MP3 Sound Quality

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H

Handinon

DJ Extraordinaire
Oct 1, 2014
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Anyone familiar with my tirades knows I harp on sound quality - we are first and foremost Disc Jockies. An interesting discussion has just started on another forum which I will unashamedly also start here -

DJs Should Stop Playing SoundCloud and YouTube Rips

Here is my problem with this -

Adele - Hello.jpg

This is a paid MP3 download from Amazon of Adele's Hello. Could they have done a worse job? Those of you not familiar with a Audacity, all that red is clipped music. As per the video, I'm only approaching this from the point of sound quality, not legality.

Anyone who has an uncompressed (wav) of this song, I would be interested if it is also like this (as a result of the Loudness Wars), or if this was simply a poor job by Amazon converting to MP3.
 
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I think it's Amazon. I just looked at a small clip from JunoDownload (they have mp3 and wav) and it is good. Unfortunately, do to copyright restrictions, their's is not available in the US. I'm willing to pay for downloads - GOOD downloads. I'm also willing to buy the CD if it has more than one good song on it! Most compilations, like the Now CD's, also suffer from the same problem and are full of clipped music.
 
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Handinon said:
would be interested if it is also like this (as a result of the Loudness
Click to expand...

I just spent 4 days...yes 4 days burning my entire cd collection to my laptop, flash drive, and put on my other laptop. I now have multiple copies of song on my laptops, but it was worth it.

The ripped song off of the CD is better quality than the song downloads from Virtual DJ. Often the same quality as song downloads from amazon, eMusic etc. However, sometimes I can tell the difference.


The best thing you can do is check the audio quality setting on your laptop. I realized at one point I was playing music at 44000 hz in windows (DVD quality) thru Virtual DJ. I changed it to Studio quality 24 bit 192000 hz top setting, and it's a big difference in quality. That helps how the audio file sounds. Check your settings to make sure you are playing in the highest quality setting.
 
Ron said:
I am impressed with your speed of ripping music for your CD Collection It took me running 2 computers about 6 hours each night for a month to rip my entire CD collection.
Click to expand...

How many CDs did you have? I had about 180 CDs to burn. I didn't burn about 50 CDs I knew I wouldn't need...some Boby Morganstien party cds, and albums from artists that weren't even worth purchasing when I got them.
 
The graphic representation looks like clipping but I don't hear any digital distortion on any of the Adele Hello copies I have. Digital distortion is an ugly sound that you'll know when you hear it.

Ricky, the word is encoding or ripping. Burning is when you make a CD.
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
How many CDs did you have? I had about 180 CDs to burn. I didn't burn about 50 CDs I knew I wouldn't need...some Boby Morganstien party cds, and albums from artists that weren't even worth purchasing when I got them.
Click to expand...

Mine took months just to do what I thought I would need I can't imagine doing my whole 15,000 plus CD collection
 
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While I concur with his (the DJ in the video link) ideological stand, many folks don't realize that the published bit rate may be a totally misleading number. This happens when a person who is gathering music from multiple sources is either not aware of the potential "fooled you" bit rate, or the person who posted the track is completely unaware of the lossy algorithm techniques.

Boiling it down quickly, if someone records a track from the internet at 92kbs, transfers the track to a CD, then later rips the CD into a 320kbs, the tag will say it's a 320kbs, but in reality, it's a double ripped 92kbs file taking up the same hard drive space as a 320kbs. The track's quality remains no better than 92kbs, meaning the algorithm has irretrievably "whacked" crucial low and middle low end frequencies and combined some high one together and it's FOREVER. This especially holds true for .mp4 / .mkv files.

Know your source and trust your ears regardless of how it's obtained.

Once an audio or video track has been ripped to a low kbs, it can never be rebuilt to its original state. It's like a dude who has had a wee wee whack. If Catie's mind changes to be Brucie again, it can be sewed back on, but it will never ever function the same.
 
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Jas said:
The graphic representation looks like clipping but I don't hear any digital distortion on any of the Adele Hello copies I have. Digital distortion is an ugly sound that you'll know when you hear it.
Click to expand...

Your copies, have you looked at them in an audio editor to see if in fact they are clipped?

Clipping has been around before digital - there is plenty of analog clipping. I have no idea how Amazon gets and/or makes their mp3's. What I do know is I was playing around with my newly installed copy of Serato DJ, was working with my headphones on, and I could hear distortion in her voice. I was concerned it was a problem with Serato, but I had an "ah ha" moment and looked at the file in Audacity before and I did anything else, and voila!
 
Cap Capello said:
It's like a dude who has had a wee wee whack. If Catie's mind changes to be Brucie again, it can be sewed back on, but it will never ever function the same.
Click to expand...

There is absolutely know doubt I will be quoting this pearl of wisdom in the future! Thanks!! :laugh:

This is absolutely the best site in the world!!!
 
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Handinon said:
Your copies, have you looked at them in an audio editor to see if in fact they are clipped?
Click to expand...
Yes, I loaded one of the versions into audacity and the waveform looked just like the pic you posted. Maybe your ears are better than mine, but I don't notice any distortion with clipping at this level. Just for fun select a portion of the wave form, select amplify from the effects menu, check allow clipping and set the DB to +20 to hear what digital distortion really sounds like!
 
Getting on-board with this particular track, I also bought and downloaded it from Amazon. I use Adobe Audition, expanded the waveform and discovered that there is virtually no clipping but it has been hard limited at 0db instead of the usual 0.98db. When using the "restore clipped audio" filter, there was almost imperceptible changes and most of the alterations were well below the .80 db range.

What drives me nuts about these tracks is the volume levels of the first couple of minutes is too low. A DJ has to ride the volume controls unless edited, which I did so I can use it confidently.

I like the hard limiting feature and use it religiously to make my entire library at or near equal volume throughout the collection.
 
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Cap Capello said:
Getting on-board with this particular track, I also bought and downloaded it from Amazon. I use Adobe Audition, expanded the waveform and discovered that there is virtually no clipping but it has been hard limited at 0db instead of the usual 0.98db. When using the "restore clipped audio" filter, there was almost imperceptible changes and most of the alterations were well below the .80 db range.
Click to expand...

Well, you might be absolutely right - for all I know the distortion in her voice may be caused by an Aural Exciter. I "fixed" mine using Terry West's ReLife Plugin (basically a low pass filter set at a high frequency with a slight gain reduction). It still irks me that we have to do this with paid downloads.
 
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Music that I personally like, I will probably re-rip one day and put it into a lossless format (at least from the CDs I have). Everything else, being essentially throwaway .. the format I get is sufficient for the need. I haven't taken anything from YouTube or torrents .. the few under 128K songs in my library from the early days have almost all been replaced or discarded .. there may be a few dozen left. Everything else is ripped (320K CBR), or purchased from Amazon, iTunes or Google Play.

Honestly, whatever the waveform may show, in a PA system, the end result is sufficient for 99.99% of what I do .. for the tracks I like to listen to, since I also listen to them on more audiophile level gear in quieter rooms, wav or lossless might be beneficial.
 
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I am the only one that hears my music over and over. If it doesn't sound good, I'll re-rip or search another source.

But if I can't hear a flaw through my headphones, I doubt anyone else can through my speakers

If it sounds good, I spend my time fixing things that could actually affect my business.
 
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