REX vs WAV format

[alvarog]

Hi there, i am doubting about the following, and would like to hear your opinions:

I own some commercial audio sample collections. They ussualy come in 3 flavours: WAV, REX (.rx2) and APPLE LOOPS (.aif).

My HDD space is getting low and i am looking to optimize my sample library, so i am likely to stick on just one format. I am a PC user, so i think i can delete .aif versions without loosing any goodness. But i am doubting about deleting WAV versions and keeping just the REX ones.

Is there any advantage of WAV format over the REX or viceversa? Do they both have the same audio quality? I have searched over the web and cant find a final word about it. As live users your opinions and experiences are wellcome here.


Thanks in advance, cheers all.

(and sorry about any language mistakes)

[pr0jekt2501]

regarding sound quality theres is no difference. REX uses a proprietary file format and compression algorithm to reduce file size. an advantage REX files have is they store transient points ( or warp markers in ableton live terms ). the only advantage of WAV is that more programs can interpret/process the data.

[djsynchro]

If they were that different you would've heard it by now. I say keep the REX they already have all the transient info in there you can always consolidate if you need to mess with warpers yourself

[alvarog]

I guess then i can delete WAV and AIF versions, and keep only REX ones, thanks.

Maybe is a silly question: does Ableton Live warp WAV and REX equally fine, or maybe is more efficient / accurate with one concrete format?

[baseinstinct]

I think it was in Live 8 that I quickly checked rx2 against the same loops provided in wav and to my surprise it turned out rx2 warped worse.

It could be down to some misleading factors, though, like different warping mode set by default for one of the formats, inferior slicing that vendor to what Live does automatically.

To little data to generalize.

What I would do is load a drum loop and an instrument loop that you like in both formats and slow down playback to check which one plays better.

Do get back to share the results!

One more thing. I think ableton internally converts to wav each rex you even audition. This means more space used and longer loading time.
Overall, I am very happy with how live slices stuff up.

[kitekrazy]

How are you guys using Rex in Live? Do they have a player for them?

[ned rush]

They play in Live as clips and in instruments but you can't do much with them except change the pitch and if they haven't been sliced properly then the timing can come out wrong. I wouldn't bother with rex files in Live. The are better in Reason.

[jlgrimes]

Hi there, i am doubting about the following, and would like to hear your opinions:

I own some commercial audio sample collections. They ussualy come in 3 flavours: WAV, REX (.rx2) and APPLE LOOPS (.aif).

My HDD space is getting low and i am looking to optimize my sample library, so i am likely to stick on just one format. I am a PC user, so i think i can delete .aif versions without loosing any goodness. But i am doubting about deleting WAV versions and keeping just the REX ones.

Is there any advantage of WAV format over the REX or viceversa? Do they both have the same audio quality? I have searched over the web and cant find a final word about it. As live users your opinions and experiences are wellcome here.


Thanks in advance, cheers all.

(and sorry about any language mistakes)

One thing to note about Rex is that it is an old format (mid 90s). WAV is pretty much just plain raw audio. Advantages of REX:

1. File size will be smaller since it is compressed (It is lossless compression though so there shouldn't be any loss of quality).
2. Loop will already be edited properly (usually).
3. Loop will most likely be chopped up for you.

Disadvantages,

1. It really doesn't time stretch audio. It pretty much just chops audio. It does have a stretch parameter which adds a unique artifact to your loop but this depends on how the REX file was edited. It can sound cool though. It is most similar to Beats mode in Ableton, but Beats mode time stretches while REX doesn't. That said REX's most practical use was to speed/slow up drum loops and or quickly get drum hits from a loop in a Sampler to play them in a different order but many producers use REX in tons of creative ways and IMO when combined with its Stretch functionality, it can do some unique sounds that is probably harder to pull off in Ableton alone. Stretch in Recycle sounded similar to putting an echo effect on a chop.

2. It works best with Recycle. With Recycle, Rex files can be edited in a lot of unique ways (Stretch, Filters, Volume Envelopes).


With all that said though, it doesn't matter too much as you can always convert Rex to audio and use Live's built in tools to Warp your stuff (which in most cases is more powerful than Recycle). It depends a lot on what you are trying to do.

[GeoSuPhat]

The "Waking Thread" Season 6

[kitekrazy]

They play in Live as clips and in instruments but you can't do much with them except change the pitch and if they haven't been sliced properly then the timing can come out wrong. I wouldn't bother with rex files in Live. The are better in Reason.

Can you use a wav in Live and make it work as a Rex file?

[Machinesworking]

I would have kept both REX and WAV. I don't use Logic or Garageband so Apple Loops aren't that useful to me.
Thing is live is going to want to slice up REX files and assign MIDI to them ala REX Player in Reason. WAV is still useful to have for the loops you don't want sliced by someone else etc.