[ardour-users] newbie: exporting to mp3

[Paul Davis]

On Wed, 2005-09-14 at 03:39 +0200, Esben Stien wrote:
> Andy Joslin <andy.joslin at gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > I see that there is not an option (out of the box) to export to an
> > mp3 format. 
> 
> This is because of the patent issue. 

no its not, although that is a relevant issue.

the real problems are:

	1) converting audio to some kind of compressed format is
	     an operation with a huge number of parameters that	
	     the user may potentially want to control. there are
	     already good interfaces for doing this, and i do not
	     see a lot of point in reimplementing a complex
	     GUI element within Ardour when this functionality is
	     available for free, with ongoing development and support,
	     from several other more focused projects. This is not
	     Windows - one application doesn't have to do everything.

         2) I am not sure of the role that I think compressed audio
	     (not FLAC, i mean lossy compression) plays in the operation
             of a DAW. compressed audio formats are an artifact of
	     inadequate network bandwidth and/or flash memory and/or
	     disk space. this means they have an expected shelf live
             of another 3-8 years (at a guess). I prefer to think
	     that the job of a DAW is to produce the best possible
	     audio, presumably in PCM format, and then leave it to
	     more appropriate other tools to convert that when
             necessary to compressed formats.

--p