1 easy way to improve the quality of your beats!

3

3nterprise

Guest
Hey guys, one easy way to improve the quality of your beats is to simply render it as a WAV. file then
getting that same WAV. file and transforming it to an MP3 file due to the fact that most sites
only allow MP3 files. HERE'S WHY!

WAV is the full deal, uncompressed, full spectrum, everything. Large file size, but the most precise sound. Generally not used for distributing songs because they're just too dang big.

MP3 is a codec that only represents some of the sound in an attempt to cut down on file size but still get a good approximation of the sound. A larger bitrate means a more accurate reproduction, but even the highest (320 kbps) will still not be *exactly* the same as CD quality. Most people can't tell the difference for bitrates above 192 kbps, though, so anything above that tends to work out pretty well.

MOST PRODUCERS ALREADY KNOW THIS, THIS IS JUST FOR THE ONES WHO DID NOT KNOW YET...
 
I tried once to upload a .wav file into soundcloud. They simply transformed it to a mp3 file, crappy as hell.
 
Ddream said:
I tried once to upload a .wav file into soundcloud. They simply transformed it to a mp3 file, crappy as hell.
Click to expand...

Word this happened to me, spent like 2-3 hours uploading beats that I converted into .wave files and I just ended up getting shitty ass .mp3 quality in the end

I used to think they were money hungry and gave VIP users the option to upload high quality shit but nope, bought VIP for a year last week yet the quality still sounds like it was mixed by Lil B's engineer lmao
 
So you're saying export a WAV and then convert it to MP3? Why exactly is this better than just exporting MP3 off the bat?
 
Hmm, never thought about converting my .wav into .mp3 instead of converting raw data into .mp3.
 
I don't mean to sound disrespectful when I type this, but... This is such utter nonsense. And people are just going along with it, saying "thanks". Lol.

If this actually makes a difference when rendering from your DAW, you need a different DAW. There's absolutely no reason why there should be any difference between rendering directly to MP3 vs. rendering to WAV and then converting to MP3 afterwards.

I'm going to backpedal for a minute, though:

If you're using a different piece of software to convert from WAV to MP3 (something other than your DAW), there might be a difference in the resulting file. The conversion software might expose conversion settings which your DAW might not make available (CBR vs VBR, Joint Stereo, all bitrates up to 320kbps) or use a different codec (LAME, Fraunhofer, Helix). Most professional tools should give you all of these options, though, and most MP3 tools use LAME as an encoder, since it's free and has a reputation of being the "best sounding". Hence, it's not likely that any of this applies to you.

If I remember correctly, you had to buy the Fraunhofer encoder to use in some versions of Cubase. You Cubase-users might enjoy the LAME encoder built into many third-party MP3 converters.

However, once again -- There should be no difference in the resulting file regardless of whether you render directly to MP3 or render to WAV first and then convert to MP3 using identical settings.

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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So just a question about this Soundcloud issue. I've heard some great mixes on Soundcloud, what is it that people are doing to get them to sound like that? Its more than the mixing because I've heard crap mixes with a good sound. Any Ideas?
 
I'm talking over-all sound on the cloud. As far as having a really in your face uncompressed sound with a poor mix, is just what I mean. When the kick and bass are fighting each other frequency wise ect...but the track is not sounding like a compressed mp3 file, understand?
 
Mainframe9x9 said:
I'm talking over-all sound on the cloud. As far as having a really in your face uncompressed sound with a poor mix, is just what I mean. When the kick and bass are fighting each other frequency wise ect...but the track is not sounding like a compressed mp3 file, understand?
Click to expand...

Ah.

SoundCloud transcodes to 128kbps MP3 for streaming. That's about the same as YouTube's "480p" quality setting.

They recommend to upload at 320kbps MP3 and leave 3dB of headroom, which to me suggests two things:
#1: They run a limiter during the transcoding process, and
#2: Even if you encode at their "native rate", it will be re-encoded.

Each person is subject to the same transcoding process as everyone else when he uploads his music.
It's up to your mixing and (especially) mastering processes.

You need to understand how the MP3 format works behind the scenes if you want to work around its flaws.
Here's a link that explains it:
MP3: The Definitive Guide: Sample Chapter 2

There's a better tutorial out there but I can't remember the URL.

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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