Theres a surefire tool for that

encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com

What record pool are you using? I know some are notorious for transcoding 192kbps tracks to 320kbps.

which pools do that?

Spectrum analysis: www.walterdevos.be

if someone puts an 8 bar intro on an already 320 mp3, and re-bounces it, its not gonna be a 320 mp3. i know of record pools that are doing this, but for the most part its sh*t music, so it doesnt really matter

From what I gather, even editing a 320 mp3 will reduce quality somewhat. The software has to decode the mp3 just to work with the file, then re-code it once you render it. I'm not sure how bad the degradation is (will anyone notice?), but the decoding/encoding process always drops some data from the file.

It's transcoding indeed. I pick it up somewhat. There's always those minute differences.

I gotta admit, I can't tell the difference between 256 and 320 kps for most music. I do notice 128 though, but I doubt that the crowds I'm catering to (mostly weddings) pay that much attention. Pumping through a couple Mackies and a QSC sub, guests are more driven to dance than analyze the quality of compression. I try to keep the low bitrate songs to a minimum and replace them as I find them, but it seems that only true audiophiles and DJs are concerned with 320 mp3.

P.S. Tony Andrews would shoot me if he could!
Watchwww.youtube.com

of course its our job to filter out the shit on behalf of our customers who dont know any better...

+1

True, but how many times do we hear on this forum DJs who cater to the lowest common denominator and undercut other DJs? This includes low bitrate music they bought on Craigslist. Although it is our job to provide the best quality available, it's hard to convince the public that you are more professional than the latest 17 yr old with a Fisher Price controller and music ripped from youtube when the audience can't tell the difference!

The demand for quality almost has to start with the audience.

ha... good luck with that.

LOL - I know, right! This is why crappy DJs and bad sound systems are the norm these days.

Word...

...and I'm sorry, but I wouldn't dare rip music from YouTube like some people do (not even just DJ's but people in general). My own personal standards would never allow for such to occur.

Agreed...it seems youtube rips are the big thing now...Rappers are notorious for low quality rips...I've had em send me tracks to do their mixtapes that were all 96 bitrate and they're completely clueless about it (like can't you hear how poor they sound) or where it's a higher bitrate and the vocals they recorded in the studio sound good but the beat sounds terrible and you can tell it was a youtube rip or something...

and their show tracks are the worst, low quality and the levels are completely different from track to track, even when I recently spun for a certain legendary MC, when I got the show tracks from her they were all worse quality than what I already had in my collection and one was even 64kbps

Even when I had my first ever mp3 player, that ran on AA batteries and took CF cards (so I had 64mb of storage) I still just had hardly any songs rather than go to that low of quality.

^ truth


ive had local rappers show up to sound check with some horrible sounding show mixes... i told them they have to get a better quality mix or ive got another artist on backup that will replace them.

im sorry but my rep was built on playing high quality, great sounding music...and ive been told time and time again how much clearer and punchier my music is compared to the competition.





^truth again... it amazed me, when i started opening for mainstream artists, how much they DONT have their shit together (mainly hip hop artists). they are Late for performances, horrible quality show mixes, handing you their mixshow as they are walking on stage to perform...etc. just seems like noone gives a fuck about professionalism

ive never had any problems with pop artists or country artists.

Most of the time I've worked with live performers, they are still rocking up with their own Minidisc player to patch into the system. I'd rather that than some 96kbps on a USB key bullshit.
Although they always ask me to apply reverb to the mic, and get all bitchy when I tell them the mixer I have doesn't have mic effects and if they'd given me notice, I'd have hooked up the one that does,

Recently we had festival where kid cudi headlined one of the stages, he was told he had a certin time set and regardless he HAD to be done by 11pm

Lol dropped the phone lets try again

Recently we had festival where kid cudi headlined one of the stages, he was told he had a certin time set and regardless he HAD to be done by 11pm no if ands or buts, of course he shows up like 30 minuteslate to his set takes another 10 minutes on ashit soundcheck does like 4 songs that sound like shit and at 11pm midsong the promoters cut the power as was explained to him. Of course being the professional that he is he throws a fit and starts destroying stage equipment and has to be escorted off stage, as opposed to flux pavilion who was on another stage half way thru bass cannon when the power was cut who shook a few fans gands thanked everyone for comming andhappily took off

Watchwww.youtube.com

I fail to see what you're talking about from the video, unless it just doesn't show it?

