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The MP3 Trouble Shooting/Help Page

Did you have trouble listening to the MP3 song samples on my web site?   If you did,  then this page is for you.

A little background information:

The song samples on my web site are stored as MP3 format files.  MP3 stands for ISO-MPEG Layer 3, which is a compression format for audio data.   We chose the MP3 format for our song samples because it is a very popular format - with MP3 player programs readily available for computers of all types.

Here are a few facts about regular CD format audio and MP3 format audio:

  • CD format audio requires a data streaming rate of 1.4 Mbit/sec (1.4 million bits per second).   This data rate is much faster than most Internet connections.   For example a typical modem which has a 56 kbit/sec (56 thousand bits per second) streaming rate and a typical DSL connection may have around a 1 Mbit/sec streaming rate.   Clearly, streaming CD audio data over the Internet just isn't possible or practical at today's connection speeds.   This is where compressed audio data formats like MP3 are useful.

  • MP3 format files are compressed in size and require much lower streaming rates than the CD audio format.  This makes it possible to stream music over an Internet connection to your MP3 player.

  • When converting from a CD audio file to an MP3 format,  it's possible to choose the amount of compression to be used.   We chose the amount of compression to suit the most common Internet connection speeds:

    • 128 kbps for those with high speed connections like DSL and cable.
    • 24 kbps for those with modem connection

    However,  there is a trade-off:  the higher the compression,  the lower the quality of the audio.

    • The 128 kbps stereo MP3 files on our site are close to (but not quite) CD quality and we've labelled them as Hi-Fi.

    • The 24 kbps MP3 files are probably a little worse than AM radio station quality.  If you stream the song in Lo-Fi format and find that you like the song,  take the time to download the Hi-Fi version of the song and play it from your hard drive so you can really hear what it sounds like.

I click on a MP3 Hi-Fi Stream or Lo-Fi Stream song link but it won't play.   My browser just displays some text or tries to download something.

The most common cause of this problem is that you either have an old MP3 player, a misconfigured browser,  or possibly no MP3 player software installed.   The solution is to download and install an up-to-date MP3 player for your computer.

I click on a MP3 Download link and nothing seems to happen.   What's going on?

With some browsers and MP3 players,  left-clicking on the "DOWNLOAD" link results in what seems to be a frozen system - with no feedback as to what is happening.   In many cases,  your system is actually downloading the MP3 file,  but it gives you no indication of this.   If the MP3 file you are downloading is large,  you may have a long wait while the system appears frozen!   Frustrating!   Some versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Media Player are examples of this.   Make sure you have the latest MP3 player available for your system as updating to the latest MP3 player often solves this problem.  

If you do have the latest MP3 player available for your system,  try the following test:

  1. Depending on which browser and operating system you are using,  do the following to initiate a download of the file test_download.mp3 (shown below) to your hard drive:

    Microsoft Internet Explorer Users:  right-click the "DOWNLOAD" link. A menu will appear with "Save Target As..." as an option. Choose this option by left-clicking on it.

    Netscape Users:  While pressing and holding the Shift-key, left-click the "DOWNLOAD" link.   A dialog box will appear allowing you to choose where to save the MP3 file.

    Macintosh Users:  While pressing and holding the Control-key, click on the "DOWNLOAD" link.   A menu will appear with an option "save to disk", "download to disk" or something similar.   Choose this option.

    test_download.mp3 Click here for MP3 Donwload 86.4 kB

  2. Choose a location to save the test_download.mp3 file to and take note of this location.

    3. The test_download.mp3 MP3 file is quite small, so it should download fairly quickly.

  3. After the download completes,  play the test_download.mp3 MP3 file by finding it with your file browser and double-clicking on it,  or by finding it from within your MP3 player and selecting it to play.

If you have an up-to-date MP3 player installed, you should have no problems with downloading and playing the test_download.mp3 file.   If you did have problems,  a solution that usually works is to download and install an up-to-date MP3 player for your computer.   Installing an up-to-date MP3 player will give you the latest and greatest player.   It will also update the settings in your browser to play MP3 files properly.

When downloading MP3 files,  keep in mind that the MP3 song files on this site are much larger than the test_download.mp3 file and will take longer to download.  

I downloaded and saved an MP3 file but I can't find it on my computer:

If you remember the name of the MP3 file, you should be able to use your computer's "Find File" utility to search your hard drive for it.   If you don't remember the name of the MP3 file,  you could also try searching for all MP3 files by specifying *.mp3 as the filename to the "Find File" utility.

I click on a MP3 Hi-Fi Stream or Lo-Fi Stream link and it plays,  but it keeps stopping and starting and my MP3 player says "Buffering...".

