well, i can't write everything i have to say about stereo (not dual-mono or joint), but earlier i got my hand slapped for using APS with Stereo and Q0... after reading how Q0 is experimental, are there any switches that CAN be used to get a 192-224kbps file with the stereo switch?

now before the whole "there's no noticable diff between stereo and joint-stereo" argument starts, i'd like to note that i like playing music in 4.0 at home, and used to play it in 5.1 at the theater i worked it. (done by matrixing out the channels according to their image(?) or whatever .. can't remember, just read it recently on the dolby site)

i use the 5point1 plugin for winamp http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/reviews....OT=C&rOI=122003, which, as far as i know, doesn't break the music per se. high bitrate stereo MP3s and medium bitrate OGGs play back damn good, and Lossless plays back simply stunning. it's how theaters pull at least 3, if not 4 or 5 channels out of 2 analog Dolby SR channels (which i'd say predates Pro Logic 2, and probably even the original Pro Logic) on the filmstrip.

all i know is APS won't cut it with joint-stereo, and using APS with stereo was highly discouraged. are there settings that are suggested with stereo?



ps: i don't know why i didnt' think of this earlier, but i made some samples today with the plugin (using just the Rear Left and Rear Right) + Cool Edit in case people couldn't/didn't feel like testing it out to hear how badly JS munged the sound. how should i do it? MPC/OGG/MP3 (dual mono or something) on website? or LPAC/FLAC/APE on bittorrent (i have a 24k upload) if someone has a tracker i can use? .... or FTP? (you gotta be smart enough to get around the router... plus it's on a non-standard port)

If JS causes problem with the 5.1, then I guess stereo is the only option, but lossy encoders in general are not tuned for this kind of setup. If medium bitrate ogg works, well, why not use that?

i thought it'd be nice to have a profile to use for all around compatible MP3s (VBR) for music i'm more likely to share with friends...

I don't understand what you mean. What is the problem exactly?

for music i'd like to reccomend to friends or that they might want from me, i'd want to use MP3 with some safe stereo settings... as it seems the settings i WAS using were discouraged in their use (APS in stereo @ q0)

for everything else, i'm just fine using OGG...

If you want to trade normal music for normal usage, just use APS without any further switches.

If you need 5.1 whatever and APS doesn't work for that, you can try APS with stereo mode and without any further switches.

I get the impression you want to shoot yourself in the foot by forcing stereo mode for normal encodings, in that case noone will be able to give you a good preset, because it's simply a bad idea.

it's not like i need two encodings tho... stereo only adds like 10-30 kbps i haven't come across many that JS hasn't bungled... but i guess i'll use APS stereo with no further switches (instead of the -q 0 i'd been using cuz i thought the extra time it took meant ever-so-slightly better quality).

as for being a bad idea, i don't see or understand that part... maybe i'll read that loooong stereo/js thread in a bit....

seems to me it's a bad idea because, first, it isn't necessary, and second, because you'll either get bigger files or less quality, due to the first reason.

Please post a few, I'm curious...