New encoder from Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (FhG)
===============================

I just came to know that FhG is afraid of lame, that's why they have started distributing MP3sENC binaries for free !!!!!!
Note: it's not new actually. i think it's been 2 months from its release. but i didn't find it mentioned on the board

MP3sENC encoded files are recognised by Encspot as ACM or Producer Pro
hence, i think it is a new version of older producer pro code.
and i compared it with older audio-active production studio and quite improvement is seen.

U can get binaries from
here
or
here

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know this (MP3surround encoder) has been available for a while.

ofcourse u are right

but it seemed to me that some the people (like myself) of the board might not be aware of this 'free' release.
last time when i checked the FhG page it was not there for download.
I saw it today and there was no mention of this release on board, hence i posted it

I'm just curious about
1) new improvements
and
2) whether it is same as WMP10 ACM codec or better

as I was just checking out, I thought others may also be interested.

I found this download a few weeks ago. It was my first time sucessfully ABXing something at 128kbs.

Santana - Just Feel Better feat Steve Tyler was the sample. Serious distortion as the chorus breaks. Two tries 8/8. If it can't perform on a standard pop-rock song there is a problem.

I didn't like it at all.

It may be a simple and experimental encoder to demonstrate the new surround MP3 format and, hence, not tuned very much. How does the WMP10 FhG codec (l3codecp.acm) perform at 128kbps in comparison?

I have some real world things to do this morning, but I'll check WMP10 some time today.

Before you goes on a stampede for this free encoder, please read the EULA. There are several restrictions placed on it. You can only use it on one computer, so if you own two machines you can only install it on one of them. Also, you can only use it for personal use. If you make your own music and allow people to download, there could be restrictions there...

IANAL, but it is free as in beer, but not free as in speach. YMMV.

ya but it's ok for those who rip their CDs for their personal use

But if it gives bad quality or is just an experimental/demonstration encoder, LAME would be a more sensible choice.

of course



Yes. But if ...

i think people who has good hearing ability will surely test this one, since it has been a long time since FhG's last encoder.

^


Unless that's a problematic song for any encoder, that may be an indication of the "but if". :-)

For that the song must be checked with other encoders.

And other songs which has problems with other encoders must also be checked with this one. may be this one also performed better on a particular song
conclusions can't be draw from just one song.

and if that's the case, one might want to try
Spiller - If This Ain't Love (Groovejet)

PROBLEMATIC SAMPLE:
Wind Saxophone

LAME 3.97b @128kbps CBR

This sample showed some weird background noise (like rubbing finger on metal surface) on 12th & 13th second of play

which was not heard with MP3surroundEnc @128kbps CBR

My ABX Results
==============


foo_abx v1.2 report
foobar2000 v0.8.3
2005/12/18 23:46:07

File A: file://C:\sax.mp3
File B: file://C:\sax1.mp3

23:46:07 : Test started.
23:46:42 : 01/01 50.0%
23:47:05 : 02/02 25.0%
23:47:30 : 03/03 12.5%
23:47:47 : 04/04 6.3%
23:48:06 : 05/05 3.1%
23:48:25 : 06/06 1.6%
23:48:50 : 07/07 0.8%
23:49:07 : 08/08 0.4%
23:49:20 : 09/09 0.2%
23:49:28 : 10/10 0.1%
23:49:37 : 11/11 0.0%
23:49:48 : Test finished.

----------
Total: 11/11 (0.0%)


Note:
In fact the artifact starts at 6th second indeed which I didn't notice at first.
It is so apparent that ABX is not necessary for this one. One can hear it.
atleset the artifact occuring at 12th second
But just to follow TOS #8, i've posted the results.

Yep, even at -V2 this artifact can be heared clearly.

Lame became worse over the time regarding such artifacts up to V2 at least. You barely would notice this on 3.92 -b128.
Once there were more listening tests against fhgs implementation and they showed much more downsides than lame. Mostly pre-echo, smearing and other different quirks.
I won´t jump on the fhg bandwagon just cause of a few samples. If it were like that the old vbr implementation once sold with Cool Edit Pro 1.2 would beat lame in regards to the samples in the latest problem samples for V2 vbrnew although it only uses full stereo.


lol

On top of that, MP3Surround is not a public standard. So you either use FhG's software, or you don't use it at all.

that's right
but this encoder is not restricted to mp3surround only
it has mp3 mono
mp3 stereo
AND mp3 surround

so if you just encode a simple 2 channel wav file, it will encode in 2 channel (JS of course) mp3 only
and that even works with other software than FhG

wow!
that's some news!
even i didn't know about this release