Quality of mp3 / other digital files for playing out…

Spectre, post: 7530 wrote: Armin Van Buuren himself said he can’t tell the drop of quality from 256 to 192 so I’m preeeetty sure that the crowd won’t notice the difference from 320 kbps to 256 kbps. As long as you aim for 320 overall you should be fine. I’ve heard .wav’s are absolute top quality but 1. They’re harder to find and 2. They’re harder to manage. (All this info is provided from Phil Morse in his DJ Fast Tutorials.)

I suppose if someone like Armin can’t tell the difference between those 2 qualities then most others won’t either! But surely he would only play 320 kbps files or wav files? Why would a dj of such high calibre play lower than the best quality files? Surely he access to every tune he wants at its highest quality?

Would I be right in saying that the better (and bigger) the quality of the system you play an mp3 through the more chance you would have in telling the difference between 320 and 256 for example?

Fluxdeep, post: 7539 wrote: I would say that there will never be a general consensus about this topic. Some folks will say that even WAV or FLAC or whatever is not top quality because WTR format is better, others will say that 256 is more than enough, others will say 320 period, and others will gladly use 192.

Personally, i aim for 320, yet totally happy with 256, and will use 192 if necessary without a problem. Unless the sound gets crappy, nobody will notice, and above all, nobody will care. Anyway, can one buy MP3 at less that 256 nowadays? Of course there are now and then bands offering stuff at lower rates, but that’s more for promoting i guess, it doesn’t represent the final product.

Do you have access to a nice sound system? If yes, try this: pick 2 or 3 very popular tunes at 320, re-encode them at 256, 224 and 192, ask 2 or 3 friends to help you, and test them, namely start the same tune at 2 different rates in 2 decks (mute one of them) and now and then cross fade from one deck to another and see for yourself what difference can you actually ear. Ask your friends to also comment, defy them to guess.
i assure you that whatever conclusions you take, they will give you a (personal) final answer.

By the way, WTR format means WhaTeveR 😀

Yeah, I think you’re right in the fact as people will only notice if the quality is obviously bad and it is pretty hard to tell the difference between 320 and 256 anyway let’s be honest! I just wondered if you were playing on a big system (like at a festival or a massive nightclub) if then you would be able to tell the difference? But surely the dj’s who play on these systems regularly must have all the tunes they would play at the highest quality anyway?!

Most download websites (beatport for example) aimed at dj’s will offer you the option of mp3’s at 320 or wav or a lower quality mp3 such as 192 or 256 but I always go for 320 if at all possible. iTunes only do mp3’s at 256 so I try and avoid iTunes for that reason. I mainly use beatport, juno and play.com for downloading music that I will use to dj with… or buy a cd and burn it on iTunes at 320.

Good idea about testing tunes at different bit rates might be worth a go to see if people can tell the difference!