Which audio codec?

[bruce89]

Looking through the bugs in sound juicer, a alarmingly large number of people appear to be using MP3 instead of Vorbis. I hope that this is for DAP compatibility, not because of "better quality" reasons.

Anyway, which do you favour, and why?

Anyone who refers to Vorbis as ogg will be bashed with a cold fish.

[aonegodman]

I chose MP3 because of easy availability and familiarity in DAW apps. I'm eager to know more about why other formats would be chosen.

[bruce89]

I'm eager to know more about why other formats would be chosen.

Vorbis is one of the highest quality formats available (http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Vorbis), and it is real FOSS, no legal issues such as with LAME.

[pay]

I use aac because it's quality is higher than mp3 and it works with my ipod and flac for archiving.

[Sockerdrickan]

OGG Vorbis because it's simply the best (well FLAC might be best for real high quality but who cares, OGG Vorbis is more than enough :D)

[AndyCooll]

Vorbis is one of the highest quality formats available (http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Vorbis), and it is real FOSS, no legal issues such as with LAME.

Ogg Vorbis if given the choice, for all the reasons given above.

I recently purchased a Cowon iAudio7. One of the criteria in making my choice was that it plays Ogg Vorbis files (and FLAC if I ever decide to use that format).

:cool:

[boast]

I PREFER flac, but unable to be picky when downloading music, MP3 is the only choice. :)

[smartboyathome]

I use MP3 because that is the only format Insignia recognises. :(

[Pethegreat]

I use FLAC on my computer so I can have CD quality audio and a backup.

I have not used ogg Vorbis yet. I would use that format if I would buy an music player.

I don't download music. I buy the CD and rip it to FLAC. If someone wants it in mp3, I can convert it into mp3.

[maniacmusician]

I use mainly MP3, because of DAP compatibility, as you said. I have a couple of CDs ripped in Vorbis, and I do like their quality, but until I find a reliable DAP that can play Vorbis, I'll have to keep using MP3.

[mthei]

FLAC for achiving, but if it wants to stay on my hard-drive, I convert it to Vorbis.
I only use MP3 if it's the only option available, like if somebody need a copy of something, and most of my friends use Macs, so MP3 it is, then.
In terms of sound quality, all of the lossless codecs sound the same to me, and all of the lossy codecs sound the same.

[happysmileman]

I prefer vorbis, but have to use MP3 for my media player, I've never really needed to use FLAC

[Lster]

OGG Vorbis; but MP3 is also good.

[Bachstelze]

Vorbis, FLAC, MP3 and AAC. All of them. To each codec it's purpose.

[happysmileman]

Vorbis, FLAC, MP3 and AAC. All of them. To each codec it's purpose.

Well really how does the purpose of MP3 differ from the purpose of Vorbis?
They both appear to have the same purpose, but Vorbis is FOSS and in most of the test I've seen it is more efficient

[-grubby]

Vorbis, Flac, and although this isn't a choice alot of my old cds are wave. I have only about 3 mp3 files though

[bruce89]

In terms of sound quality, all of the lossless codecs sound the same to me

That is kind of the point in lossless.

[insane_alien]

Vorbis and FLAC

VOrbis for the portable devices(sounds better than .mp3 and usually smaller), FLAC for the quality.

[transactionlogfiller]

Rip CDs to FLAC, then from there can make lossy copies as required.

I prefer vorbis for reasons of principle but I don't think my headphones or my ears are good enough to distinguish between a vorbis and an mp3 encoding.

[NovaAesa]

Vorbis (with -q5) for everything I rip from CDs, and then mp3 for whatever I download from the internetz. If I can find really high bitrate mp3s on the net, I will transcode them to voribis, but if they are anything less than 200kbps I just leave them as is.

Also, when I transcode music for my DAP, I normally transcode to vorbis with -q-1 resulting in very low bitrates (~40kbps) but still sounding acceptable through earbuds.

[Bachstelze]

Well really how does the purpose of MP3 differ from the purpose of Vorbis?
They both appear to have the same purpose, but Vorbis is FOSS and in most of the test I've seen it is more efficient

MP3 is more portable, and Vorbis and AVI don't play very well together. So to encode the soundtrack of the LQ version of my fansubs, I use MP3.

