MP3 support in Live 5....

darkenedsoul · Post by **darkenedsoul** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:05 pm

From what I see from a friend who's beta testing it there is NO rendering of MP3's in there. Why bother then if you aren't going to allow us to render to MP3? Why would you want to take a compressed file into your palette of sounds to mess around with? That's what wav/aiff samples are for. MP3's should be for output, although it was a nice thought. Personally I wouldn't be using any MP3's in my palette of sounds...I've already created them from my samples....not a smart move IMHO. I want to see MP3 rendering support in there.

Can't believe that's what they did for MP3...should have not even bothered if that's what you were planning. I saw no threads asking for this option....

Mike

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 9:22 pm

doing a dj set: decompressing dozens of mp3 files. converting your entire collection of mp3s used to require a lot of gigs on your drive, making laptop djing cumbersome.

rendering an mp3 from your work: should be done after editing/mastering, and will only take a few seconds - Winamp can output an mp3 file from your song in no time.

I think this is why they've focused their efforts on mp3 import. And rightly so, in my opinion. Also, if you search the forum there are quite a few people that are very happy about the mp3 import, including myself. They could spend hours and hours programming a cool wav->mp3 interface, but it still wouldn't be as cool as CDEX anyway - so why bother?

Nokatus · Post by **Nokatus** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 7:24 am

Yep. MP3 import (as OGG and FLAC import) is far more important than MP3 rendering when you look at the big picture. Now, I wouldn't mind having the export possibility also, especially straight into lossless formats. Still, importing support makes very much sense.

DJRetard · Post by **DJRetard** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:22 am

Machinate wrote:

rendering an mp3 from your work: should be done after editing/mastering, and will only take a few seconds - Winamp can output an mp3 file from your song in no time.

I have no need for MP3 support but as its there the original thread starter does have a point. Its no bad thing to render your track as an MP3 from within your DAW. Bounce a wave or aif, then an MP3 to stick in your I Pod and your done.

Obviously this request is going to come up a lot more in future once Live 5 has been on the streets for a while.

Mastering should be left to mastering engineers.

darkenedsoul · Post by **darkenedsoul** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 12:19 pm

I still don't see why they put in mp3 import. Aren't' you losing quality as it is decompressing your mp3 file? And on top of that don't you already have those samples elsewhere in your collection that you can set up for easy access? Unless you are talking about doing some serious mixing I don't see why this was so hot on their list. Working from within my DAW (be it desktop or laptop) I would expect to have rendering capability. It should have been in there a long time ago.

As for spiffy interface? Why? You'd use the same one as rendering to wave/aiff file, just another dropdown option and perhaps pop up another window for the settings, or even better the window in for rendering changes to reflect the type of file output. Then again this won't happen any time soon.

As for taking up lots of space, I just recycled my original 60gb drive with an external USB mini case for 2.5" drives. You could put an 80/100Gb into this 2.5" case so what's the issue with space? Or go bigger with external A/C powered USB for up to 300Gb so there isn't any space issues.

I still would like to do *all* my work within this product. For the most part it does all I need it to do and then (quite) some. Rendering saves me from having to bounce the file out as wave, import it elsewhere and render as whatever bitrate mp3 I chose to output (128 for soundclick, 192 for music.download.com, 256 for mp3/ipod players, etc...). If they can decompress they should be able to compress it as well due to the licensing thing for the mp3 codec, that's all I am trying to say.

Mike

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:04 pm

it's not just mp3 it has flac import too , which is lossless compression.
Mp3 is included because of popularity of the format and the amount of DJs now on the planet who have a bazillion choons in mp3 .
3 DJs for every 1 non-DJ

I have a lot of my extended stuff (just beats or messing) on my machine as mp3, but stored offline as big wavs. They are too big in a group for my small laptop harddrive (80gig)
I can fill 80gigwith freaky beats in about 2 days.

so compressed formats make sense.

personally I am going for Flac& ogg temporary files now .

there are flac and ogg FAQs in tips&ricks forum

harald.walker · Post by **harald.walker** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:59 pm

mp3 import support can be useful if no better source is available, but export? No way. I would always want to archive the results in a lossless format and then I can create mp3/ogg/... for online distribution from those files. Since you have to pay licencing fees if you use mp3 (probably more if you want to encode), it would only increase the price of Live.

cane creek · Post by **cane creek** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:06 pm

many DJ with mp3's nowadays , if you render to 320k you won't be able to tell the difference between that and a CD when your on the dancefloor.

darkenedsoul · Post by **darkenedsoul** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:31 am

There's also using an External USB 2.0 Hard Drive to store your waves on and bring to the gig(s). Prices have come down quite a bit and are much more reasonable. If they choose not to add it in, fine, I can live with it. I generally keep all my waves on an external drive (my samples anyways) which is just a 60Gb but if I need more space I have my 200Gb USB 2.0 external as well.

Mike

stewdean · Post by **stewdean** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 11:09 am

darkenedsoul wrote:I still don't see why they put in mp3 import. Aren't' you losing quality as it is decompressing your mp3 file?
Mike

You need to look at how people use Live. The idea is live is used both as a live real time DJ type tool for laptop performances through to a scratch pad for audio ideas through to the type of use the protools is good at (which is where I currently am).

If you have 1000 mp3s and you're DJing at a club do you really want to transfer them all to wavs. Also when my band mates send me tracks they can send them accross as mp3s so I can get the mix going rather then huge wav files.

I've only used it twice but I totally see the point of including it.

Stew Dean