Should I get over my prejudice/ignorance/snobbery for WAV and change to mp3?

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Should I get over my prejudice/ignorance/snobbery for WAV and change to mp3?
Posted on: 24.04.2012 by Lin Danek
A combination of audiophile snobbery, ignorance, prejudice and an ability to convince myself that I CAN hear the difference has resulted in me only buying WAV files from Beatport and JunoDownload. I am also fortunate enough to have a 500GB ASUS NJ61 that only has my (stripped) OS, Traktor and music library on it. Our currency is about to hit 8 Rands to 1 Dollar and I am reconsidering the cost of WAV upgrades. I've read the science (I'm sick of reading about WAV's "voracious appetite for disc space" and "once lost with compression, always lost to compression") but want to hear from this community.
1. Is WAV REALLY worth it?
2. Will I notice the difference?
I really appreciate the sound quality of the S4 and don't want it compromised.
Desire Piedmont
23.08.2012
Originally Posted by MrPopinjay
Consider using other stores!

I refuse to support those who charge more for lossless formats.
Any suggestions for these other sites?

I grit my teeth every time I pay for mp3s.

And wav pricing on Beatport is insane - the vinyl releases are often cheaper.
Dorie Scelzo
16.08.2012
Originally Posted by Jack Bastard
That's surely down to the contents of your cart rather than the contents of the site.
Originally Posted by Jack Bastard
There's nothing wrong with Beatport though (selection-wise, price-wise they suck), you want to look at what you're buying if you believe that you can't have you own voice while shopping there, there's like 700,000 tracks on there. Expand your mind/shopping list.
It's not the music they have, it's their site. If you want to listen to 700,000 songs to find the gems (which I believe is a vast underestimate, honestly) go for it. If you want to box yourself into a label, cool. I don't believe there's a good way to browse, so I go to sites that are more selective about what they upload or find tracks other ways and then figure out where to buy them. They tried with beat bot, but unless it's gotten a lot better than the last time I tried it, their hit rate (for me) was like 1% and it missed a lot of stuff that I thought it should pick out.

It's not a problem with their selection. It's a problem with weeding through all the crap. Sometimes, having everything at your fingertips is a very bad thing.

15.08.2012
Originally Posted by MrPopinjay
It's hard to put things in your cart if they are not on the site. I've been buying a lot of tracks direct from the artist via bandcamp lately, I'm really liking the site, more artists should use it.
Yeah, I like Bandcamp. There's nothing wrong with Beatport though (selection-wise, price-wise they suck), you want to look at what you're buying if you believe that you can't have you own voice while shopping there, there's like 700,000 tracks on there. Expand your mind/shopping list.

15.08.2012
Originally Posted by mostapha
Plus, it's really hard to find awesome stuff on Beatport unless you just want to sound like everyone else anyway
That's surely down to the contents of your cart rather than the contents of the site.
Danae Dumler
15.08.2012
Originally Posted by ksandvik
Now, if Beatport would get to their senses and have reasonable pricing for lossless, that would be the start.
actually a good start would be if beatport even had reasonable prices for mp3.
Dorie Scelzo
15.08.2012
Originally Posted by MrPopinjay
Consider using other stores!

I refuse to support those who charge more for lossless formats.
#winning

Plus, it's really hard to find awesome stuff on Beatport unless you just want to sound like everyone else anyway. It's kind of necessary evil for that, but I hate shopping on Beatport.
Augustina Zulu
23.08.2012		If you are paying full price for tracks on beatport, you're doing it wrong. There is almost always an active discount code usually 20% off, sometimes higher. You can find them on the web if you look. Some of them can only be used every once every some amount of time. Also most of the $2.49 go down to $1.99 after 2 weeks or so or can be found elsewhere for cheaper.

As far as finding tracks - yeah beatport blows but if you keep adding labels and artists you buy it almost gets usable. I mostly go there searching for tracks or artists I have found out about somewhere else.
Desire Piedmont
23.08.2012
Originally Posted by MrPopinjay
Consider using other stores!

I refuse to support those who charge more for lossless formats.
Any suggestions for these other sites?

I grit my teeth every time I pay for mp3s.

And wav pricing on Beatport is insane - the vinyl releases are often cheaper.
Audria Pechman
22.08.2012		I was going to do a whole write up on some of the topics discussed here but it looks like there are plenty already. Here are some useful tests for you guys.

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2010/04/...en-wav-vs-mp3/
http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/...-test-128-320/

One thing I always have a problem with is when people say they don't hear a difference but then they don't list the gear they are listening on. Of course you are going to have trouble hearing a difference on a pair of book shelf speakers powered by a cheap home theater receiver. Go take a listen on a nice SET amplifier with a decent DAC in a properly acoustically damped room and see if you still can't hear a difference. You don't need all that to hear a difference but it makes differences much more apparent.

