Can I play 128 kbps mp3 as a DJ?

K

kmano

New member
So by being lucky recently I got a chance to play my first live set. I wrote a guy who is organizing an fashion event and he let me to play at after party gig. There will be some well-known rappers playing there so I hope to get some contacts and play them my beats, since I am mainly a producer. But coming back to the question - will the quality be good enough for me to play just 128 kbps tracks? I am totally new to DJing and playing live so due to fact that I can't afford buying all the songs I want to play, to build a good trap set unfortunately I have to download some songs off soundcloud.. and as we know they always come with just 128 kbps quality. How do You think - can my set still sound good withouth 320 kbps mp3's? I want to make the best impression that I can so I want to be prepared as much as I can. Will appreaciate all the opinions from You guys!

And one more thing - obviously I will play for free since it's my chance to perform for the first time and maybe get some more gigs in the future. I won't take any money for it and Im definitely not one of those guys who wants to get songs for free and then charge money for the show. I just want to make a good impression and my set to sound good. I have no experience in that field so that's why Im asking!

ALSO I did http://mp3ornot.com/index.php that test recently and I think it's not so easy to recognize a difference between those two for a typical listener. What y'all think about that? Differences are so small that it might be hard to recognize that I just played a 128 kbps set, right?

And for all the people asking why is it so hard to pay for songs - I live in Poland and while in US one song is 1.99 USD here in Poland You gotta multiply it times 4 cause 1 ZŁ = 3 $. So one song for me is 3 times more expensive than for majority of countries with euro or dollar.
 
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Ok I see what You mean, but I think that requires finding the same tracks and downloading them in waves, doesn't it? or You mean converting those that I already have into waves? Because from what I know it's not possible to change audio quality of already excisting file - is it true? If not I will be happy to throw all those songs to converter and change them to waves, as You said.
 
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Converting a 128 kbps file to wav will NOT better the quality, you can not make something sound better that way. To be perfectly honest, if you have a good sound system then most people (meaning non audiophiles or DJ's) will not be able to tell the difference. But if you are using tracks you have downloaded from torrents then I wouldn't be expecting great sounding files anyway.
 
DJ Alkemy said:
Converting a 128 kbps file to wav will NOT better the quality, you can not make something sound better that way. To be perfectly honest, if you have a good sound system then most people (meaning non audiophiles or DJ's) will not be able to tell the difference. But if you are using tracks you have downloaded from torrents then I wouldn't be expecting great sounding files anyway.
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Yeah I was aware of that. All songs I have are from soundcloud and they are mostly 128 kbps. Just wanted to make sure that I can still sound good as a DJ without any bad and weak sounds. I listened to all of them on my Yamahas HS80 and I barely could tell the difference between those and 320 kbps songs. It was still hitting hard and melodies were sharp and crisp. I guess I solved my problem, thanks to You guys! Any other input from others will be appreaciated as well!
 
128 on a decent club soundsystem just wont cut the mustard
 
I used to run school discos with 64kbps mp3/wmas. But I would not do that for a real job or a job where I would be making contacts - wav all the way.

However, kmano, I understand your issue about cost to upgrade the quality of your existing library.

From this point on, only buy wav versions that are wavs to begin with (i.e. not cross-coded from an mp3 or similar)

If you can't by them then buy the lossless flacc versions.
 
For the future if I will be able to make money out of it - obviously I will make sure to buy my music at the highest quality. Right now I start my way as a guy who have never played live and wants to make a good first impression!

Crabbman - do You suggest that 129 kbps will sound bad on a club's soundsystem? It sounds pretty good on my Yamaha's monitors - I guess they are reliable and are know for it's true sound.
 
Why even DJ live? Just do the mixing and blending of songs at home and just play one long mp3 file? That is what my friend does. He does all the DJing at home and just plays a 320 Kbps mp3 at parties.
 
