Suzanna Vega: Mother Of The MP3?

Linkfilter.net quotes a Business 2.0 article (subscribers only; seems to be bugmenot-proof) that dubs Suzanne Vega the “Mother of the MP3” because her voice was used in fine-tuning the compression algorithms developed by Karlheinz Brandenburg of the Fraunhofer Society that became the basis for the MP3 file format:

To create MP3, Brandenburg had to appreciate how the human ear perceives sound. A key assist in this effort came from folk singer Suzanne Vega. “I was ready to fine-tune my compression algorithm,” Brandenburg recalls. “Somewhere down the corridor a radio was playing [Vega’s song] Tom’s Diner. I was electrified. I knew it would be nearly impossible to compress this warm a capella voice.”

The ubiquity of the MP3 suggests that Brandenburg has done his job well, although most people agree that if you encode MP3s with too low a bitrate you’ll end up with pretty crappy-sounding music. For a good tutorial on the subject, check out this link. Personally, I use at least 160 kbps when I rip audio from CDs, but I often use VBR (LAME –alt-preset standard) to get the best results, although it takes a little longer.

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