Variable bit rate.

Instead of having a constant bit rate (cbr) throughout the track, the bit rate will rise and fall as (supposedly) needed by the track to maintain a certain level of hearing quality. So an mp3 encoded with vbr at a high bitrate would theoretically take up less space than one encoded at the same bitrate but with cbr.

^^He's right you know.
But when I'm using Roxio burning, (God, I will never use it again ) all the VBR-tracks sound like shit on the CD!

Last edited by websley on Sep-16-2004 at 15:20

Yup, like Tranc3 said!

My own take on this is that I'm not really a big fan of VBR, because lossy is lossy -- all MP3 loses data from the original WAVE or Redbook (Audio CD) file -- so if you want to go for the max quality, might as well hit it up for 320 kbps CBR, or... you can use a lossless compression like the one featured in Apple's iTunes, if you're that much into fidelity. Storage space is getting cheaper.

Do what sounds good to your ears though. What codec you're using matters too. Some blather on about tech specs and a lot of numbers but if it sounds good to you, then alright. Give it a thumbs up.

VBR is most effective on, say, music with a lot of dynamic (loud and soft) and frequency spectrum (goes from bass-heavy to very squeaky) changes. It won't be as effective on, say, dance music and popular music in general compared to some ol' classical or jazz. But this is a generalization, and again:

See, uh, hear what works for you!

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thnx for the info, i thought that vbr was used that way

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Hi, my name's Torley. I'm here at TA to learn, share, and have fun!

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