@MP3 discussions:
As you can see from my signature, I also opted to go LAME VBR0 (best quality VBR whereas 320CBR is an unjustified irony - saving space by going MP3 just to order the encoder to waste bits every frame regardless of the complexity of the current sound) after
extensively reading into lossy compression. It taking away things we might not hear due to our ears (aging, damage), our equipment (I do not aspire to spend €1000+ into my systems) and simply due to our brain (psycho-accoustics) is worth the trade off. The quality is transparent (no audible difference) and I enjoy to have everything as small as possible; I am probably too German, but I love the efficiency. There are slight differences, but they are so miniscule and a very low tradeoff compared to such a compression rate. The developers of MP3 were scientists, and they knew/know what they are dealing with, and the results show in an excellent codec. LAME went a long way and being developed outside a close-circuit (the Fraunhofer Institute), it also had more input from more people that worked on that encoder, almost eliminating all "killer problems" over the last two decades or make them a 1-in-a-million problem - just like your occasional click and pop on a record. MP3, AAC, OPUS and OGG should be applauded for being so clever instead of just real-time zipping the raw audio. For us end-users (pure listening, no remixing or anything in that matter), it is the perfect format; even one further transcode e.g. in your video editing programme shows barely any difference.
I do unerstand the worth of having bit-perfect/unaltered sound for archiving purposes though, as part of my research. I wish people would understand better instead of frowning upon MP3s; that is like hating BluRays not having an infrared video stream - you can't see it, but man, you want it so badly. . . .
Anyways, I have everything in my library in at least VBR5 (~130-150 kBit/s LAME), which is fairly decent. The average bitrate of my collection is 275 kBit/s as comparison. However, there are two tracks that are impossible to get. One is from a 1998 SONOTON CD album which is simply damaged. Yes, it skips and has artifacts all over the place. SONOTON has no quality check I guess, because they can't be serious about offering those hideously poor tracks for licencing. And the other track in 128 CBR has been shared yesterday, and I thought I could finally put this last puzzle piece:
VISION from the ORANGE POWER INSTRUMENTAL 10 album. The share is 128 CBR; it sounds good, but knowing to have a proper source is giving
ME peace of mind. That song in particular would play in late 80s/early 90s German TV stations when it was normal for stations to shutdown overnight (who am I telling this, I am amongst the youngsters here with my 32 years!). About 8:25, the station would play its idents and then a scrolling text with the day's programme, probably a slightly flickering chroma-keyed clock animation of the current time - and in the background VISION.
Here is what a German TV station had, it's called Pro7 and from Munich (yes, the home of SONOTON and INTERSOUND).
Now you can mute that sound and play VISION over it. The tune above appears to be written by Klaus-Peter Sattler, and he made many of such theme songs and even had a CD.
If I could get this ORANGER POWER album, I'd be happy. I have other NICHION demos, but they used a good VBR setting, so even at those low bitrates they sound surprisingly decent, but man, that Orange Power is a bit of a bastard to get hold of!
