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- What makes them differ from other sound file formats? (wav, ra etc.)
- What other options do they support?
- Where can I find MP3s on the Internet?
- What are MP3s?
- Mpeg3 is a 3 year old file format that has to do with
sound. The thing that made them popular was their quality in comparison
with their size and other options. The Internet community loved them at
once because everyone could download their favorite songs fast and with
detailed sound. MP3s have much to offer and I'm sure that the only thing
that will overcome them are MP4s (soon to come ;-)
- What
makes them differ from other sound file formats? (wav, ra etc.)
- MP3s have CD Quality sound and
their size is usually 1 MB per Minute which makes them pretty small and
handy. This file format compresses data in such a way that wave files look
childish. I'm not telling you to start compressing wavs to mp3s but if
you want a whole song in your computer then mp3 is the solution. For example,
let's take a 3 minute song. If you try to convert that song from cd track
to a wave file then you'll get a 30 MB file with medium quality, that takes
hours to load and just uses up valuable space in your hard disk. You can
have the exact same song with better quality and much smaller (3 MB) just
by converting it to mpeg3. MP3s are better than RAs too (real audio format)
because their quality is far better than theirs and they load faster.
- What other options do they
support?
- MP3 files have many special features. The most useful
one are ID3 Tags Those are like labels that show the artist's name, the
name of the song, the album, the year the song was recorded, the type of
the song and maybe some extra information or comments. You can also see
if the file is copyrighted, the length in bytes, the size in seconds and
minutes, extras in sound (if any) and of course the Khz it is recorded
at along with its stereo or mono capabilities. Some programs like WinAMP
have special sound options which you can edit through the program's sound
equalizer. There is another feature they support and it's called Playlists.
You can choose which files to listen to and in which order. There is a
shuffle and a replay button as well. Very useful!
- Can I make my own MP3s?
- Yes of course you can. You will only need a wave to
convert and a wav-to-mp3 converter. Those programs are available on the
Internet both Shareware and Freeware. There is a big variety for mp3 converters
out there so just take your pick. Wanna search the WWW for those programs?
Click
Here!
- Where can I find MP3s on the
Internet?
- Everywhere! MP3s are the most common used files after
EXEs ;-)
First of all try the WWW:
Big MP3 Search Engines
Secondly, try the I.R.C. (don't you know what IRC
is? Then Click Here to find out!)
Every server has an #Mp3 channel (or something related
to that).
And of course, you can find Non Copyrighted mp3s right
here, just to get a taste of how they feel like.
- How can I listen to them?
- You have to use an MP3 player. The most commonly used
is WinAMP which you can also download from here as well. WinAMP can also
open files like wav, mid, mod, mp2 and lots more if you wish to. A very
useful program indeed.
WinAMP
v2.09 (old version, you can find the current ver. over http://www.winamp.com)
- Are MP3s illegal?
- As long as you don't sell the mp3s or trade them for
other songs then it's ok. Anyone can have mp3s in his computer without
worrying about committing a crime. The thing that makes selling CDs with
mp3s inside illegal is that sometimes people prefer to buy the mp3s cheaper
and don't care about buying the actual CD. That is like Piracy! Instead
of giving money to the people that really deserve it (the people singing)
you make a person with a CD-R richer... plus, never forget, If you want
to see the sequel, buy the original! Consider mp3s as samples... like a
radio station, you listen to some songs and choose a band you like to buy
the whole CD. Never replace actual CDs with MP3 files! That's why MP3s
are considered illegal to some which makes it impossible for anyone to
make a web page with actual mp3 songs inside unless they are non copyrighted
(like here). Though, some companies have made arrangements with music companies
to offer some tracks through the Internet using the MP3 format.
These are the MP3 songs of my collection that made it to my unique Top 10
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Current number of MP3s in Thunder's list: 3500
These are some Non Copyrighted MP3s from my collection
that will make you understand how cool Mpeg3s really are. Enjoy!
ICQ
Techno (if you know what ICQ is then
you'll enjoy this one) 1.11MB
Microsoft
Bells (Jingle Bells for Microsoft
;-) 246KB
TetrisMix(it
will remind you of good old GameBoy Tetris)
414KB
(you'll
need WinZip
to unzip the files first)
