Notes by ff123
12/15/00: Using Grado SR325 headphones. Winamp 2.666 in_mp3.dll
David Ranada, in his recent codec comparison for Sound & Vision Online, calls Pearl Jam's Daughter a "sure-fire, double-barreled codec killer." You can find a critical excerpt of this song at Wim's site. David Ranada writes:
Casually heard, "Daughter" seems to be unstressful pop music that should be easy to encode well. After all the critical passage, starting about 15 seconds in, consists mainly of a closely spaced miked acoustic guitar strummed on the left channel and a cymbal and tambourine setting rhythm on the right. But what's easy on the ears can be murder on a codec, especially when, as here, two very different demands are being mad on it. (This difficulty in predicting codec misbehavior from instrumentation alone is one of the main problems in the selection of program material for codec testing.) The left-channel guitar is, in codec parlance, mostly "tone-like," with easily discernible musical pitches, while the right-channel cymbal and tambourine are "noise-like," as are many percussion instruments that are very difficult for codecs.
At 128kbs, Lame stands out and takes top honors.
At 160kbs, the very bad artifacts are gone, and it is much harder to pick out the encoded files. Lame is still the best.
| Encoder | bitrate | settings | ABX results | Comment |
| Lame 3.87a (RH) | 128 | j-stereo, -h | 16 of 16 | best -- slight wavering in guitar |
| FhG 1.2 build 63i external codec (Radium) | 128 | j-stereo, hq | didn't bother | very watery; tie for worst place |
| FhG "Alternate" codec (MusicMatch 6) | 128 | j-stereo, very high | didn't bother | watery; bad chirping; tie for worst place |
| FhG mp3enc 3.1 | 128 | j-stereo, qual 9 | didn't bother | chirping |
| FhG "FastEnc" codec (Cool Edit Pro 2.1 with MP3 ME plugin) |
128 | j-stereo | 16 of 16 | second best; guitar sounds echoey |
| Liquifier 5.0 mp3 | 128 | j-stereo | didn't bother | chirping; better than mp3enc |
| Lame 3.87a (RH) | 160 | stereo, -h | 12 of 16 | best |
| FhG 1.2 build 63i external codec (Radium) | 160 | j-stereo, hq | 14 of 16 | very subtle watery sound in one portion |
| FhG "Alternate" codec (MusicMatch 6) | 160 | stereo, very high | 16 of 16 | soft but clear artifact on left channel like someone hitting a wood block |
| FhG mp3enc 3.1 | 160 | stereo, qual 9 | 16 of 16 | similar noise as in "Alternate" codec, but slightly more subtle |
| FhG "FastEnc" codec (Cool Edit Pro 2.1 with MP3 ME plugin) |
160 | j-stereo | 14 of 16 | slight watery quality |
| Lame 3.87a (RH) | 192 | stereo, -h | ||
| FhG 1.2 build 63i external codec (Radium) | 192 | j-stereo, hq | ||
| FhG "Alternate" codec (MusicMatch 6) | 192 | stereo, very high | ||
| FhG mp3enc 3.1 | 192 | stereo, qual 9 | ||
| FhG "FastEnc" codec (Cool Edit Pro 2.1 with MP3 ME plugin) |
192 | j-stereo | ||
| Liquifier 5.0 mp3 | 192 | j-stereo | ||
| Lame 3.87a (RH) | 256 | stereo, -h | ||
| FhG 1.2 build 63i external codec (Radium) | 256 | stereo, hq | ||
| FhG "Alternate" codec (MusicMatch 6) | 256 | stereo, very high | ||
| FhG mp3enc 3.1 | 256 | stereo, qual 9 | ||
| FhG "FastEnc" codec (Cool Edit Pro 2.1 with MP3 ME plugin) |
256 | j-stereo |