The Music you have been enjoying (hopefully) listening to has been recorded using three different software wave table synthesizers with up to 40 megs of wave table data files to reproduce the necessary instrument sounds. After creation of the WAV file this is then manipulated within a WAV editor to normalize the volume of each file, equalize, and other modification of the original recording. MP3 files are generated using the newest version of LAME with it's 'pyscho accoustics'. WMA are created using Microsoft's version 8 utility and RealAudio files are created using RealAudio Producer Gold. The necessity to reduce the bps from 320kbps of normal CD quaility audio down to 32-40kbps to allow streaming has had an affect on the sound but not as drastic as other streaming music audio files I have heard on the Internet.
For W9x and above users who want optimum sound quality of these music files I recommend getting XMPlay. XMPlay is under 250k installed. One EXE and one DLL file and that's it! No modifications are made to your registry. Removal is as simple as deleting the two files. XMPlay has a much 'cleaner' sound than any I've tried, you won't want to delete it. The author: "XMPlay is a Windows music player, supporting the MP3 / WMA / OGG / MP2 / MP1 / WAV / MO3 / IT / XM / S3M / MTM / MOD / UMX audio formats, and PLS / M3U / ASX playlists. A load more formats are also supported via Winamp plugins". Drag and drop music links onto the player in it's always-on-top mode to stream the file! XMPlay Does ramping of the audio - maintains an even loudness automatically with auto fade-in and fade-out (optional). XMPlay does not support RealAudio (the 50 meg install - argh!).
Download XMPlay US server
Download XMPlay UK server
XMPlay Homepage - get skins, visuals, and additional file format support
