Craig Tinson wrote:
Well, whatever you're going to use it for, it has probably already been done, or it's not going to work out like you hope. Let me touch on all of the possible things I can think of:Can anyone come up with a theory on how to "convert an mp3 into a number"?
First, either you want to convert a wav into a number that is possible to convert back into the original wav, or you want to convert a wav into a number that is *not* possible to convert back into the original wav but still the number is unique to that wav (ie, a hash value).
If you're after the first one, a reversible conversion, then I figure you're hoping to either: 1 - Compress or somehow make the storage more efficient by messing with the number. In that case, forget it. It's not gonna happen.
or,2 - Somehow get around P2P copyright violations (ie, "But your honor, I was just sharing really, really, REALLY big numbers. You can't put me in jail for sharing *numbers*".). In that case, forget it. This tactic will go absolutely nowhere.
If you're after some hash value... some way of uniquely refering to a sound without actually having to store the whole sound, then you're probably after something called an "audio fingerprint". Go to www.musicbrainz.org and read about TRM's.
Did that pretty much answer your question? - Joe