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  3. Corrupting MP3s...

Corrupting MP3s...

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  • D Offline
    D Offline
    dandy72
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

    P L OriginalGriffO M F 12 Replies Last reply
    0
    • D dandy72

      No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

      P Offline
      P Offline
      phil o
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      v1 Tags are appended to the end of the file, while v2 tags are prepended, if I remember properly. There is no reason for a tagging software to modify anything inside the audio stream. I digitalized all my cd's to mp3 years ago, and I still listen to them, having transfered them numerous times between my computers/phones/NAS; I never noticed any degradation of the audio signal. Did you test offending files on several equipments, to be sure the file is the culprit?

      "Five fruits and vegetables a day? What a joke! Personally, after the third watermelon, I'm full."

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • D dandy72

        No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

        L Offline
        L Offline
        Lost User
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        your machine doesn't like your taste of music. but serially have you tried playing it with another app, or perhaps another machine? maybe the original encoding app "relied on some feature" which player updates have since "fixed"?

        << Signature removed due to multiple copyright violations >>

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • D dandy72

          No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

          OriginalGriffO Offline
          OriginalGriffO Offline
          OriginalGriff
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          DRM* * Destroy Random Music

          "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

          "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
          "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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          • D dandy72

            No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

            M Offline
            M Offline
            Maximilien
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            Better or worse error correction in the mp3 codec ? :confused:

            I'd rather be phishing!

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • D dandy72

              No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

              F Offline
              F Offline
              Forogar
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              It's almost certainly NOT the MP3 itself. I would suspect the player. Try another one.

              - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

              D 1 Reply Last reply
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              • D dandy72

                No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

                K Offline
                K Offline
                kmoorevs
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                As others have said, I would suspect the player not the files. The only 'scratches' I hear from my library are those tracks that were ripped from CDs. BTW, long ago I started a personal project to catalog my music library by using the ID3 tags. I found out quick that they are totally unreliable and have major shortcomings that made them unsuitable for that purpose. (truncated names either at 30 or 60 chars depending on version)

                "Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

                G 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • D dandy72

                  No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

                  R Offline
                  R Offline
                  RickZeeland
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  And now over to the next step: corrupting MP4's :-\

                  D 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • K kmoorevs

                    As others have said, I would suspect the player not the files. The only 'scratches' I hear from my library are those tracks that were ripped from CDs. BTW, long ago I started a personal project to catalog my music library by using the ID3 tags. I found out quick that they are totally unreliable and have major shortcomings that made them unsuitable for that purpose. (truncated names either at 30 or 60 chars depending on version)

                    "Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

                    G Offline
                    G Offline
                    Gary Wheeler
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    kmoorevs wrote:

                    (truncated names either at 30 or 60 chars depending on version)

                    Those are ID3v1 tags. ID3v2.4, which has been the dominant specification for almost 15 years, is a lot more flexible. I use a program called MP3tag[^] and have found it to work well.

                    Software Zen: delete this;

                    D 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • D dandy72

                      No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

                      Sander RosselS Offline
                      Sander RosselS Offline
                      Sander Rossel
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      What I've sometimes experienced is that I have an MP3 in 128 or 192 bits, but some player is like "let's make that 320!" and that's simply not possible and it results in clicks and ticks.

                      Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

                      1 Reply Last reply
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                      • D dandy72

                        No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

                        P Offline
                        P Offline
                        PSU Steve
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/age-related-hearing-loss :)

                        D 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • D dandy72

                          No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

                          K Offline
                          K Offline
                          kalberts
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          I have had similar experiences in two areas: First, when I come across a CD issue of some vinyl record I used to love years ago, but haven't played for a long time. I rush home, put the CD in the player, and am disappointed: It doesn't sound nearly as good as I remember the old vinyl! Far less punch, duller in the higher frequencies,... So I dig up the old vinyl record for a direct comparison (I haven't updated my stereo for many years; the setup is the same as in the old days, and I have kept all the old vinyls). Without exception, the CD quality is significantly better in a side-by-side comparison. Through the rosy haze of memory, the sound quality of vinyl recordings had improved to beyond the perfect reproduction... Second: I had all my Super-8 movies digitized. Setting up the projector, shading the windows, mounting the screen... We never did that anymore, too much hassle. The digitizing shop did a poor job: Images were grainy, movements jerky, color was poor. Again, I set up the analog equipment for the same image size as my video screen, and compared side by side. Especially the movements were far more jerky in the original. They appearently did som sort of morphing when converting the 18 fps Super-8 into 25 fps video - interpolating movements between the frames. Yet they managed to retain a sharpness where I can see the indiviual grains in the photograhic film, when I stop the video at a single frame. So: Maybe the sound of your MP3s never were better. They always had the click and ticks and garbled sound - but that was the norm in those days. (When CDs arrived, you could buy T-shirts that said "Music will never be the same without the hizz, clicks and pops".) You may know that Norway was the first - and I belive still the only - country to close down the national FM radio networks during 2017; only a few community radios are left on FM. A fairly large number of "rebels" were fiercely fighting against digital radio, and painted the most rosy images of how perfect FM is, both in coverage, sound quality, channel selection etc. I saw what was coming, so before the FN teardown started, in 2016 and 2017, I spent my summer vacations driving around the country with a brand new high end FM/DAB car radio, recording (on a digital recorder, using the line out from the car radio) the sound while switching back and forth between the DAB and the FM transmission of the same channel, and I took notes of available channels as I moved around. I was not surprised: Once FM was gone, I was blamed f

                          D 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • D dandy72

                            No doubt it's possible to corrupt an MP3 file if an MP3 tag editor is somehow buggy. That's why I tend to take the time to listen to MP3s after I rip a CD and then tag the files (or take an existing MP3 and just re-tag it...I'm paranoid in that way). But what about files that have simply been left sitting on disk for months or even years? I have MP3s that seem to have developed audible clicks and ticks and simply garbled sound without me having changed them in any way, shape or form (as far as I can tell). If an MP3 player offers to "automatically update tags with information downloaded from the internet", I disable that. I realize bit rot is a thing, but if I'm otherwise not noticing any sort of data corruption with any other type of file...why would this only happen with MP3 files? Digital files are just that, 0s and 1s, and I see no reason for them to change on their own over time (that should simply not ever happen)...yet I'm hearing evidence some of my MP3s are not what they used to be... Thoughts? Speculation...?

