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This is difficult. I used to be an audio engineer. Without professional level skills, it is going to be difficult. There are some options that you could try:
1. First, get some sort of program designed for mastering audio files, such as Soundforge or Wavelab.
2. Run a Normalizer plug-in on the file.
3. These programs should have built-in compressor plug-ins. Try to find one that has presets designed for mastering, and select a dynamic, multi-band processor preset in real time that gives you a better sound.
4. If this is not helping, you may need to use an intelligent digital denoiser, but these are generally available in exclusive plug-in suites, such as the Waves Bundle.
5. You can try to bring up some of the hi-end EQ for clarity and roll-off the band under 100Hz if it is too boomy, or bring down some of the mids around 1000KHz
6. Use an "exciter" plug-in if you aren't comfortable with specific, "by ear" EQ alterations. These will usually have presets that will affect the EQ curve in a way that the ear finds it pleasing.
7. If none of this is working, you may have good luck using a mastering suite plug-in such as Ozone. Ozone has (questionably) good presets, and each one applies an entire collection of plug-ins, such as compression, mastering reverb, EQ, expanders, exciters, etc. Cycle through the presets and find one that makes your recording sound better.
8. If you are still having problems, you can use a program like Ozone to take a sound sample from another recording and try to emulate the EQ and other settings to make your song sound like it. It sounds space-aged, but I have seen this process make tools sound like award winning artists.
9. If you can't get any of this to work, and it is THAT important to you, you will need to send your recording to a mastering engineer. Do not send it with a high db peak, because he will need head-room to deal with the recording. This may seem unrealistic, but you have to think, many decent engineers are losing their jobs from major studios and are trying to make it on their own; you'll be surprised at how cheap this can be. I know a great house that is ultra-cheap, Vision Sound in Jacksonville, FL. They will master your song for $60. This is insanely cheap.
http://www.visionsounds.com/audio_mastering.asp
Otherwise, the big time people are going to charge you $250 an hour and up, but this is because they are using custom boards and compressors, etc, sometimes costing $1,000,000. Mastering is a dark art, and it is very difficult to take something that sounds horrible and make it sound commercial, but for $60 (which is chump change for something like this) you can outsource the entire process and know that your finished product is going to sound "as good as it can."
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http://3d2f.com/programs/14-256-mp3doctor-download.shtml
The MP3 file format is a versatile and useful audio format. MP3s, by design, utilize a variety of compression algorithms to make files smaller. This compression sometimes affects the sound quality.
Instructions:
Step 1
Learn early on that the MP3 file is, due to its compression, not a high fidelity format. To achieve high fidelity, you must use the raw audio data as it exists on a compact disc. This doesn't mean that MP3 files can't have a high degree of playback quality, only that they will never be considered Hi-Fi.
Step2
Record your MP3 files at a high bit rate. Generally, the largest bit rate you might use with an MP3 file is 256 KB or 256 KB per second. You should record your MP3 files at the rate of 192 KB since you cannot discern the difference between 192 KB and 256 KB with the naked ear.
Step3
Utilize a program such as Audacity to manipulate your MP3 file. With Audacity you can reduce white noise and hard-code equalizer settings into the MP3 file. You can also use Audacity to record your MP3 files at a higher bit rate. Each of these changes will improve MP3 playback quality. Audacity is available free from the Audacity website at SourceForge.
Source(s):
http://3d2f.com/programs/14-256-mp3doctor-download.shtml
http://www.ehow.com/how_2272544_improve-mp3-playback-quality.html
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albanian
There's no silver bullet and you need to understand the tools you're using.
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audacity (a free / open source program) has a very steep learning curve, but you can get very good results with it.
i get a radio show (mike o'meara from DC) via MP3, and the files are encoded in such a way that they play fine on my computer. they play fine on all three different brands of MP3 players we have in our household, but they play horribly on my car stereo. the firmware jut doesn't like the particular set of sample rate, bitrate and whatever.
so if i'm going on a long drive, i'll usually bulk re-encode a batch of those and THEN burn them to an mp3 CD for the trip. they go from being just under 30 meg for the three hour show to about 75 meg, but they sound beautiful on my car player.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
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More bitrate means more samples for one wave. If your bitrate is lower than 256kbs you only virtually can improve the quality of sound by EQ.
