As for MP3 players, I have many and have been using them extensively
for several years.

I like Winamp for all around excellence.  It has an adjustable
equalizer and you can save your equalizer settings by name without
limit.  With plug-ins, it can play RealAudio and Media Player files
but it really excels at playing MP3.  It is free and has always been
free.  Get it from http://www.winamp.com/

When you install it, the program will want to become your preferred
player for everything -- opt out of all that.  You can change
assignments for those file types you want Winamp to play from the
options menu after it is installed.  It comes with an uninstaller that
works.  It also comes with an "Internet radio" player, but you can
close that window and it will never reopen unless you want to use it.

RealAudio is not my favorite audio system.  They are one-way with their
terms of use, namely, it is a violation of their terms of use for you
to modify any RealAudio file for the purposes of re-encoding it to any
of their competitor's file types, such as MP3.  I believe Microsoft has
a similar terms of use clause for their Windows Media Player files (WMA
= Windows Media Audio).  For this reason, there are no commercial
software converters that will convert from RealAudio or Windows Media
Player encoded formats to MP3 or any other encoding method.

Regarding making compressed audio files, MP3 is a copyrighted encoding
scheme.  The best encoder is the Fraunhofer encoder, which costs money
for the software houses to include.  It is a nominal cost in large
volumes of sales, but not free.  At present the most available
player/encoder with a Fraunhofer encoder is Music Match Jukebox.

There are a number of "free" MP3 encoders, among them the best seems
to be "lame".  The fastest encoder is "Blade", but quality generally
suffers with this encoder, in my opinion.  The Fraunhofer Institute
has been going after alternative encoder software creators lately and
they are beginning to drop into the bit bucket.  I guess there is some
misunderstanding about what is "free" when it comes to MP3.

Real Jukebox uses the Xing encoder (or 'codec', as they are called).
I like lame and I use it a lot even though I own Music Match Jukebox.
It's a matter of convenience.

MP3 is the standout for a survivor in compressed audio players.
It is used by the movie industry to produce DVDs and I believe it is
the method used to send audio on satellite TV.

Most of the new DVD movie players are able to play MP3 encoded audio
CDs you make on your computer.  This allows many hours of audio on one
CD.  Most of these players are limited to a single sample rate of
41,100 samples per second, which happens to be the same sample rate
used in standard audio CDs.  Lower sample rates often do not play on
these players.

Boom boxes are beginning to make an appearance that play MP3 CDs also.
I have been using a portable CD player, Rio Volt, for about one year
and it plays everything.  It has a distinct advantage over much of the
competition in that the firmware can be upgraded by files available on
the Internet from Rio, and these upgrades have added many features
including a programmable equalizer and the ability to play Media Player
files.  These features were not included with the original release of
the player about 15 months ago.

When you make compressed audio MP3 files there are some things to
keep in mind.  Not all players can play mono files correctly.  Also,
variable bit rate is often not played correctly (I recommend sticking
with constant bit rate).  'Stereo' is pure stereo, just as used in
conventional audio CDs.

'Joint Stereo' is different, resembling FM stereo: it uses a single
channel signal and includes information on how to modify that signal
by addition and subtraction to get stereo out of it.

If you intend to make regular audio CDs from your MP3 files, it is best
to use stereo and a bit rate of 41,100 bits per second when you create
your MP3 files.  The most compact files, the ones with the low bit
rates, require the most computer horsepower to create.  To do a good
job, it is best not to try this in real time unless you have a fast
computer with lots of memory.  Of course, there is no harm in trying.

You do not need an encoder to play MP3 files; Winamp is an excellent
player.

Don Shenbarger

 [ Visit http://mmd.foxtail.com/Sounds/index.html and play MP3 file
 [ app_002c.mp3 (174,692 bytes).  The "View File Info" window should
 [ show that the MP3 file is 11025 Hz mono, with ID3 tag entries:
 [
 [   Title: app_002c.mp3
 [   Artist: Automatic Player Piano
 [   Album: courtesy Hal Davis
 [   Genre: Oldies
 [   Comment: Wurlitzer Style S
 [
 [ -- Robbie