Need your opinion...

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Need your opinion...
Posted on: 23.10.2012 by Wilson Durrum
I am starting to get some mobile gigs (events, parties & weddings) so I have been working on my playlist. Most of the music I download from Amazon, Beatport & iTunes is 256kbps to 320kbps MP3 but a lot of my older music that I burned from cd's are only 128kbps - 192kbps since that was the best you could burn a mp3 at the time (5+ years ago). I did keep those cd's so I am going to burn them again so I can get better quality. I have read A LOT of articles and blogs saying the WAV and Apple Lossless is the best but takes a lot of storage. I did burn one track as an Apple Lossless and could not tell a diff between it and a 128kbps file through my headphones but I am sure it would be diff over a PA. Should I burn these older tracks in 320kbps, WAV or Apple lossless? I know WAV & Apple Lossless is superior but should I stay consistent with my tracks and have them all 320kbps MP3?

BTW Most of these songs are from the 70's, 80's, 90's and early 2000's, top40, pop, hip/hop, r&b, and rock.

Thank you in advance for your replies!
Wilson Durrum
24.10.2012
Originally Posted by DubluW
Keep the CD's with a CDJ?
I stopped buying CD's a few years ago. All of my newer music is AAC or MP3's.
Cassie Sangermano
24.10.2012
Originally Posted by Christian Crush
Going from a mp3 to a WAV file will boost the quality of the song slightly but nothing to huge since the song is going from a lossy file to a non lose file. The WAV version will take up farrrr more space though and in my opionion the very small volume and quality boost is not worth all the extra burden on my hard drive. I would recommend converting to aac, while it is still a lossy file it is far better quality than mp3 and takes up the same amount of space as your mp3's currently do. You can also convert most files to aac or wav in itunes for what ever file format you choose.
There is no point in converting an mp3 to a wav file. Once the frequencies have been taken out by converting to mp3, you cannot put them back in. So converting to WAV will just make an exact copy of the mp3 file.

This also goes for converting to AAC or any other format.
Wilson Durrum
23.10.2012
Originally Posted by Otacon
what quality is the music you just download from iTunes normally?
The new music I download from iTunes is 256kbps AAC and Beatport is 320kbps MP3.
Wilson Durrum
23.10.2012
Originally Posted by deevey
You could always sign up for Itunes Match and get the High Quality Versions of your ripped tunes really cheap as long as they are available on iTunes.
I will look into this as well. Thanks!
Rolanda Clodfelder
23.10.2012
Originally Posted by DJ G-REG
Ok I will listen again to the two tracks.

I just dont want it to sound off when I play an Apple Lossless track then switch to a 256 AAC or 320 MP3 of a newer song that I have downloaded from Amazon, Beatport or iTunes. I was believeing I needed to stay consistent with all my tracks.
Any MP3 Tracks lower than 256k or ACC less than 196k will have what sounds like a flanger effect on high frequencies/vocals and will have a muddy bass end - not so noticable on headphones or home Stereo but really Awful on a loud PA system or half decent Hi-fi.

You should be able to easily hear the difference on your HDJ500's , even on a crappy set of Apple earbuds you can CLEARLY hear the difference between 128k, 192k, 256k and 320k mp3's. Itunes imports handled things a lil better back then.

You could always sign up for Itunes Match and get the High Quality Versions of your ripped tunes really cheap as long as they are available on iTunes.
Wilson Durrum
23.10.2012
I am starting to get some mobile gigs (events, parties & weddings) so I have been working on my playlist. Most of the music I download from Amazon, Beatport & iTunes is 256kbps to 320kbps MP3 but a lot of my older music that I burned from cd's are only 128kbps - 192kbps since that was the best you could burn a mp3 at the time (5+ years ago). I did keep those cd's so I am going to burn them again so I can get better quality. I have read A LOT of articles and blogs saying the WAV and Apple Lossless is the best but takes a lot of storage. I did burn one track as an Apple Lossless and could not tell a diff between it and a 128kbps file through my headphones but I am sure it would be diff over a PA. Should I burn these older tracks in 320kbps, WAV or Apple lossless? I know WAV & Apple Lossless is superior but should I stay consistent with my tracks and have them all 320kbps MP3?

BTW Most of these songs are from the 70's, 80's, 90's and early 2000's, top40, pop, hip/hop, r&b, and rock.

