novabrkr said:

With VBR the changes are usually monitored by the players while the files are playing, but the file info should be the same for the entire CD if it's been ripped with the same settings

That's not true. Just try it. Using the VBR option will cause every track to have a different bitrate.

PatrickS77 said:

novabrkr said:

With VBR the changes are usually monitored by the players while the files are playing, but the file info should be the same for the entire CD if it's been ripped with the same settings

That's not true. Just try it. Using the VBR option will cause every track to have a different bitrate.

Okay, that's what it seems to do when using a more up-to-date player than what I have been normally using. Mine didn't display the average for the VBR files (if that's what the number is supposed to represent).

However, the OP describes the files being coded with the "192, 256, 320 (division by eight)..." pattern. VBR doesn't really follow the same pattern, so I was wondering what reason using the pattern for illustration of the differences should serve if the values on his files would have a looser scale.

novabrkr said:

However, the OP describes the files being coded with the "192, 256, 320 (division by eight)..." pattern. VBR doesn't really follow the same pattern, so I was wondering what reason using the pattern for illustration of the differences should serve if the values on his files would have a looser scale.

That's why I assumed he was referring to CBR files; VBR files won't necessarily adhere to that pattern.

Actually, none of the comments made by the OP were very clear, and I found myself reading them several times each in an effort to understand what was being explained. Each time the OP made a comment, the issue seemed to shift a bit, and for every solution offered, they seemed to have a reason for why it wouldn't work for them.

In the end, I do not experience the problem the OP seems to be trying to describe. Maintaining a digital library is not for everyone, I guess.

Thanks for these technical explainations. I'm sorry my OP wasn't clear.

What I meant was 1 track = 1 bitrate, another track=another bitrate.

I didn't know about VBR and I think it explains most of it (that and the dummies downloading from different sources).

The examples I gave (128, 258, 320) are the most common but I've seen all kinds of weird bitrates as well, and they'd left me baffled until now.

Most of my music comes from Slsk, with some coming from torrents and some other from other people's hard drives. I always try to find the best (or more coherant source) but it's not always possible (well, maybe it would be possible if I kept looking for each album again and again for years!). There are also some things I downloaded years ago, before I really started to pay attention to the bitrate.

Maintaining a good digital library is a lobour of love, but a hard one indeed