ID3 Tag, Red Book, Ripping and Burning, Treble

Glossary of Digital Audio Terms

Contents

Index 13

ID3 Tag

The ID3 tag is the part of the encoded MP3 file that contains information about the digital music file such as song title, artist, album title, encoding bitrate, track time duration, and so on. ID3 tag information is displayed on the Album/Track title line on the player’s LCD.

MP3

MP3 is short for Moving Pictures Experts Group Audio Layer 3. MP3 is the most well known compressed digital audio file format. This format allows for near “CD quality” sound, but at a fraction of the size of normal audio files. MP3 conversion of an audio track from CD-ROM reduces the file size by approximately a 12:1 ratio with virtually no perceptible loss in quality. MP3 compression removes the redundant and irrelevant parts of a sound signal that the human ear doesn't hear. This digital sound encoding and compression process was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits and Thomson Multimedia.

Red Book

Red Book is the name of the original specifications for the compact disc (CD). Developed by Sony and Philips, Red Book specifications became standardized requirements for all Audio (CD-DA) CDs and today form the basis for almost all CD format specifications. Legend has it that the original document was kept in a binder with red covers—hence the name "Red Book".

"Ripping and Burning”

Creating MP3 CDs, sometimes referred to as “ripping and burning”, refers to extracting audio from a music CD (ripping), and encoding it (burning) into a compressed digital audio format like MP3.

Treble

Treble notes occupy the higher portion of the sound spectrum. Increasing the treble value will raise the levels of the high sounds in your music files. You can select the amount of bass in your music by selecting various equalizer options.

VBR

Variable Bitrate (VBR) encoding converts tracks at a variable rate, using higher bitrate encoding for complex portions and lower bitrate encoding for pauses in songs.