Streaming MP3 audio files is different from downloading and playing them.   When you stream an MP3 file to your computer,  your MP3 player doesn't wait for the whole song file to transfer to your computer before beginning to play the song.   With streaming,  your MP3 player waits until it receives just enough of the song to fill a buffer (to cushion against the timing jitter of receiving data over the Internet) and then it starts to play.   This is much faster than having to download the whole file,  saving it to your disk and then playing it.   However, if your Internet connection speed cannot keep up with the streaming MP3 data,  or if the path between you and the server is suffering from traffic congestion, you will experience this stop-start and rebuffering problem.

  • If your Internet connection isn't fast enough to keep up with the Hi-Fi MP3 data stream, try the following:

    Click on the Lo-Fi stream instead.   This should work even with slow modem connections,  but the sound quality you'll hear is quite poor...   If you like what you hear,  we recommend that you download and save the MP3 file to your computer and play it from your hard drive.   The download link will always point to the Hi-Fi version of the song.

  • If your Internet connection is fast enough, but you still experience the stop-start and rebuffering behavior,  the problem may be solved by increasing the size of the streaming buffer from the "Preferences" or "Configure" menu option of your MP3 player.   For some MP3 players,  this setting is easy to find,  while with others it is well hidden and you may have to do a bit of looking to find it.   Consult your MP3 player's help file if you can't find it.

    Note that increasing the size of the streaming buffer will result in your having to wait a little longer after clicking on a Hi-Fi or Lo-Fi streaming link before you hear the music start (as a larger buffer will take longer to fill).

  • If increasing the streaming buffer on your MP3 player can't get rid of the stop-start and rebuffering problem,  try downloading the MP3 file instead.

Trouble-shooting test #1 - MP3 streaming

The MP3 file used in the streaming test below, is very small and should stream to your computer with very little delay.

Streaming Test - MP3 Click here for Hi-Fi MP3 Stream

Click here for Lo-Fi MP3 Stream

71.3 kB
Problems streaming?  Click Here.

Due to the small size of the MP3 file, it is possible that computers with a low speed (modem) connection will be able to stream both the Lo-Fi and Hi-Fi versions.   With larger MP3 files, computers with low speed (modem) connections will have difficulty streaming Hi-Fi versions of MP3 files.   In this case,  we recommend that you use the Lo-Fi Streaming links to sample the songs and when you want the best quality, then DOWNLOAD the MP3 file and play it from your own computer's hard drive.

Trouble-shooting test #2 - MP3 download and play

The MP3 file used in the download test below, is very small and should download to your computer with very little delay.

Download & Play Test - MP3 Click here for MP3 Donwload 86.4 kB
Problems downloading and playing?  Click Here.

If you were able to successfully download and play the above file,  but seem to have trouble downloading and playing the song files on our site,  it is because you are not allowing your computer enough time to download the complete song.   Some browsers and MP3 players do not give adequate download progress indication and it may look like nothing is happening while a MP3 download is actually taking place.   We occasionally check our web server logs and find that some people are clicking on the DOWNLOAD button a number of times and then giving up.   In these cases, we often observe that only a partial download of a song was made before the DOWNLOAD button was pressed again,  possibly more than once - resulting in additional partial downloads.

You show the file sizes of each MP3 song.   Can I use this size to estimate how long it will take to download a song?

Yes you can, but keep in mind that the time it will take to download a song to your computer depends on a number of factors:
  • The size of the MP3 file
  • The speed of your Internet connection.
  • The degree of network traffic congestion between your computer and our server.
  • The amount of load on our web server.
As a rule of thumb, you can use the following estimates:
  • For a 1 Mbit/sec DSL connection, it will take approximately 10 seconds per MegaByte.   So,  if you want to download a 5.0 MegaByte MP3 file,  it will take you approximately 50 seconds.   This is a best case estimate,  the actual download time may be longer (depending on the influence of the factors shown above).

  • For a 56 kbit/sec dial-up modem connection, it will take approximately 3 minutes (180 seconds) seconds per MegaByte.   So,  if you want to download a 5.0 MegaByte MP3 file,  it will take you approximately 15 minutes (900) seconds.   This is a best case estimate,  the actual download time may be longer (depending on the influence of the factors shown above).

To get an estimate of how fast your Internet connection is,  click on the following button (provided courtesy of the BandwidthPlace): 

I need an MP3 player.   Where can I get one?

There are many MP3 software player programs to choose from.  Here are links to some of the most popular free MP3 players:

Operating System MP3 Player Player Home Page/Download Location
Windows WinAmp

Sonique

www.winamp.com

sonique.lycos.com/

Mac iTunes

Audion

www.apple.com/itunes/

www.panic.com/audion/

Linux MPG123 www.mpg123.de

If you are interested in other free MP3 players, you can find more information at:

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gail@xwing.org
nick@xwing.org