A reason for no mp3 export?

LDT · Post by **LDT** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:22 pm

The very first time I sat down with Live I was greatly surprised bu the lack of mp3 export. I took it for granted that it would be able to do that. And I still wonder.
I am thinking there must be some corporate/political/economical reason for it. I am just being curious, but perhaps somebody can shed some light?

blaugruen7 · Post by **blaugruen7** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:27 pm

i think one point could be the fee, that ableton would have to pay when they would include it.

jamester · Post by **jamester** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:44 pm

It shouldn't be much of a surprise; other than using the free LAME encoder on the user's-end, most commercial daws do not include mp3 exporting unless it is payed-for after initial purchase, for the reason given above.

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:47 pm

seeing as how mp3 is a lossy encoder, it's best for Ableton's audio quality reputation to not go there.

maybe they could do it like the external editor thing, you pick your encoder, Live routes the file to it and does some command line kind of thing to control it all.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:22 pm

The reason is that if they include mp3 encoding, they have to pay a license fee to the Fraunhofer Institut (who developed the mp3 codec) / Thomson (who bought out Fraunhofer).

Many other DAWS only include MP3 encoding in their top of the line range, for example Cubase and Sonar both offer it only in their top of the range Cubase 4/Cubase SX3 and Sonar Producer. The cutdown studio and SL/SE versions only allow 20 encodes an then you have to pay 15-20 bucks to retain it.

jamester · Post by **jamester** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:41 pm

leedsquietman wrote: Many other DAWS only include MP3 encoding in their top of the line range, for example...Sonar Producer.

Even with Sonar PE the mp3 encoder is an additional paid-for add-on. It's always been this way, I just checked to see that it still is and it seems so (and may not even work that great):
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=1331 ... =&#1331278

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:41 pm

^ good call.

thought this was pretty cool (from wikipedia)

Additionally, patent holders declined to enforce license fees on free and open source decoders, which allows many free MP3 decoders to develop. Furthermore, while attempts have been made to discourage distribution of encoder binaries, Thomson has stated that individuals who use free MP3 encoders are not required to pay fees. Thus, while patent fees have been an issue for companies that attempt to use MP3, they have not meaningfully impacted users, which allows the format to grow in popularity.

LDT · Post by **LDT** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:42 pm

most commercial daws do not include mp3 exporting unless it is payed-for after initial purchase, for the reason given above.

I guess what made me wonder in the first place is that in my world daws come with mp3 export. I have had Cubase, Logic and Nuendo and they all do.
Talking about mp3 is a lossy format is sort of missing the point. For years of using the above daw´s I am accostumed to emailing clients mp3´s of the work in progress. When all is done I send the full quality file. It works and it is easy.
From my point of view mp3 export would be a completely natural feature of Live. Like, don´t Live users mail mixes to their buddies and stick their mixes on myspace or whathaveyou?? I just love a simple workflow, and lack of mp3 export doesn´t really do any good in that direction.

laird · Post by **laird** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:51 pm

Yes, but if given the option, would you:

1. pay extra to do it in Live (yes, its convenient)
2. do it for free with LAME/etc...

Now, perhaps Ableton could in the futureallow for the option of#1, the way Cubase and such do, but thankfully, they do not force all the #2 people into that category as well.

jamester · Post by **jamester** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:25 am

LDT wrote:
most commercial daws do not include mp3 exporting unless it is payed-for after initial purchase, for the reason given above.
I guess what made me wonder in the first place is that in my world daws come with mp3 export. I have had Cubase, Logic and Nuendo and they all do...

Interesting, I didn't know Cubase did. I guess it really depends on the daw, as I've used Sonar, Acid Pro 5, Reason and Live (obviously) and none of them exported to mp3. I've noticed that Acid Pro 6 now has it included, but v.5 did not.

Personally it's one of the many reasons I keep Sound Forge in the kit...

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:21 am

could live use LAME encoder with a script or something for free?

cope · Post by **cope** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:19 am

sweetjesus wrote:could live use LAME encoder with a script or something for free?

I don't think so. I mean, Ableton would still have to pay royalties for distributing it.

LDT · Post by **LDT** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:39 am

Yes, but if given the option, would you:

1. pay extra to do it in Live (yes, its convenient)

Absolutely.

That would be ideal, wouldn´t it? If we want it we pay a little extra,- ok with me.

jlgrimes · Post by **jlgrimes** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:26 pm

LDT wrote:The very first time I sat down with Live I was greatly surprised bu the lack of mp3 export. I took it for granted that it would be able to do that. And I still wonder.
I am thinking there must be some corporate/political/economical reason for it. I am just being curious, but perhaps somebody can shed some light?

Itunes can do this and it is a free download for both Windows and Macs. I think it is just a cost a lot of companies avoid.

Sonar can do mp3 export but they charge you extra for it. I heard it has something to do with a license.

A reason for no mp3 export?

A reason for no mp3 export?

Re: A reason for no mp3 export?