Warping mp3 vs. wav files

[base615]

No problem here moving MP3 between different systems however I converted everything to WAV since you get audio dropouts when playing live if the MP3 is not in the decoding cache - highly annoying. I converted everything to WAV which was a major pain since I had to re-warp more than a thousand tracks.

Also, there have been tests done on some of the best club sound systems in the world where some top notch audio engineers could not tell the difference between high quality MP3 and WAV. You may be able to tell the difference on a quality hi-fi system or studio monitors but anyone who says they can tell the difference on a club system is talking out of their arse.

[TomDJ]

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

Where can i find these hidden .wav files on mac? cause i can't seem to find them

[wobbleLF]

DoA[/quote]

Where can i find these hidden .wav files on mac? cause i can't seem to find them[/quote]
if you open your prefs in ableton and look under file/folder, the middle of the page shows where your decoding cache is stored on your computer. you can also change the location from there

[Alextronica]

mmm interesting.

Anyone know if its possible to grab those converted files and delete ur Mp3 version of the the tune?

I use Mp3 alot in my sets, I've only run into problems a few times in the past but I think I figure out why and have since been fine.

It does make me scared thou.

[audiovoid]

mmm interesting.

Anyone know if its possible to grab those converted files and delete ur Mp3 version of the the tune?

I use Mp3 alot in my sets, I've only run into problems a few times in the past but I think I figure out why and have since been fine.

It does make me scared thou.

yes u can. Except I wouldnt trash the original mp3, just in case.

[pucklermuskau]

it's absolutely not a problem. Live reads the .asd file associated with the mp3, and writes a .wav version of the track to the decoding cache. As long as you move the mp3 with the associated .asd file, live will decode and warp the track correctly (i assume that you've warped and saved the file properly first). Live does this to lower memory demands (as its a cpu intensive process to decode a dozen mp3s on the fly, for instance), not because of any differences in 'quality' stemming from file format...however, if you want to permanently switch a warped mp3 track for its decoded wav duplicate, be sure to rename the .asd file to reflect that its now looking for a .wav name, not a .mp3; this will ensure your warping and saved track customization don't get lost...

...there ya go guys, no panic, si?

[Alextronica]

Thanks for the quick advice!

I do have asd files for all my Mp3's.

For some reason I find its quicker for my machine to load songs out of Itunes than from Lives own browser. No idea why but it suits me fine cause I can use Itunes to search for tunes and scrub tunes without risk of it coming out my sound card during a set.

I have had one issues where if I cleared my cache recently and I'm in the middle of a set Live doesn't want to analyze the song or 10 songs I've just thrown in the set from Itunes. They just sit there and wont decode till I highlight them manually. Got be that CPU intense thing Pucklermuskau just mentioned. Its got me thinking about switching over to wav files, gonna be more work but might be worth it. I more need advice!

I will clear my cache when I'm in warping songs mode. I have 12 sets one for each minor key and it relative major. Given I've got my entire Itunes warped thats like 2500+ songs. I have my cache set at 20 gigs and live decodes faster for me when I clear the cache. Just two keys will fill my cache.

(I know thats alot of warped songs but I've had too many nightmare gigs where people will come up and say "your a dj right play something I know." hate it but you gotta give the people what they want.)

The Wav's are much bigger in size so I might not be able go that route given limited HD space.

Any other advice I could get from you guys would much appreciated.

It's like that old school PSA "i learned it for watching you all right!"

Thanks guys

[chopsueysensei]

Hi

...there ya go guys, no panic, si?

Well, I'm glad that it works so fine for you, but I can tell from (painful) experience that it's not so easy for me. Now, I'm not using the latest version (I have ver. 6), so I don't know if this has been fixed somehow in the newer ones or if I was relying on something that it's not a program feature at all, BUT...
It just happened to me moments ago, and it's NOT the first time. I had a dj setup all made and ready, with my markers on place. The contained (mp3) clips had their warp markers SAVED by me, and I also had some modifications made to some of them only for this session. Now, I haven't opened the session for a few days, but when I did this afternoon... oops, I could see some clips redecoding themselves again, which seemed strange enough already, and when I clicked on them and looked at the waveform the warp markers were GONE for good.
I went to my cache folder and noticed its size had shrunk quite a bit, I don't know the reason, so I'm assuming this has something to do with the markers disappearing. Maybe the markers in the ASD reference the decoded WAV file and not the original MP3, so when Ableton has to decode again the positions are not the same or wathever. I have no idea.

Now, as I said, it's not the first time, so I'm starting to get a bit sick of this. I really need to figure out how this thing really works to start doing my thing accordingly. Is there any official comment about this that you know of? I'm starting to think about going with WAVs hoping that this won't happen again, but that would be a pain in the ass too so I want to be sure of what's happening before taking this step.

Any help would be reeeeally appreciated.
Thanks.

[Alextronica]

I might be able to help you.

First of all I found the hard way like you that if I drop my Mp3's into ableton from Itunes. I warp and hit the little save button in the clip view and Ableton writes a .asd file that is now in the Itunes library if I rename the song name or the album or the artist it breaks the link to that .asd file.

All is not lost thou. You just need to find the .asd file and change the .asd name to exactly the name of the song and it needs to be in the same folder. So if you changed the Album name the .asd still exist in a folder in the Itunes library with the old album name. Simply move it to the new location. Now if you rename the song. highlight it and copy it, then highlight the .asd file and paste. be sure to type ".asd" cause that'll get pasted over. I end up having to do this a lot but its way better than re warping the tune.

Hope that helps.