Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase - User contributions [en]

Musepack

2012-01-29T22:19:24Z

Antonski: /* User oriented links */

= Introduction =
'''Musepack''' is a lossy audio compression scheme created by Andree Buschmann. He started work on the codec in 1998 (then called MP+) because he was unsatisfied with the audio quality of MP3 codecs at the time. It is strongly based on the [[MPEG-1]] Layer-2 ([[MP2]]) algorithms, with 32 subbands of the same bandwidth, but with several significant improvements. Musepack is optimized for "transparency". The format doesn't compete well at lower, 'streaming' bitrates such as 32/48/64kbps. This is due to MPC being a [[subband]] [[codec]] as well as the fact that very little optimization has gone into such low [[bitrate]]s. However, as can be seen in various 128kbit/s listening tests (see below), despite the fact that MPC has been optimized little for such bitrates it is in the same class of other modern competitors such as [[AAC]] and (Ogg) [[Vorbis]].

== Pros ==
* Suffers from different "problem cases" than most other formats (less pre-echo)
* Very fast encoding/decoding
* Designed to be very good by default at --standard setting.
* Open source
* Portable playback by Pocket-PCs, Palm OS-based and Windows CE/Windows Mobile-based devices, even Smartphones, see http://tcpmp.corecodec.org
* Portable playback on digital audio players with Rockbox support, see http://www.rockbox.org
* Support & development forum at http://www.Musepack.net

== Cons ==
* Marginal support (yet) on portable players
* No support for [[sampling rate]]s above 48khz

= Technical details =
== Supported input formats ==
* channels: 1 to 8
* bit depths: 1 to 32 bit linear [[PCM]]
* sample rates: 32kHz, 37.8kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz (44.1 and 48 are highly tuned)
* [[WAV]], raw [[PCM]], a lot of [[lossless]] compressed audio formats like [[FLAC]], [[LPAC]], [[Monkey's_Audio|APE]], [[OptimFROG]], [[SZIP]] and Shorten ([[SHN]])

== Encoder Functions ==
[[MPC Encoder Functions]]

= Links =
== User oriented links ==
* [http://musepack.net Musepack.net] - a general info, news and software site.
* [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1927 Users' HowTo MPC guide at HydrogenAudio]
* [http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC_and_Musepack#Software_Needed EAC and Musepack]
* [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ Frank Klemm's official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/

== Technical links ==
* [http://trac.musepack.net/wiki Specifications]
* [http://svn.musepack.net/ Source code]
* Frank Klemm's [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/

== Listening test involving MPC ==
* [[Listening Tests]] page
* [http://ff123.net/128tests.html ff123's 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://ff123.net/128test/instruct.html ff123's second 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html rjamorim's 128kbit/s test]

Please note that some of these tests, while valid, used encoder versions which have now been superseded. You should make your own decision about the comparative quality of MPC, listening to clips of music in the style you prefer.

Also note that these are tests at low bitrates; an area where MPC is not particularly optimized. The encoder was designed by the author to be very good at the --standard setting, thus little to no low [[bitrate]] tuning has gone into the [[codec]], opposite to that of [[AAC]], (Ogg) [[Vorbis]], [[WMA]] and others which focus more on this region. However, as can be seen in the various listening test pages, MPC competes surprisingly well with the rest of them.

[[Category: Codecs]]
[[Category: Lossy]]
[[Category:Encoder/Decoder]]

EAC and Musepack

2012-01-29T22:17:25Z

Antonski: /* Software Needed */ - Musepack encoder version updated

==Important note==
This guide is in need of an update, because '''in EAC 1.0 beta 2, the replacement strings changed'''. For example:
* "%s" is now "%source%"
* "%d" is now "%dest%"
* "%a" is now "%artist%"
See the full list in [http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/support/faq/ the EAC FAQ] or in the [http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC_Compression_Options#External_Compression EAC Compression Options guide].

==Software Needed==
* [http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/resources/download/ Exact Audio Copy]
* [http://www.musepack.net/index.php?pg=win Musepack 1.30]

==Installation==
'''Note:''' This guide assumes that EAC is has been configured for secure ripping, if not please follow [[EAC_Drive_Configuration | this]] guide.
* Unzip the chosen musepack version into the same directory that EAC is in.

