Switch Left & Right without re-encoding, Binary modify mp3 to switch left & right channels Options

[ChuckBevitt]

I need to be able to switch the left and right channels in mp3 files. I'd like to do this in a lossless manner by writting a little applet to binary modify the mp3 file and simply swap whatever left and right identifiers exist in the file. I would rather not have to import the mp3 file into something like Audacity and then reencode it after swaping the channels.

I am a computer programmer; however, I write business applicaiton in .Net and I'm not familiar with the mp3 file format. What I'm looking for is enough information on the mp3 file format to, at a binary level, to identify and modify the left and right channel data. Or maybe just some links to information on the mp3 file format at the level I'd need to do this.

Appreciate all help.
Chuck Bevitt


PS: If anyone's curious, the reason why I need to do this is that I recently started learning to sing and I'm a member of a chapter chrous of the Barbershop Harmony Society. To help us learn our music, we have learning tracks provided as mp3s. These will have a performance of the song with three of the four voice parts (tenor, lead, baritone, & bass) combined in one channel with the fourth part alone on the other channel. Four learning tracks are available for each song, one to isolate each of the four voices. When learning a song, the singer first listens to his part alone, then begins moving the balance control to blend in the other voices, finally moving the balance control to sing with only the other three parts.

The problem is that there is no standardization as to which channed gets the solo part and which channel gets the other three parts. Sometimes I like to load several parts on a USB stick and play it on my car radio with the radio balance set to the solo part (I live in Los Angeles, so I have plenty of time for this!) Unfortunately, this doesn't work well unless my part is on the same channel on all the songs (accessing the car radio balance control while driving is not practical - i'ts buried in the digital menus). So a little applet to just swap left & right will be very handy.

[Aquares]

I'm looking for a software to losslessly switch channels in an MP3.

@ChuckBevitt: Have you managed to develop a tool to do that and if so, could you post it here please?