Does SoundCloud REcompress your uploads?

[Anubis]

And further degrade the audio quality? I always upload mp3 @ 192 KHz but I've inadvertently left the "convert to 128" checked off by default. I thought that the 128 KHz version was only used for their supposed fabulous podcasts and other promotional "benefits" but I think that this lower-fi version is the one that is streamed from my public profile instead of the version that I painstakingly created? Does anybody know? I've uploaded the exact same files to my SYM account and I think there is a noticeable difference in fidelity.

[Imaulle]

ive ripped stuff from soundcloud before and its always 128 kbps. so I think they do, at least for the players.. if you let people download I assume its whatever you uploaded...


or maybe the the stuff I rip is 128 on purpose from the assholes who don't want their stuff ripped, lol

[mkelly]

If I recall correctly, your upload is re-encoded to 128kbps for use in their players, but when you allow people to download your tracks they will get the original.

So if you upload MP3s, your already compressed track will get extracted to wav (or equivalent) and then re-encoded (and hence recompressed). If you want best playback quality then upload lossless in the first place.

Ideally, they would allow us to upload lossless for them to re-encode, but also allow us to upload a pre-compressed track for downloads.