Anyone know of an MP3 equalizer app, no encode/decode?

[fitwell]

Was thinking along the lines of a small, easy-to-use app like MP3Trim
that works on an MP3 without encoding/decoding, or whatever it's
called so that it loads/saves EQ-edited MP3s _fast_!

I often need to just edit an audio book file to just clean up "heavy"
sound. I'll run it through something like Sound Forge, which has a
great 20-band graphic equalizer but then 2kb files sometimes happen.
This is aggravating because the audio files are huge (being book
files) and a lot of time is needed to load then save as well as the
time it takes for the EQ effect to be processed. So when 2kb
truncated error files result, it's a pain in the neck. But having an
EQ program that allows me to modify the frequencies, only, would be
the ideal solution. (p.s., have asked about this problem in SF in a
forum, so getting help that end there, just need an alternative to SF
for EQ-related problems.)

Does such an animal even exist for editing MP3s? Thanks.

 

[GamePlayer]

Was thinking along the lines of a small, easy-to-use app like MP3Trim
that works on an MP3 without encoding/decoding, or whatever it's
called so that it loads/saves EQ-edited MP3s _fast_!

AFAIK, this isn't possible - each "frame" in mp3 is a compressed set of
samples (ie, time domain data) and you would need the samples to be in the
frequency domain to perform a frequency-dependent operation on them.

How are you playing these files back? if it is on a hardware player then I
don't know of anything to help, but if you are playing it back under
windows, many players now have the ability to store a eq-setting per mp3
and automagically load it on playback. (winamp "autoload preset" for
example)

 

[fitwell]

AFAIK, this isn't possible - each "frame" in mp3 is a compressed set of
samples (ie, time domain data) and you would need the samples to be in the
frequency domain to perform a frequency-dependent operation on them.

That was what I was afraid of. But I didn't know for sure and thought
I'd ask anyway.

How are you playing these files back? if it is on a hardware player then I
don't know of anything to help, but if you are playing it back under
windows, many players now have the ability to store a eq-setting per mp3
and automagically load it on playback. (winamp "autoload preset" for
example)

Yes, that would be fine if I were only playing these back on the
computer but, unfortunately, I need to fix files to burn to CD and I
might as well fix all at once and never worry about them again.

I don't know if I mentioned, but if I manage to fix in a shareware
(Sound Forge, in this case), that's okay. But unfortunately, that app
has a glitch in that it often saves files after I've extensively
edited them to clean them up to a truncated 2kb file. It has a high
frequency of doing this, about every 5th, 6th or 7th file and I've not
been able to figure out why.

The version of another shareware I have (GW) doesn't have a preview
for the EQ which renders it impossible to use for this purpose. I
trialed the latest version of that app but found it useless as they
fixed what wasn't broken again and took out stuff or put in a
different spot when it wasn't necessary, so EQ in that app,
bottom-line, is not possible.

Is there, perhaps, a freeware MP3 editor that has an EQ of some kind?
Audio book files are often incorrectly ripped and/or ripped at very
low bitrate due to the sizes involved. Re-sampling from a mono to
stereo helps tremendously and fixing EQ settings does the rest.
They're just spoken word files so any quality loss is either not
noticeable at all or unimportant as the sound comes out
better-sounding than the original.

Thanks once again everyone for the wonderful help.

 

[charles]

Was thinking along the lines of a small, easy-to-use app like MP3Trim
that works on an MP3 without encoding/decoding, or whatever it's
called so that it loads/saves EQ-edited MP3s _fast_!

I often need to just edit an audio book file to just clean up "heavy"
sound. I'll run it through something like Sound Forge, which has a
great 20-band graphic equalizer but then 2kb files sometimes happen.
This is aggravating because the audio files are huge (being book
files) and a lot of time is needed to load then save as well as the
time it takes for the EQ effect to be processed. So when 2kb
truncated error files result, it's a pain in the neck. But having an
EQ program that allows me to modify the frequencies, only, would be
the ideal solution. (p.s., have asked about this problem in SF in a
forum, so getting help that end there, just need an alternative to SF
for EQ-related problems.)

Does such an animal even exist for editing MP3s? Thanks.

I haven't used it heavily but maybe MP3DirectCut at
http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch/ does what you need without the coding
loops.

 

[dadiOH]

Yes, that would be fine if I were only playing these back on the
computer but, unfortunately, I need to fix files to burn to CD and I
might as well fix all at once and never worry about them again.

1. Use Winamp's equalizer to set equalizer settings as you want them, set it
up to automatically apply settings to each song when played.

