MP3 mixes

jamminmj

Okay I'll Start a new one. Since I'm basically an Old Dog, and detest the sound of MP3, I have found that they are indeed a fact of life in the audio world and am forced to deal with it. Besides the terrible dynamic range and compression schemes, How do you find that your mixes change, How do you adjust your mixes for them? What gets burried? What stands out? How do you get the most out of it? It's not an audio world I've jumped into because everything I've been exposed to of it has just been really baaaaaad, and I've pretty much ran as fast and far from it as I can. The lowest bit rate I can begin to tolerate is 192. I just really can't stand listening to it long enough to figure it out. Maybe that's a good thing or does this just pretty much sum it up?

iliace

Look at the higher frequencies first and foremost. The cymbals will get squashed; your ambient synths will suffer; higher harmony vocals (stuff that's softer in the background) will take a hit.

What I would recommend, for most music, is using a variable bit rate MP3 compression, at the highest \"quality\" level. While this is not the optimal solution for streaming downloads, etc, nowadays Internet speeds are so high that it won't make a difference, and your music will suffer the least using this scheme. Also, it will save some hard disk space compared to 320kbps MP3s and raw PCM WAVs.

shredd

MP3 simply doesn't match up with uncompressed audio formats. Period. The only way you can get decent sound out of a compressed file is to use a high bitrate, eg 192 or 256 or even higher. You'll get decent sound, and a much smaller file, which really matters when your programs or your CPU have to handle these huge files.
Another irritating thing about MP3 is that the quality file you end up with is greatly affected by so many different things, like what codec you use, and even what software. I've had .wav's that sounded great, only to have them come out of MP3 conversion with thin drums, tinny treble, yada...
But even with broadband, think about the grief it'd cause to have to upload or send a file that was 60 MB instead of 5. :?

jamminmj

Thanks for the input. It verifys alot of what I pretty much thought and knew. Reality check. I Would like to get some stuff uploaded so I'll just have to give it a go and see if i can live with it or not.

agelessrocker

The other day I pulled out my old record player and spun some vinyl...Santana Abraxas...the horns were breathing, the vocals were sizzling, (over the given pops and scratch noise), but after having listened to digital music for the last 17 years or so, I was suprised by the life in the analog recordings. Something gained and something lost, from an old man....

jamminmj

I have an old turntable preamp I thought I would try out transfering some vinyl to my computer with and burn to CD. I transfered Robin Trowers, Bridge of Sighs and Beck,Bogart and Appice. I realized I hadn't
ever listened to them, let alone alot of my vinyl on my studio monitors.
It was nice to hear the really good room sound on Bridge of Sighs. I remember the days when you could tell which studio a recording was mixed at by the room sound on it. It is great stuff.

thehootman

\shredd\ wrote:

You'll get decent sound, and a much smaller file, which really matters when your programs or your CPU have to handle these huge files.

BTW MP3 requires more processing power to play and record in as they need to be coded/decoded as you go.