OGG Vorbis

[~jag]

Can anyone tell me about this?

Just finished reading an article related to mp3 and fees: this Ogg came up and appears to be another music format file ... anybody know anything ... i'm definitely interested.

the article i read:

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/3253.cfm

[~spi]

Ogg vorbis is an open standard(no fees, the defintion of the standard is available) its is competetive with mp3 on space/sound ratio. A ogg of the same size will generally sound better then an mp3 of that size. Ogg uses VBR(variable bit rate) by default which is really cool. The standard also streams a lot better them mp3 without a loss in quality. Oggs encode as fast as mp3s so there is no drawback there. I guess the only real problem is that most of your handheld mp3 players won't work with ogg at the moment.

If mp3 decoders/players have to start paying to use the mp3 format I can see a huge rush to a format such as ogg forthcoming.

-steve

[~jag]

thanks for the bit of information ... i knew someone here would know. i appreciate your taking the time to put forth this bit of information. i, too, can see a rush to this format. and am actively persueing additional info on this format.

The OGG creators wrote an open letter to Thompson and whomever for the imposed fees thanking them .. it really was a riot.

[~jag]

after some serious research, i am totally surprised i haven't known about this format before [stepping outside the box - lol] ... i may have read about it some year or so ago, but, having a bit more information .. i am wondering:

--> how are musicians considering this format? any input?

[~spi]

I don't see why they wouldn't if the mp3 format gets even worse the it is now(with fees and all). It really wouldn't be that hard if popular encoding programs started including ogg support it would just be a click of the mouse difference.

I for one kinda look forward to it. :)

-steve

[~Sean X]

I've been encoding and distributing OGG files for a while now, as an alternative to mp3. I love 'em to death!

The sound quality is HEAPS better because it's not a lossy format like mp3, and the files are slightly (not a lot) smaller. OGGdrop is a really fun and fast way to encode, and I'm having great results with it..

The Vorbis site has a few samples of tracks listed and Mystral Tide (who is one of the darkwave acts on my label) has OGG files for download from it, I think....

For what it's worth, any Winamp from version 2.80 on plays them fine!

[~jag]

i agree with both you guys.

i can see the need for musicians to begin offering in both formats. I notice from reading that there are already a number of people who prefer OGG. It would be a mis-fortune for artists to miss out one just one download. The way i see it: if few artists are offering OGG, musicians on the front of this potential technological change will benefit most. (way to stay in front SeanX)

me? i'm always watching :P