dbPowerAmp Music Converter

[tanisthalon]

Ok how do I use dbPowerAmp Music Converter without making the track length (time) longer?? I have a few poorer quality mp3's that I want to be better. The few times that I played with it, I got the 'bitrate' higher but the length still increased past what is should be!

Any help is appreciated and I am sure it will end up been something simple :).

* After viewing loads of posts on the dbPowerAmp forums, it is pointless using it as it will not actually improve the bitrate quality. Apparantly for a higher bitrate the cd needs to be ripped again at a higher bitrate. Couldnt find an explanation as to why the track length increased though :(.

** A thought popped in my little head. Could I burn them back or convert them to a standard music ext. them revert them back at the high bitrate I want??? There has to be a way???

[Kilu]

Only way to get mp3 sound better is to rip it again. As wav is comprssed to mp3, it looses some of the data, and the lower the bitrate is, the more it loses. That is why mp3 is called lossy format. You can raise the bitrate with several programs, but it doesn't make the file any better, and on most cases it actually can get worse because the mp3 needs to be decoded/re-encoded.

Burning a bad quality mp3 to cd will only result in a cd with bad quality cd track, and ripping that would be pretty much the same as re-encoding the already existing mp3.

As for the tracklenght... I have never used this dbPowerAmp Music Converter (the name actually sounds a bit shady), so I don't know why it adds to the lenght. Did you listen to the file? Does it make it longer by adding silence to the end? Or does the file still sound the same? If there is no extra silence added, my guess would be corrupted header in original file, which would cause most of the media players to display incorrect time. And the dbPA converter fixed the header, and it now displays the correct time. Or it could also be vice verca. As in, the original file has a good header, but the converter corrupts it somehow.

So yeah, the only way to get better bitrate for a specific song is to re-rip it. What songs are in question, btw?

[jetblue]

I noticed some Cd's that I burned when I play the track over like every 4th time it becomes louder and the others times more muffled.
Could this be from a bad quality mp3 and should I re-encode it?
Or my burning methods?

[tanisthalon]

Square Vocal Collection, 07 - Somnia Memorias (Parasite Eve) ends up 6mins 7secs but should be 5mins 59secs. I had just started playing with it and noticed the length change. Not every track does either. I am not sure what the difference is, cannot tell listening to both versions that I now have.
dbPowerAmp is ok for what it is and does. It is a tool recommended for changing music files for a Motorola phone (which is what I have).

* Listening carefully they both have a 4sec silent end. But obviously the new version done by dbPA has an extra 4sec on the playing track yet they sound the same.

[Kilu]

If they sound the same, the only problem I can think of and know of is the broken header thingy, which could make most of programs to display the song lenght incorrectly.

You got me interested in this program.

[tanisthalon]

It is quite decent so give it a try!!