complaints on non-beatport digital music sources
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  1. #1
    Tech Wizard
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    Default complaints on non-beatport digital music sources

    just bought a few mp3s off amazon because they gave me a $5 credit for spending, oh, about $400 on books for the semester.
    first, they trick me to download this unnecessary downloader utility. then, i check the tags, and the bitrate is 256?

    seriously? they charge money for this? what the difference in size for a 3-4 min song, 3 mb? the formatting on an ipod is 30x that

    correct me if I'm wrong, but in this day and age is there really a difference in cost to either the record label or amazon to compress a raw master or .wav into 320 mp3?
    and they wonder why there's piracy. well, anyway didn't waste any actual money.

    rant over

  2. #2
    Tech Mentor Frank112916's Avatar
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    Yes there is a difference. The space requirements are different (256 vs 320 is about 2/3 the size) and server space cost money plain and simple. It is one of the reasons beatport is much more expensive than amazon.

    But anyway - you couldn't even tell the difference between 320 and 256 for the most part anyhow. Just like the whole gigaherz wars in computers with faster and faster chips, most people will never use the full potential of an uncompressed wav file or even a 320kbps mp3 and will never hear the difference.

  3. #3
    DJTT Tankard fullenglishpint's Avatar
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    The downloader utility is kinda handy if you use iTunes. I don't think you can complain about being 'tricked' into downloading that. And it's ~256 variable bit rate, not just flat 256. The quality is fine. All iTunes store tunes are 256k, although they are aac which is apparently a better algorithm.
    TSP 2 | Serato DJ | Live 8 | MBP (SSD + HDD) | AIAIA TMA-1 Fool's Gold Edition | 1200 Mk2s | MidiFighter | KRK RP5
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  4. #4
    Tech Guru DigitalDevil's Avatar
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    Truly an outrage. The president will be hearing about this.

  5. #5
    DJTT Infectious Moderator photojojo's Avatar
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    And when you stack up the number of times a 320 song is downloaded you also stack up the bandwidth cost to host that song.
    Chris Jennings FHP

    Podcast - Soundcloud - Mixcloud - Beatport Charts - x

  6. #6
    Tech Guru
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    Download illegal 128 pirates end of, usually the ones recorded off tv/radio are the best, im very happy with the promotions companys that send me files , but yeah I wouldnt say there is too much difference in 256 vbr compaired to 320 sbr
    *Samsung rv 511, 8gb ram, core i5 processor* *Samsung netbook 2gb ram* *Traktor pro 2* *Traktor s4* *midi fighter spectra* *audio technica ath-m50x* *m audio trigger finger pro* *ableton* *fl studio* and a load of other random bits and pieces.... plus I like bacon yo.

  7. #7
    DJTT Tankard fullenglishpint's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DigitalDevil View Post
    Truly an outrage. The president will be hearing about this.
    I lol'd.
    TSP 2 | Serato DJ | Live 8 | MBP (SSD + HDD) | AIAIA TMA-1 Fool's Gold Edition | 1200 Mk2s | MidiFighter | KRK RP5
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  8. #8

    Default

    Amazon has very frugal back-end operations. I think they used to have 320k long time ago and it changed and changed... and changed. I'm seeing everything between 226 and 270 nowadays with VBR added.

    As for the quality, as said, it's tough to hear any differences. If someone really wants best quality DJ material, WAV is the way to go (wish we had 24-bit WAV by now but I could wait or use my own productions as 24-bit WAV...)

    PS: I would prefer 256 AAC but there are some older CDJs out there who don't understand AAC...

  9. #9
    Tech Guru diezdiazgiant's Avatar
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    Bandcamp has gotten me spoiled on buying nothing but ALAC. I think beatport sucks, not worse then amazon...

  10. #10
    Tech Mentor Quiggers's Avatar
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    24bit wav, you're joking right?

    the signal to noise ratio of even the best power amps would destroy any advantage and you laptop would be working its drives harder to pull the 24bit info off the platters.

    stereo data is lost in clubs as they all mono sum and all the hard surfaces and multiple speakers mean that your audio is sitting in a swamp of reflections.

    If you want to improve audio in clubs you'd be better off using balanced connections instead of rca phono's.

    A sober punter cant tell the difference between a 192kbps mp3 and a full def wav, and a drunk punter can barely tell what genre they're listening to.

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