loss of quality

There is a difference between the WAV and MP3 and sometimes they are very audible. Mainly I hear the difference in classical music but sometimes I also hear it in rock.

The loss of quality in MP3 at 128 Kbits is very noticeable. I remember I was comparing several baudrates in the MP3 format and also several compressions in the Sony MiniDisk. There are several pages where you can read the technical aspects and also compare MP3 to other formats with and without loss of quality and with and without compression.

You should try to trade off between the quality and the file length. 192 Kbits is very standard between my friends, you could use even 320. I prefer the ACC format (MPEG-4, adopted by Apple), it sounds better to me in the same numbers.

On the other hand, the equipment also matters. Surely your studio monitors are much better than my poor laptop speakers. I practically do not detect important differences with them, I start to detect it when I use my headphones or my hifi.

Hope it helps!

increasing the sample rate when converting from WAV to MP3 would help with integrety of original recording?

when I play back a WAV using my computer speakers I still hear a quality from the original recording. granted, the computer speakers are not on par with my studio monitors. I beleive I typically, by default. use 128 sample rate. I will recheck and test out increased sample rates.
thanks.

When you increase the sample rate you also increase the quality. Basically, if you take just 128 samples of the original signal it will be worst (poor) than when you take, we say, 256 samples. When you try to recover the original signal you can use the double of samples in order to do it.

I think people uses 320 as a synonymous of "lossless". Obviously that is not true because the MP3 it is not a lossless format like the WAV or AIFF but it will sound much better than the 128. Just try to reduce the sample rate: 64 will sound like an old AM radio.

When you do the test, try to determine the best sample rate for you. But remember that SoundClick has a limitation in the sample rate when you upload the songs. It is 128 in the free mode. When you pay, I don't remember exactly, but it was something like 192 (or perhaps 320).

Cubase and the other software use lossless formats, usually WAV in Windows environments and AIFF in Apple. Thus, it is normal that you hear the same quality in the recording software and in the WAV format (with the same speakers).

You're welcome!

thanks Nuno.

Excellent advice, yet not completely correct.

There is a difference between sample rate and bit rate. You generally have both bitrate and sample rate options when creating your MP3. In my opinion, sample rate should be at 44.1khz (Same as a CD) and bitrate should be at least 192kbps for optimal sound quality. If you have the space, use 44.1khz sample rate, and 320kbps bitrate. Despite what some crazy audiophiles might tell you, you cannot hear the difference between the above compressed MP3 and a CD. Most people I've met cannot hear above 192kbps, so that's usually adequate too.

There's also a difference between constant bitrate and variable bitrate, but this is another discussion that could take forever.

Generally my advice is this:
44.1khz sample rate, 320kbps constant bitrate if a few extra megs on your songs isn't an issue, otherwise use 192. Don't use less than that.

Excellent advice, yet not completely correct.
I completely agree! I just used the incorrect word. I was thinking on bit rate and I wrote sample rate, probably because I read it in the Dogbite's post.

And I agree, too: it is more than enough 44.1 kHz for sample rate.

My apologies :D

Thanks!

Hi again,

In fact my explanation was absolutely inaccurate! :lol:

I try to clear with an example. The CD has a bit rate of 1411.2 kbps. The number comes from the sample length (16 bits/sample) times the sample rate (44.1 ksamples/sec) times the number of channels (2) divided by 1000 (we are expressing number in kilobites).

Then you really are not taking "128 samples" per second as it seems I wrote. Since you are also sampling also 2 channels to 44.1 kHz, the "128" will decrease the number of bits per sample.

Anyway, greater numbers increase the quality and also the file size.

Exactly Nuno.

The higher the bitrate, the better "quality" each sample is. The higher the sample rate, the more samples there are.

now we're cooking. :)

this is really starting to get me down. recently I posted a new recording. listening to the results on soundclick.com I find the recording different from what I laid down.
the recording sounds great, lots of detail in the freqs, with my studio monitors. then I Export and convert to WAV. on playback the recording is slightly different, but all the freqs are there. when I convert to MP3 in order to upload the result is a booming bass, loss of a whole middle high freq and all the tinkle sounds from a cymbal turn to mud.
is this normal? is there a problem with the media converter on my computer? are all mp3's equal?
do you have this experience? and finally, how do you do conversions and do you lose out a lot of detail?
sad in minneapolis

MPEG-3 compression is what's known as a "lossy" compression algorithm. This means that it literally "throws away" bits that it feels aren't important to reproducing the music. Your post describes the classic symptoms of playing back such a format. What isn't readily apparent is that you also have the timing of these files corrupted. This might not matter much for listening, but it can create BIG problems if you're doing an over the internet collaboration with sequenced instruments and someone expects you to track to an mp3 file.

You've got a couple of choices on ways to deal with this:

Remember that soundclick will automatically downgrade quality to 128kbps. Use box.net if you care about quality, as long as it's under 10mb you can use any bitrate you want there.

Hey, Dogbite...

MP3 stinks. This is most often (but not always) due to what's called the Nyquist Frequency...

Cat

true words all.
I reconverted my recording from 128 kbps to 320 kbps. it made a difference on my computer speakers.
soundclick.com now has the 320 kbps song now. it sounds better. less floppy and sluggish. more freqs. are coming thru.
cry to me
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=644552

Remember that soundclick will automatically downgrade quality to 128kbps. Use box.net if you care about quality, as long as it's under 10mb you can use any bitrate you want there.

That's for the free accounts. If you have a VIP account with soundclick, you can do 320kbps for an mp3 and up to 40mb a song.

Dan