==Configuration==

* Open EAC and insert a CD into the drive.
* Click the '''EAC''' menu and select '''Compression Options'''.
* Click the '''External Compression''' Tab, and put a check box in '''use external program for compression'''.
* Change '''Parameter Passing Scheme''' to '''User Defined Encoder'''.
* Change '''Use file extension''' to '''.mpc'''.
* Click the '''Browse''' button and locate the '''MPPENC.EXE''' that you unzipped earlier.
* Remove the ticks from '''Use CRC check''', '''Add ID3 tag''' and '''check for external programs return code'''.
* In the '''Addtional command line options''' box, copy and paste one of the below strings based on the Tag you would prefer.
'''No Tags:'''

'''--quality 6''' %s

'''APEv2 tag:'''

'''--quality 6''' --artist "%a" --title "%t" --album "%g" --year "%y" --track "%n" --genre "%m" %s

'''Note:''' If you wanted to change the quality setting the green portion is what you would substitute with the new setting e.g. --quality 10 or --quality 4.
* Do not worry what bit rate is shown in the bit rate drop down box, this will be ignored.

<center>[[Image:EAC_MPC.png|frame|center|Musepack configured with APEv2 tagging]]</center>

==Addtional Reading==
* [[Exact_Audio_Copy|Exact Audio Copy]]
* [[Musepack]]

[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:EAC Guides]]

Musepack

2012-01-29T22:15:12Z

Antonski: /* Technical links */ - Links updated, osolete links removed

= Introduction =
'''Musepack''' is a lossy audio compression scheme created by Andree Buschmann. He started work on the codec in 1998 (then called MP+) because he was unsatisfied with the audio quality of MP3 codecs at the time. It is strongly based on the [[MPEG-1]] Layer-2 ([[MP2]]) algorithms, with 32 subbands of the same bandwidth, but with several significant improvements. Musepack is optimized for "transparency". The format doesn't compete well at lower, 'streaming' bitrates such as 32/48/64kbps. This is due to MPC being a [[subband]] [[codec]] as well as the fact that very little optimization has gone into such low [[bitrate]]s. However, as can be seen in various 128kbit/s listening tests (see below), despite the fact that MPC has been optimized little for such bitrates it is in the same class of other modern competitors such as [[AAC]] and (Ogg) [[Vorbis]].

== Pros ==
* Suffers from different "problem cases" than most other formats (less pre-echo)
* Very fast encoding/decoding
* Designed to be very good by default at --standard setting.
* Open source
* Portable playback by Pocket-PCs, Palm OS-based and Windows CE/Windows Mobile-based devices, even Smartphones, see http://tcpmp.corecodec.org
* Portable playback on digital audio players with Rockbox support, see http://www.rockbox.org
* Support & development forum at http://www.Musepack.net

== Cons ==
* Marginal support (yet) on portable players
* No support for [[sampling rate]]s above 48khz

= Technical details =
== Supported input formats ==
* channels: 1 to 8
* bit depths: 1 to 32 bit linear [[PCM]]
* sample rates: 32kHz, 37.8kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz (44.1 and 48 are highly tuned)
* [[WAV]], raw [[PCM]], a lot of [[lossless]] compressed audio formats like [[FLAC]], [[LPAC]], [[Monkey's_Audio|APE]], [[OptimFROG]], [[SZIP]] and Shorten ([[SHN]])

== Encoder Functions ==
[[MPC Encoder Functions]]

= Links =
== User oriented links ==
* [http://musepack.net Musepack.net] - a general info, news and software site.
* [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1927 Users' HowTo MPC guide at HydrogenAudio]
* [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ Frank Klemm's official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/

== Technical links ==
* [http://trac.musepack.net/wiki Specifications]
* [http://svn.musepack.net/ Source code]
* Frank Klemm's [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/

== Listening test involving MPC ==
* [[Listening Tests]] page
* [http://ff123.net/128tests.html ff123's 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://ff123.net/128test/instruct.html ff123's second 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html rjamorim's 128kbit/s test]

Please note that some of these tests, while valid, used encoder versions which have now been superseded. You should make your own decision about the comparative quality of MPC, listening to clips of music in the style you prefer.

