span and ‘boings’ that Windows
class="cap">T he produces whenever you perform an
hype around MP3 has been action, such as emptying your
phenomenal, but with it has come recycle bin.
many misapprehensions about what
You can take a look at these
exactly it is and what you can do files and change which ones are
with it. The most common used by opening the Windows
statement we hear from the Control Panel and double clicking
uninitiated is that MP3 is on sounds. The sound quality of
illegal. Let’s clear this one up WAV files are excellent, but
for starters. MP3 is not illegal. there is one huge problem that
It is simply a file format. has prevented them from becoming
There’s no denying that MP3 files useful on the Internet for
can be used illegally, but so can anything other than short
your cassette deck. The publicity soundbites – such as the clips
about law-breaking MP3 pirates and quotes from your favorite TV
shouldn’t dissuade you from shows that the Net is awash with.
taking an interest in this The problem is size.
revolutionary way of delivering
WAV files are huge. Take, for
music.
example, the sound your PC makes
Size Matters
every time you start Windows. It
If it’s just a file format, only lasts a few seconds, yet the
then what’s so special about it? file size is a staggering 676k.
To answer this, we need to get This is why many PC owners who
technical. Let’s start with what are a bit short on hard disk
we had before the arrival of MP3. space make it one of their first
The most common audio file format priorities to delete all the
used in computing was the WAV unnecessary WAV files from their
file. This is the file type that systems.
is used to make all the ‘beeps’
MPEG Audio Layer 3
MP3 – or MPEG Audio Layer 3, hit to the quality of output, is
to acknowledge its full title – quite a feat. Terms like
is basically a file format which ‘perceptual audio coding’ and
produces near-CD quality, in ‘psycho-acoustic compression’ are
about one twelfth of the space of enough to impress anyone, even if
a WAV file. It was developed by you haven’t a clue what they
the Moving Picture Experts Group mean.
– hence the acronym – which was
Essentially, the superfluous
responsible for MPEG-1, MPEG-2 information is removed from the
and the development of MPEG-4. signal, and by superfluous we are
There is no MPEG-3, as such, and mainly talking about all the
the MP3 that we know is simply frequencies that are beyond the
the file extension for what is range the human ear can pick
one of three MPEG audio coding up.
schemes (Layer-1, Layer-2,
Caution about Copyright
Layer-3).
No one was quicker to realize
The principle behind MPEG is this than the pirates. MP3 is not
to provide, as its name suggests, illegal, but copyright still
more than just audio formats. The applies to any piece of music,
most common application of MPEG-2 regardless of form. Therefore,
that you will be familiar with is the huge upsurge in MP3 files
that of DVD. It’s all about high that appeared on the Net – mostly
quality in a small amount of ripped from copyrighted audio CDs
data, and its potential for and converted to MP3 format –
providing music across the stepped on to the wrong side of
Internet was quickly the law and caused great
exploited.
consternation in the record
How it Works
industry.
How Layer-3 decoding achieves
Copyright is the one area that
such compression, without a huge MP3 doesn’t address. There are no
security features built in, and 10px;" valign="top"
therefore no way of protecting align="center">
copyright. There are alternative
file formats that do take this
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