Question about variable bitrate

Hello, fellow Shriners! Quick question about VBR: if I were to download an album encoded like that and play it in Winamp with bitrate value visible, would it be constant or shifting, as I understand it should be in VBR? Or showing just the highest bitrate in each track? I’m a total noob when it comes to such things, so forgive me if it’s the most stupid question ever, but a while ago I downloaded such an album and each track has a different bitrate so I’m wondering if it’s normal or if there’s something wrong. Or in other words: how to say what’s just a 320 MP3 and what’s VBR MP3?

Hello, fellow Shriners! Quick question about VBR: if I were to download an album encoded like that and play it in Winamp with bitrate value visible, would it be constant or shifting, as I understand it should be in VBR? Or showing just the highest bitrate in each track? I’m a total noob when it comes to such things, so forgive me if it’s the most stupid question ever, but a while ago I downloaded such an album and each track has a different bitrate so I’m wondering if it’s normal or if there’s something wrong. Or in other words: how to say what’s just a 320 MP3 and what’s VBR MP3?

A VBR mp3 will show an "average" value if you look at it’s properties in windows. In a media player, whether it’s WInamp, Foobar or others, it will show the bitrate varying more or less in real time. a constant bitrate file shows a constant value while playing, whether it’s 128, 192, 256 or 320 kbps, it doesn’t vary while your music is playing. not sure if I’m really clear, but that’s the way it is.

Yes, you were pretty much clear, thank you!

A visual aid for you.

Thanks, I got it all covered now – it turned out that custom Winamp skin I was using this whole time had some troubles with properly showing VBR files and the bitrate variability itself. Switching back to classic look helped and now all is as it should be, finally. Thanks again for your help, guys!