DJn out with 128 quality mp3's

ictus · Post by **ictus** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:44 am

Hi guys, just a bit of advice here please. Would the sound of my 128 mp3's be helped with an L2 ultramaximiser put on the master out of my ab5 whilst playing out in a club? It all sounds fine at home on my alesis mk2 monitors, and the L2 is set to -1.5db with -3 threshold.

ANY help would be appreciated. Other than that, I think I should maybe start saving my mp3's as 320? Right?

cheers

Andy Ictus

ARDJ · Post by **ARDJ** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:00 am

can't turn shit into gold. start saving higher quality mp3's, your efforts to make quality out of something that has been stripped of quality is pointless. does that make sense?

compositeone · Post by **compositeone** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:40 am

I did it once trying to start a set with a 128 mp3, then going into vinyl.

I will never do it again.

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:49 am

I fuckin' hate 128 mp3s!!! Why the hell anyone uses 'em I'll never know. Blame your local iPod owner - who INSISTS on having EVERY SINGLE TRACK he has ever bought on his 40Gb iPod...

Rant over.

BASSbüro · Post by **BASSbüro** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 10:41 am

dumb question: does converting an 128mp3-file in a wave-file (44') achieve a better quality? general conditions: you don't own the original source-file.

compositeone · Post by **compositeone** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 10:51 am

BASSbüro wrote:dumb question: does converting an 128mp3-file in a wave-file (44') achieve a better quality? general conditions: you don't own the original source-file.

No cause there is still only 128kbs of information to make the wave file from.

Its like asking if you record a VHS tape on to a DVD will it be better quality?

BASSbüro · Post by **BASSbüro** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:16 am

yes, that make sense!

but does that same mean, when you go from wave (original) to mp3, and from mp3 back to wave, you'll never reach the primary original quality of the wave-file?

muscleandhate · Post by **muscleandhate** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:19 am

Avoid mp3 if your pro.

compositeone · Post by **compositeone** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:23 am

BASSbüro wrote:yes, that make sense! but does that same mean, when you go from wave (original) to mp3, and from mp3 back to wave, you'll never reach the primary original quality of the wave-file?

When you make the mp3 you effectively through away a bunch of information. When you make a wave from that mp3 it can't recreate that data so you will never get the quality back.

How noticeable it is though will be dependant upon what bit rate the mp3 is, the particular track and how good your ears are.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:23 am

muscleandhate wrote:Avoid mp3 if your pro.

BS.

Athe higher bit rates (320kbps+), you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference in a typical club (noisy environment, overdriven and distorted PA, etc).

A dog in an anechoic chamber listening through boutique audio equipment could probably tell, though!

BASSbüro · Post by **BASSbüro** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:37 am

dudes, i'm a fuckin' dog..........

i don't work with mp3's, but still, my hole world's collapsed after these informations. when i zip a word-docu and un-zip it again, no informations gets lost. so what's the different?

last post from me on this......

robbmasters · Post by **robbmasters** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:45 am

ZIP is lossless compression - it doesn't throw any information away, it just finds a better way to store it. It's like arranging everything neatly in your suitcase so that you can get away with using a smaller suitcase than you could if you just threw everything in. So you'll still have that polka dot bikini when you arrive at your destination.

MP3 is lossy compression - it throws information away. It's like taking stuff (such as that polka dot bikini) out of your suitcase, so that you can get away with using a smaller one. However, when you reach your destination, there's not way you can get that polka dot bikini out of your case, it's just not there any more. Putting all your things back into a bigger case won't help.

BASSbüro · Post by **BASSbüro** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:53 am

he, he...funny!

so all your big contrivancer out there, all day flying on the moon and having sex with little green mens, i forward an invention called "lossless compression with mp3".

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:22 pm

Remember, your average 128kbps MP3 only contains 1/12th of the original audio content. Yes, 1/12th.

So converting to 128kbps MP3 from a wave file is like discarding more than 90% of the original song's audio information.

I think 320kbps MP3's are ok to play, maybe, MAYBE even some 192kHz files depending on the individual songs (downtempo seems to work better than high energy dance music at this bit rate IMO).

Cryptic UK · Post by **Cryptic UK** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:25 pm