Hiya Guys i was wondering if someone could explain the differnce to me between wave and MP3. Which has better sound quality when burning. cheers

MP3 is a compressed, lossy audio format. WAV audio is typically uncompressed and can feature much MUCH higher audio quality than MP3 can.

When possible, use WAV.

Oh, and Google. Use that too.

I need help. I know WAV is the way to go, but once i burn them (if i get them) they just don't seem to sound the same. I mainly buy 320 or 198 (all that's available) and I use i-tunes to or media player to burn. I have tried NERO but am not that familiar with it. I also notice that when i buy or download these MP3's, then burn to cd the sound quality is NOTICEABLY different. I don't care what people say YOU CAN HEAR the sound loss and it REALLY bothers me. It almost sounds hallow or like i am in an expanded room with no walls and hear very little bass. My levels are also a lot lower. When I was playing in a clud the sound girl asked me if it sounded OK in the monitors because it didn't "sound right" on the floor. Am i doing something wrong? I feel like i have wasted a ton of money on these "high quality" mp3's.. PLEASE HELP

Well, on high quality systems you WILL hear the difference. Are you doing anything wrong? Probably not. While there are many ways to ENCODE MP3's there's really only one way to DECODE MP3's - and whatever program you're using to burn will decode them before burning (unless you're burning an MP3 only disk, which is the same as a data disk).

All you can do is adjust your board EQ a little bit when you're playing those MP3's. Bass and treble up a touch, mids down a touch. That's what I've found to be about the best.

-r-

Thanks for that Good to know it is the tunes for a change.. LOL! as far as your advice on tweaking, am i correct in saying it's a combination of high/mid/treble AND gain adjusments? Thanks for clearing these up for me

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KADE,

Well if you don't know by now that you have to adjust gain on practically every song, then here's your lesson.

I suppose it depends on the source, however - I have many MP3's (encoded by me) that need no ADDITIONAL gain from a standard CD, but they might need a bit of tweak to make it "just right".

-r-

Sorry it took so long...

You kill me.. Of course i know the gain needs adjustment. I just know over adjusting sounds just as bad. I just want to confident that MY ear is the ear of the crowd you know. I have actually been working with some dj friends of mine and have learned more in the last two months, than i did over two years. These forums are a big plus as well.

That's cool bro, I figured you knew, I was just makin' sure.

Good luck.

-r-

i burn cd with i tunes, quality is not that great, so i used Roxio Toast to burn no problem at all.. how can I fix by using itunes?

quote:

Originally posted by RyanJ:
Well, on high quality systems you WILL hear the difference. Are you doing anything wrong? Probably not. While there are many ways to ENCODE MP3's there's really only one way to DECODE MP3's - and whatever program you're using to burn will decode them before burning (unless you're burning an MP3 only disk, which is the same as a data disk).

All you can do is adjust your board EQ a little bit when you're playing those MP3's. Bass and treble up a touch, mids down a touch. That's what I've found to be about the best.

-r-

Wow, this is not encouraging. I was thinking about selling out on vinyl so I could save money with cheap downloads but have been concerned about the sound quality. If there's an audible difference I'll stick with vinyl.

It makes sence that the average DJ would go digital because you can save a lot of money buying only the tracks you want at $1.50-$2.50 vs. a $10 record for that one song but why are the pros choosing digital over wax? They're the one's getting paid big money at gigs all over the world! I don't make a lot of money but sound quality is very important to me. Your set is only as strong as your weakest link. We're DJs. Sound quality should be pretty damn important.

I heard a bit of a study done at a US university on Compressed/Noncompressed audio. the finding was that uncompressed audio actually works on the emotional side of the human brain better then compressed audio does. The listens felt more emotional connection when they heard uncompressed audio then when they heard the same tracks compressed.

The bottom line is after all these years of argueing with my roomie; Pulse is right.....

w00t - can I get that framed?

quote:

Originally posted by djjay:
I heard a bit of a study done at a US university on Compressed/Noncompressed audio. the finding was that uncompressed audio actually works on the emotional side of the human brain better then compressed audio does. The listens felt more emotional connection when they heard uncompressed audio then when they heard the same tracks compressed.

