MP3 Recording Bit Rate

[John Flynn]

Santa brought me an iRiver HP320 for Christmas. I am using it mostly for:
1. Storing and listening to old-time music, particularly mandolin music.
2. Field recording of my mando lessons, me playing the mando, and my band in practice and performance.

It seems to work very well and so far I am pleased but I have a question: When recording by microphone or ripping from a CD using Windows Media Player 10, there is a setting choice for recording bitrate, from 40 to 320. I know more is better, but what are the differences in terms of quality and speed of file transfers? What bitrate makes sense to use?

Also, if anyone knows of places to get advice about using this device, that would be helpful also. The documentation and the stuff on the iRiver website is pretty thin. Thanks.

[ShaneJ]

196 bps, to me, is a good compromise between quality and file size. Sounds like a cool toy--have fun!

[peterbc]

128-198 works pretty well for me. I think it also depends on the mic, I have a minidisc with a cheap $5 computer mic, and that doesn't make a huge difference with the recording quality, a friend of mine had a nice $100 stereo mic for the minidisc and the recordings are great.

How long does the battery last on that thing while recording? Does it take 'normal' (ie, AA or similar) batteries, or does it have a built in battery? I have an older model minidisc and was considering replacing it with a new minidisc (that holds 1gb and actually has USB that can transfer field recordings to a computer), but that seems like it could be a good option as well.

[Steven Stone]

On i-tunes through my i-pod and on my computer, anything under 320 bps sounds bad - flat, congested, and no inner detail -sort of like the the sound has been put in a blender.

I listen through High-end transducers however - X-hifi speakers and Shure E-5 earphones.

If if you are recording anything that really matters I'd suggest the higher bit-rate.

[Michael H Geimer]

CD are ripped at 128Kbps. Mp3 are compressed, so a 128Kbps MP3 is not really 'CD Quality', but there's a benchmark for you.

The sampling rate(measured in Kbps) refers to the number of times the recorder takes a 'snapshot' of the singal coming off the microphone. Too slow a rate, and the truly small aspects of the sound will be missed, high frequencies and fast attack transients will be the first to go.

Bit depth (in bits ... duh) mesures the amount of information included in each sample. This regulates the overall potential frequncy range, and also the overall potential dynamic range. Note that too slow a sampling rate can undermine a 'high quality' bit depth, so consider both attributes when setting upb a recording session.

Darn. I wanted to talk about CODECs too, but the family is here ...

Hope this is moderately helpfull.

- Benig

[John Flynn]

How long does the battery last on that thing while recording? #Does it take 'normal' (ie, AA or similar) batteries, or does it have a built in battery? #I have an older model minidisc and was considering replacing it with a new minidisc (that holds 1gb and actually has USB that can transfer field recordings to a computer), but that seems like it could be a good option as well.
That is exactly what I am doing, replacing my mini-disc. I thought about the new mini-disc, but I heard that even though you can transfer the files to your computer, you still can't do anything with them. You can't convert them to other formats, send them to other people or burn them onto a CD. Typical Sony! In answer to your battery question, the HP 320 has an internal rechargeable battery which iRiver advertises will last for 16 hours. I found an independent test online, though, that said the battery actually lasts from 9 to 15 hours, when you are working on music files, depending on what you are doing with it. The unit can also play video, but that can get the battery time down to 5 hours. One nice feature is that in addition to charging from a plug in charger, or an optional car charger, it also charges from phantom power over the USB connection to your computer. #

Two FYIs for everyone: I did try to record some mando playing using the internal mike, which is limited to a 128 bit rate. It was clear as a bell, as good as I could have wanted. I am sure it would be even better with an external mike at 320, but for what I want, I am not even going to mess with that. Also, I found a great site, linked below, which is very much like a Mandolin Cafe' Message Board for iRiver users. Even if you don't have an iRiver, there is some great stuff on there about bitrates, codecs, music software, etc.

MisticRiver (http://www.misticriver.net)

[glauber]

128 was the standard in the beginning, but it's really the lowest tollerable setting for stereo music. 192 is more or less the current standard for stereo music, and 320 is probably the best you can get with MP3. But if you use a converter optimized for low bitrates, you can go as low as 32 mono and still have a good idea of the song. But the rule is, the more bits you use, the better quality sound.

For 128 or 192, using variable bit rate may make a big difference in quality.

You probably should record at the highest setting your device will allow (taking in consideration how much storage you have and how long you want to record), then copy to your computer to edit, etc, and publish at whatever bitrate is convenient.

[Rich]

I like to use mp3 at 160 kbs myself and I don't seem to notice a difference from CD 16 bit wave. I'm excited to get my Edirol R-1 though and start feild recording at 24 bit wave to compact flash! That's going to be awesome! Plug the flash card into the computer and -bam- edit, burn, multitrack whatever I need.