd? If I play the CD through the computer will I have the full file or will I be listening to mp3 file.Also how does windows compress the file and what am I missing(dynanic range,Poor freq responce ect?)with the mp3 format.I know this is a lot of questions but I need to get this stright. thanks:thmbsp:

[House de Kris]

OK, I'll see if I can confuse you more. When you buy a prerecorded CD in a store, it can hold up to 800M of data. When you rip this to MP3, it gets smaller, and loses some audio quality. When you burn a CD of these MP3 files, it will try to recreate the orginal file, but it is limited by the information lost in the MP3 compression. Sure, it will take exactly the same amount of data, but the data values themselves won't be the same as the original store bought CD. Now, when you play this CD you burned of MP3 files on your computer that you ripped from the store bought CD, it will be dumbed down to the level of the MP3 you created earlier.

If you had ripped the original CD as a losslessly compressed file, the files will be smaller than the MP3 compressed files, but the CD you burn from them will be identical to the CD you bought.

[ALTEC9846-8A]

If you had ripped the original CD as a losslessly compressed file, the files will be smaller than the MP3 compressed files, but the CD you burn from them will be identical to the CD you bought.[/QUOTE]

I,m confused! If you rip the store brought Cd in lossless,wouldn't the files be larger than the mp3 files? Also in what way do you loose quality with the mp3 format(poor freq response,low dynanic range)/?

[House de Kris]

Argh, I do need a proofreader. But hey, I did promise to confuse you more. At any rate, yes, losslessly compressed files are most often larger than lossy compressed files.

Here's an example to help illustrate things. Let's say you buy a CD and on it is a five minute song. On the CD, this is about a 50M file. If you rip it to a WAV file, it'll still be the same 50M file of the same quality. If you rip it to a 128k MP3, it will be about 5M with new artifacts added and some information removed. If you had ripped it to a lossless format, it would probably be about 25M and of the same quality as the original. Now, if you were to burn a CD of this file on your hard disc, it will again be a 50M file no matter if it came from the WAV copy, the MP3 copy, or the lossless copy. The copy made from the WAV or lossless files will be of the same quality of the original CD, but the copy made from the MP3 file will be no better than the dumbed down MP3.

You've asked again what does MP3ing a tune do to the tune. Depending on the bitrate chosen, there is usually an upper limit to the bandwidth. Most bitrates with most encoders sets the upper limit to 15kHz, or so. I personally have not observed any dynamic manipulation when MP3ing music. MP3s basically are a descriptive language of the spectral content of music. Depending on how much bitrate is available, the descriptions are either good or poor. Descriptions are simplified by perceptual masking of sounds, so many aspects of sound are thrown out in the conversion to simplify the description. For me, the most glaring MP3 sound is in the cymbals, they just don't sound right.