Because I've been a vinyl DJ for so long I've never once downloaded an Mp3. I've never owned an Ipod or any similar peice of equipment. Me figuering out Mp3's is like an old person trying to figuer out how to operate a DVD. Anyway, I know that vinyl has a warmth to it that CDs don't have. Sure CD's sound good but there is a little something lacking about the sound compaired to vinyl. If Mp3's are a lesser version of CD's, why the hell are DJ's fooling with it then? I have a feeling the big DJ's aren't working with Mp3's but unadulterated CD's or WAV files direct from the labels .

quote:

Originally posted by justanotherdj:
... but why are the pros choosing digital over wax? ...

When you only carry a laptop and small hard drive to a gig the first time instead of crates and crates of vinyl, you'll know why. It's less about the money and more about the convenience of it. Believe me, I've done both for long enough to care.

quote:

Sound quality should be pretty damn important.

I agree - but in a club, even the highest quality systems you'll hardly hear it as long as your MP3's are high quality (320kbps CBR). Despite what I said before, there's a caveat - at the high volumes, the human ear doesn't have the sensitivity to detect the loss in quality. There's also too much other noise in the room, even if it's a Funktion-One or other top-of-the-line system; people ordering drinks yelling, talking, etc; the background noise more than takes care of the loss in audio from the MP3 conversion.

That said, most people are indifferent to the change - there are a lot of people out there who think a 64kbps MP3 sounds good just because they can get so much more music on their ipod that way. We know better, so we try to do better. But until the major music distributors, equipment/software makers, etc., get on the wagon of a MUCH BETTER codec like OGG Vorbis or FLAC or something which is still compression but LOSSLESS, and until the public smartens up, we might be stuck with the crap that is MP3.

That said, I've switched to using an all-digital rig; like I said, I've done enough hauling of vinyl, cd's, etc., around to know that hauling a backpack with my laptop and interface and hard drive is so much nicer that I'm ok with the mild loss of quality, given that everything I play is encoded at 320kbps, best possible encoding I know how to do.

-r-

LOL... Ryan's right about the loss in a club. the warmth you mentioned on Vinyl is made up for with Pioneers Legato Link which reproduces that exact tonal quality.

Hey, everybody has to make their own way in this game, try this. make a WAV copy and a 320K MP3 copy on 2 different discs and see if you or anyone you ask can tell the difference. the best way is to have someone mix up the 2 discs so you don't know until after hearing both; and then you make your decision...

quote:

Originally posted by djjay:
LOL... Ryan's right about the loss in a club. the warmth you mentioned on Vinyl is made up for with Pioneers Legato Link which reproduces that exact tonal quality.

Hmm. There's a lot to this digital thing I don't know.

It doesn't matter to me if people can hear the difference, it's me that I'm concerned with. If I know there's a difference it will eat me up everytime I play that track. I've got a few records that I don't even play because the sound is crap from either bad production or pressing.

I'm thinking about buying one of those pioneer cd decks. I'm looking at that silver one, not the $1200 black one. I think it's the 800. There are always some records I miss out on and I could make up for it with an Mp3 copy.

Say no to MP3's, they sound awful and are intended for practical use such as i.e. IPOD, Internet web stream and the useless home consumer who can't tell the difference between a boom box and a set of TAD drivers, YOU ARE ALL PROFESIONAL DJ'S YOU SHOULD USE THE BEST SOUNDING MEDIUM YOU CAN, quality now days is at an all time low, do something about it, standards have dropped and people don’t even know what high quality is cos they have been raised with poor sounding MP3’s.
Fact is not all downloads are bad, beatport, stompy etc do Wav downloads although quality is very hit and miss and the mastering can be very poor, not as big of an issue with vinyl although still an issue but just not as big I find now.
And another thing...I wish people would stop pressing/mastering tings so loud, it leaves for no dynamic range.

Since we're disscussing sound quality I thought I should mention that I think my traditional analog mixer sounds better than the digital DJM400 I sent back to the retailer(defective) but I was so blown away by the features that let me manipulate the music that I think that's one trade off I'll accept.

Chances are it had a cleaner sound and that threw you off because you're used to the coloured sound of your old analog mixer (similar to how vinyl-jocks say that CDs sound harsh and tinny).

Cleaner in a cold, lifeless, way. The analoge mixer allowed the music to breath.