Warping mp3 vs. wav files

[audiovoid]

If your mp3's are already warp take of the auto warp in the preferences
also i really dont understand why people use mp3s there so poor quality, you might as well use cardboard speakers and 1 gen mac while your at it

Yeah, mp3s are lossy. But I personally don't hear much a difference in DJing with 320kbps mp3s vs. wav/aiff over typical club PA.

I don't know about you, but I'm not a globe trotting DJ and the systems I play on are not exactly what you'll see at a major festival.

Well, the bigger the system the better it's going to sound anyways regardless of what format it is (unless it's an obvious shit-encoded mp3) IMO.
Personally I prefer playing with mp3's in digital dj software like serato or traktor not only because of the use of tags but also because you cannot really hear a quality difference between a 320kpbs mp3 and a wav. And if there's any difference at all it's probably actually helping to tame the extreme highs, ecspecially on a huge system.
Programs like Ableton though, with it's non-native mp3 support are almost useless to import them into because you're more than doubling your file size as it encodes everything to a wav anyways.
Just my personal opinion.

[benversluis]

Well, the bigger the system the better it's going to sound anyways regardless of what format it is (unless it's an obvious shit-encoded mp3) IMO.
Personally I prefer playing with mp3's in digital dj software like serato or traktor not only because of the use of tags but also because you cannot really hear a quality difference between a 320kpbs mp3 and a wav. And if there's any difference at all it's probably actually helping to tame the extreme highs, ecspecially on a huge system.
Programs like Ableton though, without it's non-native mp3 support are almost useless to import them into because you're more than doubling your file size as it encodes everything to a wav anyways.
Just my personal opinion.

Yeah, did version 8 add any further mp3 support? I'm still on 7 so I'm not totally sure.

Eventually I'll move to a Serato setup due to the problems you talked about, audiovoid.

[michaellpenman]

there is a difference.
listen to the lo lows and the hi highs

[Tone Deft]

try the demo!!

this topic has been up for over two weeks. by now you could've easily done a few tests with the Live 8 demo and answered all your own questions rather than waiting for others to guess at an answer for you.

I was gonna try a test but looked at how long this has been lingering and thought otherwise.

[audiovoid]

Well, the bigger the system the better it's going to sound anyways regardless of what format it is (unless it's an obvious shit-encoded mp3) IMO.
Personally I prefer playing with mp3's in digital dj software like serato or traktor not only because of the use of tags but also because you cannot really hear a quality difference between a 320kpbs mp3 and a wav. And if there's any difference at all it's probably actually helping to tame the extreme highs, ecspecially on a huge system.
Programs like Ableton though, without it's non-native mp3 support are almost useless to import them into because you're more than doubling your file size as it encodes everything to a wav anyways.
Just my personal opinion.

Yeah, did version 8 add any further mp3 support? I'm still on 7 so I'm not totally sure.

Eventually I'll move to a Serato setup due to the problems you talked about, audiovoid.

No it did not. That is what I meant by Live having non-native mp3 support.

And yea, don't get me wrong there IS obviously some sound difference between a compressed file and a wav. There has to be. BUT, playing on big systems the audible difference is almost none. And like I said, the mp3's almost sound smoother at times. probably because the extreme highs are being slightly truncated. I've never personally noticed any difference in the bass.
Every thing I am mentioning here is regarding high encoded mp3's. Anything Encoded below 320 is a different story.

[benversluis]

try the demo!!

this topic has been up for over two weeks. by now you could've easily done a few tests with the Live 8 demo and answered all your own questions rather than waiting for others to guess at an answer for you.

I was gonna try a test but looked at how long this has been lingering and thought otherwise.

I don't need your test, guy. Thanks for the useless post, though.

I don't expect anyone to do any work to answer my question. Rather, I was wondering if anyone had any definitive answers on this subject.

[Tone Deft]

it's a pretty simple test you could have answered WEEKS ago without ever posting.

nice attitude.

[Jekblad]

he called you "guy"

awesome.

Also mp3's sound the best cuz i read that once.

[DoA]

Hi guys,

Here's a tutorial explaining the difference.

Basically the mp3s must be decoded to wavs before they're used in live. The wavs are stored on your HDD in a seperate folder (so you may as well simply start with the wav's).

The wav & .wav.asd can then be used on ANY ableton system worldwide.... mp3s you face trouble with!

Here the tutorial --> Use your Ableton Warps ANYWHERE!


DoA

[Tone Deft]

^ very cool post DoA!!!

Jekblad - the guy(s) continue!! you never know from which language they might be translating making it all that much stranger.

[doubleeast]

Hello everyone,

So does this mean that if you warped mp3s already and you want to transfer that live set onto another machine, you have to first delete the mp3s, import them as wav.s and then rewarp?!!! help please!!!

[audiovoid]

Hello everyone,

So does this mean that if you warped mp3s already and you want to transfer that live set onto another machine, you have to first delete the mp3s, import them as wav.s and then rewarp?!!! help please!!!

no it does not mean that. you simply might run into warping problems when re-opening up pre warped mp3's (even on the same machine or liveset).
I have had pre-warped mp3's that all of a sudden had all of the warp markers scooted over by a few seconds or so. It's uually just a matter of selecting all warp markers and dragging the 1st one back the the correct place. STill annoying though.

[doubleeast]

Hello everyone,

So does this mean that if you warped mp3s already and you want to transfer that live set onto another machine, you have to first delete the mp3s, import them as wav.s and then rewarp?!!! help please!!!

no it does not mean that. you simply might run into warping problems when re-opening up pre warped mp3's (even on the same machine or liveset).
I have had pre-warped mp3's that all of a sudden had all of the warp markers scooted over by a few seconds or so. It's uually just a matter of selecting all warp markers and dragging the 1st one back the the correct place. STill annoying though.

Thanks Audiovoid for our response. In that case is it recommended that you only warp wavs? ie. convert all mp3s?

[Tone Deft]

there's no issue here. the idea was brought up by someone who doesn't know Live at all and refused to look into it himself so he just read what other people wrote and interpreted a lot of it incorrectly.

I've traded sets with lots of people without ever taking this issue into consideration.

[DoA]

there's no issue here. the idea was brought up by someone who doesn't know Live at all and refused to look into it himself so he just read what other people wrote and interpreted a lot of it incorrectly.

I've traded sets with lots of people without ever taking this issue into consideration.

MP3s will be warped ok if they're warped on the same or older version of live then you're currently running.

See the post I made about Who's warps can I use?

I would still always recommend warping WAV files just to be on the safe side ... plus as soon as you drag in the MP3 file a WAV is created in the cache anyway - therefore by warping WAVs you're actually SAVING hard drive space!