hi, i want to buy a couple of tracks to use for reference. dance music,is there any advantage of me buying the wav.instead of the mp3? thanks
You should always use wav files for your reference material. When you select a reference track, you basically deem it "perfect"; and then match it as best as possible. You are listening to the "compressed" version of the song when you use an mp3 or other formats. It doesn't matter how much of a difference there is from format to format; but you are not listening to the original file which was in the DAW and then turned into that distribution format file. If you match the compressed file perfectly, it will not sound the same as the reference track when *you encode it to your end format. You shouldn't convert the reference track to wav from a lossy/compressed format, and then use it because you like the song. The "damage" is already done. Pick a different track where you can get an original wav file. The only benefit to any other file type is smaller file size.
you calso use FLAC. its lossless file format, but a bit smaller than Wav. never buy mp3s for refrences.
imo, for dance a proper 320kbps will be totally indistinguishable from a wave file as reference (even a proper 192kbps). it also all depends at what stage you are at mixing/producing, if you are working at the top level of studio work, which is not the case. So, to get you in the ballpark even a 128 kbps or a YouTube rip will do just fine.
MP3 has been obsolete for over 20 years. No one should be buying or encoding MP3s anymore (Unless you still use a Pentium 4 system and often exclaim "they don't make them like they used to"). The best lossy codec these days is OPUS. WAV likewise is also a poor choice compared to lossless codecs like FLAC.
If you are just checking the general sound of a system or a mix, I.e. frequency response, sure just use the high quality mp3. It should sound dang close to the source material and the presence of a little artifacting doesn't change what you're hearing about the system really. I think everybody's kind of thinking in terms of your checking the sound of the file itself in which case yes you will want wave or flac, but if you're doing what I think you're doing yeah fine, go with MP3 as long as it's a high bit rate.
Both WAVs and flacs might just be decoded from some lossy format. The sheer extension of a file guarantees nothing about its quality. You can only make sure that they are genuine (nor faked) by seeing their spectrogram. If the extension is of some lossy format, you don't need the spectrogram, their extension tells you it all.
mp3 is a standard and very easy to get. Who distributes OPUS files for download? What does it mean that "WAV likewise is also a poor choice compared to lossless codecs like FLAC"? FLAC is just a losslessly compressed version of WAV. And in a player WAV always sounds a tiny bit better than its FLAC version because of lesser strain on the CPU (not a well known fact, but anyone can test this on a HQ system).
Loud MP3/OGG will be clipping all over the place, so it won't give you the correct peak, truepeak and dynamic range information I'm reseacrhing differences beetween 16/24bit and 44.1/48kHz lossless files in the topic nearby. And even that turns out to be a noticebale issue in some cases My recipe: get FLACs from Deezer HiFi or wherever you can get them from. And get 320kbps MP3s also Compare your mix exported in WAV/FLAC to FLACs + compare your MP3 to reference MP3s You can tailor perfectly to FLAC, but your MP3 might be clipping more than reference MP3 and that may be a sign to work on the mix a little bit more All of that is "IMHO". I'm not a professional. But that's my approach as of now
WAV is lossless, doesn't require additional CPU decoding, and is universally compatible. FLAC is good for saving a bit of storage and bandwidth, if that's a concern, but unless you're uploading CDDA into cloud storage or something then WAV is the golden standard.
I thought I read that comment about WAV as bad choice incorrectly. Is it possible someone thinks any file conversion/Codec can improve the original waveforms? Maybe someone should let all the producers and companies who sell samples know that they are doing it wrong. To think, all this time our DAW softwares have been using a "poor choice" of file formats. Where was this guy when we all needed him?
MP3 is limited to around 15kHz cutoff, estimated audio length, estimated dynamic range etc... so it's always better to require WAV or FLAC (lossless compression) over MP3 (lossy compression), that said, you could receive crippled WAV file (WAV converted from crippled MP3), so it really depends on source material/distributor
That is complete nonsense. WAV is the golden standard on Windows. The additional CPU usage is not a problem for devices made in the last 20 years and likewise, if there are compatibility problems then you need to upgrade. One can always convert back to specific older formats in the case of vintage hardware samplers etc.
That is not true either MP3 encoders can have a variety of low pass filter settings, though some codecs do tend to skimp on the bits allocated above 16khz.
It's also the default audio format for importing and exporting from Logic. Apple Loops are like Recycle files in the greater scheme of things.
Sounds like a potential headache, especially trading files with people who have no clue about FLAC. "What's this FLAC thing? iTunes isn't recognizing it. It's a sound, right?" None of that has convinced me that WAV is a "poor choice", at all.
Here's how bitrate maps to lowpass in LAME, the only mp3 encoder that still matters: LAME at 320kbps CBR puts a lowpass at 20500hz, at 128kbps at 17000hz and so on. A VBR encoded MP3 won't have a fixed frequency lowpass. Exception: An MP3 encoded with -V0 --preset extreme won't lowpass at all (as of LAME 3.100). FLAC is completely lossless. You can decode and re-encode the same FLAC a trillion billion times and the WAV file that comes out at the end will still be perfectly identical to your original WAV. Exception: Do not convert from 32bit float WAV to FLAC, it involves lossy conversion (but the encoder will warn you about this anyway). If whoever you're working with accepts FLAC, send them FLAC. Otherwise, send them zipped WAV or raw WAV. Ignore all other formats. If you're buying for reference, get WAV, FLAC or ALAC if they're encoded from genuinely lossless sources. Get MP3 / lossy AAC-M4A only if WAV, FLAC, ALAC are much more inconvenient or much more expensive. Don't bother with MP3 below 192kbps. Don't bother with AAC-M4A below 160kbps.
