to mix or not to mix in mp3?

[jugalo180]

i have a friend that suggests we do a project via the net in mp3 format. i send him all of the raw untouched tracks in mp3 at 192 bits and then he mixes them down for me. keep in mind that i do want to get these mastered. he said that he can convert the mp3's back to waves once i send them to him. i told him that it won't be the same thing.

he said that you couldn't tell the difference in sound. i started talking about 1's and o's and the headroom that i think will be stripped away by the mpeg conversion.

anyone have any ideas about this method? yay or nay?


i also told him that he can do the project like that and save all of the settings for each song and just replace the mp3 with the wave files that i will send in the mail.

[Blue Bear Sound]

MP3s are fine for passing demo tracks back and forth... but for the final results you DEFINITELY ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY want to use unprocessed WAVs.

MP3s use a lossy compression algotrithm that literally throws away a portion of the audio signal (based on ATRAC algorithms), so there's a huge difference in sound quality between an original WAV and an MP3 (or an MP3 converted back to a WAV).

And once you've thrown away audio by converting to MP3, it's gone forever- period. Converting the MP3 back to a WAV doesn't restore the previous level of audio resolution.

[Gidge]

it really depends on what you will be using these tracks for...if you are getting them mastered it seems pretty important......and if its that important, i wouldnt want someone who would say that mp3's are just as good as wavs......theres people around here that can mix tracks for a fee (Blue Bear for one).....of course if its not a terribly important project it may not be worth the $$$$.....just make sure you keep copies of the original separate wavs in case you wanna do it later......i dont see why this dude is against using wavs.....just burn them to a CD and snail mail it to him.....

[jugalo180]

does mpeg compression work like zip by eliminating redundancy?

thanks everyone. it really took me by surprise for him to suggest that. blue bear how much do you charge to mix and/or master per song via mail?

[Blue Bear Sound]

Jugalo - shoot me an email at bluebearsound@sympatico.ca and we can rap about pricing.... I have a Home-Recording Mixing package that might work for you.

[jugalo180]

cool, i'll be sure to do that

[spankenstein]

Originally Posted by jugalo180

does mpeg compression work like zip by eliminating redundancy?

thanks everyone. it really took me by surprise for him to suggest that. blue bear how much do you charge to mix and/or master per song via mail?

mp3 is nothing like zip. Zip is lossless. What you unzip is exactly what you put in. mp3 is lossy. You lose some information that the algorithm deems "unnecesary."

I would not use mp3s. Mail CDs back and forth. Or spend some time downloading.

[malcolm123]

Originally Posted by jugalo180

does mpeg compression work like zip by eliminating redundancy?

thanks everyone. it really took me by surprise for him to suggest that. blue bear how much do you charge to mix and/or master per song via mail?

Are you still using Fruity Loops? IF not then what are you tracking with now?

And Blue is right, try to stay away from MP3s when working with tracks that you want professionally mixed.


Malcolm

[jugalo180]

na, i never tracked in fruity i just use it to sequence beats. i'm tracking in cubase sx. i don't have my monitors anymore so i have to look elsewhere to get my stuff mixed. i have been really busy what about you?

[formerlyfzfile]

You might try FLAC or SHN (shorten) schemes.
I dont trust ZIP with my audio files ....... had occasional instances of them not opening properly and such.

FLAC and SHN are both lossless.
I prefer FLAC FRONTEND to encode because you can set the level of compression which increasingly shrinks the file size and also increases the amount of time it takes to compress or decompress the file.
Also it works in DOS and will work with any Windows.

http://mikewren.com/flac/

Dont get me wrong I still like MP3s to throw in a thumb drive/player for tunes while mowing the lawn or skiing or something ..... or even to get loops from ..... but not for my own music certainly.

Wavs are ultimately where its at so snail mail is still good for something.

-mike

[malcolm123]

Originally Posted by jugalo180

na, i never tracked in fruity i just use it to sequence beats. i'm tracking in cubase sx. i don't have my monitors anymore so i have to look elsewhere to get my stuff mixed. i have been really busy what about you?

Been in the studio.

Check your PM.