Ableton Forum

I'm putting together my live set of my own material and and so far have bounced out all the stems as 24bit Wav files. I was wondering if I should convert everything to mp3 now as to reduce the file size of all my clips.

I have enough storage space, I'm just wondering whether this is a good idea with regards to performance and CPU usage etc?

Amy thoughts?

As I understand it Live is much more comfortable handling WAVS, so keep them that in that format. Else you risk on stage crashes, which could be detrimental to your music career, and for your stress levels.

When you drag an mp3 into live, it will convert it to .wav anyways...so the choice should be simple

Ok thanks good to know. I'll stay with wavs then. What about 16 bit v 24 bit does that affect performance/CPU at all? I'm aware of the sound quality/dynamic difference.

24bit files are 1/3rd bigger, so it will take more storage space and slightly more CPU power using those. Should be no issue though, Ive been using 24bit files for my live sets since Live 4, never had an issue.