[zenwhen]

MP3, because it plays on anything. Wish I could say Vorbis, but my entire collection is MP3, and I have lost so much source media that it is too late to switch now.

[tbroderick]

Vorbis (with -q5) for everything I rip from CDs, and then mp3 for whatever I download from the internetz. If I can find really high bitrate mp3s on the net, I will transcode them to voribis, but if they are anything less than 200kbps I just leave them as is.

Same with me except I use quality 4.

[jken146]

I PREFER flac, but unable to be picky when downloading music, MP3 is the only choice. :)

Jamendo

[Bllasae]

.Mp3 They're the best.

[bruce89]

MP3 is more portable, and Vorbis and AVI don't play very well together. So to encode the soundtrack of the LQ version of my fansubs, I use MP3.

Of course, you could use another container which does.


.Mp3 They're the best.

Care to elaborate?

[CCNA_student]

I try to use Ogg Vorbis as much as I can, bit sometimes I am forced to use an mpeg layer format.

[logos34]

I rip cds to flac for archiving (on DVDs), and Ogg Vorbis for hard drive copy (-q 6 or 7, depending on complexity/type of music). Maybe it's my bias for FOSS, but I would swear ogg sounds better than mp3.

[FuturePilot]

I've started ripping my CDs in Ogg Vorbis instead of MP3. I like the quality better. However there are compatibility issues (DAP) and I do miss being able to embed album art right into the file itself.

[Spike-X]

Mine's a bit of a mix at the moment. When I rip a CD I've purchased, I rip it to VBR MP3 using Grip. Mostly out of habit, although it also makes it easier if I privately want to share a track or two with a few people. When I download stuff in FLAC format (recordings of live shows by taper-friendly artists such as Ryan Adams, for example), I use Sound Converter to convert to Ogg Vorbis (Sound Converter has a known bug when converting to VBR MP3 regarding inaccurate track length).

I've installed RockBox onto my iPod to make it Ogg Vorbis compatible.

[gnomeuser]

All the music I rip from my CDs are in FLAC, the same goes for digital downloads I pay for I will prefer FLAC if I can get it (and normally you can if you use the right services such as Magnatune). That being said most of my Podcast downloads are in Ogg Vorbis or MP3 and I do have a few samplers from various indie record companies and such which are only available as mp3s.

When transcoding for my iPod, sadly I can't get Ogg Vorbis (and no, Rockbox is not an option it seems to really screw up my iPod when I try it) so I rely on constant bitrate mp3s. I wish I didn't have to though.

Order of preference: FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MP3

[bigbrovar]

not that am proud of it.. but i guess i use mp3 codecs .. the reason why i want something that has universal acceptability.. dont want to have to encode anytime i want to sync with my fone or ipod.. but i admit.. mp3 is not the best when it comes to high quality encoding

[aonegodman]

I'm curious folks and perhaps not on-board with this topic but please clarify this for me -

Now I see Vorbis and FLAC seems to have the lead in high quality. Fine, but where can you play it?

I mean I don't think the CD player in my vehicles can read it. I can play MP3 and WMA on them.

I don't think my CD or DVD player in the house can read them.

Unless you are just wanting to listen to music from your computer with a program that can read and play these other "high quality" formats, what's the point here?

Help me out here :D

[p_quarles]

I'm curious folks and perhaps not on-board with this topic but please clarify this for me -

Now I see Vorbis and FLAC seems to have the lead in high quality. Fine, but where can you play it?

I mean I don't think the CD player in my vehicles can read it. I can play MP3 and WMA on them.

I don't think my CD or DVD player in the house can read them.

Unless you are just wanting to listen to music from your computer with a program that can read and play these other "high quality" formats, what's the point here?

Help me out here :D
Some DAPs will play Vorbis and FLAC, but mainly people use these for playing directly from the computer.

Also, the two are very different in terms of quality. FLAC is essentially a CD quality codec, and doesn't offer nearly as much in the way of compression as MP3 and Vorbis do. You cannot play a CD full of FLAC files in your home stereo, but you can make a decent audio CD out of FLAC files.

Vorbis is arguably a higher quality codec than MP3, but that's one of those things that everyone disagrees about. The main point is that it's not encumbered by any patent questions, and can therefore be distributed for free.