[MusicLover]

Call me stupid if you want, but I don't know what an artifact is. Could someone explain what it is or what it sounds like? Thanks.

 

[fewtch]

It's a sound that shouldn't be there, and is due solely to the lossy compression (i.e. anything that wasn't in the original .wav file). Typical examples included watery or metallic sounds, messed up transients, stereo separation collapsing... just listen to a poorly encoded 128k or below MP3

. If possible, compare it to the original song from the CD.

 

[MusicLover]

Thanks, fewtch. I knew what you were talking about, but didn't know that was called an artifact.

 

[noiseunit]

actually some of the worst artifacting i have heard has been from poorly encoded tracks above 128k. compression rate is _far_ from the only factor in mp3 quality.