Mixing/Mastering to compliment the .mp3 format?

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bloodloss

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I was just thinking this a second ago...

Eventually, when maybe CDs and such go out of style (big maybe, I know, but interesting ramifications, I think), and all we have left is this digital format of music (compressed files), do you think that new recording/mixing techniques will be developed to make the compressed format of .mp3 sound better?

Do not .mp3s omit some frequencies to make the file size smaller, and other slight modifications? It would seem that instead of mixing tracks to sound the absolute best they could possibly ever sound--then having this perfect sound compressed to a sound that is no longer perfect--that an engineer will have to use the compression to his advantage and make sure that after the compression it sounds perfect.

just a random thought

frank
 
I'm pretty picky (go figure), but a high rate VBR MP3 written with a good converter can sound pretty darn nice.

I think that the techies will be going for better conversion (which is already happening anyway).

But then, I really don't see CD's going anywhere soon. SACD's coming out, yes. CD's vanishing, probably not for a while.

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com
 
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bloodloss said:
Eventually, when maybe CDs and such go out of style..., and all we have left is this digital format of music (compressed files)...
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"digital format of music" -- what do you think CDs are??????
 
Blue Bear: I did clarify afterwards with the "(compressed files)," be it .wma, .mp3, .ogg, etc.
 
Reviving

Because I've always found this trend interesting...

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/03/the-sizzling-sound-of-music.html

From the article
"Berger then said that he tests his incoming students each year in a similar way. He has them listen to a variety of recordings which use different formats from MP3 to ones of much higher quality...He said that they seemed to prefer "sizzle sounds" that MP3s bring to music. It is a sound they are familiar with"

As a practical engineer, this is something to pay attention to.
 
I was reading something about some engineers that were starting to mix/master with the mp3 in mind, saying that most of the songs are going to be listened to that way anyways. but that being said, people were complaining that the same engineers were also mixing/mastering them too 'loud' becuase of that, which ends up killing dynamics - kinda like metallica's latest album.
 
I am heavily tempted to believe that MP3 is of limited lifetime because sooner than later the MPEG committee is going to standardize on a lossless compression format: with today's information theory technologies, the idea of standardizing on a lossy compresison format is just amateurish.

The idea that MP3 is fine because "that's what the public is used to" just doesn't fly, IMHO. If there were any validity to that, we would have seen a similar movement when vinyl or cassette tape were the standard listening formats. Besides, I refuse to believe that the number of pro artists, engineers and producers who believe that the public's ears are what really matters - even in these days of the idiotic Loudness Wars - has not reached a critical mass where there'd be a consensus around the idea of MP3 quality being "good enough".

There will always be upward pressure to increase the technical quality of delivery media for two reasons; first, there will always be those pro artists, engineers and producers who want to deliver the sound THEY want, and not what they think the public "is used to", and second (and probably biggest), there is always going to be a practical need and desire on the part of the manufacturers and retailers to come up with new product lines and to sell The Next Big Thing to the public. Evidence Blu Ray, SACD and 1-bit recording as the three most obvious recent examples.

The idea of MP3 as a steering or driving force is looking at it backwards, I think. Technologies like Blu Ray, SACD and 1-bit recording are not exactly taking off. I think that's largely because MP3 is widely publicly considered "good enough". What the MPEG committee needs to do is settle on a new lossless format good enough for today's bandwidths that will allow the newer formats to shine on an iPod or a net stream the way they do on a THX home entertainment system. That will not only kill MP3 as anything but a legacy format, but will help open up sales of the new disc and recording formats.

And, who knows, the new formats that allow the listener to hear just how good stuff can actually sound may even help put negative pressure on the Loudness Wars insanity.

G.
 
I've been wanting to create some kind of "garbleizer" effect and run it at the end of my signal chain, to let me hear how the mix will sound as an mp3.
 
A 320kbps MP3 is nearly impossible to tell from the original WAV.
 
Doink said:
I've been wanting to create some kind of "garbleizer" effect and run it at the end of my signal chain, to let me hear how the mix will sound as an mp3.
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have you thought about just rendering as an mp3 and listening to it. That would save a lot of coding to try and write a garbalizer to simulate an mp3 copression :)
 
Bristol Posse said:
have you thought about just rendering as an mp3 and listening to it. That would save a lot of coding to try and write a garbalizer to simulate an mp3 copression :)
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I don't know. The garbalizer sounds way cooler!
 
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