16.08.2012		Dunno, it used to be terrible when they had the flash site (it was an emergency place to shop and nothing more) but once you've got your watchlist setup on the new HTML5 site I believe it's the best of the shops I use. I spend more money elsewhere but their new interface is very good.
Dorie Scelzo
16.08.2012
Originally Posted by Jack Bastard
That's surely down to the contents of your cart rather than the contents of the site.
Originally Posted by Jack Bastard
There's nothing wrong with Beatport though (selection-wise, price-wise they suck), you want to look at what you're buying if you believe that you can't have you own voice while shopping there, there's like 700,000 tracks on there. Expand your mind/shopping list.
It's not the music they have, it's their site. If you want to listen to 700,000 songs to find the gems (which I believe is a vast underestimate, honestly) go for it. If you want to box yourself into a label, cool. I don't believe there's a good way to browse, so I go to sites that are more selective about what they upload or find tracks other ways and then figure out where to buy them. They tried with beat bot, but unless it's gotten a lot better than the last time I tried it, their hit rate (for me) was like 1% and it missed a lot of stuff that I thought it should pick out.

It's not a problem with their selection. It's a problem with weeding through all the crap. Sometimes, having everything at your fingertips is a very bad thing.
Kiyoko Wellisch
15.08.2012		No but I did meet the chap at a festival this year. Shorter, skinnier and with less hair than I expected.

15.08.2012		Are you DJ Vocoda or is someone you know DJ Vocoda by any chance?

Kiyoko Wellisch
15.08.2012		They have zero tracks by DJ Vocoda, it blows :P

15.08.2012
Originally Posted by MrPopinjay
It's hard to put things in your cart if they are not on the site. I've been buying a lot of tracks direct from the artist via bandcamp lately, I'm really liking the site, more artists should use it.
Yeah, I like Bandcamp. There's nothing wrong with Beatport though (selection-wise, price-wise they suck), you want to look at what you're buying if you believe that you can't have you own voice while shopping there, there's like 700,000 tracks on there. Expand your mind/shopping list.
Kiyoko Wellisch
15.08.2012		It's hard to put things in your cart if they are not on the site. I've been buying a lot of tracks direct from the artist via bandcamp lately, I'm really liking the site, more artists should use it.

15.08.2012
Originally Posted by mostapha
Plus, it's really hard to find awesome stuff on Beatport unless you just want to sound like everyone else anyway
That's surely down to the contents of your cart rather than the contents of the site.
Kiyoko Wellisch
15.08.2012		I don't really see why everyone loves beatport so much.
Danae Dumler
15.08.2012
Originally Posted by ksandvik
Now, if Beatport would get to their senses and have reasonable pricing for lossless, that would be the start.
actually a good start would be if beatport even had reasonable prices for mp3.
Dorie Scelzo
15.08.2012
Originally Posted by MrPopinjay
Consider using other stores!

I refuse to support those who charge more for lossless formats.
#winning

Plus, it's really hard to find awesome stuff on Beatport unless you just want to sound like everyone else anyway. It's kind of necessary evil for that, but I hate shopping on Beatport.
Kiyoko Wellisch
14.08.2012		Consider using other stores!

I refuse to support those who charge more for lossless formats.
Celine Surico
14.08.2012		Yes, pretty bad if a pro system Pio can't play back FLAC, Apple Lossless I would understand but that should not be so hard to implement, either.

Now, if Beatport would get to their senses and have reasonable pricing for lossless, that would be the start. Just looking at my crate with the crazy pricing has changed my mind about always getting WAV files from Beatport. Ack.
Kiyoko Wellisch
14.08.2012		See for me it's not just about being able to hear a difference. I don't like the idea that I've bought something that is damaged, I want it to be exactly what came out when the artist pressed render. That and I like the fact you can decode it and encode it as many times as you like and it'll lose no quality at all.

Hard drive space is so cheap I don't really care about the larger file size of flacs. It's all good

Only downside in my eyes is that CD players *still* don't have any support for any lossless compression formats. It sucks! Step up your game Pioneer, Denon etc!
Dirk Veasman
14.08.2012		I have read of many tests where audiophiles are easily audio-fooled. So it makes it hard sometimes to wonder how much perception is in the mind and what's really in the ears. I use the 320kbps mp3s and just don't worry about it beyond that.
Dorie Scelzo
13.08.2012
Originally Posted by sobi
Sort of like locking a thread that has a decent and respectful dialogue happening?
Legit.