Don't waste your time on it. Next time use only 256kbs bitrate or at least 128kbs. Good luck.
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In order for an MP3 to sound decent by my standards, it must be at least 128K. I usually recommend MP3's to be around 256K. Anything above that and your more dependent on the quality of the speakers. (Although a higher bit-rate may still be noticebly better.) However, it sounds like you are using professional equipment, so you should try to get the highest quality file you can find.
Your best option is to find a higher quality copy of the song, either a download off of an online music store or ripping it off of a CD in the highest quality possible.
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Answered Question
M$2
April 09, 2009 04:49 AM
How can I make a low quality mp3 sound good?
I have an mp3 recording that is of rather low quality / bit rate. I'd like to somehow reprocess or mix it so that it sounds good. Putting it through an equalizer helps, but not enough. Is there something I can use to give it a little more life?
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Best Answer Chosen by Asker
| April 09, 2009 12:50 PM |
1. First, get some sort of program designed for mastering audio files, such as Soundforge or Wavelab.
2. Run a Normalizer plug-in on the file.
3. These programs should have built-in compressor plug-ins. Try to find one that has presets designed for mastering, and select a dynamic, multi-band processor preset in real time that gives you a better sound.
4. If this is not helping, you may need to use an intelligent digital denoiser, but these are generally available in exclusive plug-in suites, such as the Waves Bundle.
5. You can try to bring up some of the hi-end EQ for clarity and roll-off the band under 100Hz if it is too boomy, or bring down some of the mids around 1000KHz
6. Use an "exciter" plug-in if you aren't comfortable with specific, "by ear" EQ alterations. These will usually have presets that will affect the EQ curve in a way that the ear finds it pleasing.
7. If none of this is working, you may have good luck using a mastering suite plug-in such as Ozone. Ozone has (questionably) good presets, and each one applies an entire collection of plug-ins, such as compression, mastering reverb, EQ, expanders, exciters, etc. Cycle through the presets and find one that makes your recording sound better.
8. If you are still having problems, you can use a program like Ozone to take a sound sample from another recording and try to emulate the EQ and other settings to make your song sound like it. It sounds space-aged, but I have seen this process make tools sound like award winning artists.
9. If you can't get any of this to work, and it is THAT important to you, you will need to send your recording to a mastering engineer. Do not send it with a high db peak, because he will need head-room to deal with the recording. This may seem unrealistic, but you have to think, many decent engineers are losing their jobs from major studios and are trying to make it on their own; you'll be surprised at how cheap this can be. I know a great house that is ultra-cheap, Vision Sound in Jacksonville, FL. They will master your song for $60. This is insanely cheap.
http://www.visionsounds.com/audio_mastering.asp
Otherwise, the big time people are going to charge you $250 an hour and up, but this is because they are using custom boards and compressors, etc, sometimes costing $1,000,000. Mastering is a dark art, and it is very difficult to take something that sounds horrible and make it sound commercial, but for $60 (which is chump change for something like this) you can outsource the entire process and know that your finished product is going to sound "as good as it can."
| Asker's Rating: |
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Helpful: michaelpaul, stephenk, cochese, freddyparanoia
Tip mrnemo for this answerOther Answers (6)
April 09, 2009 04:53 AM
You can use MP3 Doctor, it is an editing tool that lets you check, modify, and improve all your MP3s. You can repair imperfect songs or modify them with trimming, normalization features etc. It maintains a similar quality and sound on all your existing MP3s. MP3 Doctor now has a Diagnostic Wizard that checks your files and makes changes if needed. In addition, it comes with encode, rip, and decode options. You can download MP3 Doctor from the link below: http://3d2f.com/programs/14-256-mp3doctor-download.shtml
The MP3 file format is a versatile and useful audio format. MP3s, by design, utilize a variety of compression algorithms to make files smaller. This compression sometimes affects the sound quality.