Also note that these are tests at low bitrates; an area where MPC is not particularly optimized. The encoder was designed by the author to be very good at the --standard setting, thus little to no low [[bitrate]] tuning has gone into the [[codec]], opposite to that of [[AAC]], (Ogg) [[Vorbis]], [[WMA]] and others which focus more on this region. However, as can be seen in the various listening test pages, MPC competes surprisingly well with the rest of them.

[[Category: Codecs]]
[[Category: Lossy]]
[[Category:Encoder/Decoder]]

Musepack

2012-01-29T22:11:46Z

Antonski: /* User oriented links */ - Obsolete links removed

= Introduction =
'''Musepack''' is a lossy audio compression scheme created by Andree Buschmann. He started work on the codec in 1998 (then called MP+) because he was unsatisfied with the audio quality of MP3 codecs at the time. It is strongly based on the [[MPEG-1]] Layer-2 ([[MP2]]) algorithms, with 32 subbands of the same bandwidth, but with several significant improvements. Musepack is optimized for "transparency". The format doesn't compete well at lower, 'streaming' bitrates such as 32/48/64kbps. This is due to MPC being a [[subband]] [[codec]] as well as the fact that very little optimization has gone into such low [[bitrate]]s. However, as can be seen in various 128kbit/s listening tests (see below), despite the fact that MPC has been optimized little for such bitrates it is in the same class of other modern competitors such as [[AAC]] and (Ogg) [[Vorbis]].

== Pros ==
* Suffers from different "problem cases" than most other formats (less pre-echo)
* Very fast encoding/decoding
* Designed to be very good by default at --standard setting.
* Open source
* Portable playback by Pocket-PCs, Palm OS-based and Windows CE/Windows Mobile-based devices, even Smartphones, see http://tcpmp.corecodec.org
* Portable playback on digital audio players with Rockbox support, see http://www.rockbox.org
* Support & development forum at http://www.Musepack.net

== Cons ==
* Marginal support (yet) on portable players
* No support for [[sampling rate]]s above 48khz

= Technical details =
== Supported input formats ==
* channels: 1 to 8
* bit depths: 1 to 32 bit linear [[PCM]]
* sample rates: 32kHz, 37.8kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz (44.1 and 48 are highly tuned)
* [[WAV]], raw [[PCM]], a lot of [[lossless]] compressed audio formats like [[FLAC]], [[LPAC]], [[Monkey's_Audio|APE]], [[OptimFROG]], [[SZIP]] and Shorten ([[SHN]])

== Encoder Functions ==
[[MPC Encoder Functions]]

= Links =
== User oriented links ==
* [http://musepack.net Musepack.net] - a general info, news and software site.
* [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1927 Users' HowTo MPC guide at HydrogenAudio]
* [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ Frank Klemm's official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/

== Technical links ==
* [http://trac.musepack.net/trac/wiki Specifications]
* [http://www.musepack.net/index.php?pg=src Source code]
* Frank Klemm's [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/
* [http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki/?page=MPC MPC at AudioCodingWiki]
* [http://www.caddr.com/code/libmusepack libmusepack portable musepack decoding library] (in progress)

== Listening test involving MPC ==
* [[Listening Tests]] page
* [http://ff123.net/128tests.html ff123's 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://ff123.net/128test/instruct.html ff123's second 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html rjamorim's 128kbit/s test]

Please note that some of these tests, while valid, used encoder versions which have now been superseded. You should make your own decision about the comparative quality of MPC, listening to clips of music in the style you prefer.

Also note that these are tests at low bitrates; an area where MPC is not particularly optimized. The encoder was designed by the author to be very good at the --standard setting, thus little to no low [[bitrate]] tuning has gone into the [[codec]], opposite to that of [[AAC]], (Ogg) [[Vorbis]], [[WMA]] and others which focus more on this region. However, as can be seen in the various listening test pages, MPC competes surprisingly well with the rest of them.