Hehe I guess U are making fun of me right now huh? I never said I am a DJ - just a guy who loves music and wants to learn how to play it live. And these are tools that I have right now, so I gotta make my best to use them in the proper way. And if You are not kidding - I think there would be no fun without live mixing and just standing there looking like a fool!
 
kmano said:
Hehe I guess U are making fun of me right now huh? I never said I am a DJ - just a guy who loves music and wants to learn how to play it live. And these are tools that I have right now, so I gotta make my best to use them in the proper way. And if You are not kidding - I think there would be no fun without live mixing and just standing there looking like a fool!
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Well this will get me hated, but frankly dont care heh.

FIrst yes, 128kbps on a standard club sound system will sound pretty much like trash. Lossy audio is going to cut alot of the sub frequencies and high end tones that sound and feel pleasing. You can get away with 128 at a bar or small lounge, but dont expect your bass to be punchy at all. For your first gig if its a small venue its not going to make a big difference.

Thats where we come to the second part of that post. You arent a DJ you say, you want to learn to play "it" live. What exactly do you want to play live? You are A B mixing two songs together (Or hey become Carl Cox and get up on that 4). You arent playing anything live, you are trying to make money for other peoples hard work because our society some how deems a DJ a rock star as if the skill was difficult in the first place :P So while you have the chance now, start humble. You are a dime a dozen becoming a DJ, and unless you plan to pick up some skills like DJ Craze and the like you are nothing special (this is not ment to offend). Have fun, dont worry about what Bitrate your tunes are. Get a feel and have fun. You arent a musician with two turntables, you are a driver for someone elses music. Stay humble and remember that ;)


I think the recommendation of doing it at home, is, you clearly just said you arent a DJ. This means you must have very little to no experience actually Eqing, beat matching songs etc? The crowd would probably enjoy the music a bit more if you spent that time at home making it sound good, rather than them being the little lab rats to see if you cant butcher a few transitions. It was more of a helpful starter hint. To get you going. Many of us practiced for years before we even WANTED to do our first gig.
 
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You got this

kmano said:
So by being lucky recently I got a chance to play my first live set. I wrote a guy who is organizing an fashion event and he let me to play at after party gig. There will be some well-known rappers playing there so I hope to get some contacts and play them my beats, since I am mainly a producer. But coming back to the question - will the quality be good enough for me to play just 128 kbps tracks? I am totally new to DJing and playing live so due to fact that I can't afford buying all the songs I want to play, to build a good trap set unfortunately I have to download some songs off soundcloud.. and as we know they always come with just 128 kbps quality. How do You think - can my set still sound good withouth 320 kbps mp3's? I want to make the best impression that I can so I want to be prepared as much as I can. Will appreaciate all the opinions from You guys!
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Homie,

It's your first show. The average party goer won't notice the lossy compression. A lot of folks will have a little bit of alcohol in them. And its better to go there and rack up that experience than to be an over-perfectionist (especially when this is your very first time doing this).

Remember, hip hop was an artform created by people who did everything they could to make something out of nothing; so go out there and work with what you got. Just, from now on, get everything you can in .wav. Good luck with the party homie - as long as your actual music selection is good, I know you'll be dope!
 
Thanks for input from ALL OF YOU! Really glad we can have a nice discussion here. I'll try to respond in order:

balakoth - I completely understand Your point. But right now Im only worried about quality of those tunes. I am not worried about my performance when it comes to mixing. Since couple of weeks I picked up 8 effects (beat repeat, fade, xfader, filter, eq low, high and mid) and Im doing my best to get my hands on those knobs and tweak as much as I can. I gotta say it's not so hard. Since I am a producer a have a pretty good feeling when it comes to tempo. I know when the drop is coming so I know that two or one bar before I can cut the lows and bring it back just a second before the drop with the knob. This is not the case! But I understand Your point of practicing a lot. Honestly I was lucky to get that chance so I think it would be silly not to try, even if it's not go be a perfect night (it propably won't be, obviously). And one more thing about staying humble and being aware of that I am not a DJ and as You said "musician". Before I got into producing I heard that as well - everybody thought I was too old to learn anything but after almost 2 years I am proud of what I've learned when it comes to producing and it's fastinating to think that I am able to create music. And this is why I don't call myself a DJ - because I know what real DJ can do. But it won't stop be from doing what I want to do. Cause DJing right now is the same stupid dream as producing was 2 years ago - it was impossible at the beggining but I proved myself that I can learn it. And that's what Im about to do with DJ, if I'll like it. Cause sitting in the studio is one thing but performing songs live in front of the audience has to be amazing.

