I wouldn't use that shit.

By your response, it sounds like the quality is very bad. I guess I have to find another way of getting some old school music

The quality is not the best but I doubt drunk patrons at a club will care or even notice the difference.

Thanks sixxx. That's what I was wondering, if the everyday person that doesn't pay close attention to the sound would notice the difference.

OK to begin with I think it the Itunes stuff is as good as CD quality. Especially on newly recorded ie today's music. There is some music available out there that is compressed badly but most of that is spoken word and comedy. Now since you have to convert the itunes music (burn to CD and import) to use it with SSL I am finding that there is no problem. Just make sure you use 192 or above to encode.

I found some tracks from iTunes are OK, while others somehow don't 'bounce'. It's not so much the audio quality it's somehow there is a lack of energy, don't know why...

It's like you're playing a sure shot that usually gets everybody on the floor but it has only 50% of it's power compared to playing the 12" single.

Anybody else experienced that?

Thanks BLuv....

With that said, I wouldn't waste the time or energy. That money, time downloading, burning, ripping, encoding, tagging and organizing can be spent on a source with a much better quality from jump.

Actually, the process isn't that bad in my opinion. I have a CD-Burner program that I use to convert music from iTunes so I never waste blank CD-Rs. The process goes something like this

1. Download
2. Compile playlist and burn - this will take ~4-8 mins for a full CD
3. Rip - again, another ~4-8 mins for 15+ songs. The cool thing about iTunes is that it keeps name, album and genre info if you don't eject the CD. When you rip it back (mp3 192kbps), all that info gets retained. You can sort using "Date Added" to find the new MP3 files.
4. Drop files into Mix Meister BPM Analyzer - if you drag and drop directly from iTunes into the BPM Analyzer, it will update the BPM in the file info automatically.
5. Build overviews in Serato

I'm really not an expert on the sound quality but they've been passable at the club I play at.

I meant to say "Virtual CD-Burner" program.

*cougheditbuttoncough*

*coughpreviewbuttoncough* I know. It sucks. lol

Yeah. The process isn't that complex. If you can get your hands on higher quality files, by all means do it.

If you are on PC and located in the US you could try to find a title on Real Music Store first before you go to iTunes. They use the same compression like iTunes but at 192 kbit/s instead of 128 kbit/s so you get better quality. But like iTunes, some files just sound crappy in a club.

Also, for encoding I would make sure to use LAME instead if iTunes' own encoder and encode at 320 kbit/s to minimize the loss due to reencoding. 128 kbit/s is already at the lower end quality wise, don't make it even worse...

Maybe you just download what you need try how it sounds and for some important tracks/classics you try to get a better quality version in the long term.

it's been argued that the 128kpbs AAC files are as good if not better than 192kpbs mp3s but I could be wrong. I've also read here in the forums to use LAME, is that because the iTunes encoder is that bad? Will LAME rip straight from a CD? I've never used it before.

Thanks for the tips btw. I've never used Real Music Store but I'll probably check that out.

^ On PC you can rip the CD with Exact Audio Copy (EAC) which can be configured to use LAME to encode the ripped files. EAC is probably the most accurate ripper and free but the user interface is a bit old fashioned.

On Mac I believe you can configure iTunes to use LAME, never did that though.

you used to be able to get itunes to use lame... not sure if its still possible.

AAC is technically a more efficient file format than mp3... a 192kbps aac sounds better on earphones, or on pc speakers than a 192 mp3, but in a club situation, you notice whats missing... which is the 'punch / life' lacking effect that Boogie Down refers to...

This is what iv noticed from personal experience, not that iv based on any formulaic fact..

aac is fine, keep using Itunes. So many people can't hear the difference between 128k & a wave. Which is very sad, but be confident you won't have someone come up to & say "is that a aac file your playing" ha....it will never happen.

Maybe using headphones or hifi-speakers the difference is not big but I noticed a 'lack of energy' with many iTunes tracks on club systems and sweetL seems to have experienced the same thing.

It's hard to rock it in a club with lack of energy in the bassline and drums.

I've downloaded a few tracks off iTunes and I havent encountered these kinds of problems. They sound OK.