weird ftp/mp3 issue

[hh]

i've noticed recently that a couple of mp3s i've uploaded to my ftp server (using Fetch 4.0) have turned out a little glitchy when i load them up off the web. playing the same mp3 on my itunes shows that the file is fine, but the uploaded version will have some sporadic digital pops. anyone have any ideas what's causing that? is it Fetch? i've used Fetch forever, but i'm open to a better ftp program for macs if that's the problem.

[apropos of nothing]

I had a friend who had this problem to the extent that mp3s would play only sporadically from him.

Turned out that his virus-checker (or maybe his firewall?) was interupting the download, corrupting the downloaded version of the file.

Computers are stupid and I hate them.

[sonicmook56]

hmmm..Your transfering the files in "binary"?

[Roman Sokal]

fetch 4.0.3 is a fine program...what i try to do to avoid that problem is not do anything else like surf the web etc when uploading the file...

[digitaldrummer]

if you download the file and it is still the same (do a binary compare) then there something in the "streaming" effect when you play it off the server. that could be virus scanner, internet bandwidth, server bandwidth, the palyer's buffer settings, lots of stuff...

if you compare the files and they are not the same, then you have fallen into the trap many before you have as well. FTP and HTTP are unreliable protocols. yes, really. they do not incorporate any kind of checksum to make sure they got the whole file intact. for example, I once uploaded some WAV files to a CD duplicating house and when I got my CDs back, they had several minutes of silence at the end of the CD. during the transfer, something went wrong. their upload application did a http or ftp transfer of my files. the process opened a file on the target side of the correct size, then starting transferring blocks of data. at some point the transfer was interrupted but the app did not know. My files appeared to be the same size on both sides, so it all looked good. when we re-looked at the waveform there was clearly several minutes of "dead air" at the end of of the file.

anyway, the easist way to fix that kind of scenario is to zip or compress the file on the way up, then have the dupe house uncompress it--this will tell you right away if its good or not. Another way is to do a MD5 checksum on your original files, then compare them on the other side. Of course, if you are just blindly uploading to some ISP's web hosting site (like many of us), you can't always do these things. this is soemthing anybody that does transfers of audio files across the internet needs to be aware of.

Mike

[sonicmook56]

Good information, Mike

[stevebozz]

i have this problem when I bring an MP3 into Final Cut Pro that I streamed using the LAME encoder -- it sounds great everywhere, but in final cut there are some blips and blops, I wonder if it has to do with sampling rates.. they were in 41k and i think video is usually 48.. but i think FCP compensates for that.

dunno!

[klangtone]

this kind of thing used to happen to me way back in the day.
I would use this program to fix it after the fact: http://www108.pair.com/fma/uncook95.htm

Don't know if that program will work on the newer Windows operating systems or if it will actually solve your problem. But you never know...

Roy

[hh]

it seems like the pops appear less frequently if i'm doing nothing else except waiting for the file to upload, but they're still there. it's odd because i've been using the same process to do this for years, but i've only had this issue begin within the last few months.