I have mp3s from various sources. Some are very simular, and sound the same until you listen all the way through them. How can you compare them using software and not having to listen through thhem?

For example:
One mp3 is 4.3 megs long, the second is also 4.3 megs long.
The first is "Amy's Toy.mp3" the second is "amys toy(1).mp3".
The first has different data in it's id3tag the n the second one.
They are two separate versions to the same song but the first though a second or two shorter has id3 version 2 tags the other has version 1 tags.
The id3 version 2 tag extended the file lenght just enough that the byte count is the same.

How do you determine which actually have better sound quality? both recorded at 128k with 44.1 sampling. Both are 3:11 in actual song time, but one has more "blank" space before and after he song. One has maybe pops and cracks from being recorded off LP, the other was done off CD. On has a low audio level, the other is high (maybe even too high). Is there software or can anyone write software that is smart enough to analyze both, display the wave forms so you can see the differences in audio ampliture, and other pages display signal to noise ratio and actual song length not what the recorded time was. as well as other sound and file quality issues? Also can variable mp3s be converted to a single rate? Some mp3s I have seen vary up and down as to what there recorded rate is. One minute it will say 128k, next 96k, and then later yet 320k what gives?

Anyway why can't someone come up with a program that takes one file as an example, and searches all of you pre-specified music folders and see if there are duplicate songs. one that compares the waveforms of the mp3, and then moves them to a directory of you choice for purposes of sorting, deleting, and comparing. The progran would take artist names, song titles, and alternate song titles (some song are known by other titles), and compare them and tell you which is the best. Then it could possibly take the best parts of damaged mp3 and undamaged mp3s to create and mp3 that is the best it could be. It would do this completely by matching wave forms and allowing you yo drop in a waveform and have the program automatically placing it in its proper place.

Ease of use, and high sophistication in one.

Walter M Green III

Now, I am wondering too - j/k

Anyway, I suppose what you're looking for is not something many are looking to find. It's as simple as that...

I am not much into MP3s except for the few times I played around with audio mixer programs (and too long ago to remember anything intelligent to write about here).

But one thing I learnt from being online all these years is that if you look long and hard enough for something, you'll probably find it in the end...