...when using drums other than those pulled off of old records-i.e. drum libraries of one hits or breaks, how much difference do you think it makes in the final quality of a beat using wav. files over high quality mp3's (or vice versa)? I know a lot of people think theres a huge difference between the two-but honestly when I listen to a lot of wavs/mp3's side by side, I personally can barely notice a difference between the 2, if any at all. The battle beats are a good example, I think- we almost always use mp3's and people's beats come out sounding mad nice. On the other hand I sometimes wonder if I'm making a mistake when I use an mp3 kit or break at times. What do some of yall think?

The age old quote applies here for sure: "if it sounds good; it is good". In my experience, some mp3's sound like shit and I notice when I A/B them back to back with the WAV file. I can hear the difference the most on my good Sennheiser HD280 headphones - sometimes its obvious, sometimes its not noticeable. I wouldn't worry about it unless you can hear the difference. Trust your ears and if it'll still nag at you in the back of your mind, then by all means, give yourself some peace of mind and only sample WAV.

I'm with you a.d, i can't notice any difference (may be down to my own ears though, too much headphone use growing up) unless it really is a shit quality mp3. only reason i use wavs is becasue thats how i got alot of my drum folders. once you've sampled, layered and added effects, it doesn't matter especially if your lofi. imo.

perhaps if i had a better listening station i would hear different.

i never notice a difference. but i also have a lot of noise, hiss and gack in my stuff, so that may cover it over.

The only reason for choosing wav to mp3 is if you plan timestreching a loop....then a notice some difference ...but if it's a 320kbs then it's difficult to distinguish...

i think it matters... maybe not that much since we all manipulate our sound somewhat... but i can hear the difference when bouncing down a track in pro tools from 24 bit to mp3... mp3s sound a bit less detailed in some instances...
not on every track tho... but when it comes to drums especially one shots i think its very hard to tell cuz theres not as much info to distinguish it.

havent been on here in a couple days..just logged in 'cause i'm going through some serious dream related insominia,lol...good to hear that most of you don't look at it as a big deal, or notice much of a difference..besides the battles on here I've only made one beat ever using an mp3 as an actual main sample of my beat,so yea, I was talking mainly drums- one shots and chopped breaks. I also now know why Niqs' stuff sounds so damn crisp & clean (in a dirty way).tracking out in pro tools..I might have to reconsider my no tracking shit out policy,lol. Godd looks on the feed yall,peace.

If you mean tracking out so that u can mix it all down proper and comp/master .. then yeah you should for sure!


Off topic but people who think their DAW sounds different to other ones... I summed a bunch of audio files together in each DAW (logic, live, cubase, protools), rendered out the result, then compared the waveform from each DAW - they were all literally identical.

So if you're tracking out, don't worry about which DAW/recorder you use.. long as you use good plugins

^^ ive always thought that to be true...

the only thing ive ever heard comparisons on are editing (pro tools) and composing (cubase), i think abelton beats cubase today tho, and thats pretty much it... ive always felt that the plugins you use dictate how the sound translates...

@A.D i love tracking things out and i also hate it... i have an mbox mini and it only has two inputs which dosent allow for fast tracking of anything... its time consuming but worth it regardless of how p.o i get. hahaha

Yea...I don't even wanna fuck with software, I just don't like using computers in my chain of music making at all. A while back I tracked on reaper for a short time- it was alright,actually had good plug ins and was super simple but honestly I was never able to make too much of a distinction sound quality wise between shit I tracked out,and beats I didn't(at least the ones I spent a good ammount of time on mixing in-box,and wouldn't benefit from any plug in enhancement) which eventually just led to me not tracking out at all. If I do start tracking some stuff out again, I'll just use my br900.