No, you can't burn a WAV file to a data CD and play it on your CDJs. Just burn it as an audio CD; it's essentially a WAV file with a different TOC (table of contents).

Is there a technical quality difference? Yes. Will you notice the difference? Probably not. Still, I always spend the extra buck and get the WAV just for personal comfort

Last edited by djkoolaide on Nov-23-2006 at 19:22

Thankyou djkoolaide for a perfect response.

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I think it comes down to this. Do you play out to large crowds, and DJing is your livelihood? Are you an audiophille...really picky about your sound, and have the extra money to spend for WAV, then go for it. Just play in your bedroom or house parties, small clubs or bars, 320 kbps is fine. The only two stores I know of that sell WAVs of most tracks are Beatport and TrackItDown.net, the rest sell 320 kbps and 192 kbps MP3s, and they are still in business and DJs still buy from them.

I only buy WAVs for either older tracks you can't get on vinyl anymore, or for tracks I really really like. For tracks/artists I'm not as familiar with, or only being released as MP3, I go for MP3. I mean people can say "just spend the extra dollar, you wont regret it" but if you just listen to the tunes yourself and you can't tell the difference, it's just not worth it.

Last edited by Spirit5 on Nov-24-2006 at 02:56

if you're playing a gigantic orgasmatronic soundsystem with monstrous woofers and super high definition speakers that will blast for miles away... then yah.



you see, the idea behind MP3 is that it is a system that will take advantage of the human ear's shortcomings. being the crappy little things we are, we can only perceive a certain frequency range, below it, is what you call infrasound, above it is what you call ultrasound, both of which we cannot hear. MP3 compression algorithms will remove the frequencies outside this range to minimize filesize while still delivering sound comparable to the original product by our human perception. now, the higher the bitrate, the more space is taken up to add definition to the sound, hence the term bit-rate, and it's measurement, kbps, ie. kilobits per second. for every second of the track, X amount of kilobits are used. the more used, the higher quality it will have, obviously.

finally, some frequencies we cannot hear can however affect the overall output of a great soundsystem. but the cases where you will be able to notice any difference between 320kbps and WAV will probably be VERY few.

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Read this for really detailed and accurate information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3

Thanks for the information, i am bu no means a professional nor do i play out for an audience but I just recently purchased 2 CDJ 1000 MK3s togo along with my DJM 800 and really want to get the best out of my equipment. As far as monitoring goes, i have 2 KRK RP 5s that are just about what i need for my bedroom Djing.

I buy my tracks from beatport (320 mp3s)and the run them through ableton to get BPM readings, and recently noticed this process was converting those MP3s into WAV files. I wasn't too familiar with these files but just from listening to the two files using my headphones (the MP3 vs the WAV) i noticed the WAV was much more clear and crisp.

My main question was if i would be able to tell the difference in burning Audio CDs using the WAVs rather than MP3s. (My guess is that you can somewhat tell the difference ) And if it was WORTH IT going throught this whole process.

Another thing to those of you guys who pay the extra buck to beatport, you can just run the Mp3s through ableton and in less than a minute have the WAVs. (assuming you already own ableton)

a wav file created from the mp3 cannot improve from the quality of the mp3. the extra data is gone and isn't coming back.
any burning software will do the same conversion for you.

Exactly... it's like taking a wallet photo and trying to blow it up to a 16x20 poster, it won't look any better, it'll just be bigger.

WAV is just a file container format for audio. You can make WAV files that sound like telephone conversations, and you can make WAV files that far exceed CD quality sound.

The only thing I can say that ableton might be doing to the sound is running it through it's audio engine, which would certainly affect the audio in some way.

Why you getting the BPM of the tracks? (that's a whole different conversation)

quote:

Originally posted by tubby a wav file created from the mp3 cannot improve from the quality of the mp3. the extra data is gone and isn't coming back. any burning software will do the same conversion for you.

unless you're playing on a phazon or turbosound rig, you're not going to notice the difference

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quote:

Originally posted by Ryan0751 The only thing I can say that ableton might be doing to the sound is running it through it's audio engine, which would certainly affect the audio in some way.

yep, you can definetely hear the colour ableton adds to sound.

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i've heard DJs play 320 mp3s on the alpha concepts dynachord system at space miami (best sound system in the world in 04) and the difference is barely noticeable. it certainly wont keep you from going nuts when you hear your favorite beat drop. i DL everthing at 320, just my preference.