Thank you in advance for your replies!
Wilson Durrum
24.10.2012
I started going through my CD collection last evening and ripping them to my laptop as an Apple Lossless file and deleting the old 128kbps files. It is taking a lot more time to do than I thought it would but I believe it will be worth it in the end.
Wilson Durrum
24.10.2012
Originally Posted by DubluW
Keep the CD's with a CDJ?
I stopped buying CD's a few years ago. All of my newer music is AAC or MP3's.
Lillia Datson
24.10.2012
Keep the CD's with a CDJ?
Cassie Sangermano
24.10.2012
Originally Posted by Christian Crush
Going from a mp3 to a WAV file will boost the quality of the song slightly but nothing to huge since the song is going from a lossy file to a non lose file. The WAV version will take up farrrr more space though and in my opionion the very small volume and quality boost is not worth all the extra burden on my hard drive. I would recommend converting to aac, while it is still a lossy file it is far better quality than mp3 and takes up the same amount of space as your mp3's currently do. You can also convert most files to aac or wav in itunes for what ever file format you choose.
There is no point in converting an mp3 to a wav file. Once the frequencies have been taken out by converting to mp3, you cannot put them back in. So converting to WAV will just make an exact copy of the mp3 file.

This also goes for converting to AAC or any other format.
Lauretta Ehrhorn
24.10.2012
Yeah you will notice a difference if you have a quality PA playing 192s. Most of your punters won't care or notice however. Most ears are tuned into compressed file formats these days. I would advise against playing 128s.

It's best practice to play the highest quality file possible but to reiterate most punters (particularly when drunk at at party) really don't care or notice the difference.
Wilson Durrum
23.10.2012
Originally Posted by Otacon
what quality is the music you just download from iTunes normally?
The new music I download from iTunes is 256kbps AAC and Beatport is 320kbps MP3.
Erich Vallabhaneni
23.10.2012
what quality is the music you just download from iTunes normally?
Loni Plier
23.10.2012
Going from a mp3 to a WAV file will boost the quality of the song slightly but nothing to huge since the song is going from a lossy file to a non lose file. The WAV version will take up farrrr more space though and in my opionion the very small volume and quality boost is not worth all the extra burden on my hard drive. I would recommend converting to aac, while it is still a lossy file it is far better quality than mp3 and takes up the same amount of space as your mp3's currently do. You can also convert most files to aac or wav in itunes for what ever file format you choose.
Wilson Durrum
23.10.2012
Originally Posted by deevey
You could always sign up for Itunes Match and get the High Quality Versions of your ripped tunes really cheap as long as they are available on iTunes.
I will look into this as well. Thanks!
Rolanda Clodfelder
23.10.2012
Originally Posted by DJ G-REG
Ok I will listen again to the two tracks.

I just dont want it to sound off when I play an Apple Lossless track then switch to a 256 AAC or 320 MP3 of a newer song that I have downloaded from Amazon, Beatport or iTunes. I was believeing I needed to stay consistent with all my tracks.
Any MP3 Tracks lower than 256k or ACC less than 196k will have what sounds like a flanger effect on high frequencies/vocals and will have a muddy bass end - not so noticable on headphones or home Stereo but really Awful on a loud PA system or half decent Hi-fi.

You should be able to easily hear the difference on your HDJ500's , even on a crappy set of Apple earbuds you can CLEARLY hear the difference between 128k, 192k, 256k and 320k mp3's. Itunes imports handled things a lil better back then.

You could always sign up for Itunes Match and get the High Quality Versions of your ripped tunes really cheap as long as they are available on iTunes.
Wilson Durrum
23.10.2012
Ok I will listen again to the two tracks.

I just dont want it to sound off when I play an Apple Lossless track then switch to a 256 AAC or 320 MP3 of a newer song that I have downloaded from Amazon, Beatport or iTunes. I was believeing I needed to stay consistent with all my tracks.
Mimi Mahaffee
23.10.2012
okay, you should be able to hear difference even in hdj 500, sit down and listen, you will hear it.
On the clubs PA there will be a huge difference.
Wilson Durrum
23.10.2012
I am using Pioneer HDJ-500's. I do have a pair of Westone UM-2 so I will listen to both Apple Lossless & 128kbps MP3 track again with those.
Mimi Mahaffee
23.10.2012
Burn everything in Apple Lossless, thats what i have done. So happy now when im finnished, no more shitty files.
It for sure makes a difference if the club have a good PA, just because im curious.. what headphones do you have?
you should be able to tell a large difference if its a good production.

The least quality you want to go is 320 mp3. Actually Apple Lossless doesnt take too much disk space and anyways disk space is quite cheap
nowadays so id definately go for that.

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