Question for the audio gurus

Demerara · Post by **Demerara** » September 8, 2004 6:05 pm

Here's some background:

1) Jimmy Buffett broadcasts most or all of his shows, free of charge, via Radio Margaritaville.

2) Radio Margaritaville broadcasts these shows are broadcast at 32 kbps (I believe).

3) Programs like Total Recorder will record and save these shows (in WAV format, I believe).

My question: If I'm going to archive these shows in MP3 format, is there any point saving them at a higher bitrate? I'm guessing not, because anything above 32 kbps won't improve the sound of the source, correct?

I've seen a bunch of Buffett shows online (at various FTP sites, etc) at varying bitrates but most of the time these don't seem to be bootlegs in the traditional sense - they're from Radio Margaritaville and if I'm understanding it right, that 128 kbps file is really just an inflated 32 kbps file.

Thanks for any and all help!

Demerara · Post by **Demerara** » September 8, 2004 8:56 pm

I guess in a nutshell, my question really is -- what's the optimum bitrate for archiving shows in MP3 format, that were recorded from Radio Margaritaville?

nvrmnd17 · Post by **nvrmnd17** » September 9, 2004 8:57 am

I don't know what the optimum bit rate would be. I personally record all shows in wav format and archive in a lossless format (shn or apple lossless). Yes, RM is only broadcasting at 32k in Real Aud or 40k as mp3, but when you recompress the stream you've captured at a low bit rate, you are losing even more information. It may not be much, and it may be barely noticeable to some people, but you are definitely degrading the file further. As I said, I don't compress the files at all, but I personally can hear a difference in files re-encoded at 160k or less.