software for determining quality of mp3's

Hello,
Are there any software that is able to determine the quality of mp3's? Like checking to see if a file is a true 320kbps one.
I'm aware of the adobe one, are there any alternatives?
Thanks.

 

What's the adobe one?
You mean software to determine transcodes, right?
Someone told me this software doesn't exist, if it does I would like to know because I need it too!

 

In Vista, you can find out the bitrate in Windows Explorer by right-clicking the file > Properties > Details tab.

 

I think he's talking about (and I certainly was) finding true qualities. You can take a 64kbps mono channel sound and transcode it to 320kbps stereo - Windows and other programs will say it's 320kbps - but it's not.

 

i think its adobe audition if i'm not mistaken and yes, i'm looking for what hep said above

 

or soundbooth. Not a lot of people have access to adobe soundboot since it's not bundled in any of the adobe suites.

 

Soundbooth will actually do this though?

 

I'm just guessing since soundbooth is more probable.

I've never head of this feature in both audition or soundbooth and I doubt there is. Mp3 tag doesn't store this kind of information thus you cannot determine the original bitrate.

It's sometimes possible to figure out some of it by reading its encoding settings
E.G. Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=6 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=0 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=abr / bitrate=1405 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

 

Would you care to share? I've got a lot of music that I know has been transcoded, and a lot in a proper V0 format. I'd really like to weed out and re-rip all of the transcodes, but I just don't know how. Sometimes I'll listen to something and be like "ugh, stupid transcode," but I feel like I'll never find them all this way.

 

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en
You can download the program and you can find out media info with it. Lots of other program has this tool integrated. E.g. Kmplayer, SUPER, ...etc

Beware that this is a manual process so it'll take a long time.

A typical mp3 tag looks like this
C:\Documents and Settings\Jack\My Documents\My Music\Akon Freedom\14-Akon-Clap Again (BONUS).mp3
General
Complete name : C:\Documents and Settings\Jack\My Documents\My Music\Akon Freedom\14-Akon-Clap Again (BONUS).mp3
Format : MPEG Audio
File size : 9.50 MiB
Duration : 5mn 11s
Overall bit rate : 256 Kbps
Album : Freedom
Part/Position : 1/1 / 1
Part/Total : 1
Track name : Clap Again (Bonus)
Track name/Position : 14
Performer : Akon
Accompaniment : Akon
Genre : R&B
Recorded date : 2008
Writing library : LAME3.98
Cover : Yes
Cover type : Cover (front)
Cover MIME : image/jpeg
Comment : Jack's Music
MCDI : Yes
Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Duration : 5mn 11s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Writing library : LAME3.98
Encoding settings : CBR

Sometimes, there will be encoding settings stored in the data. So you're not 100% guarenteed to the information that you want.

 

Nah, I mean I really don't know how to decipher that information. Is bitrate the current bitrate, or the bitrate it was encoded from?

Really, my question is "How can I get the information I want from the information you've provided me"?
Thanks.

 

Typically, you can't. Only in rare circumstances, you can. And even then, you'll need a lot of media encoding knowledge to "decode" all those tech jargons.

 

Well, then I guess the person who told me a while back that it was impossible was correct.

Is there some way you could analyze the sound waves themselves compared to the max possible height?


Kind of like this maybe?


As in, you can find flat tops of the waves where they were truncated but there is still space above them. Or maybe I do not understand how MP3 compression actually works at all, but hey, it would be cool if I had an idea on the right track.

Your patience is appreciated.

 

It's really easy to analyse the sound waves as long as you have the original song to compare with. And mp3 compressed wave form is nothing like the picture you uploaded. Compressed mp3 doesn't look like that or work like that. Mp3 compression does not "cut" the wave form from top and bottom. That picture looks like a sound that has "peaked" and then had the gain lowered.

Examples of comparison might look like compared to standard pcm wave

 

Wow yeah, well, at least I'm learning
Too bad I don't have my original rips, I'm looking to identify so I can re-rip!

 

i found a software that does what i want it to, check if an mp3 is really a true 320 or a re-encode, here's the link if anyone's interested:
http://www.sonicvisualiser.org/

 

Thank you, giving it a try now.

 

If you have any one of those "better" sound editor or compositor, the software already have this ability. E.g. adobe soundbooth, adobe audition, protools etc. Their capbility exeed the sonic visualiser program.

It's almost impoosible to determine the "original" or "pre-ripped" quality of the music with this program. It doesn't have the capability. All it does is give you some visualizations which almost any sound editor/compositor will do. Even some music players do it up to some extent..eg. WMP, foobar2000 etc