[drumbum25]

I download a lot of mp3 files off of winmx. I would like to have my mp3 files sound as good as tunes off of a pressed cd (or as close as possible) I know some files may already have effects added etc. i also now have sound forge 6.0 for all of my editing etc. What do you guys think is the best way to go about getting the files to sound good without over doing it? I am looking for a consistant solution to this issue. Is there any way to strip these tunes down and remix? I've tried eq'ing but i can never get it just right. I make a lot of compilation discs and I am trying to get a consistant mix with all of the songs. (I.e enough bass, treble etc)

How do you guys go about doing your compilation cds ?

I am new to this so please bear with me.

[Enojado]

First thing you have sound forge 6.o good man,
second use the wave hammer tool to pump up and normalize the sound(good presets:but customixe one to your liking)

i customized the bass preset and lowered the volume output -3db so it won't clip , another thing you can do is be picky about the mp3s you download, pick the largest filesize typically this will be a higher bitrate,

and when making your own from a cd, turn them into 320 vbr 44.1k 16 bit quality setting at 10 this will make it double in size but virtually impossiable to tell agaisnt the original

this in turn will make filesharing land a happy place

[Pio2001]

There is nothing to do to repair the damage that the audio suffered during the compression to MP3. Any further equalization or boosting will get the sound farther from the original recording.

Also, if you want to make MP3 from your CDs with the highest quality, use the Lame encoder, with the recommended lame settings

[Enojado]

instead of just blindly going off someone elses' opions they read from somewhere else, put those 2 encoders head to head and i bet sound forge is as good if not better. and thats from actual testing on my behalf not just passing some review along

[Inertia]

Originally posted by Enojado
instead of just blindly going off someone elses' opions they read from somewhere else, put those 2 encoders head to head and i bet sound forge is as good if not better. and thats from actual testing on my behalf not just passing some review along

Sound Forge is not an MP3 encoder as LAME is. Sound Forge is an audio editor with processes and effects to manipulate audio.

drumbum25 , playing with the settings in Sound Forge may give you a sound that you like, but it will not reproduce the original CD sound.

Audio encoding is less likely to be audible than audio processes and effects, which by their nature are intended to be audible. Your own ear will have to be your guide, but if your goal is to remain true to the original CD recording before encoding, you can't accurately replace information that was removed by encoding with the use of processes/effects.

However, if there is something that bothers you about a recording, you may be able to make it sound better to your ear by subtle use of the Sound Forge controls.

[ckin2001]

soundforge free? LAME is. and i have over 200 albums with the LAME encoder, that i play through my stereo receiver. the only thing i've EVER noticed wasnt the original was pink floyd - dark side of the moon - lunatic on the grass, where they whisper in the background, since it was the only sound at the time, it was brought to the front.

and of course, no need to choose 320 vbr recording, as if you are going to set your proposed 'minimum' that high, you may as well go cbr. 192 vbr will suffice for most ears, unless you are a dog. you arent a dog, are you :?

[Pio2001]

Here you can find some samples that performs better with the Lame recommended settings than with any CBR192 Mp3 encoder :

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/extra/s...-Test_Samples/

http://www.ff123.net/samples.html

You can get Flac from the second link.

It has been tested in blind ABX tests. If you think that SoundForge 6 performs better, find a short sample where it is clearly audible, and tell us what encoder and what settings it uses, so that we can check it against Lame. Or if it's not possible, just upload a short MP3 encoded with SoundForge (just several seconds), together with a flac or lpac or MonkeyAudio lossless file of the original.

I'd like to link the forums threads where the recommended Lame settings were developed, I once spend one full afternoom to list them (more than 1000 messages in total), but both forums (R3mix.net and HydrogenAudio.org) have change their URL just after, so that all my links are now dead, AAAARG !!!

[Enojado]

what this thread has gone to the dogs, you calling me a dog, grow up

the original posting was someone who fucking USES sound forge 6, this person was asking how to make all the volume levels the same, using sound forge 6, he didn't post a thread asking how do i recode using a "lame" method

i added any future rips he do using the sound forge 6 program (not lame) will make top quality mp3, maybe if someone were to have better than $2.00 dollar emachine speakers they could tell the difference between 192 and 320 vbr,

plus does a lame encoder have the ability to rip the cd (not just track by track but actual hundrith of a second to any hundreth of a second, from any point to any point), aloow you to boost up low sounds such as a pink floyd song(buy better speakers and you won't have to "destructive", and if you want to.... who cares its your song fucking play it in reverse , ,do what you what, and does lame also allow you to view the file in a wave form, have the ability to use any direct-x plug-in, and support the latest cd writers, you can rip , edit, boost/silence sections of the song, ID Tag it, encode in a whole mess of audio codecs(even ogg vorbis), ,and do it all in one nice little package. Sound forge is profesional not free, but hey the demo and keygen are free

when you have a stack of 600 cds jumping through bunch of hoops for one mp3 sucks, using one program that saves presets and settings rocks

sorry stooping to the level of calling people names on this thread is stupid, dial surf your emachines to a lame aol chat room. threads are for grown ups

[Pio2001]

Dogs can hear frequencies that humans can't hear, above 20 kHz, that's why we usually say that the new audio formats, like SACD or DVDA are for dogs, or for rather for bats, that can obviously hear the difference with audio CD, while humans may not.
Therefore ckin2001 was not calling you names, it was just a joke about super hearing abilities.

You can very well use SoundForge 6 AND Lame. Maybe it is even possible to setup SoundForge to use Lame for Mp3 encoding instead of it's built-in encoder, that must be Fronhaufer's one.

[drumbum25]

it seems as if I have struck a cord with some of you. I did sit down last night and play with the sound forge idea as suggested. I can see some difference in some files and I even customized my own setting at one point. I did not burn a disc though so I do not know how good it sounds through the stereo. I have heard the LAME ENCODER mentioned many times. Can someone explain how this works ? Where do I need to install it? Is it a seperate program etc ? You guys are great and I appreciate your help. I have tried to find help previously on another board, but they were just plain rude. Thanks....

[Upp3rd0G]

Originally posted by drumbum25
I have heard the LAME ENCODER mentioned many times. Can someone explain how this works ?

Try the forum search or Google, there is tons of information on this subject out there!