How important is FILE COMPRESSION in mixing ?

320 is the minimum for me (unless I have to play top 40 at a house party, then I can just use whatever since nobody will notice in that environment).

I prefer to do wav, but unless I know I'm going to be playing a very specific set, or type of sound (you know, cause sometimes you start playing tech-house, but switch it up to techno or prog house or something because the crowd needs it) I can't (stupid smallish hard drive on my laptop - although it has a Ferrari branding so who cares, it looks sexy). :)

Are the Beatport MP3s 320 bits. If so how does this compare to Itunes?

Additionally, If one goes about playing blog downloads, is there a way to download at 320 bit rate?

Thanks

Beatport MP3s are 320. iTunes tend to be 128-192. Plus to remove the iTunes protection you will generally have to burn to CD or at least find something to re-record them, thus hurting the integrity of the sound even more. I would recommend always using the wav option at Beatport and then converting to 320 if you need to down the road... then you get the best possible quality as your master.

You can only download at 320 from a blog if they post the file as 320 in the first place.

Additionally, unlike most of the crap DJs I know who think a 128 file re-compressed to 320 is the same as an original 320, it's not... it's still sounds like 128, only now your file is bigger (note, actually since you are applying a new compression, the sound will be even worse, but unless you are a machine, you probably would never know).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rcolbourne

Plus to remove the iTunes protection you will generally have to burn to CD or at least find something to re-record them, thus hurting the integrity of the sound even more.

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didn't itunes remove DRM protection?

It's entirely possible... shows you how much I use iTunes. :)

haha, i just remember they made a big deal out of it (and it is a big deal) when they announced it.

They removed a bunch of DRM, but not all. They are working on getting it out of the whole collection but that's going to take a LONG time. And no new tracks will have DRM :)

Sam C. Lin took the time to analyze the bitrate thing further.
You all should read the following article by him:
http://www.lincomatic.com/mp3/mp3quality.html

That may answer most questions.

When available I always go with 320kbps. My own stuff will always remain WAV