Yoesie - Music, Simply

Transcoding Digital Formats: Some Facts and Reasons for a Lossless Archive

Common Questions about Transcoding:

Why can't I just make my 192kbps MP3's into an AAC or FLAC file?

Why can't I convert my 192kbps MP3's into a 320kbps MP3's...then it will be almost CD quality right?

I mean, why archive...WHY NOT just transcode (convert from one audio format to another) your "Lossy" digital audio files to another "Lossy" format...

The simple answer to all these questions is:

What you Put IN...Is What You get OUT

Let us explain further.

Lossy digital audio formats like MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Musepack, WMA and Real Audio are called "Lossy" formats because they've had some form of data compression applied to them to reduce file size while maintaining an acceptable level of audio quality. Free Digital Audio CatalogDuring the lossy compression these new files have permanently LOSSED some musical information. Once you compress music with a lossy format to make it portable, so it can fit on iPods/MP3 players, it's no longer in its original form. It is not CD quality. And, the musical information, or audio data, in that digital file that is lost during the compression process, is lost forever. It cannot be recreated by any means. This is called "Generational Loss". Lossy formats are great for their intended purpose...not to be CD quality...but to sound pretty good and take up very little space on your iPod/MP3 player. Lossy formats are great and they allow us all to have a lot more songs in the palm of our hand. But, it's not meant to be used as the source for future transcodings or conversions. You need a lossless file for that.

Let's add a visual...

The above images show the use of "Lossy" compression to reduce the file size. The Music formats added are not exact in the compression ratios. but this is a good visual representation of Generational Loss. You can see that using Lossy compression methods still leaves the image recognizable...but much of the detail is gone. The same basic principle applies to music. As we said...it still sounds pretty good and you can fit a lot more of it on your iPod/MP3 player.

Which bring us full circle...When an already "Lossy" audio format such as MP3 is transcoded to another "Lossy" format such as AAC you are adding an additional level of Lossy data compression during that conversion. This generational loss results in further audio quality degradation and the more it's done, the worse it gets.

Going hand in hand...Transcoding from a lower bitrate to a higher bitrate does not increase the quality. So if you transcode a 192kbps audio file to a 320kbps file to "improve the quality" you will only make the audio file sound worse. You can't recreate audio data that's not there to begin with.

Transcoding from one Lossy format to another/same Lossy format will always result in audio data loss.

Quick Note: We know that digital music manager programs like iTunes have a feature to transcode your music for use with smaller devices like cell phones or Apple's Shuffle. But using that process is still transcoding...which means loss of sound quality. The file may become smaller and more portable, but it still is a copy of a copy.

Re-ripping & re-encoding your original CD or Transcoding your LOSSLESS ARCHIVE is the only way to convert to another format or bitrate without the expected generational data loss.

Once a "Lossy" format...always a "Lossy" format.

Lossless Archives allow you to transcode to any format, any time, as many times as you want WITHOUT generation loss. Lossless Archived files are an exact replica of the CD...true CD quality.

What you PUT in...Is what you GET OUT