[David Nebenzahl]

On 1/25/2010 11:09 PM Mr.T spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
.com...

I'm sure you did it, but this still raises the question: was your MP3
data degraded by the "silent" decoding and re-encoding that occurred
when you edited it? If so, it may not have been enough for you to have
realized that this happened.

Of *course* it adds loss when you decode AND re-encode! However what most
people don't realise is that the greatest loss occors on the first encode.
Once that part of the signal is gone, it doesn't have to be re-encoded next
time. From my experiments the first encode reduces quality by about the same
as the next 4 or 5 re-encodes. YMMV.

I didn't know this, though it makes perfect sense now that I think of it.

It would be nice to know how this works quantitatively, based on
empirical evidence. Not doubting you, just wondering how much loss
occurs right off the bat. If the 2nd decode-encode cycle adds negligible
loss, then it might be OK to edit the file to reverse the channels.


--
You were wrong, and I'm man enough to admit it.

- a Usenet "apology"