Originally Posted by sobi
Sort of like locking a thread that has a decent and respectful dialogue happening?
According to the data, no…and neither can anyone else. And I still believe they're crazy and will never voluntarily pay for lossy compressed audio of any kind.
Stanley Topoleski
12.08.2012		you might hear the difference, but can your audience...
Darren Teboe
12.08.2012
Originally Posted by mostapha
Because it's completely pointless.
Sort of like locking a thread that has a decent and respectful dialogue happening?
Dorie Scelzo
12.08.2012
Originally Posted by sobi
If they want to lock duplicate threads, why not help the cause?
Because it's completely pointless.
Darren Teboe
12.08.2012		If they want to lock duplicate threads, why not help the cause?

here's the continuation of the original locked one...

http://community .djranking s.com/showthr...t=54998&page=2
Kiyoko Wellisch
12.08.2012		You necrobumped a thread that has been dead since May to tell mods to lock it?
Darren Teboe
12.08.2012		Duplicate thread... mods should lock it.
Dorie Scelzo
28.05.2012		Yeah
Kiyoko Wellisch
27.05.2012
Originally Posted by djproben
Manually? you have to lay out all the bits on the floor and rearrange them yourself?
You can either drag it straight into your DAW or you can open an additional program, drag files into that, set where you want the new files to be saved to, click ok, wait for it to do it's thing, navigate to that directory and then drag it into your DAW.

I know which one I'd rather do.
Raymundo Lazzarotto
27.05.2012		This editing scenario interests me; if you have an mp3 and want edit it -take a section for a loop, extend, chop it up in some way or whatever -you do that in some kind of editor SW, right. So when you want to save what you've done, don't you have to export it to some format or other? So if you started with a lossy format your losing even more every time you export/transcode it. But if you started with lossless you're in full control of how much you lose to gain a smaller file size.
Danae Dumler
26.05.2012
Originally Posted by MrPopinjay
Your DAW will do it for you so why would you ever want to do it manually?
Manually? you have to lay out all the bits on the floor and rearrange them yourself?
Lin Danek
26.05.2012
Originally Posted by mostapha
Magda's a chick.

She's on Minus and tours with Ritchie Hawtin sometimes. She's generally regarded at one of the best at minimal.
And technically the software that she probably uses (i'd put money on ableton) can't use compressed files
Alan Sawney
26.05.2012
Originally Posted by JonathanBlake
A combination of audiophile snobbery, ignorance, prejudice and an ability to convince myself that I CAN hear the difference has resulted in me only buying WAV files from Beatport and JunoDownload. I am also fortunate enough to have a 500GB ASUS NJ61 that only has my (stripped) OS, Traktor and music library on it. Our currency is about to hit 8 Rands to 1 Dollar and I am reconsidering the cost of WAV upgrades. I've read the science (I'm sick of reading about WAV's "voracious appetite for disc space" and "once lost with compression, always lost to compression") but want to hear from this community.
1. Is WAV REALLY worth it?
2. Will I notice the difference?
I really appreciate the sound quality of the S4 and don't want it compromised.
I am going to enjoy this thread as i'm in the same boat but for AIFF, however I notice the difference when i'm going for TBH clearer tops clear bass no bleed...
Alan Sawney
26.05.2012
Originally Posted by JonathanBlake
A combination of audiophile snobbery, ignorance, prejudice and an ability to convince myself that I CAN hear the difference has resulted in me only buying WAV files from Beatport and JunoDownload. I am also fortunate enough to have a 500GB ASUS NJ61 that only has my (stripped) OS, Traktor and music library on it. Our currency is about to hit 8 Rands to 1 Dollar and I am reconsidering the cost of WAV upgrades. I've read the science (I'm sick of reading about WAV's "voracious appetite for disc space" and "once lost with compression, always lost to compression") but want to hear from this community.
1. Is WAV REALLY worth it?
2. Will I notice the difference?
I really appreciate the sound quality of the S4 and don't want it compromised.
I am going to enjoy this thread as i'm in the same boat but for AIFF, however I notice the difference when i'm going for TBH clearer tops clear bass no bleed...
Kiyoko Wellisch
27.05.2012		Oh wait, I believe I do know her. I was chatting with some dude the other day who partied with her a few days back. He seemed pretty star struck :P
Her hair is awesome.

Your DAW will do it for you so why would you ever want to do it manually?
Dorie Scelzo
26.05.2012
Originally Posted by MrPopinjay
> “Uncompressed files are the only ones suitable for proper editing, which is a big part of my life,”

That Magda guy in that article clearly doesn't quite understand how lossless compression works...
Magda's a chick.



She's on Minus and tours with Ritchie Hawtin sometimes. She's generally regarded at one of the best at minimal.

And technically the software that she probably uses (i'd put money on ableton) can't use compressed files…it decodes everything to wav and stores it in temp files. And apparently some people have issues with that that are solved by only using wav files. So, in a way, she's right.

I'm with you…ALAC is plenty good to DJ with, but I make a wav/aiff copy if I'm going to edit anything because the DAW's going to do it anyway.

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