Advantages of recording in WAV format then converting to MP3?

M

Mike Bornhorst

New member
Hi everyone. Please excuse my ignorance. I have a Tascam portable recorder that can record in WAV or MP3 format. I know that WAV is a much better quality format but the files are very large. I would like to get a very high quality recording but ultimately I am going to covert it to MP3 at some point anyways so that I can send out the recordings and/or put them on a CD. Is there any advtange to recording in WAV, then converting to MP3 later or would recording directly as an MP3 produce the same end result? Thanks.
 
You don't want to have your CD made using MP3s - you will have lost all the data, providng inferior files to be upconverted. Keep it all in WAV format. MP3s (even hi-res versions) are for quicker downloading.
 
The wave format is a non compressed format (called lossless) that provides a better version of the source recording. MP3 compresses and in order to do that, it takes information out of the file or removes what it deems as not required (lower and upper parts of the range) and leaves you with parts in the middle, what most people hear.

What’s the Difference Between All These Audio Formats, and Which One Should I Use?

Take a look at the article above. It does a pretty good job of explaining and will help you decide.
 
The advantage is exactly what you just said: Better audio quality. The fact that you want to convert to MP3 doesn't matter. You want to record in the highest resolution possible.

Having said that, MP3 shouldn't even come into this conversation anyway. You DON'T want to put MP3's on a CD. Forget MP3's. CD's are not made with MP3's. MP3's literally remove information from a file, which is why they're smaller files.
 
It does more than just remove upper or lower frequencies. It also makes use of a phenomenon that all frequencies can cast a "shadow" onto their neighbouring frequencies. So if there is a strong 1K presence, it can remove 999 Hz and 1001 Hz from parts of the song.
 
Mike Bornhorst said:
Hi everyone. Please excuse my ignorance. I have a Tascam portable recorder that can record in WAV or MP3 format. I know that WAV is a much better quality format but the files are very large. I would like to get a very high quality recording but ultimately I am going to covert it to MP3 at some point anyways so that I can send out the recordings and/or put them on a CD. Is there any advtange to recording in WAV, then converting to MP3 later or would recording directly as an MP3 produce the same end result? Thanks.
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Most of it has been covered already -- But one important thing to change is your perspective. WAV isn't very large -- Rather, MP3 is very small.
MP3 is more or less a "necessary evil" -- It's a trade in quality for the sake of portability. It's an "end-listener" format at best. And although when done right it can sound quite decent, it's still a relatively drastic compromise just to save space.
 
Massive Master said:
Most of it has been covered already -- But one important thing to change is your perspective. WAV isn't very large -- Rather, MP3 is very small.
MP3 is more or less a "necessary evil" -- It's a trade in quality for the sake of portability. It's an "end-listener" format at best. And although when done right it can sound quite decent, it's still a relatively drastic compromise just to save space.
Click to expand...

That should be the final take away for the question. It is an end user format, not an authoring/creation format.
 
I what way are .wav files "very large" Mike? I guess the Tascam records to a memory card? So get a bigger one or several!

Once onto computer the file size is trivial. One TB drives are about 50quid and can hold shedloads of music files even at 24bits 44.1kHz.

And, AFAIK you can't burn MP3 to CD? To DVD yes.

Dave.
 
The first thing that happens when a file.is converted to mp3 is it takes away all the signal above 10k. Then it takes the rest and gets rid of everything that it doesn't deem 'necessary'.

The biggest problem that it will cause is when you go to.eq it. If you try to boost something that isn't there anymore, it will.sound goofy. If you try to cut something that is there, you might be left with just swirly sounding garbage, because you deemphasized what the converters thought was important and left all the stuff that it took away.
 
ecc83 said:
And, AFAIK you can't burn MP3 to CD? To DVD yes.

Dave.
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Software like Roxio or Nero ("make a music CD") will upconvert MP3s to WMA for CD play. Of course, once you've lost the info on the down conversion to MP3, it ain't coming back.
 
mjbphotos said:
Software like Roxio or Nero ("make a music CD") will upconvert MP3s to WMA for CD play. Of course, once you've lost the info on the down conversion to MP3, it ain't coming back.
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Ah! Did not know that. I have used Nero 6 for yonks until it no longer worked with Win6/64. I tried various freebie burners but this old, set in his ways fool could not get on so I bought the latest Nero version about a year ago. Did OK tho! They were obviously desperate and kept dropping the price and I waited and got it for about 1/4 of the original cost!

I also have "Image burn" which I use to copy things like OS discs. Don't do much burning these days.....


Dave.
 
mjbphotos said:
Software like Roxio or Nero ("make a music CD") will upconvert MP3s to WMA for CD play. Of course, once you've lost the info on the down conversion to MP3, it ain't coming back.
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You mean it up-converts to PCM (like wav). WMA is simply microsofts version of an mp3.
 
Farview said:
You mean it up-converts to PCM (like wav). WMA is simply microsofts version of an mp3.
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Whatever the standard format is for music CDs - I thought that was WMA, I guess its's PCM? Anyway, I use Roxio Creator for that, and it works. You can put MP3s, WAV, AIFF all on the same list, and it converts them all.
 
A lot of people think that because it is the default format that media player converts to when you rip.a cd. Unfortunately, wma is another mp3-like lossy format. If you want full cd quality, you need to set it to rip to wav or aiff.
 
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