Distorted mp3s when playing through browser
 

This first occurred when I had mp3s playing through Flash, so I thought it had to do with that program, but I just sent an mp3 to myself via Gmail, and the same thing happened, so something's screwed up.

When I play back an mp3 that I created (that is, I generated a wav and then encoded it to mp3), the playback is distorted and out of tune when played through a browser. However, it plays fine when I open it on my computer.

I made a recording of the distorted playback so I could post it. Attached are the original mp3 and the distorted. It likely has something to do with the encoding, but I don't understand why it only happens when played via browser.

If it means anything, I saved the wav from Adobe Audition and encoded it using Switch (VBR).

Is this a common problem, or does anyone know what's causing this?

Maybe you should tell us WHAT browser you use??

Sorry, happens in Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Usually the browser itself doesn't playback media files, but uses a playback engine instead. For example I'm using Seamonkey on gentoo linux (Seamonkey is the 'new' Mozilla suite). To render video data in the browser I use VLC with the browser-plugin.
Check what kind of configuration you got there, so find out what playback engine is set up for your browsers. Maybe it's the windows media player engine.

Also you should provide us with the infos:
- operating system
- media player when not opening in browser
- soundcard

It happens through browser playback cause browser embedded media players are usually pretty half-assed. Maybe they just can't handle high quality VBR or the 48khz sampling rate or something. Try a different sample rate, bitrate, et cetera.

-XP MC SP2
-WMP10
-Creative SB Audigy 2

Right. I have my browsers set to open WMP when I click on an mp3 link (for example, the attachments in this thread, when I click them, will open in a player), but if I'm streaming the audio, that is, playing them via a self-made player in Flash, or Gmail's music player, this distortion occurs. Now this only happens with some mp3s; others inexplicably work fine. Which leads me to think that's during the encoding process that is causing this.

Yeah, I tried VBR and CBR, various levels of quality (always 44.1 though), no difference.

Edit:
I tried different encoders too. No luck. However, when I saved as mp3 CBR straight out of Audition, it was okay. Maybe it's LAME that's doing it? Audition uses Fraunhofer. It has to be the encoding process; I tried playing it back on other platforms and operating systems: same problem.

Then you're using LAME wrong. Or LAME has a bug and you should file a bugreport.

How can I use it wrong when it's through a front-end program like dbPowerAmp?

I don't get this shit at all. I just ripped a CD track, encoded to mp3 just like I've been doing, and it friggin plays just fine where others were distorted. It's like it picks and chooses which mp3 to fuck up.

I don't know this dbPowerAmp thing and I don't use it.

You should try to encode with a recent version/build of LAME, like the 3.97 version, not with a front-end. Then decode the MP3 to uncompressed data with some standard compliant decoder, like libmad. Check the decoded data for errors.

I don't recommend using the WMP. It's bloatware, spyware and there are better alternatives. It's not the first time a Microsoft product doesn't comply to the standard.