P2P for AAC?

Adam, you forgot to mention that the primary source of most AAC files these days is iTunes and the iTMS. Even if a P2P source did exist it wouldn't help much since AAC files made with iTunes and as such would be useless (up to a point) for hundreds if not thousands of people because of the DRM (Digital Rights Management, or copy protection in laymans terms).

It's a nice idea in principle but defeats the purpose of iTunes, iTunes Music Store and the capability of iPods to handle AAC to begin with.

I for one have done enough downloading of music over the years and have found the quality of maybe 95% of what I've snagged to be useless. Using GSpot (a program to determine which MP3 encoder was used to create a given MP3 file) I've come to the conclusion that the MP3 community at large just hasn't a clue about how to get even decent sound quality when encoding.

There was a time when 128Kbps MP3 files were the norm but that time passed years ago. If you're not using LAME to encode your MP3 files (or you didn't use it when you made the ones you've already got) you're missing out on a lot.

Just my two cents.

br0adband

in all honesty has anybody heard some really bad sounding tracks on iTunes or is it just me? For instance Goo Goo Dolls - Here is Gone...i could swear that on iTunes it sounds terrible...i dled a 320kbps mp3 and it sounds a lot better...is there an explanation or have my ears decieved me? :(

Originally posted by Riceboi
in all honesty has anybody heard some really bad sounding tracks on iTunes or is it just me? For instance Goo Goo Dolls - Here is Gone...i could swear that on iTunes it sounds terrible...i dled a 320kbps mp3 and it sounds a lot better...is there an explanation or have my ears decieved me? :(

I read some posts on other Forums around the Net and have noticed other people making complaints about AAC and how it's encoded. The two most popular ways available presently are by: a) using QuickTime to do it or b) using iTunes to do it. Even though iTunes installs QuickTime alongside itself, the two programs seem to have different ways of encoding AAC files (even on the same PC).

Here's a link to the one I found first (and this is from someone whose opinion I trust and is wel known across the audio community):

Encoding differences between QuickTime and iTunes (http://members.brabant.chello.nl/~m.heijligers/ipod/encodingsettings.html)

Give it a read. You might be suprised, but in your case you may have just landed on a particularly bad encoding. It happens, I'm just sure why.

:confused:

br0adband