Ogg Vorbis tips needed.

[Oopla]

Hey all,

I have an iRiver and I want to squeeze more music than my current 58, on to it. I plan to do this by re-encoding my mp3s (128-320 bitrate) into a lesser bitrate Ogg Vorbis, having heard it sounded better than MP3 at lower bitrates. I already know how to do the re-encoding (through CDex) but I wantec to hear from anyone with experience on how low can the bit rate go and still sound "good?" I know that any ansewer will be pretty subjective, But I was hoping to get a ballpark range ie 64-80 , 80-96? Any other usefull information I might need to know?

Thanks in advance!

[J.F.]

Vorbis normal uses "quality modes" to describe the encoding. It goes from 0 (crap) to 8 (as good as lossless). I find that 2 is sufficient for most modern music. Things with wide dynamic range, like orchestrated music, need to be encoded at 3. Anything better than 3 is a waste in my opinion. I think 2 corresponds to about a bitrate of 80-90 and sounds better than mp3 at 128.

[Shadowhand]

The word on the street says that Ogg Vorbis encoding creates larger files, but better quality for equal bit-rate. So I guess this means that you can encode at a lower bitrate, but have better quality than MP3 at the same bitrate.

:unsure: I think taking J.F.'s advice is your best bet.