Down free load mp3 song

Want to shrink your digital-music files while maintaining player compatibility? A new version of the world's most popular audio compression format is available, and it does just that. MP3Pro audio technology is compatible with MP3 but creates files that are half the size of original MP3 files without reducing sound quality. According to MusicMatch, "MP3Pro is the best thing to happen to digital music since MP3s."

With MP3—the de facto standard for digital-sound files—you can create quality audio on your PC, burn it to CD, load it to a personal digital player, and exchange it across the Internet. While raw sound files can take up as much as 10MB per minute of playtime, MP3 employs 1:10 or 1:12 compression factors, crunching file sizes down without significantly impairing sound quality.

Why do we need a new version? Because despite compression, MP3 files are still fairly large (typically 1MB per minute of playtime), limiting the number of files you can store on a CD or digital player. File size affects downloading, too. A typical 3-minute song takes about 10 to 15 minutes or more to download over a dial-up connection. And downloads can be slow even with a high-speed connection. Applying larger compression factors can make the files smaller, but music begins to sound dull as it loses its high-frequency fidelity. MP3Pro offers a solution, using higher compression levels to reduce file size while maintaining excellent audio quality.

The MP3Pro Advantage

How does MP3Pro preserve audio quality even at high compression levels? It essentially splits a signal and handles lower and higher frequencies differently. The low-frequency portion of the signal (0 to 8 kHz) is compressed using ordinary MP3 at a low bit rate. The high-frequency portion of the signal (8 to 16 kHz) is not actually compressed in the file; instead it is replicated or reconstructed on the playback side. Instructions for re-creating the complex portions of the signal are included in the file, and compatible players decode them and put the whole song together. This technique is called spectral band replication (SBR). A typical MP3Pro file may use a bit rate of 64 Kbps (half the rate of a high-quality MP3 file). Roughly 94 percent of the data (about 60 Kbps) is standard MP3 coding, but the remaining 6 percent (about 4 Kbps) is data used to reconstruct the high-frequency signals using SBR on the receiving end.

MP3Pro supports a wide range of bit rates for various applications. Mono and left-channel stereo include bit rates from 18 to 56 Kbps, and full stereo includes rates from 32 to 96 Kbps. As you might expect, higher bit-rate MP3Pro files offer high-quality sound and music storage that is comparable if not identical to 128-Kbps MP3. Low-bit-rate MP3Pro encoding readily supports Web broadcasting and streaming radio applications, where speed is more important than relative audio quality.

We reviewed sound files encoded in MP3, MP3Pro, and several other formats in our February 1 article "Audio and Video Formats". At 64 Kbps, MP3Pro files are noticeably better than MP3 files encoded at the same rate. At 96 Kbps, MP3Pro files' sound quality is excellent, almost equal to 128-Kbps MP3 files. Listeners with discerning ears may notice a difference, but for most personal-audio applications, MP3Pro is top-rate.

Using MP3Pro

Technically, MP3Pro is backward-compatible with existing MP3 player software. If a player isn't MP3Pro-compatible, it will ignore the SBR coding in MP3Pro data, resulting in flat-sounding audio, because it cannot read the high-frequency data. CD players may not be able to recognize SBR data; check for compatibility before investing time or money. (You'll find a partial listing of products that support MP3Pro at the Coding Technologies site (www.mp3prozone.com/products.htm.)

To take full advantage of MP3Pro on your PC, you need software designed for MP3Pro playback and encoding. You can download the Thomson Demo MP3Pro player/encoder from the Coding Technologies site. This free 1.1MB download lets you play any MP3 or MP3Pro file and encode raw WAV files into MP3Pro files at the 64-Kbps stereo bit rate.

An MP3Pro plug-in for Nullsoft's Winamp works with Versions 2.x, but because of changes in the interface, the MP3Pro plug-in does not work with Winamp3.

MusicMatch Jukebox 8.0 Plus ($19.95 direct, www.musicmatch.com/download) plays, encodes, and burns MP3Pro files, as does Magix mp3 maker platinum ($35 street, www.magix.com). High-end audio enthusiasts and professionals can also take advantage of MP3Pro using editing software such as Syntrillium Software's Cool Edit Pro 2.0 ($250, www.syntrillium.com/cep).

MP3 made digital music a reality on desktop PCs, in portable players, and across the Internet. With MP3Pro, you get faster downloads and twice the amount of music (or more) on a CD or personal music player—without sacrificing quality or compatibility.

Copyright ?? 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.