i want Ableton to recognize MP3's !

[onyxashanti]

Hi,

I use Ableton to DJ, and I don't like storing huge wave files. I know mp3's must be decoded before being played, so I understand why this is, however, I don't have to like it! Ableton's inablility to work with mp3's holds me back from carrying a larger archive of sounds.

THX,
Jason

Live is professional audio software and there is hardly any use of the mp3 in studio production or serious live situation. It might be OK for home, car, walkman. Sorry it might sound rude but if someone does not know how to convert mp3 to wav , neither why mp3 originated audio is too poor for professional use, should perhaps do a bit of reading on the audio subject first. The industry developement is rather in opposite direction- higher quality> resolutions> file size. The modern hardware- soundcards, hard drives make it all possible. The argument of file size seems outdated, considering avalibility of cheap storage including new DVDs with 30-40G capacity, cheap huge HD etc,
Why Ableton should ever consider introducing mp3 format? For any export necesities the wave editors are meant for the job.

actually, the industry has been going very mp3. most audio softaware wil import and/or export it. all the cd turntables on the market now, will play them. it's another file medium. and, let's face it, most laptop djs [and there are quite few] are playing,at least some, compressed files. i personally see it as just another delivery format; 24bit files inthe studio, 16bit files for CDs, mp3s for sending over the internet, and mp3jing. ableton is a very professional piece of audio software, but it is for live work as well as the studio, and a reality of present day audio presentation, is the mp3. if only traktor were rewire compatible

it would be really cool to be able to hybridize a bit more with my set; like say, dj for an hour, then seamlessly go straight into a full on, live set with what i already have on my harddrive, rather than wasting time and space converting [legally obtained] mp3s to wavs, just so that i can include them in my performance. i would like for ableton to be able to be just as slick with mp3s as it is with audio. then i wouldn't need traktor. hell, even fruityloops imports em now!

i'd be willing to bet that the next major revision will probably take that into consideration.

[MrYellow]

Include MP3 support then all the dicks will say "Live sounds like crap
compared to XXX". It's a waste of time... Huge harddrives are cheap as
chips now. The amount of times I've heard the MP3 compression algo
totally butcher the high frequencies and transients of a really nice song is
too many.

If you're going to play MP3s.... Play them on 6" old radio speakers cause
that's the only place you won't notice the crap sound they have.

-Ben

[sweetjesus]

what do people here have to say about 320kbps mp3's. Ive started to buy tracks off beatport and some other sites at 320k and I have to say the quality sounds great.

Do you guys think that it's too poor to use as material in demos and on stage?

[kent_sandvik]

The few times I got 320k MP3 files from beatpoint I was disappointed in the quality, especially high transients causing distortion, but then again I'm listening to the results on studio monitors where a lot of bad stuff could be easily heard, compared with possibly lousy monitor systems. So nowadays I don't take chances and just order WAV files. --Kent

[siddhu]

actually, the industry has been going very mp3. most audio softaware wil import and/or export it

Personally, I don't know of any major DAW that "works" with MP3s.

Onyxashanti you are technically correct in saying that most DAWS import and export MP3s, but that is way different then actualy working with them.

You are at no time are editing or working with a MP3 in any of the major DAWs. I don't know about FL's implementation, but it would suprise me if
it did not treat MP3s the way the other DAWs do.

Nuendo for example "imports" any MP3 by converting it into a wav or aif file, and then works with that new file. It never works with the mp3 file except as a source for the conversion.


I think that Live's support for high resolution audio is a lot more exciting then MP3 support. I'm currently putting together my first Live and it's all going to be 24bit/96khz stuff. I'm more interested in sonic quality than having massive amounts of tracks on my HD.

[kent_sandvik]

Yes, I would consider MP3 really for consumers and their iPods and other devices, but professional systems using MP3, I would not think such systems any longer be professional, rather semi-professional. But it's quite nice to quickly dump MP3 files from a DAW, not that I'm also listening to AIFF files from Live sessions, and only using AAC in my case for long term archiving in my iTunes collection, not for critical playback or listening purposes. --Kent

[jbible]

I hope they dont add support for a compressed audio format.

If they do...they should go lossless....FLAC is where its at.
Ogg Vorbis wouldnt be bad either.
I think the best solution would be for them to come up with there own compression scheme.

[SpinFuzz]

AdamJay has an awesome post in tips and tricks on how to use multiple .wav files for each song and decrease hard drive space usage. This does assume you are DJing 'dance' music...

Now this IS more pre-production... But... It has the side effect of causing you more intimately know your tracks AND upgrading the possible creativity with those tracks... And if you wanna put different loops over differnt songs like putting the Dreams synth line(example sample: Gamemaster) over something by Danny Howell, you can do that...

Each song becomes about the size it would be if it were a 320kbps mp3. Give or take 20% and depending on the quantity of unique loops in the song, etc...

Oh dear where is my linkage?

[mikemc]

If you reaaallly really want to do MP3s in conjunction with Live, you can get FLStudio 5, launch it via rewire and run them in to an audio track that way. I'd agree that high quality MP3s sound pretty good, but also to be avoided when you can get all the creamy goodness of uncompressed high bit rate sound.

[AdamJay]

Oh dear where is my linkage?

