Mp3 quality / loudness / bass ?

subwoffer13 · 24 Dec 2012

Hi, I have this interesting issue I've ran Into lately .
First , for you to know , I'm using one of the latest skull candy big headphones , and iPhone 4S for music .
Anyway , after downloading tons of tunes ( drum and bass / dubstep mostly)
I've noticed that every mp3 has a different response for my hardware .
Some of the tracks are blasting bass with perfect treble and everything around it , what makes me really happy , but some of them are with low volume ( not that reasonable but still I can hear the difference )
In some of them the bass is low volume , and some of them sounds like poor quality .

I'm downloading only 320 Kbps , and I can't figure out what's the problem .
My guesses and attempts to fix it :
1.i know that the Kbps might be fake. , just resampled to 320 Kbps .
2. Some of the tunes I tried to maximize the volume on, started to sound just horrible so I had to switch it back
3. And my last and the most disappointing guess is that the artist just mixed it poor/wrong .
4. I tried to maximize the volume with mp3gain , where you just polling the DB meter higher .
If ill try to mess with more complicated apps , in witch I should analyze song by song and play with MHz levels, will it help? Or how should I know that the mp3 is good quality when I'm downloading it from the first place?

Thanks

fireberd · 24 Dec 2012

I have a recording studio (using Sonar).

Mp3's can be affected by which MP3 encoder that was used, along with what you suspect some are just 128Kbs that have been converted to 320Kbs. Once an audio file is converted to whatever bit rate, that is the fidelity you will get regardless of what bitrate or if you save it as a wav file, you can't restore it.

You could use an audio editor, such as Goldwave (the audio editor I use) and try to enhance the EQ (try) but that's probably as much as you can do.

Its sort of like someone bringing a mixed down song to me and asking me to "fix" it. Not much can be done with a mix.

subwoffer13 · 24 Dec 2012

fireberd said:

I have a recording studio (using Sonar).

Mp3's can be affected by which MP3 encoder that was used, along with what you suspect some are just 128Kbs that have been converted to 320Kbs. Once an audio file is converted to whatever bit rate, that is the fidelity you will get regardless of what bitrate or if you save it as a wav file, you can't restore it.

You could use an audio editor, such as Goldwave (the audio editor I use) and try to enhance the EQ (try) but that's probably as much as you can do.

Its sort of like someone bringing a mixed down song to me and asking me to "fix" it. Not much can be done with a mix.

so , is there any way to know if the mp3 file is "legit" from the first place?

linnemeyerhere · 24 Dec 2012

MP3's are really not very musical especially when listening through revealing headphones. What you are hearing is the quality or lack there of of the original full file which has been lopped and chopped. These tracks may hold up while doing mindless background music tasks or driving in a car but as soon as you really focus on the sound in a quiet higher resolution setting the MP3 format disappoints every time.

subwoffer13 · 24 Dec 2012

yeah dude , i know , but still , i'm telling you that some of the mp3's are pretty good ( not as lossless of course , but still , at least not farting when the bass is playing )

fireberd · 25 Dec 2012

There is no way to tell the quality of an MP3 other than actually listening to it. As has been stated, who knows what it was to start with and then who knows what was done to it.