Vorbis Ogg, next-gen audio compression.

I posted this in another message board last night, so I'll just control-v...




I just thought I'd let anyone who cares know that a relatively new method of audio compression, Vorbis Ogg 1.0 has been released just a few days ago. It can deliver CD-quality audio at rates low enough to be streamed through a 56k modem. I tried it out last night, and I am extremely pleased. It's encoding CD audio at 44kbps, and it sounds about the same as a 160kbps MP3 file. I'm not exaggerating or stretching the truth, I swear.

I say that it can deliver CD-audio at dialup speeds, but it all depends on what music you're encoding/ripping. It basically averages out at 64kbps. The thing is that it only gives high-bitrate quality to the music that actually demands it. I've noticed that (surprisingly enough) classical music, and opera, delivers the best bitrates. I had a string quartet piece reach 38kbps! That's 4.75 kilobytes per second! And it most certainly was CD quality.

Again, some very picky audiophiles may say that they can tell the difference between CD audio and 64kbps Vorbis Ogg. In my opinion, it is roughly equal to 160kbps or 192kbps MP3 at that bitrate. In other words, .ogg is about 2.5 to 3 times better than MP3.

There are other advantages to it as well. Vorbis Ogg is completely free, open-source, no strings attached. It is slightly better quality than Microsoft .wma which has an ecryption mechanism that only allows a .wma file to be played on the computer in which it was encoded on. To sum it up, Vorbis Ogg is the BEST audio compression codec availably in every conceivable way.

Want to get started on .ogg? Make sure you have an updated version of Winamp.
You can also download the latest beta of CDex, a powerful FREE encoder/ripper. Be sure to download at least version 1.50 beta 6, and be sure to select the Vorbis Ogg codec when you use CDex. One more thing; in the CDex preferences, be sure to set the quality slider (which goes from 0 to 10) at 0.00. This will deliver a 64kbps average. If you're not quite satisfied with the quality, just move the slider up a bit. It will result in larger files.

Again, I just love it so far. I've already ripped about 20 CD's to my laptop and it's only taken up about 400MB so far!

i say, go open source! anyway i will have to check it out

I checked it out a few days ago, I still want to get a feel for the best kbps I should use to rip all my cd's over again. Can't wait untill it's more popular on file sharing agents, then it will be pure love.

I say go for the lowest bitrate possible. Quality 0.00 out of 10 is still about equal to 192kbps and perhaps even 256kbps MP3, which is probably around the bitrate that most audiophiles actually use.

Why do you keep calling Ogg Vorbis "Vorbis Ogg?"

I'm part French. All French are dyslexic.

Isn't this what the Edge team are gonna use in the next release, instead of mp3?

AndrewB said:

I'm part French. All French are dyslexic.

That's not true! I distinctly remember Julian saying that he was dyslexic not :P

Lobo said:

Isn't this what the Edge team are gonna use in the next release, instead of mp3?

Yep. Other games using ogg vorbis are Serious Sam: Second Encounter and the not-yet-released Unreal Tournament 2003.

If your want to record your own Ogg files, go to goldwave.com, and get the Goldwave sound proggie (Which kicks ass) and the vorbis dll.

Vorbis is really cool. There are also other codecs being developed, you can see if you visit the ogg site: Ogg Theora and Ogg Tarkin.