Measured in kilobits per second (Kbps), a higher bit rate such as 320 Kbps offers higher quality than a bit rate of 192 Kbps because the sound isn’t compressed as much. Bit rate determines how many bits (of digital music information) can travel during playback in a given second. With lossy compression formats, such as MP3 or AAC, the amount of compression depends on the bit rate that you choose as well as the encoding format and other options. Apple Lossless, and the AIFF and WAV encoders that don’t compress the sound at all, are the best choices when burning CDs.
The main reason to use Apple Lossless is to maintain quality for burning CDs while also playing the songs on your iPad, iPod, or iPhone. Lossy compression algorithms reduce the sound quality by throwing away information to make the file smaller, so you lose information and some quality in the process.Ĭomparatively, the Apple Lossless encoder compresses sound files without any loss in quality or information, but the resulting file is nearly as large as the uncompressed version. AAC and MP3 encoding formats compress the sound via lossy methods. (For “compress” here, think “throw away information.”) In technospeak, such compression methods are lossy (the opposite of lossless). If you want your audio files to take up less space, you have to compress the audio. Of course, you use more hard drive space for the higher-quality imported music than for average-quality music. With an eye toward future generations of devices and hard drives, maybe you decide to trade space for quality, importing music at the highest-possible quality settings and then converting copies on-the-fly to lower-quality, space-saving versions for your iPad, iPod, and iPhone. On the other hand, you might be very picky about the sound quality. This choice might make you happy today, but what about tomorrow, when iPads, iPods, and iPhones - and computer hard drives - double or triple in capacity? When importing music, you might be tempted to trade quality for space - which means you’re willing to accept average sound quality in order to fit more songs on your hard drive, iPad, iPod, and iPhone. In this bonus chapter, I explain which music encoding and compression formats to use for higher quality as well as which ones to use for cramming more songs on your iPad, iPod, iPhone, and computer. The format and settings you choose might also affect whether the music files can play on other types of players and computers. The encoding format and settings that you choose for importing music when ripping a CD affect sound quality and the space the music occupies in your iPad, iPod, iPhone, and computer hard drive. This chapter is here to help you make those decisions. You want your digital music to last forever, yet still play at high quality - and not get stuck with technology that doesn’t evolve with the times. Think of the ill-fated 8-track cartridge or the legendary quadraphonic LP.
Consumers had to be on the alert then, as you do now, for formats that die off as better ones come along.
Itunes mp3 encoder how to#
I also describe how to use your iPod classic to transfer high-resolution photos to another computer or to make a backup of your photos in their original resolutions.Īs you discover more about digital audio technology, you find that you have more decisions to make about your music than you previously thought. Formats for recording sound have changed considerably from brittle 78-rpm records of the early 1920s and the scratchy 45-rpm and 33-rpm records of the mid-1900s to today’s CDs. This chapter is about managing your iTunes library content - everything from choosing the appropriate audio encoding format for your songs, to organizing your photos into libraries for easier synchronization with your iPad, iPod, or iPhone, to preparing videos for use on your iPad, iPod, or iPhone.