How was MP3 born?

MP3 player by Oleg Sergeichik（ source ：Unsplash）

In the last century 90 years , If someone can put hundreds of songs into a matchbox sized device , Take it with you and listen to it anytime, anywhere , It's like a miracle . Thirty years have passed , People from that era have experienced such miracles , And all this happens thanks to the world's most popular audio compression format 、 The founder of digital music ——MP3.

MP3 It's an audio compression technology , Its full name is Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer III. It's designed to dramatically reduce the amount of audio data , Put music in 1:10 even to the extent that 1:12 Compressed into smaller files at a compression rate of . And for most listeners , Compared with the original uncompressed audio, the compressed audio quality has no obvious decline .[1]

1988 year , ISO（ International Organization for Standardization ） And IEC（ International Electrotechnical Commission ） Set up a special media coding （ Including audio 、 video 、 Transfer and file format of pictures and various applications ） The organization of standards ——MPEG（Moving Picture Experts Group, Dynamic image expert group ）. 

At the beginning of its establishment ,MPEG The coding experts in this paper are interested in a method called auditory masking The phenomenon of （ When the perception of one sound is affected and damaged by another sound , Auditory masking will occur ） Very interested , They hope to develop an efficient coding tool （ Or codec ）, And apply it to high-quality digital audio and video transmission .

They first built a computer nicknamed “ The helicopter ” Machine , Audio can be compressed to the size of the original file 8%. But the disadvantages are obvious , It's the same size as the refrigerator , Too cumbersome. . So these experts thought about whether they could develop a compression algorithm , Can achieve the same compression effect .

This is the time , Karlheinz Brandenburg Into people's vision .

Karlheinz Brandenburg（ source ：Wikipedia）

As early as 20 century 80 s ,Karlheinz Brandenburg Began to study the compression of digital music , Focus on how people perceive music .1989 year ,Brandenburg In Erlangen, Germany - Nuremberg University received a doctorate in Electrical Engineering , His doctoral thesis is later MP3 Our invention laid the foundation .

1989 Year to 1990 year ,Brandenburg While working at Bell Laboratories in the United States , His research focus is ASPEC（MP3 The basis of ）;1990 year , He returned to Germany , Become Erlangen - Research Assistant at the University of Nuremberg , And continue with Fraunhofer HHI Scientists at the Institute work together to study music compression .1993 year ,Brandenburg Joined the Fraunhofer HHI The Institute also became the head of the audio and multimedia Department .

Research on MP3 In the process of , There is a song that echoes throughout Karlheinz Brandenburg In my mind . This song is from American folk singers Suzanne Vega Of Tom’s Diner（ Included in her 1989 Album released in Solitude Standing in ）. In an interview ,Brandenburg It has been revealed that ：“ I was writing my doctoral thesis , During this period, I read some HI-FI The magazine , Found that they used Tom’s Diner This song tests the speaker . I thought , ok , Let me use this song to test MP3.”

The result is in the test ,Brandenburg I found that at a bit rate where all other sounds are very good ,Suzanne Vega Your voice is very bad .Vega The nuances of the voice in unaccompanied chorus need Brandenburg The new algorithm must select the sound that can be discarded without destroying the audience experience . therefore Brandenburg Start using this song to improve MP3 programme , Every time he improves his plan, he will listen to the song again and again . After listening to it thousands of times Tom’s Diner after , He succeeded at last .

Last , stay Karlheinz Brandenburg、Ernst Eberlein、Heinz Gerhäuser（ Previous appointment Fraunhofer IIS Director of the Institute ）、Bernhard Grill、Jürgen Herre and Harald Popp With the joint efforts of six scientists ,MP3 The birth of .

From left to right ：Harald Popp、Stefan Krägeloh、Harmut Schott、Berhard Grill、Heinz Gerhäuser、Ernst Eberlein、Karlheinz Brandenburg and Thomas Sporer.1987 Shot in Fraunhofer IIS Research institute, （ source ：https://www.fraunhofer.de/en.html）

MP3 The subtlety of this is , The algorithm greatly reduces the amount of original audio data at the same time , It can also ensure the listening quality of most listeners , And it's easier to store and transmit .

MP3 The invention of has brought a disruptive revolution in the field of music , Completely changed the way people listen to music . stay Napster With the support of peer-to-peer music sharing services ,MP3 Rapidly sweeping the world , But it also brings serious piracy problems , At that time, it was resisted and criticized by people in the music industry .

Karlheinz Brandenburg I also because MP3 Won numerous awards .1994 year , Because of his continuous contribution to the field of audio coding AES（Audio Engineering Society, International Audio Engineering Association ） Silver Prize ;2000 year , He won the IEEE Engineering Excellence Award ;IEC He was rated as the most important in the field of Electrical Engineering 120 One of the inventors and decision makers ;2006 year , He received the German cross ;2014 year , He was inducted into the Internet Hall of fame innovator （Internet Hall of Fame Innovators）.

since 2000 Since then ,Karlheinz Brandenburg He has been a professor of electronic media technology at irmenau University of Technology . meanwhile ,Brandenburg Actively participate in the Fraunhofer Institute of digital media technology (Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology) The foundation of , At present, he is the director of the Institute .

 

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If you want to know more MP3 The story of birth , All kinds of setbacks and challenges encountered by scientists in the process of its invention ; If you want to listen Karlheinz Brandenburg Professor's views on the development of today's multimedia technology and his current research field ; If you want to have an in-depth communication with this pioneer , Welcome to LiveVideoStack Character dialogue column .

Yes ,Karlheinz Brandenburg The professor has accepted LiveVideoStack E-mail interview invitation .

As with previous character dialogues , This time, we also give you the opportunity to ask questions LVS My readers . Welcome to leave a message in the comment area , towards Karlheinz Brandenburg The professor asks the question you most want him to answer . We will select some from them , And then send them to... Far away in Germany Brandenburg professor , Let him answer for everyone one by one .

End time ：2022 year 7 month 8 Japan

 

Source:

https://baike.baidu.com/item/mp3/23904?fromtitle=MP3%E6%A0%BC%E5%BC%8F&fromid=290526&fr=aladdin

References:

https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2013/01/29/eureka-people-how-karlheinz-brandenburg-invented-the-mp3/

https://www.fraunhofer.de/en/quick-links/alumni/news/mp3-inventor-brandenburg-interview.html

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/207213/20170513/the-mp3-is-dead-heres-a-brief-history-of-mp3.htm

https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductees/karlheinz-brandenburg#:~:text=Dr.,been%20awarded%20about%20100%20patents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlheinz_Brandenburg

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