Steven - thanks for kind words! I totally agree with what You said about hip-hop, couldn't write it better. I just hope I will have some low frequencies working well with those 128 kbps! And after that all my stuff will be in wave, that's for sure!

---------- Post added at 03:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:31 PM ----------

And oh, as my "DJ setup" in Ableton is almost done I have one more thing to figure out - how can I make my songs play each in its own tempo? You guys have any idea about doing it in Live?
 
I know some big names in UK Bass, and UK 4x4 scene that use 128kbps! I've seen them rip exclusives from YouTube and drop them in a club. I wouldn't do it personally, but people do it. You can get away with 320kbps without a problem though. If you look on most production forums people will ask for the "320".

Remember most DJ's using laptops, or USB sticks, use 320kbps because it saves space on the HDD or memory stick.

Why are you downloading from SoundCloud? If you want to use other peoples music ask them for the .wav or the 320, I'm sure they will let you have it. If you're ripping because you don't want to pay for the music there are other places to do that and still get high quality - although I will not discuss this illegal route any further lol!
 
G13 said:
I know some big names in UK Bass, and UK 4x4 scene that use 128kbps! I've seen them rip exclusives from YouTube and drop them in a club. I wouldn't do it personally, but people do it. You can get away with 320kbps without a problem though. If you look on most production forums people will ask for the "320".

Remember most DJ's using laptops, or USB sticks, use 320kbps because it saves space on the HDD or memory stick.

Why are you downloading from SoundCloud? If you want to use other peoples music ask them for the .wav or the 320, I'm sure they will let you have it. If you're ripping because you don't want to pay for the music there are other places to do that and still get high quality - although I will not discuss this illegal route any further lol!
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Well since it's a trap party I doubt I will be able to contact Diplo or Floss, A-Trak and others to give me their music, ha!

And yeah, I use soundcloud cause that's my main source of new music. All the artists I follow immediately put their music there when it's out!

And please PM me if You know sth about other ways of getting high quality tunes. But again as I said - I do it right now because my first show ever is in two weeks. After that I will know what to do with myself as a "DJ" and I will start buying stuff I want to play and make a big collection out of it. But since I am a producer as well I plan to include my own music in my sets. Maybe that's a good idea, to start making couple trap beats and just play them in a club haha - people won't recognize who is the author!
 
kmano said:
Well since it's a trap party I doubt I will be able to contact Diplo or Floss, A-Trak and others to give me their music, ha!

And yeah, I use soundcloud cause that's my main source of new music. All the artists I follow immediately put their music there when it's out!

And please PM me if You know sth about other ways of getting high quality tunes. But again as I said - I do it right now because my first show ever is in two weeks. After that I will know what to do with myself as a "DJ" and I will start buying stuff I want to play and make a big collection out of it. But since I am a producer as well I plan to include my own music in my sets. Maybe that's a good idea, to start making couple trap beats and just play them in a club haha - people won't recognize who is the author!
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I believe it's against the rules to share such links, but trust me they are out there in the thousands.
 
ah, i wouldn't do that personaly... although wav have the biggest quallity but it doesen't save you hdd space,
and i think 320 it still good for djing... at least for now, when we have 20tb hdds it will be different story :)
 
If you got them from Soundcloud I'm assuming that they were free? Just message the producers and ask them for 320/wav files. Most will be happy to send one, it's a bit of an ego boost, and at most you'll end up paying like $2 per track.

EDIT: Just saw that other post. That kinda sucks lol
 
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