Its hard to tell but you can see him kicking the speakers off stage

At 3:04 he walks over throws the mic down kicks an amp rack then kicks over the speakers which topple offstage, you can hear the crowd telling "break it break it" as it happens

3:23 is when security escorts him off stage

Had to put it up to 1080p fullscreen to even make it out, I see your point but I'd say it's a pretty mild example.

Oh definatly it wasnt bad at all but its still completly unprofessional and generally childish

cudi sux, talk about cuttin a career short...his last album is awful.

The weird thing was he really didnt belong on the lineup anywas it was all

Edm djs then him headlining

My boy plays a copy of Danza Kuduro in his car that makes my ears bleed. Ive given him the 320 file but he still plays the shitty one. Im shocked he hasn't blown his speakers with the distorted crappy mess coming from that file.

it was that crookers remix probably. press has nothing but bad things about that dude.

Not record pools as such like dj city etc, but promo companys promoting tunes on the behalf or record companys

correction...on behalf of record companys

That seemed to be a track there were tonnes of terrible copies of getting around, even from legit record pools. I think I had 3 versions before I finally found one that sounded relatively ok.

I had a bride-to-be send me a bunch of links for some youtube songs she wanted. When I told her that I did not want to rip them from youtube for quality reasons, she had a fit. I found most of them on Amazon or iTunes and paid for them. At the wedding, I played the two versions side by side and the bride could clearly hear the difference. She then complimented me on my professionalism and tipped quite nicely.

People just don't know these days and have no clue what is good and what is crap!

Not for nothing, Reflex, but the way tracks are getting pumped out these days with people having no damn clue how to properly record, level or master a song, many a song from even the best of sources do not sound much better than the 240p tracks on YouTube...

Roger that. I do have a question though...

What is the best bitrate you can get from youtube? I heard it was 128 at best on the HD setting. I've gotten some pretty crappy tracks from iTunes before. Their videos are horrible! I often have to re-edit the videos with better audio tracks overlayed.

i bet he was booked based based on the crookers remix of day n nite... Half these promoters don't even listen to the music from the artists they book anymore - they just think about $$$

You have to remember that everyone is is used to those shitty earbuds that come with their iPhones nowadays.

An entire generation of kids who have no concept if what "good sound" even is.

true

Last time I tried to use a pair of those (to listen to some acoustic stuff as I went to sleep) - I made it about 30 seconds into a song before getting up to go find my Sennheisers, the sound is utterly horrible and I couldn't listen to it, even when I was just trying to go to sleep.
Yet when I worked in retail, people would constantly come in to specifically buy them (although I'm sure that was more to do with appearance than anything)

Google encodes audio on these videos in the following steps:

1080p: 2 Channel 192Kbps VBR AAC (Maximum bit-rate of ~203 (+/-) Kbps) @ 44.1KHz
720p (2013 to date): 2 Channel 192Kbps VBR AAC (Maximum bit-rate of ~203 (+/-) Kbps) @44.1KHz
720p (prior to 2013): 2 Channel 160Kbps VBR AAC (Maximum bit-rate of 240 Kbps) @44.1KHz
480p: 2 Channel 129 Kbps CBR AAC @ 44.1KHz

I don't have any proof, but I'd speculate that 360p is likely at 96Kbps and 240p at 64Kbps (Possibly with a lower sample rate as well).

From the company that brings you overpriced RCA, Coaxial, Composite, Component, and HDMI cables:

Beats by Dre Monster.

I'll leave it there.

I'd agree with your speculation, and also add that the majority of original files uploaded to YouTube have compressed audio to begin with, so any further encoding Google do is transcoding from lossy to even more lossy. Ouch!

Gotcha.