Audio Encoding Question...

[braz2kuk]

Hi,

I have a question might be a stupid one but not sure, so here goes. If i rip a CD on my mac to 128kbps can i at a later date take these 128kbps audio files and encode them to 320kbps or not??

Thanks

 

[Big Bernard]

No, you just end up with a very good copy of a 128kbps file. You can't improve the quality by converting to a higher bitrate from a lower bitrate.

 

[theheyes]

Erm as far as I know you can, but you can't "magic" 320kbps detail out of a 128kbps source if you know what I mean.

 

[Spyhop]

Encoding something with a lossy encoder (I assume you're using AAC or MP3) will always lose data, so you'd actually be lowering the quality despite the resultant file size likely being larger. It's like photocopying a photocopy!

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Just rip it as lossless, and you can always re-encode at a lower bitrate if you need.

You can't go from 128 -> 320kbps though, the data is already lost once you're at 128, so you'll just end up with a "fat" filesize, and no extra detail.

 

[braz2kuk]

Cheers for the info guys