Hi guys,

Please don't slap me down as a search didn't answer the question I have.

Basically, I bought a download off iTunes. This is the first time I have used this service whereas I usually use Audiojelly and Beatport.

I didn't realise that iTunes use their own compression format; M4P/MPEG4. Being ignorant to this and used to MP3 320KB I downloaded anyway. What I did was (a little naughty) I played the M4P tune using quicktime and recorded the sound through Sound Forge from my soundcard as a wav file, then I compressed to MP3 320KB.

Not really understanding the different compression formats. All I want to know is, through this process as the quality of the compression been degraded? I can't actually hear much difference, if any.

Kind regards

Steve

I've done this before as well and also heard no difference. I think as long as you keep it as a wav or 320 mp3 it'll be fine.

Thank you for your reply!

No problem!

In terms of the sound degradation, there is some going on but it's so little it's unnoticable (as we've both found).

A lot of people get annoyed at the m4p compatibility limits, and rightly so. This is the only way round it from what I've seen.

Last edited by Synchronicity on Sep-26-2006 at 19:52

The quality is fine until Bonzai sort themselves out! The tune in question is a classic in my opinion, Cape Town 'Pit Stop'! I have emailed Bonzai twice asking to get them put up on a decent download portal ie Beaport or Audiojelly as previously mentioned. Despite false promises they have yet to appear. The did say however they the tune was on iTunes, thats were the story began!

Like you say the restrictions of M4P are very off putting!

quote:

Originally posted by retiro What I did was (a little naughty)

not really ... you paid for it afterall!

maybe it's just me...but isn't the extension .M4P an iTunes Music Store purchased song extension?

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quote:

Originally posted by thesuperfunk not really ... you paid for it afterall!

Well, some would say that doing what I have done is an infringement of the license and copyright.

quote:

Originally posted by Arudius maybe it's just me...but isn't the extension .M4P an iTunes Music Store purchased song extension?

Yes, an M4P file is a MPEG4, which is used by iTunes.

mp4 (part 14) is (unlike the mp3 format) a kind of multi-container easily described. It can contain both video and audio (and possibly some other mediaformats too, haven't gone into depth on this matter since it really doesn't have any relevance to the initial post) and if I'm not totally incorrect it supports DRM to a certain extent.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp4

the mp4 soundformat in detail, mp4 (part 3), seems to be able to use some different formats for it's encoding.
MPEG-1 Layers I, II, III (MP3), MPEG-2/4 (HE)-AAC, Vorbis (with privat objectTypeIndication), Apple Lossless
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp4

So the chances that the mp4 you bought already is an mp3 (well, more or less anyway ) is probably quite high. If you convert it to an mp3 with 320kbps quality you shouldn't have any problems with the quality.

A thing that could cause a quality problem tho could be your soundcard when you record it like you do. I'm not 100% shure about it though so you might want to check it out further if you wanna know more about it.

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quote:

Originally posted by davedresden i suggest getting the gabriel & dresden prog-a-minute. in 3 easy steps you too could change the face of dance music. batteries not included. - dave

Thanks Vizay, some interesting reading!

An app like tunebite would help.
It dubs the file at 4x speed. Without having to leaving your computer, so no dac.

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quote:

Originally posted by retiro Well, some would say that doing what I have done is an infringement of the license and copyright.

Technically, all you did was back the file up, which is ok.