WAV to MP3..

[Robert Baer]

Have tried numerous programs to convert WAV files to MP3 format, and
they all work, but...
When one does a loopback or "play forever" on a MP3 file in the media
player, there is always a dead sound period that seems to be at the
start (except the first time).
The original WAV file has no dead sound period on loopback.
I have found no way to edit out that effect.
How can it be eliminated?

 

[John Miles]

Have tried numerous programs to convert WAV files to MP3 format, and
they all work, but...
When one does a loopback or "play forever" on a MP3 file in the media
player, there is always a dead sound period that seems to be at the
start (except the first time).
The original WAV file has no dead sound period on loopback.
I have found no way to edit out that effect.
How can it be eliminated?

It is pretty hard to get true seamless looping from an MP3-encoded file.
It can be done, but it requires that the bit reservoir be disabled, and
that your source data is phase-continuous at the beginning and ending
frame boundaries. You probably don't want to go there.

Some of the gap you're hearing is an unavoidable consequence of the
overlap window used in the MP3 decoding process, and yes, at least some
small part of it *is* at the start of the file. Part of it may also be
due to the quirks of the encoding and/or decoding packages -- they're
all a bit different, and most seem to add more padding than is really
necessary.

Try the LAME encoder with the --nores option; that may help. You can
also try truncating the file to remove the first and last frames... but
that will most likely just replace the gap with a loud click.

-- john