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An MP3 Primer
What Is MP3 ?
MP3 is the acronym for Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
Layer 3, a type of audio data compression technology that can reduce
digital sound files by as much as one-twelfth of their original size,
with virtually no loss in quality. It is an efficient way to store
high-quality music or other audio content on your computer.
These MP3 files usually have the extension .mp3, and can be
downloaded from the Internet, or be legally produced for personal use
from original audio CDs.
It is illegal to encode MP3 files for trade or sale unless you
have the expressed and explicit permission of the copyright
holder(s).
MP3 Conversion Process
Extracting From Audio CD
You must have a CD-ROM drive that can extract audio data
from an audio CD.
Audio CD extraction is the first phase in the MP3 conversion process.
You need a program that can direct the CD-ROM drive to extract this
audio data. Known as a "ripper", the program reads the data from the
audio CD and sometimes stores it in a file on your hard disk.
The duration of the audio CD extraction phase depends on many
factors. The speed of a CD-ROM drive is one of the most important
elements in overall extraction speed. The speed ratings commonly
seen on CD-ROM drives—like 40X, and so on—refer to the rate at
which data CDs or CD-ROMs are read. Your CD-ROM drive may be
fast at reading non-audio data, but slow at reading audio CD data.
Other factors are defects or scratches on an audio CD which result in
lost data. This is not noticeable when the audio CD is playing in a
CD-ROM drive. When the audio data is put through the MP3
encoding phase, however, the distortion is highly noticeable. To avoid
this distortion, the audio CD extraction program may read the data
two or three times to make sure it reads the data correctly. This
error-checking feature is an option in most audio CD data extraction
software. Be sure error-checking is enabled in your audio CD
extraction software.
Encoding To MP3
MP3 encoding is the second phase in the MP3 conversion process.
The data extracted from an audio CD is one of the many types of data
an MP3 encoder may process. Encoders read .wav data and compress
this data into an MP3 file. MP3 encoding is quality lossy compression
as although the original data is greatly compressed, the resultant data
does not suffer much loss of audio quality.
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An MP3 Primer A-1
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Troubleshooting
