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Any quality difference of tracks between DJ pools and online stores?
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Any quality difference of tracks between DJ pools and online stores?

JayPack 2:59 PM - 31 July, 2015
I am an aspiring audiophile, and I would certainly pay more money to have a higher quality track. But is there really a difference in quality between sources?

For example, I want to purchase the song "I feel Better (Feat. Nick Nikon) - Overwerk" and on BeatPort it is $1.49, but on Amazon it is $1.29 -- It is only a 20 cent difference, but I intend to purchase a couple hundred songs over the next month or two. But it's not really about the money anyways...

Is it worth the extra money for the "extra" quality? Or is it the same exact thing (quality, default gain, etc) by both sources? And in general, do DJ pools generally give identical quality music to BeatPort or Amazon Music? (One DJ pool I used was Late Night Record Pool, they have a HUGE variety).

I don't really know how to measure quality, so I need your guys' input and experience. Please fill in whatever knowledge I may be missing here, THANKS!!!
deezlee 3:42 PM - 31 July, 2015
I dunno but "intro" mixes and "quick hitters", etc. on record pools sound like crap to me because they seem to be made out of mp3s and then re encoded into a MP3 after editing making a crappy result.
JayPack 3:57 PM - 31 July, 2015
Quote:
I dunno but "intro" mixes and "quick hitters", etc. on record pools sound like crap to me because they seem to be made out of mp3s and then re encoded into a MP3 after editing making a crappy result.



So, where do YOU get your quality tracks from?? If there are higher quality resources, I would love to know about them. Thanks! :)
deezlee 10:31 PM - 31 July, 2015
I'm not on a pool right now, I don't do gigs that require it anymore. If I wanted an intro or quick hitter type edit I'd make it myself. And leave it as a uncompressed format. But really w looping and cue points it's just as easy to mix the original tracks.
Mr. Goodkat 1:00 AM - 1 August, 2015
amazon vbr tracks generally sound awful. itunes is better. beatport is the best of the 3 imo.

wav/aiff are worth the money if its a quality tune or you want to reedit. there are not higher quality resources for many of the record pool edits. most sound bad to ok at best. but hey its crap music , thats extremely over mastered, so really its not a huge difference.
anthracite98 1:16 AM - 1 August, 2015
I feel like for a lot (not all) of pop music, as Mr Goodkat said, the mastering isn't ideal and the compressed/uncompressed aren't so different that you notice in most venues. And patrons usually don't notice either. On larger or more robust pro club systems, better quality uncompressed tracks will sound much much better.
JayPack 11:44 AM - 1 August, 2015
Okay but just curious, what about Amazon’s music? They say themselves that all their music is **256 kbps (MP3)**. Does that mean that they have lower quality music than the rest of the online stores?

Source: www.amazon.com
DJ Matty Stiles 5:44 PM - 2 August, 2015
Is it just me or does everything from DJcity and Latenite sound more compressed? The waveforms are way chunkier than the originals too
Mitchythekid 2:32 AM - 4 August, 2015
It probably has a lot to do with the editing process. They probably just run it through a mastering template in Ableton. As opposed to the original released file which was (more than likely) mastered by a professional.

Pool tracks are usually edited and meant for DJs. So they just have to sound fat on a PA sound system.

I am an audiophile myself. And I can't see myself sitting infront of my hi-fi to listen to any current/electronic music. I love it and play it. But quality listening time I prefer to listen to music with instruments. Mastered by a professional that works for a major label. Who used equipment that's worth as much as my house.
DJ Matty Stiles 4:26 AM - 4 August, 2015
Yeah almost certain they just run it through a "one size fits all" template with compression, limiter etc. I pray to god they're not warped and time stretching is kept in tact. and by the way some of the intros from pools sound atrocious so I make my own. It's only good for convenience sometimes