[[Category: Codecs]]
[[Category: Lossy]]
[[Category:Encoder/Decoder]]

Talk:Original ReplayGain specification

2011-05-04T14:20:44Z

Antonski: specification link corrected

== Musepack ==

Hi, there is an inaccuracy about Musepack files. Although they use APEv2 for metadata, replaygain is stored in the file header by specification, see [http://trac.musepack.net/trac/wiki/SV8Specification here]. Actually, this is the first format introducing APEv2 tags and native replaygain support.
So, every musepack compliant player must read the RG data from the header rather then APEv2.
[[User:Antonski|Antonski]] 14:19, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

Talk:Original ReplayGain specification

2011-05-04T14:19:46Z

Antonski:

== Musepack ==

Hi, there is an inaccuracy about Musepack files. Although they use APEv2 for metadata, replaygain is stored in the file header by specification, see [http://http://trac.musepack.net/trac/wiki/SV8Specification here]. Actually, this is the first format introducing APEv2 tags and native replaygain support.
So, every musepack compliant player must read the RG data from the header rather then APEv2.
[[User:Antonski|Antonski]] 14:19, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

Talk:Original ReplayGain specification

2011-04-29T00:13:42Z

Antonski: Created page with "== Musepack == Hi, there is an inaccuracy about Musepack files. Although they use APEv2 for metadata, replaygain is stored in the file header by specification, see [http://www.e…"

== Musepack ==

Hi, there is an inaccuracy about Musepack files. Although they use APEv2 for metadata, replaygain is stored in the file header by specification, see [http://www.example.com here]. Actually, this is the first format introducing APEv2 tags and native replaygain support.
So, every musepack compliant player must read the RG data from the header rather then APEv2.

Musepack

2009-10-19T22:44:16Z

Antonski:

= Introduction =
'''Musepack''' is a lossy audio compression scheme created by Andree Buschmann. He started work on the codec in 1998 (then called MP+) because he was unsatisfied with the audio quality of MP3 codecs at the time. It is strongly based on the [[MPEG-1]] Layer-2 ([[MP2]]) algorithms, with 32 subbands of the same bandwidth, but with several significant improvements. Musepack is optimized for "transparency". The format doesn't compete well at lower, 'streaming' bitrates such as 32/48/64kbps. This is due to MPC being a [[subband]] [[codec]] as well as the fact that very little optimization has gone into such low [[bitrate]]s. However, as can be seen in various 128kbit/s listening tests (see below), despite the fact that MPC has been optimized little for such bitrates it is in the same class of other modern competitors such as [[AAC]] and (Ogg) [[Vorbis]].

== Pros ==
* Suffers from different "problem cases" than most other formats (less pre-echo)
* Very fast encoding/decoding
* Designed to be very good by default at --standard setting.
* Open source
* Portable playback by Pocket-PCs, Palm OS-based and Windows CE/Windows Mobile-based devices, even Smartphones, see http://tcpmp.corecodec.org
* Portable playback on iRiver h1x0 and Archos Gmini players, see http://www.rockbox.org
* Support & development forum at http://www.Musepack.net

== Cons ==
* Marginal support (yet) on portable players
* No support for [[sampling rate]]s above 48khz

= Technical details =
== Supported input formats ==
* channels: 1 to 8
* bit depths: 1 to 32 bit linear [[PCM]]
* sample rates: 32kHz, 37.8kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz (44.1 and 48 are highly tuned)
* [[WAV]], raw [[PCM]], a lot of [[lossless]] compressed audio formats like [[FLAC]], [[LPAC]], [[Monkey's_Audio|APE]], [[OptimFROG]], [[SZIP]] and Shorten ([[SHN]])

== Encoder Functions ==
[[MPC Encoder Functions]]

= Links =
== User oriented links ==
* [http://musepack.net Musepack.net] - a general info, news and software site.
* [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1927 Users' HowTo MPC guide at HydrogenAudio]
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/ Case's page] (Winamp plug-ins and more).
* [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ Frank Klemm's official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/
* [http://betaplayer.corecodec.org/ BetaPlayer], the first Musepack-able player on PocketPCs

