Ripping MP3s of vintage music in mono
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:40 am
ITunes has a setting to rip variable bitrate MP3s in mono, not stereo. (Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Importing -> Setting (Custom) -> Channels (Stereo or Mono). Doing so saves a tremendous amount of space: the resulting MP3s are less than half the size. (You can either save the space at the same minimum bitrate (same quality level) or double the minimum bitrate (double the quality) in the same amount of disc space.)
Does anyone know of a reason why I should NOT rip an MP3 of a vintage (mono) recording in mono? Does anyone anyone do so as a matter of course? The answer seems obvious, but I just wanted to check to see if anyone came across some unknown technical pitfall, either with the MP3 format, itself, or with the way vintage recordings are recorded onto CDs.
Years ago, I recorded some minidiscs in mono because they actually pitched it as a way to get more music on a single disc (and it didn't matter for vintage music). And it worked fine, and allowed me to get twice as much music on a minidisc, with no drop in sound quality. I ultimately considered it useless (and even foolish) to rip vintage music in stereo. And I know that minidiscs used a compression format similar to (or a rival to) what MP3s use, which is how they got the music to fit on smaller discs. Is recording in mono the same with MP3s, or is there something unique about MP3s?
Does anyone know of a reason why I should NOT rip an MP3 of a vintage (mono) recording in mono? Does anyone anyone do so as a matter of course? The answer seems obvious, but I just wanted to check to see if anyone came across some unknown technical pitfall, either with the MP3 format, itself, or with the way vintage recordings are recorded onto CDs.
Years ago, I recorded some minidiscs in mono because they actually pitched it as a way to get more music on a single disc (and it didn't matter for vintage music). And it worked fine, and allowed me to get twice as much music on a minidisc, with no drop in sound quality. I ultimately considered it useless (and even foolish) to rip vintage music in stereo. And I know that minidiscs used a compression format similar to (or a rival to) what MP3s use, which is how they got the music to fit on smaller discs. Is recording in mono the same with MP3s, or is there something unique about MP3s?