BLAM...
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16763

but this requires effort, and it seems many proponents of mp3 in this thread probably wouldn't put forth such a thing.

....sigh....

[hambone1]

I for one am glad there is no MP3 support. It helps me to keep streamlined and selective with only the best high-fidelity tracks I own.

My tracks are carefully chosen, topped, tailed, & converted to 24 bit in Peak, and tweaked/remastered in T-Racks before coming into Live.

I'd be overwhelemed with too many tracks if Live supported MP3. It's the same reason why I keep the Internet and all the other unnecessary programs off of my music Mac.

[drumroll57]

Hi, I use Ableton to DJ, and I don't like storing huge wave files. I know mp3's must be decoded before being played, so I understand why this is, however, I don't have to like it! Ableton's inablility to work with mp3's holds me back from carrying a larger archive of sounds.

Let's see now, I have a 300 Gig Firewire disk, which will hold 4,000 CD-quality sound files.
It cost me $261.00 Certainly if this number is not large enough for you, or you can't afford the drive after buying the laptop AND Live,
you may want to reconsider making any music at all. You might be too busy counting your files....

[sarcastic](Personally, I never leave the house without at least 15,000 songs in my pocket)[/sarcastic]

But seriously now, my take on this: MP3 is like a degenerative disease....
Playing MP3 files on a large sound system is like spreading a virus of mediocrity to your listeners.

They may sound OK on your little computer speakers, but they sure as hell will sound like total sh*t on a 25,000 Watt rig.

Think of it like this. Take this web site's logo (100 x 100 pixels, for argument's sake) Then blow it up to the size of a large billboard poster.
What do you think your logo is going to look like? Same for MP3's in a club, only with sound.

Usually, the only people really crying about this are those who (by pure coincidence, of course) steal song files from the Net, because they are too cheap to buy the records.
Mind you, I'd make a bit of an exception for people from really poor or disadvantaged countries.

All the same, f*ck MP3's, Ogg, AAC, and I hope Ableton never supports any of those compressed consumer formats.

D.

P.S.:Please take no offense, but after reading your post, I felt like saying:
"Boo Hoo Hoo, Mommy, I bought a thousand $ compooper, and I can't afford a $80 firewire Hard Drive!!!" That's just me, yano?
After I said it, I started to feel a tad better, but it got chopped off by quantization errors and my mood got rounded off to the next digit.

[onyxashanti]

it's funny how times never change.

i've been playing mp3s "professionally", for a about 7 years [pcdj silver]. i remember when "computers should stay in the office and not on stage", "PC's are for taxes", "software instruments don't sound as good as hardware", "ableton doesn't do vsti because it would be a huge dip in reliability", i even had a guy explain to me that it was impossible to do a live performance with a PC laptop because it was too unstable,while I WAS PLAYING on mine. and now, "mp3's sound crap...i only use [xyz]". maybe people need to rally for or against something, but the truth is that i have, in the past, used 128kbps mp3s, in big clubs and rocked it out. i now use [average] 192-320kbps mp3s when i do my mp3j gigs, and still rock it out. i play along with them using my fake sax [wind controller] and crappy soft synths on my shitty PC laptop. i come on before and after other DJs that are spinning vinyl, and no one gives a shit what the format is. believe it or not, no one actually cares unless you're really good, or you really suck. little secret; heavy bit reduction [on purpose] sounds damn cool on big systems, espcially when you layer it with a normal sounding track.

while i do use the high quality audio aspects of ableton, it is a live performance tool. i am too busy filling up my HD with my own music to be filling it with ripped wav files. am i expected to purchase that [xx] remix online, then convert it to wav, just so that i can use it in ableton? not gonna happen, especially after i purchased traktor.

before ableton live, its elastic functionality was considered a sci-fi improbability. they made it reality. i find it equally hard to believe that applying the same type of technology to mp3 isn't do able. the stretching algorythm in traktor 2.6 is great sounding, even when stretched to near 100%. and, like vsti [which were argued for and against for a long time on this forum], it is a majorly requested wish list feature. and, most importantly, ableton "could" do everything traktor does, but the reverse isn't neccesarily true. i'd much rather use live for everything.

the world is going mp3. everyone is buying ipods, downloading from the internet. all the new mobiles being made have mp3 players in them. it's everywhere and growing. as for it being a "consumer format", what the hell is/was vinyl? and CD? i haven't bought a CD in years. i can surf the internet, find what i like, buy it, and be listening to it in less than 5 minutes.

i keep inviting anyone in the london area down to my friday night set at BRB in kennington, but no one from this forum has shown up yet. i can show you, rather than tell you, how dope mp3's are. we'll throw on a couple of 64kbps joints just for fun. and i'll get ya a beer

[duncjam]

I'd welcome mp3 support, my dj mixes have been getting a bit 'different' lately (think Blue Jam if you've heard those) with music, spoken word and other sounds from all over the place, much of it found on the web in mp3 format.

Of course I can convert the files in Sound Forge, but it's an extra step and I only end up with a wav file the same quality as the mp3 anyway, so may as well have mixed straight from the mp3.

dunc

[pepezabala]

I assume that sooner or later we will have mp3-support. If they would develop it as a high-profile DAW only then we would not have midi but open sound control instead.

And we would not have a redux-plugin

I want both. mp3-support. And open sound control.

And Altivec-optimization.