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1999-10-04
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Here are other recommended tools for MP3 in OS/2 I tried before releasing
this version of pm123 or cd2mp3pm.
MP3 Encoders
============
I have tried six MP3 encoders by encoding CD quality WAVs (yes, even
Classical Music) in MP3s at 128kb/s in stereo or joint-stereo depending on
the encoder's performance and tested them with some $45 headphones and
pm123's spectrum analyzer and equalizer. I have benchmarked the speed of
the different encoders by encoding Track #8 of DNA² Sound Track (a fairly
complex 8.8 megs WAV) on a P150. I have tested the encoding quality of the
encoders with Track #12, a complex song using high frequencies, which some
encoders distort very audibly at 128kb/s.
ToMPG 3.0 for Win32 (http://www.kiss.uni-lj.si/~k4fe0470/tompg.zip)
-------------------
This is a Win32 console EXE, but it converts NUMBER ONE with Win32-OS/2
Alpha 0.02!! (http://www.os2ss.com/win32-os2)
ToMPG is fast. I mean astoundingly fast, light speed fast. WARNING!! it's
going to blow your socks off!! It's almost six times faster (no joke) than
L3Enc 1.0 for OS/2 here.
Use the following options to enable 128kb/s and Stereo output though. The
Joint-Stereo algorithm of ToMPEG is not good. -B64 -M0
The hearing test was good. I didn't hear a difference between the original
WAV and the MP3, but the spectrum analyzer showed a cut off at around
16kHz.
Its downsampling filtering is BS though, so if you plan on encoding low
quality MP3 from high quality WAV, use something else, or downsample it
before using ToMPG.
ToMPG also supports MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).
This program presumably looks free. I see it on many unofficial sites,
that means excluding Xing's, and it never comes with any license or
shareware restrictions. It seems to be the predecessor of the commercial
Win32 Xing encoder (http://www.xingtech.com) which doesn't work with
Win32-OS/2.
Speed with -M0 -B64: 29 seconds
L3Enc 2.72 for DOS (ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/sac/sound/l3v272d1.zip)
------------------
This one is about 2 times slower than L3Enc for OS/2 without -hq. With it,
you're better off running it over night, but I haven't figured out what it
actually does (is it just eating CPU cycles for the fun of it or what?).
Sadly, this is the last (and obsolete) official version. It doesn't even
appear on Fraunhoffer site!!
It encodes only in Joint Stereo, but the hearing test was EXCELLENT and the
spectrum analyzer shows a cut off at 20kHz. So if you are sensitive to
high frequencies, use this encoder.
EXTRA EXTRA!! L3Enc 2.00 can encode in Stereo and Dual Channel if wanted.
I have the archive if it interests anyone.
Note, since this is a DOS program, it only supports 8.3 style filenames.
L3Enc 2.72 for DOS supports MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).
It requires a registration for encoding over 112kb/s.
Speed: 4:04 mins
8hz's MP3 Encoder 0.2 (http://www.8hz.com)
---------------------
This is a free MP3 encoder based on the public ISO MPEG code (the famous
dist10.tar.gz). Eventhough it is at least 2 times slower than L3Enc 1.0
for OS/2, the source codes are available for free!! It is beta at the
moment, it might not always work properly.
The hearing test was ok. The song was distorted all the way, but I didn't
hear a big difference between the original WAV and the MP3 other than very
audible distortions in a few specific places. It also attenuates any
frequency over 16kHz upto at leat 20kHz.
8Hz-mp3 0.2 does not support MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).
Note that this encoder is not longer available for download.
Speed: 4:48 mins
BladeEnc 0.76 for OS/2 (http://home8.swipnet.se/~w-82625)
----------------------
This encoder quality resembles 8hz-mp3 since it is based on the same code.
Gives the same kind of distortions at 128kb/s.
For CD quality samples, the author says BladeEnc is good to encoder at and
over 160kb/s only, and I have verified this. He also assures that L3Enc
does not add much over 128 kb/s. This however, I cannot testify.
BladeEnc is free.
Speed: 4:10 mins
Plugger+ 0.4 (http://members.tripod.com/~mp3nkoder)
------------
This one can also be converted using Win32-OS/2. It is another encoder
based on the ISO source code.
It gives similar but better quality as the two previous ones at 128kb/s.
While still distorting the whole song, the small very audible glitch were
not present. Also, it kept all frequencies non-attenuated, at least up to
20kHz.
Plugger+ is also free.
Speed: 2:00 mins
L3Enc 1.0 for OS/2 (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/sound/convert/l3en4os2.zip)
------------------
This is actually the well known L3Enc from Fraunhofer-IIS version 1.0. It
looks like they used EMX to compile this version of L3Enc for DOS, and it
had the side effect to make it also run in OS/2. Somebody, somewhere, had
that old copy and made it reappear in public. The new versions of L3Enc
now use DJGPP and that doesn't make any OS/2 binaries. Send shit to
Fraunhofer-IIS!!
It's reasonably fast, but it hogs the CPU. You should get SPE
(http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/system/spe.zip) to reduce its priority
to idle 0 if you want to do something else when it's encoding.
It encodes in Joint Stereo only and the hearing test was bad. It cuts any
any frequencies over 14kHz. uueeew... worse than FM radio.
The -wav parameter doesn't work properly, so you need to feed it RAW files
or you'll hear a pop at the beginning of your MP3s.
L3Enc 1.0 for OS/2 does not support MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).
Speed: 2:28 mins
MP3Enc 3.1 for Win32 (http://www.iis.fhg.de/amm/download/mp3enc/)
--------------------
This is a new face of L3Enc. A Win32 EXE is available, but no DOS EXE.