Instructions:
Step 1
Learn early on that the MP3 file is, due to its compression, not a high fidelity format. To achieve high fidelity, you must use the raw audio data as it exists on a compact disc. This doesn't mean that MP3 files can't have a high degree of playback quality, only that they will never be considered Hi-Fi.
Step2
Record your MP3 files at a high bit rate. Generally, the largest bit rate you might use with an MP3 file is 256 KB or 256 KB per second. You should record your MP3 files at the rate of 192 KB since you cannot discern the difference between 192 KB and 256 KB with the naked ear.
Step3
Utilize a program such as Audacity to manipulate your MP3 file. With Audacity you can reduce white noise and hard-code equalizer settings into the MP3 file. You can also use Audacity to record your MP3 files at a higher bit rate. Each of these changes will improve MP3 playback quality. Audacity is available free from the Audacity website at SourceForge.
Source(s):
http://3d2f.com/programs/14-256-mp3doctor-download.shtml
http://www.ehow.com/how_2272544_improve-mp3-playback-quality.html
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albanian
April 09, 2009 09:31 AM
Naked ear? Do muffs help?
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April 09, 2009 01:04 PM
Naked naked ears means without wearing Hi-Fi earplugs that are used by musicians. Musician's ear plugs differ from normal ear plugs in that they reduce sound levels evenly across all audio bands — producing an accurate and crisp sound. Regular earplugs reduce high audio bands more than low and mid level ones, producing a muffled sound that muddies voices and instruments. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-musicians-ear-plugs.htm
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April 09, 2009 05:19 AM
There's not really a whole lot to be done as the sound probably isn't there. But if equalizing isn't enough, there are more advanced options. You can use normalization, dynamic range compression, and noise reduction with free toos like Audacity. More advanced tools like Sony Sound Forge support interpolation and smoothing. There's no silver bullet and you need to understand the tools you're using.
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April 09, 2009 05:19 AM
in general, no. garbage in ---> garbage out. you can give kevin..31's program a try. it can't hurt. audacity (a free / open source program) has a very steep learning curve, but you can get very good results with it.
i get a radio show (mike o'meara from DC) via MP3, and the files are encoded in such a way that they play fine on my computer. they play fine on all three different brands of MP3 players we have in our household, but they play horribly on my car stereo. the firmware jut doesn't like the particular set of sample rate, bitrate and whatever.
so if i'm going on a long drive, i'll usually bulk re-encode a batch of those and THEN burn them to an mp3 CD for the trip. they go from being just under 30 meg for the three hour show to about 75 meg, but they sound beautiful on my car player.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
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April 09, 2009 06:21 PM
First read information about What is the best bit rate for MP3 music? http://yefimsanswers.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-is-best-bitrate-for-mp3-music.html More bitrate means more samples for one wave. If your bitrate is lower than 256kbs you only virtually can improve the quality of sound by EQ.
Don't waste your time on it. Next time use only 256kbs bitrate or at least 128kbs. Good luck.
Permalink | Report
April 09, 2009 11:44 PM
Well, not really. If your MP3 has a low bit-rate, you can try imputting it into a program that can raise the bit-rate by guessing what extra data would contain, but basically, you would be making something out of nothing, and that usually yeilds unfavorable results. In order for an MP3 to sound decent by my standards, it must be at least 128K. I usually recommend MP3's to be around 256K. Anything above that and your more dependent on the quality of the speakers. (Although a higher bit-rate may still be noticebly better.) However, it sounds like you are using professional equipment, so you should try to get the highest quality file you can find.
Your best option is to find a higher quality copy of the song, either a download off of an online music store or ripping it off of a CD in the highest quality possible.
Permalink | Report
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