WAV vs. MP3

plaster · Post by **plaster** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 7:40 pm

you two..i'm talking about club environment.

lil' jerk · Post by **lil' jerk** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 2:35 am

plaster wrote:i'm talking about club environment.

louder systems are often what reveal some of the worst bit compression...

theclockstrucktwelve · Wed Aug 02, 2006 5:23 am

'fraid he's right plast.

unless it's a shitty club with blown speakers that you can't hear outta anyway. it's most noticeable when the pitch is adjusted substantially... and since that's a common part of dj 101... gooodluck!

plaster · Post by **plaster** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 6:41 pm

thought to make a little test...an original 20 seconds rip from a sven vath - six ni the mix cd. track augenblick [sensorama railway mix]. bitrates are 192 / 256 and 320. i know my ears are damaged, but i can still notice subtle changes in frequency, altho i can't hear any in those three posted. nothing huge which would make me consider saying anything under 256 is crap. i think brianc posted the same test a while ago aswell.

sven vath - augenblick [sensorama railway mix] [192]

sven vath - augenblick [sensorama railway mix] [256]

sven vath - augenblick [sensorama railway mix] [320]

if you listen carefully you'll hear the kickdrum maybe has a bit of air after 192 rate..as i said..you really can't notice that on club systems on any loudness level.

brianc · Post by **brianc** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 6:48 pm

Just to get it out here, bitrate isn't really the only thing that determines how well an mp3 sounds. The source file, the encoder, and the encoder settings all play a huge role. I've heard 160 kb/s mp3s that sound better than 320s. Lame has a ton of options that can really improve the sound of mp3s.

That's why I like keeping the wave files somewhere (as flacs) so I can always make new mp3s later if I learn some new tricks.

isa · Post by **isa** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:34 pm

brianc wrote:Just to get it out here, bitrate isn't really the only thing that determines how well an mp3 sounds. The source file, the encoder, and the encoder settings all play a huge role. I've heard 160 kb/s mp3s that sound better than 320s.

You couldn't have sayed better.

theclockstrucktwelve · Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:03 am

plaster wrote:thought to make a little test...an original 20 seconds rip from a sven vath - six ni the mix cd. track augenblick [sensorama railway mix]. bitrates are 192 / 256 and 320. i know my ears are damaged, but i can still notice subtle changes in frequency, altho i can't hear any in those three posted. nothing huge which would make me consider saying anything under 256 is crap. i think brianc posted the same test a while ago aswell.

sven vath - augenblick [sensorama railway mix] [192]

sven vath - augenblick [sensorama railway mix] [256]

sven vath - augenblick [sensorama railway mix] [320]

if you listen carefully you'll hear the kickdrum maybe has a bit of air after 192 rate..as i said..you really can't notice that on club systems on any loudness level.

You can definitely hear the difference,
and more importantly - there's a huge difference between listening and DJing. If you start manipulating the pitch in final scratch or traktor, the lower ones will start sounding shitty in comparison.

lil' jerk · Post by **lil' jerk** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:11 am

isa wrote:
brianc wrote:Just to get it out here, bitrate isn't really the only thing that determines how well an mp3 sounds. The source file, the encoder, and the encoder settings all play a huge role. I've heard 160 kb/s mp3s that sound better than 320s.
You couldn't have sayed better.

bitrate is bitrate.... take 160 kbps compressed with the worst codec and 160 kbps compressed with the best codec, there is the same amount of data missing. You never hear of people asking for mp3s at such a quality compressed with a certain codec.. fact is some system config will always reveal the weaknesses unless you weed them out by having less compression....

and its not even worth stating that low quality source files are a factor... otherwise we could all re-encode 128kbps files at 320 and be happy!
If you want irrefutable quality, go with wavs or minimally compressed mp3s - theres no battle between them, they're in the same line of options.