XPost: alt.music.makers.dj, alt.music.techno   
   From: dilvie@removethiss.dilvie.com   
      
   I totally disagree.  MOST club systems are not set up as ideal listening   
   machines.  They're set up to thump -- hard.  The high-ends get mangled   
   anyway, because club installers aren't watching out for phase   
   distortion, they're more concerned with coverage.  Under those   
   circumstances, a 192k .mp3 should sound just fine, but you're better off   
   with 192k .ogg files, as the high frequency mangling is even less   
   noticeable.  If you can do better, you'll probably want to -- always do   
   the best you can.   
      
   As for "okay on domestic gear" -- again, I totally disagree.  On a   
   decent pair of consumer headphones, or a decent home stereo system,   
   you'll be able to hear the distortion a LOT more clearly than you can   
   hear it in a packed club full of all kinds of ambient noise with   
   speakers pointed in 12 different directions generating all kinds of   
   phase-incoherence.   
      
   As an engineer who has installed club systems and professional recording   
   studios, and a DJ who drops .mp3's, .oggs, vinyl, and CD's, I can tell   
   you that 192k .oggs will sound just fine on a club system -- provided   
   that they match the frequency spectrum of the other music you are   
   playing fairly well -- which is never guaranteed if you're dropping some   
   desktop producer's new track that they mixed on their leet bass-reflex   
   home stereo with 3-band graphic EQ.  That will make a LOT more   
   difference than you'll hear between 192k and 320k encoding.   
      
   If you're dropping indie desktop music, make sure you've listened to the   
   tracks next to the sounds of professional producers, and it holds up   
   well on your professional reference monitors (you do own a pair, don't   
   you?)  You'll hear a LOT more detail on those than you'll hear in even   
   the best tuned club on a busy night -- guaranteed.   
      
   - Eric   
      
   Geoffrey wrote:   
      
   > Jase  wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   >>Are 192kbps MP3s of a high enough quality that they can stand up to   
   >>playing on a monster club sound system? I've heard recommendations of a   
   >>higher bitrate but would 192 suffice?   
   >   
   >   
   > Depends on what you mean by "big".   
   >   
   > My ears are well trained enough so that I can hear when a   
   > 'reconstituted' (MP3 to WAV then burnt to CD) track is being played on a   
   > well tuned system thats rated at 2 kW or more -- the low end bass sounds   
   > 'dead' and a lot of the high frequency stuff (cymbals, hi-hats, noise   
   > based percussion) comes over as 'crunchy'.   
   >   
   > I was at an outdoor party on the weekend where we trialled 12 kW worth   
   > of the new KV2 sound gear, and one of the last-up DJs dropped several   
   > reconstituted trance tracks into his set, and *boy* could we tell the   
   > difference.   
   >   
   > In short: Anything less than 320k is okay for playback on domestic gear   
   > (computer spekers, portable players etc), but if you want to play on a   
   > big system, 320k is the *minimum* I would recommend.   
      
      
   --   
   ~   
      
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)