Songs play too fast or too slow

The issue with the "chipmunk" effect is due to the way that the mp3 was originally encoded. Adobe Flash can handle most standard mp3 encodings with any bitrate. However, some mp3 encoders use "non-standard" encoding techniques that Adobe Flash can not handle... Namely the MP3-PRO encoding scheme.

When a file is encoded with the MP3-PRO setting the file seems to play too fast and makes the audio sound as if it were made by chipmunks. The solutions is to re-encode your mp3's with a standard MP3 codecs. Wimpy will support CBR and VBR encoding -- at any bitrate.

I recommend using dbPowerAmp to encode MP3 files. It's a small, "right-mouse-click" type utility that makes encoding an MP3 a snap. Using the standard settings in dbPowerAmp works great with Wimpy.

James Roy has discovered the following:
"I was encoding MP3s at 96kbps using iTunes. An MP3 encoded at 128kbps seemed ok, but anything else (even encoding the files first at one bit rate, and then another) gave me either a faster or slower playing speed. I was able to solve my problem by going into iTunes prefs, choosing 'custom' for the MP3 encoding, and then choosing 44.1kHz for the sample rate instead of 'auto'. Apparently when iTunes uses an auto bit rate, the Flash player is unable to adjust its playing speeds to accommodate the optimized MP3 file."

James Koenig discovered the following:
Flash goes all chipmunk on a LAME encode at 40kbps mono, but works at 32kbps.

Jack at Jukebox Alive notes:
For low bitrates (less than 32) I have the option of resampling at:
8 khz.
11.025 khz.
12 khz.
16 khz.
22.05 khz.
24 khz.

Of those, flash seems to only play nice with 11.025 or 22.05, it was defaulting to 24

John Henry Mostyn notes:
...A slightly more robust answer to the resampling issue for
users of Lame mp3 encoders, an additional call to -- resample 22.05
will force the sample rate flash seems to need for compact mp3s

Additional notes:

- Always try and "set" every configuration. Leaving your compression utility to "auto" or "default" is probably not a good idea.

- Do not use 32-bit float, use 16-bit.

- Flash is known to have "issues" when the MP3 uses a frequency that is NOT a multiple of 11,025 kbps

- Ensure that the frequency rate is a multiple of 11,025:

- 11,025 kHz
- 22,050 kHz
- 44,100 kHz

- e.g. 48 kbps is not good