Purchasing Older Tracks
Hey everyone!
Got a question.
If I purchase an older track from lets say 1997 in the genre of Techno, what choice should I made when I can pick the encoding type for the best quality? Assuming that the original track was never encoded that high, is everything re-encoded for show?
Beatport offers 320 bit,.Wav and .Aiff and Junodownload only offers 192, 320, and .wav.
Thanks in advance!
-A
Buy .wav, and convert as necessary.
.WAV and .AIFF are lossless, uncompressed audio, which is the best quality. (Boomkat and Bleep offer FLAC which is lossless compressed audio, also best quality.)
320 cbr is the best quality MP3. V0 is the best compromise in sound quality and compression (file size.)
192 cbr is considered the lowest point before sound quality starts to be noticeable. MP3s at 160, 128 cbr are considered poor quality.
Not sure what you mean by “assuming the original track was never encoded that high…” though. 
Think he means if the original encode was not at a high bit rate or recorded at lower fidelity to begin with.
The best way to think of it is the same way you would scan or photocopy a picture. You can never improve the quality of the original work, but scanning at the highest bitrate will yield the best duplication of the original.
I’d say nothing worse than 320, but opt for a lossless format if your storage space permits. You can always archive and re-encode at 320 later on.
There have been a lot of digital re-releases and re-masters for the older stuff. I’d go wav/aiff if you have the space.
I’m a bit confused here. Is the OP suggesting that all ‘older’ music is going to have been rendered in a format that would be an inferior sound quality to MP3?
The original track will have originally been either a 16bit audio track or vinyl pressing, higher quality than any MP3. So you should be buying WAV.
However I’ve picked up a few “classics” on itunes and Beatport that were either badly EQ’d or Ripped (badly) from vinyl without any “modern” re-prosessing and needed some additional work to fit side by side into newer stuff.
Had that problem too. Some of the older tracks lacked drive. Figured they were either ripped poorly or we wer just used to new producers who slam the dynamics out of a track to make it the loudest 
I find myself reworking a lot of them… Mostly adding some low end because it seems to lack in most cases.
Definitely. I know of one label who lost their masters for their earliest stuff so when they re-released digital versions they had to source the tracks from the vinyl records.
I’ve run across stuff on Beatport that’s been ripped terribly with digital artifacts throughout the song. I’ve heard of people finding lossy transcodes as well, suggesting the artist/label just uploaded some old MP3s he found laying about.
There’s still a massive amount of stuff that’s vinyl only and doesn’t look like there’s ever going to be digital re-issues, which I find a bit sad. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain…
…sorry, channeling Blade Runner there.
On a more constructive note…Discogs is whre i got all my old classics.
Hours and hours and…hours of searching.
In most cases i have found that the tunes are out there in cd format somewhere…even if they were released on some obscure compilation album on some dodgy backstreet label from Uzbekistan, they are out there.
Search, search and search again.
Matt.
Oh, believe me, I have. I just recently ordered a 2 CD compilation and was thrilled when it arrived. I bought it for one track, a KMC remix. It was like the biggest let down to hear that the track on the compilation was taken from vinyl and not true digital quality.
Good thing I only spent $5 on the compilation!
Been There Too Mate…Heartbreaking 
So I’m assuming .wav is my best option.
When I mean older tracks, I mean something that was produced in 1997.
Referencing what TonyRome said “The best way to think of it is the same way you would scan or photocopy a picture.” would have agree. I just feel that if I purchase the 320 version of the track, the quality won’t be the same.
WAV, AIFF, FLAC, and ALAC are, in my opinion, equivalent options as they are all lossless. At least as far as audio quality goes. ALAC, and AIFF edge out FLAC and WAV in my mind because of tagging and the ability to embed album artwork.
Buy a turntable 
Good luck and make sure to look for the tracks on a re release I’ve been less then impressed with some and overly impressed with others.. It’s a big crapshoot imo even tracks from say 2001 and older have seen issues