== Technical links ==
* [http://trac.musepack.net/trac/wiki Specifications]
* [http://www.musepack.net/index.php?pg=src Source code]
* Frank Klemm's [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/
* [http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki/?page=MPC MPC at AudioCodingWiki]
* [http://www.caddr.com/code/libmusepack libmusepack portable musepack decoding library] (in progress)

== Listening test involving MPC ==
* [[Listening Tests]] page
* [http://ff123.net/128tests.html ff123's 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://ff123.net/128test/instruct.html ff123's second 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html rjamorim's 128kbit/s test]

Please note that some of these tests, while valid, used encoder versions which have now been superseded. You should make your own decision about the comparative quality of MPC, listening to clips of music in the style you prefer.

Also note that these are tests at low bitrates; an area where MPC is not particularly optimized. The encoder was designed by the author to be very good at the --standard setting, thus little to no low [[bitrate]] tuning has gone into the [[codec]], opposite to that of [[AAC]], (Ogg) [[Vorbis]], [[WMA]] and others which focus more on this region. However, as can be seen in the various listening test pages, MPC competes surprisingly well with the rest of them.

[[Category: Codecs]]
[[Category: Lossy]]
[[Category:Encoder/Decoder]]

Musepack

2009-10-19T22:41:55Z

Antonski:

= Introduction =
'''Musepack''' is a lossy audio compression scheme created by Andree Buschmann. He started work on the codec in 1998 (then called MP+) because he was unsatisfied with the audio quality of MP3 codecs at the time. It is strongly based on the [[MPEG-1]] Layer-2 ([[MP2]]) algorithms, with 32 subbands of the same bandwidth, but with several significant improvements. Musepack is optimized for "transparency". The format doesn't compete well at lower, 'streaming' bitrates such as 32/48/64kbps. This is due to MPC being a [[subband]] [[codec]] as well as the fact that very little optimization has gone into such low [[bitrate]]s. However, as can be seen in various 128kbit/s listening tests (see below), despite the fact that MPC has been optimized little for such bitrates it is in the same class of other modern competitors such as [[AAC]] and (Ogg) [[Vorbis]].

== Pros ==
* Suffers from different "problem cases" than most other formats (less pre-echo)
* Very fast encoding/decoding
* Designed to be very good by default at --standard setting.
* Open source
* Portable playback by Pocket-PCs, Palm OS-based and Windows CE/Windows Mobile-based devices, even Smartphones, see http://tcpmp.corecodec.org
* Portable playback on iRiver h1x0 and Archos Gmini players, see http://www.rockbox.org
* Support & development forum at http://www.Musepack.net

== Cons ==
* Marginal support (yet) on portable players
* No support for [[sampling rate]]s above 48khz

= Technical details =
== Supported input formats ==
* channels: 1 to 8
* bit depths: 1 to 32 bit linear [[PCM]]
* sample rates: 32kHz, 37.8kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz (44.1 and 48 are highly tuned)
* [[WAV]], raw [[PCM]], a lot of [[lossless]] compressed audio formats like [[FLAC]], [[LPAC]], [[Monkey's_Audio|APE]], [[OptimFROG]], [[SZIP]] and Shorten ([[SHN]])

== Encoder Functions ==
[[MPC Encoder Functions]]

= Links =
== User oriented links ==
* [http://musepack.net Musepack.net] - a general info, news and software site.
* [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1927 Users' HowTo MPC guide at HydrogenAudio]
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/ Case's page] (Winamp plug-ins and more).
* [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ Frank Klemm's official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/
* [http://betaplayer.corecodec.org/ BetaPlayer], the first Musepack-able player on PocketPCs

== Technical links ==
* [http://trac.musepack.net/trac/wiki Specifications]
* [http://www.musepack.net/index.php?pg=src Source code]
* Frank Klemm's [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/
* [http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki/?page=MPC MPC at AudioCodingWiki]
* [http://www.caddr.com/code/libmusepack libmusepack portable musepack decoding library] (in progress)

== Listening test involving MPC ==
* [[Listening Tests]] page
* [http://ff123.net/128tests.html ff123's 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://ff123.net/128test/instruct.html ff123's second 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html rjamorim's 128kbit/s test]

Please note that some of these tests, while valid, used encoder versions which have now been superseded. You should make your own decision about the comparative quality of MPC, listening to clips of music in the style you prefer.

