Grateful Dead

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Thanks for the explanation from us less technically knowledgeable souls. Does the same thing happen each time you save or copy a .wav file? From what I can gather from this topic, the answer would be no. "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." Albert Einstein

A few weeks ago I tried converting an mp3 to wav just to see what would happen and the file ended up being a cda file when it was all said and done. cda files are the format you get if you buy a CD from the store. So I thought that was weird. I don't care that much as I would never convert mp3 to wav or flac anyways but I just wanted to understand it better... "I've stayed in every blue-light cheap hotel. Can't win for tryin. Dust off those rusty strings just one more time. Gonna make em shine."

A lot of you probably do not use audio editing software, but Mp3's are pretty much useless in that area. When I open a 50mb flac format song in Cool Edit Pro or Adobe Audition, it uncompresses to almost a gigabyte. Thats just one 10min song. I use this to get rid of tape hiss, or try and smooth over a tape flip. When I save the flac file in flac format it does not lose any information. I can open it and save it as often as I like and the information remains. Mp3's on the other hand will lose a little information every time I save them. For example, If the song were a painting: Compressing it in flac format would be like rolling it up and putting it in a tube. It would look the same the next time you open it. Compressing it in Mp3 format would be like folding it up and putting it in your pocket. Each time you opened it and put it away the folds and creases would get worse. A tale tell sign of an Mp3 in this condition is when no matter how loud you turn the voice and lead guitar sound muffeled. If you like Mp3's, cool. I use them in my Zen player and my wifes ipod. I dont see anything wrong with a Mp3 vine either. I sent That Nice Hippy Guy a Sublime concert in Mp3 format. It sounded pretty good! But please dont encode Mp3 back to flac. They will get mistaken for the real thing if the recipients of the file do not have the software to distinguish between the two. Thanks( I guess thats my 2 cents)

That's exactly what I do too. With a few CDs sprinkled in for good measure. I haven't found a way to flawlessly listen to my ipod in the car yet so that's where CDs are nice. "I've stayed in every blue-light cheap hotel. Can't win for tryin. Dust off those rusty strings just one more time. Gonna make em shine."

but has anyone tested it? Just take take two cds, both with the same jam...one in mp3 format, one lossless (don't label which is which)...mix em up....and of course listen on the same speakers to control the experiment......after the fact write your guess as to which is which and see if u can tell a difference....I have not done this test myself but my theory is there would be no discernable difference between the two. That being said, I keep my shows in Lossless format on my external hard drive for archiving and compress to mp3 for personal use. "In a bed, in a bed, by the waterside I will lay my head. Listen to the river sing sweet songs, to rock my soul."

Well, you have heard of lossless; MP3 is loss. If you convert the same audio file to wav and MP3, the MP3 file is smaller, and the bit rate is smaller too. Does it really matter? No. Does an MP3 sound good? Yes. But purists do not like MP3 because it does have subtle audio differences. Think of an MP3 as a second or third generation tape.

What exactly gets "lost" when converting to MP3?? I'm with some of you guys - I think MP3's on an ipod sound awesome. I haven't been able to figure out what I'm "missing" with an MP3?? "I've stayed in every blue-light cheap hotel. Can't win for tryin. Dust off those rusty strings just one more time. Gonna make em shine."

Yeah man, I dig mp3 too...I generally convert all of my lossless to mp3 (and keep the shnflac on an external hard drive) Mp3's are smokin.... I can groove for hours on end with no break of the vibe....put in a fatty mp3 disc and call it a day!!! I love it!!! (plus I cannot tell a difference on my car stereo or home stereo for that matter...with most shows)BUT....I still keep my Lossless archive for future listening/conversions when mp3's are obsolete....shnflac or lossless allows your collection to last the test of time....and we all need something 'built to last' "In a bed, in a bed, by the waterside I will lay my head. Listen to the river sing sweet songs, to rock my soul."

I too remember the not so distant days of trading tapes. mp3 at a decent bit rate puts me right where I need to be. Even when listening on headphones at high volume, every instrument is clear and crispy. I'll leave the archiving to the archivists, I want to listen. the 120gb of live Dead on my iPod keeps me groovin' down the road His job is to shed light, not to master...

Good morning everybody. I got the urgent message in my inbox to get over here. I have a lot of reading and catching up to do. I will say this, with all the new vines being proposed, I feel like I am drowning. There is SO MUCH stuff to keep track of. Thanks for all your efforts. I wish I had more to contribute.