A bit confused sorry ha

[Help Help]

In my cool edit pro sessions I have been saving the final mixdowns as wavs. However, I have been saving the individual tracks as mp3's and then mixing down to wav. If this results in quality loss, should I be converting the individual tracks to wav before mixing down to wav? Will the conversion reinstate the wav quality into the individual tracks saved in mp3? Even after I have previously closed the session and re-opened several times?

 

[arcadeko]

Will the conversion reinstate the wav quality into the individual tracks saved in mp3? Even after I have previously closed the session and re-opened several times?

No - once its gone its gone. Use .wav all the time. Converting a mp3 to wav does not improve anything as the information is already lost

 

[Chili]

Pretty much what ArcKO said, but if the mp3's were at 320kbps, you may not notice any conversion artifacts if converted back to a wav file.

When I collab with people, they send their indiviual tracks through email in mp3/320 format and I reconvert back to wav. Though information is lost, it's not noticeable.

In the future, keep everything as a wav file until you're ready to post it up or share with friends. And maybe consider moving up from Cool Edit to a more recent DAW program.

hth

 

[Help Help]

Thanks guys! What about when the session has not been reopened but the files have just been saved as mp3? Does the computer still recognize them the same as before saving? As they have just been recorded?

 

[Massive Master]

No -- The compression and data loss occurs during the conversion (and that data is gone forever).