Also note that these are tests at low bitrates; an area where MPC is not particularly optimized. The encoder was designed by the author to be very good at the --standard setting, thus little to no low [[bitrate]] tuning has gone into the [[codec]], opposite to that of [[AAC]], (Ogg) [[Vorbis]], [[WMA]] and others which focus more on this region. However, as can be seen in the various listening test pages, MPC competes surprisingly well with the rest of them.

[[Category: Codecs]]
[[Category: Lossy]]
[[Category:Software]]
[[Category:Encoder/Decoder]]

Musepack

2009-10-11T14:43:19Z

Antonski:

= Introduction =
'''Musepack''' is a lossy audio compression scheme created by Andree Buschmann. He started work on the codec in 1998 (then called MP+) because he was unsatisfied with the audio quality of MP3 codecs at the time. It is strongly based on the [[MPEG-1]] Layer-2 ([[MP2]]) algorithms, with 32 subbands of the same bandwidth, but with several significant improvements. Musepack is optimized for "transparency". The format doesn't compete well at lower, 'streaming' bitrates such as 32/48/64kbps. This is due to MPC being a [[subband]] [[codec]] as well as the fact that very little optimization has gone into such low [[bitrate]]s. However, as can be seen in various 128kbit/s listening tests (see below), despite the fact that MPC has been optimized little for such bitrates it is in the same class of other modern competitors such as [[AAC]] and (Ogg) [[Vorbis]].

== Pros ==
* Suffers from different "problem cases" than most other formats (less pre-echo)
* Very fast encoding/decoding
* Designed to be very good by default at --standard setting.
* Open source
* Portable playback by Pocket-PCs, Palm OS-based and Windows CE/Windows Mobile-based devices, even Smartphones, see http://tcpmp.corecodec.org
* Portable playback on iRiver h1x0 and Archos Gmini players, see http://www.rockbox.org
* Support & development forum at http://www.Musepack.net

== Cons ==
* Marginal support (yet) on portable players
* No support for [[sampling rate]]s above 48khz

= Technical details =
== Supported input formats ==
* channels: 1 to 8
* bit depths: 1 to 32 bit linear [[PCM]]
* sample rates: 32kHz, 37.8kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz (44.1 and 48 are highly tuned)
* [[WAV]], raw [[PCM]], a lot of [[lossless]] compressed audio formats like [[FLAC]], [[LPAC]], [[Monkey's_Audio|APE]], [[OptimFROG]], [[SZIP]] and Shorten ([[SHN]])

== Encoder Functions ==
[[MPC Encoder Functions]]

= Links =
== User oriented links ==
* [http://musepack.net Musepack.net] - a general info, news and software site.
* [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1927 Users' HowTo MPC guide at HydrogenAudio]
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/ Case's page] (Winamp plug-ins and more).
* [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ Frank Klemm's official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/
* [http://betaplayer.corecodec.org/ BetaPlayer], the first Musepack-able player on PocketPCs

== Technical links ==
* [http://trac.musepack.net/trac/wiki Specifications]
* [http://www.musepack.net/index.php?pg=src Source code]
* Frank Klemm's [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/
* [http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki/?page=MPC MPC at AudioCodingWiki]
* [http://www.caddr.com/code/libmusepack libmusepack portable musepack decoding library] (in progress)

== Listening test involving MPC ==
* [[Listening Tests]] page
* [http://ff123.net/128tests.html ff123's 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://ff123.net/128test/instruct.html ff123's second 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html rjamorim's 128kbit/s test]

Please note that some of these tests, while valid, used encoder versions which have now been superseded. You should make your own decision about the comparative quality of MPC, listening to clips of music in the style you prefer.

