Sampling mp3 files in Ableton. bad quality?

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bandic00t
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Sampling mp3 files in Ableton. bad quality?

Post by bandic00t » Mon Nov 28, 2011 4:21 am

Hi, I was wondering if sampling songs that are in an mp3 format while producing a track is bad? Will it cause a loss of quality? I'm mainly sampling old mp3 songs on my computer for drums kicks snares hats and some vocals.

antarktika
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Re: Sampling mp3 files in Ableton. bad quality?

Post by antarktika » Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:07 am

No, it will not cause a loss in quality, you will get exactly the low quality mp3 sound files you put into your songs out of them, garbage in garbage out as they say. You will suffer a loss of quality when you convert your songs into mp3 though, so your compressed mp3 files in your song will be compressed a second time.

Angstrom
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Re: Sampling mp3 files in Ableton. bad quality?

Post by Angstrom » Mon Nov 28, 2011 2:29 pm

Look on the bright side, in 20 years there will be a plugin that emulates that coveted retro sound of repeated mp3 encoding. Actually, just kidding. Everyone will be dead from space-plague by then.

MacGuffin
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Re: Sampling mp3 files in Ableton. bad quality?

Post by MacGuffin » Mon Nov 28, 2011 3:04 pm

^ :lol:

bandic00t
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Re: Sampling mp3 files in Ableton. bad quality?

Post by bandic00t » Mon Nov 28, 2011 3:29 pm

haha I'm sure we will.
Thanks antarktika, that's exactly what I was afraid of.

Warrior Bob
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Re: Sampling mp3 files in Ableton. bad quality?

Post by Warrior Bob » Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:52 pm

You'll get exactly the sound of the MP3. If you're just playing around, sample away - if it sounds good enough to you, then no need to worry. No reason not to have fun with it :)

Of course you probably won't be satisfied with that if you're producing seriously/profesionally, but in that this isn't even an issue since buying a lossless copy of the original track you want to sample is so little money (compared to what you're undoubtedly already spending on software and equipment) that it's probably not even worth worrying about.

In most cases, if you're already familiar with the music, you likely already own a recording of it anyway.

edit: fixed spelling
Last edited by Warrior Bob on Tue Nov 29, 2011 5:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

bandic00t
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 2:40 am

Re: Sampling mp3 files in Ableton. bad quality?

Post by bandic00t » Tue Nov 29, 2011 4:01 am

hehe you're absolutely right. I'm in the process right now of aquiring flac formats of every one of the mp3s I sampled. It's going to be a huge pain in the ass swapping them in every ableton project. :| But if it really makes a difference, it's definitely worth it.

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