[vorbis] RC2 encoder status

[Tomi Jylhä-Ollila]

> > As I take, the current RC2 release contains full 1.0 feature support
> > (incl. channel coupling). Does this mean I can now start encoding
> > all of my music as a ~128kbit/s ogg bitstream without fear of
> > reduced quality? (As a relation: I normally encode MP3s at
> > ~160kbit/s)

I've found Gian-Carlo's tuned version (http://sjeng.org/ftp/vorbis/) 
very good. I haven't heard any problems yet (though I haven't tested 
my own tunes where I could detect them more easily). This produces 
files around 140-180 kbps avg. so it may be overkill, but not for me, 
at least.

Btw. *Should* I trust that version? :)

> 128 kbps RC2 sounds very good, but it's not "perfect" yet.  A few of
> the more sensitive people are reporting that it's disappointing
> (something about "stereo hiss" whatever that is); the rest of us think
> it's adequate.

I have some test cases of my own tunes at 
http://personal.inet.fi/musiikki/nebularia/articles/oggtests.html - 
I'm particularly interested in the 1st sample...

> The lowpass for 128 kbps RC2 is currently 16 kHz; Monty says he plans
> to raise that to 20 kHz for the next release.

I've always considered a simple lowpass like this "an ugly hack" 
because this issue should be handled by ATH and masking-related 
things as someone mentioned earlier.

Cheers,

 - Tomi

-----------------------------------------
Tomi Jylhä-Ollila aka. Nebularia

Free epic and progressive music:
http://nebularia.cjb.net/
-----------------------------------------

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