Soundcloud Format (MP3, WAV)

[HalfTone]

Do you upload your tracks in WAV format or 320 MP3's?

Soundcloud always seems to make my 320's quieter and reduces the bass on them

[mthrfnk]

I personally use 320kbps mp3's, that way if I offer a download people get a ~15mb mp3 not a ~50mb wav. SoundCloud transcodes all uploads for the player to 128kbps anyway, hence the quality loss.

[HalfTone]

I personally use 320kbps mp3's, that way if I offer a download people get a ~15mb mp3 not a ~50mb wav. SoundCloud transcodes all uploads for the player to 128kbps anyway, hence the quality loss.

Ok thanks

[Electric_Head]

it`s all compressed anyway, mp3

[rammyb]

For my downloads I only use it in the MP3 format, and I like to use http://yt2mp3.net/ to download it, I find the soundcloud download options a bit choppy.

[SICKNASTY]

i use WAV it seems to be more clear, loud and smooth

[Hashkey]

it's better to up a wav if it goes to mp3.
Better to be compressed once than two.

WAV -> MP3 320 -> MP3 soundcloud.
WAV -> MP3 soundcloud. (better solution)
and don't forget to dither
Just be patient and wait 10 mins more for the upload to finish

[AxeD]

Well people are divided on this subject, but Soundcloud says the same
thing as Haskey here.

I would like to add that, in my opinion, you don't need to apply dither on most dance music.
Any form of music with heavily compressed/limited dynamics doesn't really need it.

[Hashkey]

hey Axe I must Disagree.
Well really I haven't been precise with the dithering thing.
If you go from 24-32 to 16 you must absolutely dither because you'll get digital distortion caused by quantization truncation.
Plus in out genre that is heavily compressed, that shitty distortion is bringed up.
It's better some pleasing hiss than digital distortion.
I hope I've been clear ^_^

[ehbes]

i use WAV it seems to be more clear, loud and smooth

bullshit, it all gets compressed to a 128 kbps mp3

[legend4ry]

hey Axe I must Disagree.
Well really I haven't been precise with the dithering thing.
If you go from 24-32 to 16 you must absolutely dither because you'll get digital distortion caused by quantization truncation.
Plus in out genre that is heavily compressed, that shitty distortion is bringed up.
It's better some pleasing hiss than digital distortion.
I hope I've been clear ^_^

Pretty much this.

I upload 320s because I'd rather people steal the slightly distorted version than the nice, clean one, even at 128 - theres a fair amount of difference.

[cyclopian]

i use WAV it seems to be more clear, loud and smooth

bullshit, it all gets compressed to a 128 kbps mp3

yeah but compressing something twice is clearly worse than compressing it once

[Hashkey]

hey Axe I must Disagree.
Well really I haven't been precise with the dithering thing.
If you go from 24-32 to 16 you must absolutely dither because you'll get digital distortion caused by quantization truncation.
Plus in out genre that is heavily compressed, that shitty distortion is bringed up.
It's better some pleasing hiss than digital distortion.
I hope I've been clear ^_^

Pretty much this.

I upload 320s because I'd rather people steal the slightly distorted version than the nice, clean one, even at 128 - theres a fair amount of difference.

Absolutely agreed.

[ehbes]

i use WAV it seems to be more clear, loud and smooth

bullshit, it all gets compressed to a 128 kbps mp3

yeah but compressing something twice is clearly worse than compressing it once

The compression that goes on in a 320 is almost indistuingishable from that of a wav

[AxeD]

hey Axe I must Disagree.
Well really I haven't been precise with the dithering thing.
If you go from 24-32 to 16 you must absolutely dither because you'll get digital distortion caused by quantization truncation.
Plus in out genre that is heavily compressed, that shitty distortion is bringed up.
It's better some pleasing hiss than digital distortion.
I hope I've been clear ^_^

Pretty much this.

I upload 320s because I'd rather people steal the slightly distorted version than the nice, clean one, even at 128 - theres a fair amount of difference.

If you use a lot of outboard gear, dithering will actually bring up unwanted noise rather
than fight it. General rule that I stick to: only apply dither on clean signals when the end
product is still relatively dynamic.

Also, when you apply dither and then soundcloud changes the compression format once again,
the effect is lost. Dither absolutely has to be the very last step for it to make a difference.

Fabfilter seminar I went to covered this stuff. Its all debatable though, its not my intention
to say your methods are wrong

[knobgoblin]

It's generally best to only convert once, and always from the highest resolution available. When uploading to soundcloud, I usually use the native 24-96k wav files. If you can't hear the difference between 320kbs and full res audio, you have a problem with monitoring, conversion or ears. MP3 conversion smears transients, limits bandwidth, and reduces stereo image and separation. These problems are compounded by each iteration of conversion.

[Banesy]

Well people are divided on this subject, but Soundcloud says the same
thing as Haskey here.

I would like to add that, in my opinion, you don't need to apply dither on most dance music.
Any form of music with heavily compressed/limited dynamics doesn't really need it.

The only need for dithering is if you kick your track out at 24 or 32 bit and you want to get the track onto a CD (need 16bit). Some people still play CDs in their cars so it isn't a bad thought but you should know why you are dithering...don't do it just for the sake of doing it.

Soundcloud won't make your tracks quieter. The only real problem with them is that you can't upload a track limited at 0db because you get tons of crap artifacts after they convert it. -0.3db seems to be safe. Just note that if you open a track for download, the people will download the file that you upload, not the soundcloud converted file so if you upload a huge wav file, that is what people will DL.

On the subject of loudness...I have found that on iPhones in particular, anything played through iTunes is louder than any other app so if you are are comparing your track played in iTunes vs Soundcloud, you will notice that soundcloud isn't as loud on a iDevice. I don't know what Apple does but iTunes on an iPhone seems to get VIP access to an amp where other apps don't.

[outbound]

WAV for me unless it's going to be a freebie download

[legend4ry]

just FYI.

Theres a very easy way to use the soundcloud API to download the source file you uploaded - like people would if you enabled downloads.


People are stealing your wavs.

[cyclopian]

^The key to preventing that is to make music that no one will want to steal