Mp3 Header/Frame Consistency

[Mod-Man]

Is anyone here really good with the internals of an mp3 file?

I understand that mp3's consist of tons of frames and that each frame has a header. I understand that there is id3 tag information in there as well. My problem rises in the form of consistency between programs that make mp3's.

Take a CD and rip Track 1 with two (or more) seperate programs with the same settings (bit-rate etc.) Will the frames in each version of the mp3 be the same within some small deviation? Will fram 2043 from Program-A look exactly the same as frame 2043 from Program-B?

If this isn't the place to be looking for this kind of information, does anyone know of a better one? Are there technical papers somewhere?

Thanks,
~Mod-Man

[Joonas]

Originally posted by Mod-Man
Is anyone here really good with the internals of an mp3 file?

I understand that mp3's consist of tons of frames and that each frame has a header. I understand that there is id3 tag information in there as well. My problem rises in the form of consistency between programs that make mp3's.

Take a CD and rip Track 1 with two (or more) seperate programs with the same settings (bit-rate etc.) Will the frames in each version of the mp3 be the same within some small deviation? Will fram 2043 from Program-A look exactly the same as frame 2043 from Program-B?

If this isn't the place to be looking for this kind of information, does anyone know of a better one? Are there technical papers somewhere?

Thanks,
~Mod-Man

This is not really my area of expertise (If I have one...)
but I would guess the frames will depend more on which codec is being used rather than what program. A LAME-encoded mp3 will surely not look the same as Fraunhofer-encoded mp3.

[gaekwad2]

If ripped from CD they'll also get 'shifted around' by the drive's read offset (unless you use EAC or dBPowerAMP with AccurateRip).

[Mod-Man]

Ok well what, if anything would be consistant? Or again relatively consistant...