I use 320 or highest quality VBR and never had any problems in clubs. Sounds fine.

drunk people cannot tell the difference

djnomadic - good point :)

i use 256bit and you cant ready tell the diff on most club systems b/c of the noise level from everyone in there talking,shouting,yelling,Moaning ;-P. i have used very very low bit rate mp3s b4 that sounded great (got lucky). Just keep your mp3's on the higher end of the bit rates and you will be ok.

I agree with dj disturbed i've used low bit rate mp3's before and it sounds like crap. The higher ones do sound better and you can't tell the difference. And and nomadic is right drunk people could care less

It also depends on the track I think.

I've even played *some* tracks from myspace without trouble.

Thread moved to *general discussions* section.

i think it really depends on the encoder. Ive heard tracks that sounded better and hit harder @ 128k encoded with SoundForge than tracks encoded @ 256k with iTunes.

All I use is mp3, and the crowd doesn't really know the difference, then again, after a few drinks, half the damn speakers could be out, and as long as they can tell what song is playing,they are alright.

But to specifically address the issue, a lot depends on who makes the mp3, in addition to the bit rate, if someone makes an mp3 file, saves it at 256K ,but the levels are too low or too high, used a crappy sound card a carefully made 128k mp3 with the proper levels, eq 'ing with a real good sound card will sound better.

Particularly now, there are a lot of amature producers out there that get a "A" for effort but don't know what the hell they are doing, like putting a limiter so the file looks like a flat line about 4 db below zero. (This really happened)

When does encoding an mp3 depend on your soundcard?

does anyone have any info on the sampling rate and bit depth for your standard laptop mic input?

320 is def. the way to go, i sometimes use around 256 and works fine if you don't have the space. below 128 and you got problems. hahhahah

b4 I got serato, I already had my mp3's backed up on DVD discs. I didn't really know about quality issues back then, I was only concerned with using less hard drive space. I ripped them at 80k and to be honest now that I have serato and i'm able to play the songs over a loud system. I don't know if I had a good encoder because the 80k songs sound just as good as something at 192k. I used free cd ripper back in 2002-03.

If only I could post a sample....

I've never had any problems. I try to use 320 files, but I have to use 128s sometimes. I can tell the difference in sound quality. As stated before, the other people at a bar won't know the difference.

Haha

even on my mobile i have the tracks at 192kbps:)

i agree, i have used 128 - in the club it doesn't make too much difference. but def. the bigger the better.

im impressed when the club doesnt have a ground loop somewhere.

It all depends on the source of the music, how you encode it.

The rule of thumb should be:

CRAP IN... CRAP OUT.

QUALITY IN ---> GOOD RATE AND CONVERSION TOOL ----> GREAT RESULT

True.

I think he meant recording it from vinyl into the pc/mac first (with the soundcard).