packMP3 v1.0c release

[packDEV]

Well, talk about delayed. I actually wanted to release this right after I finished my master thesis (in January), but because of some organizational stuff and some trouble with the packJPG website, it has been delayed by 4(!) months now.

Anyways, here it is:
packMP3 is a compression program specially designed for further compression of MPEG-1 Audio Layer III audio files without causing any further loss. Typically it reduces the file size of a MP3 file by 16% based on tests with 6000 randomly selected files.

Closed source and free for non commercial use for now. Theres only a Windows (32 bit) compatible EXE for now, Linux and Mac OS compatible binaries will be released via the official packJPG website later.

I'll also combine this with packJPG and some other compressors of mine in packARC later on.

[jethro]

yay!

[Shelwien]

It seems that 1.0c produces the same output as 1.0a, so
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_10a_120127.txt (comparison vs mp3zip aka soundslimmer)
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_10a_120127a.rar (sources for above)
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_10a_120127b.rar (comparison vs previous packmp3 builds)

Also some historical data, as you can see it's improved since then
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_09b9.txt
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_09b4.txt
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_09b3.txt
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/pack...b3_silence.txt

[packDEV]

It seems that 1.0c produces the same output as 1.0a, so
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_10a_120127.txt (comparison vs mp3zip aka soundslimmer)
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_10a_120127a.rar (sources for above)
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_10a_120127b.rar (comparison vs previous packmp3 builds)

Also some historical data, as you can see it's improved since then
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_09b9.txt
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_09b4.txt
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/packMP3_09b3.txt
http://nishi.dreamhosters.com/u/pack...b3_silence.txt

Yup, that's right. It produces identical output as anything eqal or above v1.0. I only improved some things under the hood and fixed some bugs. By the way, thanks for doing these benchmarks!

[Pedofinder]

stuffit gave stronger compression.

[Piotr Tarsa]

StuffIt costs.

[Shelwien]

Stuffit? Can you post specific results?
Because normally its like this:

MP3 [free public-domain corpus]      
Sound Slimmer 1.04.001/5 (06.07.2005)    115,366,235
packMP3 1.0 (2012) Matthias Stirner      116,431,200
STUFFIT 14.0.1.17 (SITX) 'LZAri:5:28'    120,000,797
PAQ8pxd_v3 (24.02.12) -7 -ww PAQ crew-   127,725,875
ORIGINAL FILE                            131,430,398

Though I guess stuffit could compress better if
1) The mp3s have huge tags, maybe containing jpegs or bmps.
2) The compressed set includes duplicate files or fragments.
3) mp3s are not really mp3s at all

The solution for (2) is to process the data with srep first, though
packmp3 won't work after that (but packarc would).

[packDEV]

Stuffit? Can you post specific results?
Because normally its like this:

MP3 [free public-domain corpus]      
Sound Slimmer 1.04.001/5 (06.07.2005)    115,366,235
packMP3 1.0 (2012) Matthias Stirner      116,431,200
STUFFIT 14.0.1.17 (SITX) 'LZAri:5:28'    120,000,797
PAQ8pxd_v3 (24.02.12) -7 -ww PAQ crew-   127,725,875
ORIGINAL FILE                            131,430,398

Though I guess stuffit could compress better if
1) The mp3s have huge tags, maybe containing jpegs or bmps.
2) The compressed set includes duplicate files or fragments.
3) mp3s are not really mp3s at all

The solution for (2) is to process the data with srep first, though
packmp3 won't work after that (but packarc would).

Agreed on 1.), 2.) and 3.). For srep, well, if those files are still standard compliant MP3s after processing, packMP3 should process them, too. I'll look into that.

I'll think about posting a packARC release candidate (still needs some testing, although there are no known problems at this point).


EDIT: I guess packMP3 can't process srep output, because that consists of non-MP3-data, too, right?

[Shelwien]

> I guess packMP3 can't process srep output, because that consists of non-MP3-data, too, right?

Yes, srep is a specialized LZ77. But mp3zip would still work

[maadjordan]

i haveb test it on my collection against stuffit and it always beat it but nut sound slimmer. but great work.. can not wait for packarc and foobar plugin (for playing compressed directly).

[Fallon]

It would be useful to make embedded sound in some videos smaller. Although, who will need it when Ogg Vorbis is available.
Who knows, if the itunes crap will be the norm, some company may still seek out a herd of mobile phone carriers to use it.
My guess is that companies will have to do better.
Mp3 was necessary in its early days, but today, for anyone who likes good audio quality, mp3 is sort of the medieval Inquisition reloaded in the ears.

[no404error]

SoundSlimmer mpz, packmp3... Try http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_input_exe for playing