What.CD Interview Notes

What.CD - Interview Notes v0.2

## Allowed Lossless
- FLAC

## Allowed Lossy
- MP3 (Minimum is MP3 192kbps CBR)
- AAC (Can be trumped by any MP3 unless iTunes + extra purchased)
- AC3 (DVDs)
- DTS (DVDs)


## MP3
Constant Bitrate (CBR)
- The same bitrate entire song, even silence given same bits/ps (no higher / no lower)

Varaible Bitrate (VBR)
- Bitrate varies entire song, depending on complexity of certain sound. Different presets.
        ->V0 = ~245kbps (Target) - (Can peak higher than 256 CBR) [Allowed]
        ->V1 = ~225kbps (Target)
        ->V2 = ~190kbps (Target) - (Can peak higher than 192 CBR) [Allowed]
        ->V3 = ~175kbps (Target)
        ->V4 = ~165kbps (Target)
        ->V5 = ~130kbps (Target)
        ->V6 = ~115kbps (Target)

Average Bitrate (ABR)
- The bitrate will vary, but is guaranteed to AVERAGE at the preset
        -> Not recommended on what.cd (not best at anything)


## Audio Formats
Bitrates
- Number of bits transferred in an amount of time. Higher bitrate
  equals higher quality. (Ex. MP3 CBR 320 transfers 320 bits/ps.

Lossy
 - Cuts actual frequencies out of the file for compression (looses quality)

Uncompressed Lossless vs. Compressed Lossless
- Uncompressed lossless doesn't attempt any compression, silence is
  kept in tact. Compressed lossless gives silence almost no bits/ps
  and compresses the audio (with no loss of quality though.)


## Transcodes
- Conversion from one format to another. Sometimes said in negative
  context, referencing bad transcodes.

Bad Transcodes
- NEVER convert LOSSY to LOSSLESS!
- NEVER convert LOSSY to LOSSY! (Only looses more quality)
- Don't convert same bitrate lossy to same bitrate lossy

Good Transcodes
- Compressed lossless --> Uncompressed lossless
- Compressed lossless --> Compressed lossless
- Compressed lossless --> Lossy
- Uncompressed lossless --> Compressed lossless
- Uncompressed lossless --> Lossy


## Torrenting
- Leeching data from peers, then seeding back what you have
- Partial seeders = didn't download entire torrent (not a good idea to get torrent with many partial seeders if you want to boost your ratio)
- Ratio = {Shared}.{Downloaded} (If you download 100MB and up 200MB, ratio is 2.0)


# General Knowledge / Facts
- WAV (PCM) has a higher bitrate than FLAC
- MP3 VO (VBR) can have a higher bitrate than MP3 256kbps (CBR)
- MP3 V2 cannot be trumped when uploaded to What.CD
- Again... LOSSY TO LOSSY? NEVER! LOSSY TO LOSSLESS? NEVER?
- LAME = Used to encode MP3s
- Use EAC to rip CDs
- Cue files are tables / catlogs to burn identical CDs
- Log files document rips for errors

# Starting the Interview
- The interview takes place in an IRC channel.
        -> IRC Server: irc.what-network.net
        -> Port: 6667 (+6697 for SSL)
- https://www.whatinterviewprep.com/starting-the-interview/
- Waiting to get interviewed is the hardest part. Can take up to 5 hours just to start.