Preferred file format for DJing

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:50 pm

If I may, gentlemen,I'd like to say something on the matter:

Fuck .MP3s! They are for ponces that want to carry around 10,000 albums on an ipod for when they are on the treadmill at the gym. Fucking ipod armband wearing fools... I hate 'em

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:51 pm

Why is using an external drive any riskier than using an internal drive?

Nixon · Post by **Nixon** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:52 pm

if i'm right, using mp3's actually uses more space, because you have the mp3 plus the converted wave file in your "decoding cache" folder.
therefore, if I ever use mp3's (wich I try to avoid), I convert them to waves first.

Nixon · Post by **Nixon** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:54 pm

Fuck .MP3s! They are for ponces that want to carry around 10,000 albums on an ipod for when they are on the treadmill at the gym. Fucking ipod armband wearing fools... I hate 'em

And let's say you travel a lot and have an iPod mini, and you want to have a little choice...then what?

5dots · Post by **5dots** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:56 pm

hambone1 wrote:Why is using an external drive any riskier than using the internal drive? :?:

I've never had an internal drive fail, whereas I've definitely had external drives fail. Plus any external drive big enough to be worthwhile needs to be powered, which opens up a whole new world of possible disasters - what if someone trips on the cable?

And I can't say with any certainty, but I would imagine that having to send data over USB or firewire would be slower than keeping it internal.

5dots · Post by **5dots** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:58 pm

Nixon wrote:if i'm right, using mp3's actually uses more space, because you have the mp3 plus the converted wave file in your "decoding cache" folder.
therefore, if I ever use mp3's (wich I try to avoid), I convert them to waves first.

The decoding cache is easily cleaned out, or you can set it to not get bigger than a certain size, or to leave a certain amount of space on your drive. It's really quite flexible - I have no problem keeping gigs of mp3s around and only having the wav copies when I'm actually using them.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:00 pm

5dots wrote:I've never had an internal drive fail, whereas I've definitely had external drives fail. Plus any external drive big enough to be worthwhile needs to be powered, which opens up a whole new world of possible disasters - what if someone trips on the cable?

And I can't say with any certainty, but I would imagine that having to send data over USB or firewire would be slower than keeping it internal.

There are loads of bus-powered USB2 and FW external drives (here's just one: http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVE-mini.cfm) And for DJing, USB2 and FW have far more bandwidth than you'll need, especially those with 7200RPM drives.

Do you DJ with your laptop on battery power? If not, how do you resolve not tripping over your laptop power cable?

There are 160GB internal 2.5" drives now, too.

Nixon · Post by **Nixon** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:00 pm

The decoding cache is easily cleaned out, or you can set it to not get bigger than a certain size, or to leave a certain amount of space on your drive. It's really quite flexible - I have no problem keeping gigs of mp3s around and only having the wav copies when I'm actually using them.

OK, that's a feasible possibility then, if you're really short in space

supster · Post by **supster** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:02 pm

most of the people posting on this are missing a couple of points

1 - converting to WAV or AIFF gives you no gain in sound quality. you dont 'gain anything' by the conversion except loss of disk space, and

2 - the cache size that Live uses for conversion remains a constant value you set, so losing a couple of gigs of space to the cache is not at all the same as losing hundreds of gigs when you convert all your MP3s to WAV and

3 - you realize you are going to have to redo all of your warp markers if you convert? ok cool, and

4 - you also realize that in a live situation, almost nobody will ever, ever be able to tell if you are using MP3, because its almost impossible to hear the difference with a hi-quality one

and if youve converted from MP3, its going to 'sound like' an MP3 anyway (see point #1)

SO imo converting all of your tracks from MP3 to WAV is more or less a lot of work that is a complete waste of time that accomplishes absolutely nothing but a net loss .. of time energy and disk space.

.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:03 pm

nixon asked:

And let's say you travel a lot and have a iPod mini, and you want to have a little choice...then what?

use AAC files, small and good for ipod-ing (better then mp3s, a AAC 128kbs equals about a 192kbs mp3 in sound (roughly), that is a compression for ipod-ing that makes sense!)

otherwise, i am with the angry ones, damn F*(^% mp3s!!!

if you make or perform music, stay away from that crap!

for ipods, maybee ok. BUT THAT'S IT!

my 2cents, jeeez HD space costs fuck all nothing in our days!!! NOTHING it's so rediculous cheap, and there is no issue with external HDs! they are used in studios a plenty!! (just don't buy the worst crap, a good quality HD is also dead cheap!)

i actually think, REALLY BELIEVE that audio apps programmer, ALL of them should take all those, sorry for my hard words! idiotic kids by the hand and bann mp3s from there supported file list. here is a thread about tinnitus, mp3s are one link in the chain that leads to ear problems like that if they are cranked up, distorted, harsh, bassless flying over a serious soundsystem...DAMN!!!! but what i am saying, you will realise that in years to come after you loose completely your hearing sensivity. full stop!

5dots · Post by **5dots** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:04 pm

hambone1 wrote:There are loads of bus-powered USB2 and FW external drives. And for DJing, USB2 and FW have far more bandwidth than you'll need, especially those with 7200RPM drives.

Do you DJ with your laptop on battery power? If not, how do you resolve not tripping over your laptop power cable?

Yes, there are lots of bus-powered drives, but they're all pretty small. I want more capacity than that.

As to your second point, yes, I keep my laptop plugged in, but unlike a drive, it does have a battery. Worst case scenario there, I have to find the plug and put it back, though I've probably got at least 2 hours of battery life, so even doing that isn't urgent. If my external gets unplugged, it goes down.

Another thing that just occurred to me is the extra table space an external takes up. I've played several gigs where I had to cram in next to turntables/mixers that people couldn't be bothered to move - I was lucky to fit in my midi controller, much less an external.

robtronik · Post by **robtronik** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:11 pm

I use FLAC. Lossless compression, no loss in audio quality. Allows me to store more tracks on my computer.

rob.

supster · Post by **supster** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:44 pm

robtronik wrote:I use FLAC. Lossless compression, no loss in audio quality. Allows me to store more tracks on my computer.

rob.

yes, the other thing i was going to add is that if I do have WAV or AIFF, i convert over to FLAC, enter the tag info and warp.

i just dont bother to convert MP3 over to anything for the reasons i gave above

.

Scube · Post by **Scube** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:08 pm

nagyember wrote:Hi!

I plan to use Ableton mainly for DJing, and I heard different things about preferred file formats. A friend of mine told me that Ableton kinda renders (?) a temporary wave file from any compressed type when used, so it's not worth storing my music as mp3s. Since I use a laptop, where file size is crucial (I know I know i know quality is crucial as well) I should know what file type(s) to prefer as a DJ.
( tried to search this Forum, but couldn't find any relevant... If this issue has already been discussed, please drop me a link.)

Thanks in advance

WAV 16/24 bit 44.1khz

Scube

Nixon · Post by **Nixon** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:05 am

i just dont bother to convert MP3 over to anything for the reasons i gave above

Obviously , the quality won't improve if you convert mp3 to wav, but if you want to keep your files in self contaiend sets, like me

, and work on different hdd's/pc's I want to convert them to waves, because if I drag my set to another pc, the mp3's will have to be decoded AGAIN, wich takes up my precious time..

WAV 16/24 bit 44.1khz

24?? is this on normal audio cd's as well???

Preferred file format for DJing

Re: Preferred file format for DJing