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Introduction

1. What is MPegger?
MPegger is a software-based MP2/MP3 encoder. It allows you to convert audio files to compressed formats which are many times smaller while losing very little quality.

2. What are MP3 and MP2?
MP3 is short for MPEG Layer 3. MP2, respectively, is short for MPEG Layer 2. They are both audio compression formats, meaning that they are used to process audio files, and reduce them to a more space-efficient format. MP3 is extremely popular because it is so efficient. A 44.1kHz 16-bit Stereo audio file (the same quality as an audio CD) can be encoded as an MP3 at 128kbps to create an MP3 file that is about one tenth the size of the original, and sound virtually the same.

3. How does it work?
MP2 and MP3 are completely different formats, but they are encoded in similar ways. The human ear can only hear sounds in a certain frequency range. If a sound is too low or too high, humans can't hear it. What MPEG audio encoders do is remove the sounds that you can't hear from the file, thus reducing the size of the file, while keeping the sounds you can hear in tact. Additional resources on how MP3 and MP2 work are available at many locations on the internet.