                            L Offline
                            L Offline
                            Lost User
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            Maybe your hearing is improving.

                            It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it. ― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food

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                            • P PSU Steve

                              https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/age-related-hearing-loss :)

                              D Offline
                              D Offline
                              dandy72
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              If it was hearing loss, I wouldn't be hearing the glitches that weren't there previously. But I needed the laugh. :-)

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • G Gary Wheeler

                                kmoorevs wrote:

                                (truncated names either at 30 or 60 chars depending on version)

                                Those are ID3v1 tags. ID3v2.4, which has been the dominant specification for almost 15 years, is a lot more flexible. I use a program called MP3tag[^] and have found it to work well.

                                Software Zen: delete this;

                                D Offline
                                D Offline
                                dandy72
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                That's the one I use. I find it doubtful it's the *player*, as I've tried WMP, VLC (my player of choice) and foobar2000. Also--and more importantly--every once in a while I come across one of those files, then look it up in my most recent backup set. If I'm lucky, I didn't yet overwrite the "good" backup of the MP3 with the version on my NAS (now with the audible clicks). And if I do a file compare, the files *are* different. I think that, by itself, rules out any sort of playback mechanism subtleties between different players.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • K kalberts

                                  I have had similar experiences in two areas: First, when I come across a CD issue of some vinyl record I used to love years ago, but haven't played for a long time. I rush home, put the CD in the player, and am disappointed: It doesn't sound nearly as good as I remember the old vinyl! Far less punch, duller in the higher frequencies,... So I dig up the old vinyl record for a direct comparison (I haven't updated my stereo for many years; the setup is the same as in the old days, and I have kept all the old vinyls). Without exception, the CD quality is significantly better in a side-by-side comparison. Through the rosy haze of memory, the sound quality of vinyl recordings had improved to beyond the perfect reproduction... Second: I had all my Super-8 movies digitized. Setting up the projector, shading the windows, mounting the screen... We never did that anymore, too much hassle. The digitizing shop did a poor job: Images were grainy, movements jerky, color was poor. Again, I set up the analog equipment for the same image size as my video screen, and compared side by side. Especially the movements were far more jerky in the original. They appearently did som sort of morphing when converting the 18 fps Super-8 into 25 fps video - interpolating movements between the frames. Yet they managed to retain a sharpness where I can see the indiviual grains in the photograhic film, when I stop the video at a single frame. So: Maybe the sound of your MP3s never were better. They always had the click and ticks and garbled sound - but that was the norm in those days. (When CDs arrived, you could buy T-shirts that said "Music will never be the same without the hizz, clicks and pops".) You may know that Norway was the first - and I belive still the only - country to close down the national FM radio networks during 2017; only a few community radios are left on FM. A fairly large number of "rebels" were fiercely fighting against digital radio, and painted the most rosy images of how perfect FM is, both in coverage, sound quality, channel selection etc. I saw what was coming, so before the FN teardown started, in 2016 and 2017, I spent my summer vacations driving around the country with a brand new high end FM/DAB car radio, recording (on a digital recorder, using the line out from the car radio) the sound while switching back and forth between the DAB and the FM transmission of the same channel, and I took notes of available channels as I moved around. I was not surprised: Once FM was gone, I was blamed f

                                  D Offline
                                  D Offline
                                  dandy72
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  Interesting theory, but it's nowhere near that subtle. You'd have to be pretty much deaf to not hear one of those loud CLICKs. I should find some app that displays the sound wave. I'm sure those clicking noises would stand out visually as well.

                                  K 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • R RickZeeland

                                    And now over to the next step: corrupting MP4's :-\

                                    D Offline
                                    D Offline
                                    dandy72
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    This sort of thing is part of the reason I don't convert my DVD rips (AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS, VOBs and all) into single-file formats...

                                    R 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • F Forogar

                                      It's almost certainly NOT the MP3 itself. I would suspect the player. Try another one.

                                      - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                                      D Offline
                                      D Offline
                                      dandy72
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      See my other responses. I've tried multiple players, *and* - in some cases, if I have an older backup that plays fine - a binary comparison will show the files *are* different...

                                      1 Reply Last reply
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                                      • D dandy72

                                        This sort of thing is part of the reason I don't convert my DVD rips (AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS, VOBs and all) into single-file formats...

                                        R Offline
                                        R Offline
                                        RickZeeland
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        Wise, very wise :-\ TS stands for Transport Stream btw. a format that I don't encounter very often in my line of work. I once had to analyze a TS, it was hard to find any information about that !

                                        D 1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • R RickZeeland

                                          Wise, very wise :-\ TS stands for Transport Stream btw. a format that I don't encounter very often in my line of work. I once had to analyze a TS, it was hard to find any information about that !

                                          D Offline
                                          D Offline
                                          dandy72
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          I've come across .TS files before, and I believe they tend to originate from Tivo and live stream type of boxes that receive streaming data you're not "supposed" to get to. And it's hardly compressed (to the point of being total overkill - as in, gigabytes for just a few minutes worth of video).

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