AETHERPHON, global theremin family

Well, got my Nady USB-24M microphone in and have been fooling around a 
bit. I've got some HIfreek artifacts as a result of MP3 compression 
that I don't quite know how to deal with. However, goto my Myspace spot 
at panelectronica to give a listen.

Philip Neidlinger

On 13 May 2008, at 05:20, kmg5443 wrote:
> Well, got my Nady USB-24M microphone in and have been fooling around a
> bit. I've got some HIfreek artifacts as a result of MP3 compression
> that I don't quite know how to deal with. However, goto my Myspace  
> spot
> at panelectronica to give a listen.
>
> Philip Neidlinger
>
It is a beautiful, pure tone, but those artefacts are definitely  
undesirable.

I downloaded copies, and they sound a bit better played back through  
something other than the mySpace player.

I'm not sure, but I think the problem might be related to this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3#Audio_quality

> Files encoded with a lower bit rate will generally play back at a  
> lower quality. With too low a bit rate, "compression  
> artifacts" (i.e., sounds that were not present in the original  
> recording) may be audible in the reproduction. Some audio is hard  
> to compress because of its randomness and sharp attacks. When this  
> type of audio is compressed, artifacts such as ringing or pre-echo  
> are usually heard. A sample of applause compressed with a  
> relatively low bitrate provides a good example of compression  
> artifacts.
>
> Besides the bit rate of an encoded piece of audio, the quality of  
> MP3 files also depends on the quality of the encoder itself, and  
> the difficulty of the signal being encoded. As the MP3 standard  
> allows quite a bit of freedom with encoding algorithms, different  
> encoders may feature quite different quality, even when targeting  
> similar bit rates.
>

I doubt it is because of "randomness and sharp attacks" but there  
might be some mileage in trying different mp3 compressors, increasing  
the bit-rate and in removing every last iota of noise from the audio  
before compressing it. I use Amadeus Pro for that, but I expect most  
audio editors offer a similar facility - you select a section of the  
recording that should be silent and the software samples it and  
removes similar sounds throughout the recording.

Gordon