[linux-audio-user] Re-encoding Stereo mp3's into Mono mp3's

[Anahata]

On Sun, Dec 08, 2002 at 12:44:51PM -0500, Ron Lavoie wrote:
> On a related note, I've never been able to get a clear answer on mono 
> encoding.  The way I figure, a track ripped at 96k/mono should be the same 
> sound quality as 192 stereo.  Do I figure right?
> 
If the stereo track is done as regular stereo with left and right
encoded independantly, what you say is true.  Lame produces regular
stereo by default at bit rates over 160k.

However, at lower bit rates (belowe 160k by default in lame) a
technique called joint setereo is used, which gives better quality but
relies on an assumption that the left and right channels are similar.  
So typically a 64k mono track will not be as good as a 128k joint
stereo version of the same music.

-- 
Anahata
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