Should i perform Ableton live with mp3 Stems files or wav.

[Dr.Cane]

Looking for best results
Hi im a musician looking for answers to my problem. i don't know if its better to have the producer send me his project stems in mp3 or wav. by this i mean back up vocals ,synths ,percussion etc. will it take up more memory when i performing live ? or not ? i need to know because i will like to keep the buffer size as low as possible. its 35 Songs so pretty big space for error please help me!!!

[Steve Glen]

Live takes those mp3's and decodes them as .wavs and puts those files in a cache.
If you take all those mp3s and put them in Live, you'll be storing on your hard drive all those mp3s and all those wavs (made from mp3 quality).

Just stick with wav

[Stromkraft]

Looking for best results
Hi im a musician looking for answers to my problem. i don't know if its better to have the producer send me his project stems in mp3 or wav. by this i mean back up vocals ,synths ,percussion etc. will it take up more memory when i performing live ? or not ? i need to know because i will like to keep the buffer size as low as possible. its 35 Songs so pretty big space for error please help me!!!

If you're actually contemplating working in 24bit/32bit audio just to throw it all out with lossy MP3s, then you have it coming. The MP3 format loses information which may be acceptable for consumers, but not for performances IMO.

If you want to save space when files are in transit use lossless formats like FLAC that supports 24bit and later convert them as Wav of AIFF. Or just zip them in an archive (My choice).

[Dr.Cane]

does the mp3 file affect the cpu usesage yes or no

[Quez]

I would go with wav format files.
Ableton doesn't have to decode it. Plus you get much better quality sound.

[yur2die4]

There is an easy way to find out.

Find some space, render a bunch of copies, and see if it works.

At the end of the day, advice is an informed theoretical advice. But when it comes to a live show, you'll be practicing anyway. There will probably be an influence on the set, especially when you first open the set each time as your computer churns through any MP3 that it doesn't have referenced and quickly converts it, them, into wav. You'll either be waiting an imperceivable amount of time, or several minutes depending how large it is. Once again, the results depend on trying it out first.

On the bright side of things. It'll either work out, which will help you move forward with confidence, or it won't, and you'll have a better idea of why.

[Dr.Cane]

cool thanks

[Piplodocus]

does the mp3 file affect the cpu usesage yes or no

No, because as Mr Glen says it decodes them and puts them in the cache folder. They're still WAVs made from MP3s so just use the original full quality WAVs: no HDD space wasted and better quality audio with exactly the same overhead. Importing WAVs are for anything you can't get hold of in better quality.

[Dr.Cane]

does the mp3 file affect the cpu usesage yes or no

No, because as Mr Glen says it decodes them and puts them in the cache folder. They're still WAVs made from MP3s so just use the original full quality WAVs: no HDD space wasted and better quality audio with exactly the same overhead. Importing WAVs are for anything you can't get hold of in better quality.

you know what your right thanks man make so much sense thanks alot MAN