E-music/VBR tracks, anybody else fallen for it?

E-music/VBR tracks, anybody else fallen for it?

I’ve had an e-music subscription for the last few years. It’s been great for finding new music, non EDM as well as EDM but I just recently discovered that most of the music I have downloaded was VBR (Variable Bit Rate). While some of the music is up to 290, the avrg is around 190’something. I never really noticed until I got back into mixing and got my vci. For the past 3 years I had been collecting tracks in anticipation of going digital and what I disappointment to realize a lot of them are of lower quality than what I would want for a mix.

Pretty irritated, guess I should have done my research when I started and I should have known there would have been some compromise for the cheap tracks. I guess I would be more ok with it if there were a way to see what quality the tracks were before purchase.

is the sound genuinelty noticabley different?

The tracks in the high 200’s seam fine but anything in the low 200’s or the high 100’s seem to def. be a lower volume, I usually have to compensate with the gain on those tracks.