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Topic: 30 Sec mp3 Clips (Read 12142 times) previous topic - next topic
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30 Sec mp3 Clips

I'm creating a website for my aunt to promote her first album that just recently came out. I'm looking for an easy way to put 30 second mp3 clips of the album on the site. The oggpreview component is great, but it's ogg and unfortunately, most people can only play mp3s. Is there a similar tool for mp3s?

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #1
The reason why oggpreview uses ogg and not mp3 is, among other things, that it allows passable quality at 48kbps. You will end up wasting a lot more diskspace and bandwidth with mp3.

*AND* you have to pay licensing fees to use MP3's in the way you propose.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #2
Diskspace and bandwidth isn't the biggest concern, it's compatibility. Also, offering music online for free means you have to pay licensing fees? Most sites of bands and artists offer free mp3s. So are they skirting the law?

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #3
It depends. See mp3licensing.com:

http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/emd.html

She probably falls under the exceptions, given that you say it's her first album

If it's really only 1 album, why not cut the songs manually? 5 minutes work...

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #4
Yeah, cutting the files/clips manually would perhaps be the best thing to present the tracks in the optimal light.
However, check the web for 'mp3clip', a shareware tool that will maybe do just what you are looking for.
'mp3trim' pro also must have a clip-cutting support but i don't think it will additionally transcode the MP3 clips to a lower bitrate.

Once there was an other program called 'mp3clip' that had multiple functionalities, one was partial decoding. It works on command line, not very attractive for GUI users, but a interesting tool within batch processes.


By the way, what about MP3pro for encoding your clips...?

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #5
Quote
By the way, what about MP3pro for encoding your clips...?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=245969"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I guess that would cause most of his listeners to hear the very shitty version of the album, which can't possibly have been the intention

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #6
I use foobar2000's diskwriter for all my encoding needs... You could probably set up a MAREO script to send a file into Sox then into LAME.

As for MP3Pro, let me know when I can listen to the full MP3Pro on a non-proprietary media player... thanks.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #7
Thanks for the link Garf, that's interesting. Also, thanks all for the suggestions. I never thought of just opening up audacity and cutting the tracks, so I shall do that.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #8
Enlighten me please. What's the problem on MP3pro? It's for demo clips mostly used on desktop PCs, not for portable use. Is the software player support for MP3pro still so bad on most common platforms like Win32, Mac or Linux? - I really thought it has grown the recent months/years...

Or will the SBR-generated sounds be so horrible at e.g. 48kbps? I mean Thomson/FhG like to establish this audio compression for such low bitrates and 'normal' MP3 is qualitatively belong my own experience no good choice.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #9
Quote
Enlighten me please. What's the problem on MP3pro?


I think the problem is most people don´t have a player that supports mp3pro installed, or don´t have the plugins installed, etc. So that way 64kbps mp3pro is unlistenable (same for 80kbps, 96kbps).

The ideal solution for compatibility reasons would be LAME mp3s.
OTOH most modern software plays vorbis natively, so why not to use vorbis if you want to avoid mp3 licensing?. Obviously you could argue most people wouldn´t be able to play it on their portables, but if it´s just a preview...

There´s this little app called mp3DirectCut if you want to do it manually. It can cut without decoding to wav, does fades and some other stuff.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #10
MusicMatch Jukebox can do mp3 sound (song) clips very easily. It also has fade in / Fade out options. Very handy!. 
[SweMule]

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #11
Quote
Quote
Enlighten me please. What's the problem on MP3pro?


I think the problem is most people don´t have a player that supports mp3pro installed, or don´t have the plugins installed, etc. So that way 64kbps mp3pro is unlistenable (same for 80kbps, 96kbps).

The ideal solution for compatibility reasons would be LAME mp3s.
OTOH most modern software plays vorbis natively, so why not to use vorbis if you want to avoid mp3 licensing?. Obviously you could argue most people wouldn´t be able to play it on their portables, but if it´s just a preview...

There´s this little app called mp3DirectCut if you want to do it manually. It can cut without decoding to wav, does fades and some other stuff.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=246018"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Yes mp3DirectCut is a brilliant tool. It's better than MMJB in that way that you can very easily choose the specific part of the song that you want to use. Recommended.
[SweMule]

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #12
Quote
Enlighten me please. What's the problem on MP3pro? It's for demo clips mostly used on desktop PCs, not for portable use. Is the software player support for MP3pro still so bad on most common platforms like Win32, Mac or Linux? - I really thought it has grown the recent months/years...


