MP3 - Glossary Part II

You know how to find, download, listen and rip your MP3 files. What about the technical words used in terms of Mp3? Would you know what they mean? Here are the means to some of the more common words used

AAC
AAC stands for Advanced Audio Coding and it is know to offer better compression than MP3. AAC supports wide range of sampling rates (8 to 96kHz), 48 audio channels, 15 auxiliary low-frequency enhancement channel and up to 15 embedded data streams. The format supports bit-rates from 8kbps to 320kbps.

Bitrate
Bitrate is the amount of information (bits) transferred in a second ('bps' is the abbreviation of bits-per-second). In terms of MP3 audio files, bitrate is more commonly referred to as 'kbps', which is thousand-bits-per-second. The higher the bitrate or 'kbps' of an MP3 file, the better the sound quality. Most MP3 encoders support a range of bitrates from 24kbps up to 320kbps (or 320,000 bits per second). The most widely used 'standard' bitrate for MP3s is 128kbps.

CBR
Constant Bit Rate (CBR) encoding means that you encode a file at a fixed rate, such as 128 Kpbs. This is the common method of encoding MP3s. You can usually tell CBR files because they have consistent file sizes and sound quality.

VBR
Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoding is a method that ensures high audio quality bit-allocation decisions during encoding. The encoder allocates an appropriate amount of data per second, depending on the complexity of the audio file.

CDDB
Many MP3 software allows you to rip tracks and set up playlists can retrieve CD information such as track names, album title and artist from a CDDB server. Quite often this is done automatically when you put your CD in your CD-ROM drive.

CD-Text
CD-Text contains additional information (besides the audio tracks) with text and graphical information such as album titles; cover art, artist names, and song titles on an audio CD. This information is stored in such a way that it doesn't interfere with the normal operation of any CD players or CDROM drives.

Full Duplex
Full duplex refers to the transmission of data in two directions simultaneously. A telephone is an example of a full duplex device because two people can talk at once, whereas a walkie-talkie is only half duplex because only one transmission can be heard at once.

Jukebox
An audio software application is usually referred to as a jukebox if its features include playing various different audio and video formats, or if it allows several types of format conversions and/or processes. The use of jukebox in a program's name or title implies an ability to allow you to convert your computer into a music playing machine by the use of a playlists, where party goers might add their selections to the queue whilst an audio file/song is already being played, much like the classic jukebox. Some of these programs even support the display of cover art and lyrics, something the original jukeboxes lacked.

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