Bit Depth and MP3's

P

Phuturistic

New member
Can I bounce my song to a stereo 44.1khz 24 bit file, and export from that directly to MP3? Or do I need to bounce to CD standard 44.1khz 16 bit first, then go to MP3?

Thanks
 
Try it both ways yourself and see which one sounds best.
Shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes tops....

"Ya ain't gonna learn nothing if you don't try things out yourself."
-Old Wise Man
 
Depends on what software you have.

Try googling "wav to mp3 converter." You should find something that can go directly from the format you're using.
 
I sometimes get weird glitches when trying to convert from 24-bit to mp3 with Sound Forge, so I usually convert to 16-bit first.
 
I've done it with Audition and Reaper with no problems.

I could be wrong, but if you try to convert, say, 24-bit/96KHz WAV directly to MP3...wouldn't it use the codec (LAME) as the SRC/dither? Or would the program automatically do that itself before going to MP3? I guess it depends what DAW is being used...
 
Well I've exported 2 or 3 songs from 44.1 24bit SDII straight to MP3, and I don't seem to hear any problems. Of course, I am trying to do critical listening with an MP3 file. Isn't that an oxymoron?
 
critical listening with mp3's an oxymoron?
Well for some that seems to be an article of faith.

mp3 is not black or white but a continuum. You can compress a file a little or a lot. We shouldnt lump all mp3's together as there can be vast differences between them.

Tim
 
LAME can compress directly from 24 bit files. You probably won't notice a difference to a properly dithered 16 bit file, but why bother converting it to 16 bit, if your target is MP3 anyways? The same applies for Ogg Vorbis and AC3.
Other recent encoders should do this as well, including Fraunhofer.
 
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