2. Load the lot into Winamp (making sure equalizer is on).

3. Switch output to "DiskWriter"

4. "Play" them

5. Burn the resultant equalized waves to audio CD or encode and burn as
MP3s.

--
dadiOH
_____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://www.gbronline.com/xico/
_________________________________

 

[fitwell]

I haven't used it heavily but maybe MP3DirectCut at
http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch/ does what you need without the coding
loops.

That's neat, it doesn't encode/decode (so it would be fast) yet has a
waveform to boot! Kewl.

Nope, from description doesn't have EQ functions so it wouldn't work
for this, but you've reminded me about this app and I'll keep it in
mind to try in future.

Thanks!

 

[fitwell]

Was thinking along the lines of a small, easy-to-use app like MP3Trim
that works on an MP3 without encoding/decoding, or whatever it's
called so that it loads/saves EQ-edited MP3s _fast_!

I often need to just edit an audio book file to just clean up "heavy"
sound. I'll run it through something like Sound Forge, which has a
great 20-band graphic equalizer but then 2kb files sometimes happen.
This is aggravating because the audio files are huge (being book
files) and a lot of time is needed to load then save as well as the
time it takes for the EQ effect to be processed. So when 2kb
truncated error files result, it's a pain in the neck. But having an
EQ program that allows me to modify the frequencies, only, would be
the ideal solution. (p.s., have asked about this problem in SF in a
forum, so getting help that end there, just need an alternative to SF
for EQ-related problems.)

Does such an animal even exist for editing MP3s? Thanks.

Guys, you won't believe it! This is why I might be a pain in the
neck, but I never give up. One always finds an elegant yet simple
solution if one perseveres!

Winamp 2 is the solution to practically every single bad MP3 problem
there is. If Winamp plays a file and loads it completely (unlike some
sound editors, even the heavy duty ones, that can't handle many
glitchy MP3s), it can fix them.

The beauty is in a "new" or new to me plugin, the OUT_LAME one.

In the configuration screen, you can save all the settings you want to
a specific name. So, I did up one for 64kbps (for audio book files,
which are the ones that cause all the problems) and Winamp is powerful
in that it allows me to save those 64kbps files to Stereo mode at
44100 and allows a permanent default folder to save to as well under
those settings! The only thing it doesn't seem to do is to allow one
to normalize at the same time. So, Winamp2 in conjunction with the
OUT_LAME plugin and MP3Gain (ALL FREEWARES!!) can become our main
arsenals in fixing MP3s.

Just had to pass this along as I got this info from another ng.

Winamp2, of course, available here:
http://classic.winamp.com/download/

The OUT_LAME plugin available here:
http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jhtml;?componentId=71812

Good luck and hope this is as great a help to someone else as it has
been to me. 75% or more of all my MP3 fixing can now be done QUICKLY
and EASILY with Winamp + OUT_LAME plugin.

p.s., whatever EQ settings you have while playing an MP3 will be what
the new MP3 plays at! Awesome!

Since this is such a great discovery for me, posting a whole new
thread just to pass this info along.

 

[fitwell]

I had to pass this info along in a whole new thread since I wasn't
aware of a plugin for Winamp called OUT_LAME. hth others, too!

Guys, you won't believe it! This is why I might be a pain in the
neck, but I never give up. One always finds an elegant yet simple
solution if one perseveres!

Winamp 2 is the solution to practically every single bad MP3 problem
there is. If Winamp plays a file and loads it completely (unlike some
sound editors, even the heavy duty ones, that can't handle many
glitchy MP3s), it can fix them.

The beauty is in a "new" or new to me plugin, the OUT_LAME one.

In the configuration screen, you can save all the settings you want to
a specific name. So, I did up one for 64kbps (for audio book files,
which are the ones that cause all the problems) and Winamp is powerful
in that it allows me to save those 64kbps files to Stereo mode at
44100 and allows a permanent default folder to save to as well under
those settings! The only thing it doesn't seem to do is to allow one
to normalize at the same time. So, Winamp2 in conjunction with the
OUT_LAME plugin and MP3Gain (ALL FREEWARES!!) can become our main
arsenals in fixing MP3s.

Just had to pass this along as I got this info from another ng.

Winamp2, of course, available here:
http://classic.winamp.com/download/

The OUT_LAME plugin available here:
http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jhtml;?componentId=71812

Good luck and hope this is as great a help to someone else as it has
been to me. 75% or more of all my MP3 fixing can now be done QUICKLY
and EASILY with Winamp + OUT_LAME plugin.

p.s., whatever EQ settings you have while playing an MP3 will be what
the new MP3 plays at! Awesome!

Cheers!

 

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Thanks for the tip.