How can it grow when MP3Pro is not an open standard? The only way to use it is to use some libraries from Coding Technologies. That's not going to give you Mac or Linux support, and Win32 support will remain forever crippled, too.

 

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #13
Quote
That's not going to give you Mac or Linux support, and Win32 support will remain forever crippled, too. [a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=246033"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Do you think it would be able to reach more people (by number) when encoding such music clips as (DRM-free) WMA?

Mac and Linux of course will require external libraries too and it's indead very probable  the users will accept Microsoft involved stuff on their systems.
But generally Windows Media Player is avalable for Mac and in some newer Linux distribitions WMA is already supported since some Linux software developers got the licence to use it.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #14
Quote
But generally Windows Media Player is avalable for Mac and in some newer Linux distribitions WMA is already supported since some Linux software developers got the licence to use it.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=246052"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

<off-topic>
Truth is, no linux user will switch to an otherwise worse distribution just because it has WMA support.
A standalone WMA package is needed, which can be installed on ~90% of modern distros (Red Hat/Fedora, Gentoo, Debian, SuSe). Then they can charge a few bucks and quite a few people will buy it.
</off-topic>

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #15
Quote
But generally Windows Media Player is avalable for Mac and in some newer Linux distribitions WMA is already supported since some Linux software developers got the licence to use it.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=246052"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


*cough* *cough* *cough*

WMA Standard is supported on some. And as far as I know, it's because it was reverse engineerd, not licensed.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #16
Standalone WMA package = win32 codecs for MPlayer (only it can play Windows Media AFAIK).
The package uses stripped down version of Winelib to execute them, so it's not native and probably x86 only...

DRM-free decoding has been reverse-engineered.
Sources: foobar2000 SDK for example.
ruxvilti'a

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #17
The biggest problem here is that nearly everybody uses Windows Media Player, but "nearly everybody" is still not "everybody."

You shouldn't use MP3Pro because it sounds like junk to the people who don't use a compatible player.

You shouldn't use Vorbis because the kind of people who will actually use Windows Media Player will probably just click away rather than download a simple directshow filter or alternative media player, regardless of the superiority of the codec or the alternative player. They're using WMP in the first place because they're too lazy and/or clueless/stupid to actually find something better to use.

You shouldn't use WMA because it's not playable to anyone who doesn't use WMP.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #18
If bandwidth is your priority: use ogg-vorbis  (way more players support it than you'd think)
If compatibility is your priority: use LAME in ABR or VBR-mode. But to achieve good quality, you need to go up in bitrate to at least 128kbit average bitrate.

WMA/RA is a bad choice because it will p*ss off many listeners, just alone because of its reputation.
MP3pro/AAC is a bad choice because the compatibility-situation is more worse than ogg-vorbis.

- Lyx
I am arrogant and I can afford it because I deliver.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #19
Some nice aspects.

Respecting quality and bandwidth consumption i also would prefer Ogg Vorbis in meantime because with a newer encoder version it is possible to reach 'suitable' quality even below 50kbps (downsampling or downmixing may needed than). Moreover licening aspects will fully drop as far as i know.
But portability will really be a problem, no Windows Media Player support Ogg Vorbis by default - so i guess everybody who want to provide such files/clips over the web had to produce something to intercept and help wondering costumers.

Of course such files at 50 kbps rather have a recognizing-effect or give a rough impression about the music. Concerning the promotion effect a music provider would like to reach I doubt if it would really be a pleasure to listen to such clips for half a minute or longer.

MP3 files around/above 100kbps would be a good compromise but than it would be nice to know/estimate the maximum listeners - otherwise that will suck the bandwidth very quickly.
By the way, Amazon.com provides Mp3 (beside Wma) clips at 64kbps (cbr, unfadded) - not very well done i think.

30 Sec mp3 Clips

Reply #20
Lame --aps, then MP3DirectCut

30 seconds will not take up much space, even for 56k users.. 
And the 'packaging' of a product sticks out in consumers minds
a large amount, even in proportion to the product.  In this case,
good packaging (i.e. decent quality) would do you well.