Also note that these are tests at low bitrates; an area where MPC is not particularly optimized. The encoder was designed by the author to be very good at the --standard setting, thus little to no low [[bitrate]] tuning has gone into the [[codec]], opposite to that of [[AAC]], (Ogg) [[Vorbis]], [[WMA]] and others which focus more on this region. However, as can be seen in the various listening test pages, MPC competes surprisingly well with the rest of them.

[[Category: Codecs]]
[[Category: Lossy]]

Musepack

2009-05-16T12:38:26Z

Antonski: /* Cons */ Restrictions of SV7 removed, SV8 was finalized

= Introduction =
'''Musepack''' is a lossy audio compression scheme created by Andree Buschmann. He started work on the codec in 1998 (then called MP+) because he was unsatisfied with the audio quality of MP3 codecs at the time. It is strongly based on the [[MPEG-1]] Layer-2 ([[MP2]]) algorithms, with 32 subbands of the same bandwidth, but with several significant improvements. Musepack is optimized for "transparency". The format doesn't compete well at lower, 'streaming' bitrates such as 32/48/64kbps. This is due to MPC being a [[subband]] [[codec]] as well as the fact that very little optimization has gone into such low [[bitrate]]s. However, as can be seen in various 128kbit/s listening tests (see below), despite the fact that MPC has been optimized little for such bitrates it is in the same class of other modern competitors such as [[AAC]] and (Ogg) [[Vorbis]].

== Pros ==
* Suffers from different "problem cases" than most other formats (less pre-echo)
* Very fast encoding/decoding
* Designed to be very good by default at --standard setting.
* Open source
* Portable playback by Pocket-PCs, Palm OS-based and Windows CE/Windows Mobile-based devices, even Smartphones, see http://tcpmp.corecodec.org
* Portable playback on iRiver h1x0 and Archos Gmini players, see http://www.rockbox.org
* Support & development forum at http://www.Musepack.net

== Cons ==
* Marginal support (yet) on portable players
* No support for [[sampling rate]]s above 48khz

= Technical details =
== Supported input formats (SV7) ==
* channels: 1 or 2
* bit depths: 1 to 32 bit linear [[PCM]]
* sample rates: 32kHz, 37.8kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz (44.1 and 48 are highly tuned)
* [[WAV]], raw [[PCM]], a lot of [[lossless]] compressed audio formats like [[FLAC]], [[LPAC]], [[Monkey's_Audio|APE]], [[OptimFROG]], [[SZIP]] and Shorten ([[SHN]])

== Encoder Functions ==
[[MPC Encoder Functions]]

= Links =
== User oriented links ==
* [http://musepack.net Musepack.net] - a general info, news and software site.
* [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1927 Users' HowTo MPC guide at HydrogenAudio]
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/ Case's page] (Winamp plug-ins and more).
* [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ Frank Klemm's official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/
* [http://betaplayer.corecodec.org/ BetaPlayer], the first Musepack-able player on PocketPCs

== Technical links ==
* [http://trac.musepack.net/trac/wiki Specifications]
* [http://www.musepack.net/index.php?pg=src Source code]
* Frank Klemm's [http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/ official page] (out of order now)
: This page is mirrored at: http://hydrogenaudio.org/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/
* [http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki/?page=MPC MPC at AudioCodingWiki]
* [http://www.caddr.com/code/libmusepack libmusepack portable musepack decoding library] (in progress)

== Listening test involving MPC ==
* [[Listening Tests]] page
* [http://ff123.net/128tests.html ff123's 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://ff123.net/128test/instruct.html ff123's second 128kbit/s group listening test]
* [http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html rjamorim's 128kbit/s test]

Please note that some of these tests, while valid, used encoder versions which have now been superseded. You should make your own decision about the comparative quality of MPC, listening to clips of music in the style you prefer.

Also note that these are tests at low bitrates; an area where MPC is not particularly optimized. The encoder was designed by the author to be very good at the --standard setting, thus little to no low [[bitrate]] tuning has gone into the [[codec]], opposite to that of [[AAC]], (Ogg) [[Vorbis]], [[WMA]] and others which focus more on this region. However, as can be seen in the various listening test pages, MPC competes surprisingly well with the rest of them.

[[Category: Codecs]]
[[Category: Lossy]]