MP3

MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format invented and standardised in 1991 by a team of engineers working in the framework of the ISO/IEC MPEG audio committee under the chairmanship of Professor Hans Musmann (University of Hannover - Germany). It was designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners. In popular usage, MP3 also refers to files of sound or music recordings stored in the MP3 format on computers.

Design limitations of MP3

There are several limitations inherent to the MP3 format that cannot be overcome by using a better encoder.

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Newer audio compression formats such as Vorbis and AAC no longer have these limitations.

Related Topics:
Vorbis - AAC

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In technical terms, MP3 is limited in the following ways:

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• Bitrate is limited to a maximum of 320 kibit/s
• Time resolution can be too low for highly transient signals
• Encoder/decoder overall delay is not defined
• No scalefactor band for frequencies above 15.5/15.8 kHz
• Joint stereo is done on a frame-to-frame basis
• Lack of gapless playback; tracks intendended to flow into another (such as in live performances) do not seamlessly flow: a short gap of silence is heard between the two tracks.

Nevertheless, a well tuned MP3 encoder can perform competitively even with these restrictions.

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