Okay, so the standard advertisement gossip line "only the best is good enough for
you!" does not satisfy you?
Here are the facts:
- MP3 files have the best compression ratios. Ratios of 10:1 are normal.
- However the quality remains the same as that of the original sample.
If the sample was recorded in CD quality, the MP3 file will sound like a CD.
- MP3 is a part of the Mpeg encoding technologies developed by the major
electronics manufacturers to be used in digital TV, satellite transmissions,
the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) etc.
- MP3 is becoming a standard on the Internet. And it should! Even Microsoft
has announced to use (a form of) it in their Internet Information Server.
Okay, frankly I just wanted to save disk space so I could provide you with more
samples...
So why not use RealAudio you might wonder. Good question.
- RealAudio gets close to the quality of MP3, provided you have a fast
link to the Internet and this server is not too busy... two things I cannot
guarantee
- I don't have any encoding software for RealAudio.
- I personally dislike RealAudio. (Can a web author have an opinion of himself please?)
It was developed with the commercial guys looking over the programmers' shoulders with
dollarsigns in their eyes.
So if MP3 is so damn good, how come not everybody is using it?
- The majority of people don't care about these technicalities, they just want to
listen to the samples. These people would probably rather use a RealAudio plugin for
their Internet browser.
- Quite a few people work with old and therefore slow hardware. If you want to play
the MP3 files real-time you need a good PC and a sound card. A 486 or Pentium is
required. If your hardware is too slow, consider using a decoder to uncompress to
a less CPU-demanding sample (which will be ten times larger!) and then playing
it.
To find out more about MP3 click here.