It also converts fine with Win32-OS/2. Nonetheless, I was very disapointed
by its performance.
By default, it cuts off all frequencies over 11kHz. (Remember what AM radio
sounds like?) This makes the sound very muffled. So I tried to use -bw
22050 (to set the frequency bandwidth we want), but it still only goes up
to 16kHz. The resulting MP3s using that parameter contains major "drop
outs" and chops in sound not found in the original WAV.
The highest quality (which is the default) doesn't seem to make things any
better (just like L3Enc -hq) while making the encoding process very very
very slow. In addition, we can only use Joint Stereo.
This encoder has some nice features like allowing pipes to be used instead
of files (this can be useful for realtime encoding and transfer), and some
other not so nice features like -l3wav which deliberately sticks a RIFF wav
header at the beginning the MP3 file.
I don't know what happened in Fraunhofer labs, maybe a visit from
Microsoft?
You should get SP to reduce its priority as it hogs the CPU.
(http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/system/sp103.zip)
MP3Enc 3.1 for Win32 supports MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).
This requires a registration for more than 30 seconds of MP3 encoding.
Speed with -qual 0: 2:12 mins
os2enc01.zip
------------
I didn't get it to work at all. Gives garbage.
AMPEG 4.3 (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/sound/convert/ampeg43.zip)
---------
Good free package with source codes available to encode mp2 files, but they
need to be a bit larger (192kb/s instead of 128kb/s) than mp3 to achieve
the same quality. I can hear the difference with my headphones.
Conclusion
----------
- Speed and good quality -> ToMPG 3.0
- Low sampling frequencies -> L3Enc 2.72 for DOS
- Absolute highest quality -> L3Enc 2.72 for DOS for 128kb/s and lower
-> BladeEnc 0.76 for over 128kb/s
Decoders
========
mpg123 for OS/2 0.20 (http://www.cam.org/~guardia/archives/mpg123_020.zip)
--------------------
This is my port of mpg123 (which I used to make mpg123.dll). I included a
WAV routine to output files with a RIFF WAVE header. So basically,
anything that pm123 or mpg123 can play can be dumped to WAV files that can
then be used for editing, CD burning or reencoding.
CD-DA utilities
===============
Leech 1.20 (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/cd/grabber/leech120.zip)
----------
This is a CD grabber with dijittering capabilities. There is a very good
reason that you want to prevent any jittering. Not only does it insert
clicks in your PCM sample, it can also switch the left and right channel!!
With my old Goldstar CD-ROM drive, I got loads of "jitter correction
failed" even though Alfons, for example, has no problem reading it. Must
be that it didn't like to jump all over the place to correct jittering. My
new Panasonic CD-ROM drive does 0 jitter all the way, now that's neat.
Anyway, if your CD-ROM drive hates CD-DA, try to use -s10 and -j100. It
might be slow, but at least you get everything.
Make sure you use the options to dump the audio track into a RAW file if
you intend to encode it with L3Enc 1.0. If you don't do so, L3Enc 1.0 will
encode the WAV header (it doesn't recognize it), and you will get a click
at the beginning of your MP3 files.
Alfons 0.99b (http://www.algonet.se/~mikkje/files/alf099b.zip)
------------
This is the best CD-DA utility after Leech. It's very easy to use, and
because Leech can take quite a while reading a track, I use Alfons for
"quick and dirty" grabs.
JCDread2 0.1 (ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/cd/grabber/jcdread2.zip)
------------
Does deJittering same as Leech. Works fine, nothing else to add.
Front Ends
==========
MP3 PM 0.60b (http://www.kiss.uni-lj.si/~k4fe0470/mp3pm060b.zip)
------------
Looks like a promising control interface, but it's not there yet. Version
0.60b constantly keeps engaging in an eternal loop in the PM queue. :( I
could swear the previous version actually worked though. Also, there is no
support for custom grabbers/encoders. It supports L3Enc 1.0, ToMPG 3.0,
MP3 Enc 3.0, New Terra Encoder (aka AMPEG 4.3) and Leech. Also has an ID3
tag editor for existing MP3s.
PMConverter 0.04b (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/cd/grabber/pmconv003.zip)
-----------------
PMConverter supports CDDB. It allows, if it finds your CD titles in the
CDDB database (http://www.cddb.org), you not to worry about renaming and
manually setting all the ID3 tags yourself. It supports any Encoder and
Grabber through REXX support, has a Play/Stop preview of CD tracks, and
supports manual editing of track titles. Works OK otherwize.
CD2MP3 PM 1.13 (http://www.cam.org/~guardia/archives/cd2mp3pm113.zip)
--------------
This is a very nice (ah, I can't help being biased) utility that I also
programmed that can use any Encoder and Grabber that can run in
non-interactive mode using a simple configuration file. Supports such
things as CDDB, ID3 tag, Super Grab, CD Drive Auto-Detect, WAV file Drag
and Drop, Play/Stop preview for CD, Statistic Information and Auto
deselecting of tracks and removal of WAV files from the list after
successfull encoding. It reportably works very well, try it out!
CD to MP3 0.3b (http://wwwcip.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/~inf25019/cd2mp3pm/cd2mp3b3.zip)
--------------
A basic interface supporting ID3 tags, REXX scripts as CD Grabbing and
Encoding interface, statistic information, and Play/Stop CD Preview. No I
didn't copy on its name, I didn't know it existed when I released CD2MP3.
Works fine!
--
Samuel Audet <guardia@cam.org>