SO MP3 or WAV

[olds442]

 MP3 or WAV what has the better sound also if you could post what encode you use for the WAV or MP3

[gyrene81]

http://www.angelfire.com/vt2/tommymc3/MP3vsWav.html

as good of an explanation as i've seen...i use lame mp3 encoder...don't know about anyone else.

[Motherland]

What's the sample rate you have to use for AH?
I'm guessing that (speaking in the context of AH) you could take a .wav recorded at a much higher sample rate than is compatible with the game and then compress it to a decent bitrate. Then again I don't know what the specifications of the MP3 have to be.


Does the overhead of uncompressing MP3 files actually amount to anything?

[olds442]

well for AH im liking wav. he is the code i use


PCM uncompressed 6000hz 16bit stereo

now my question is is the code above the best for AH sounds


(would like answer from a sound maker )

[Skuzzy]

MP3 is a lossy format, so the more it is compressed down, the more data is tossed.  MP3 will incur higher overheads for playback than WAV will, given all other things being equal (sample rate, bit depth...).

If you playback an MP3 and a WAV, that were recorded the same, neither would match the original, exactly.  PCM introduces some artifacting which is sometimes heard as harmonics in a WAV file (sample rate and bit depth will impact this).  MP3 tosses subtle changes as the human ear is not supposed to be able to hear them anyway (sample rate and bit depth will impact this).

[Ninthmessiah]

WAV is better, but you wont hear the difference if the mp3 bitrate is high enough.  If you've bought a CD within the past 15 years, it was likely recorded at 24bit, 96khz in wav/pcm format.  It was then dithered down to 16bit, 44khz for CD production.  This is what you hear when you jam from the actual CD.  Mp3 compresses the data and introduces artifacts most noticeable in the hi-hats and cymbals if the bitrate is low enough.  I can tell a low bitrate mp3 by the "digital" sound of the cymbals.  Above 123kbps you won't hear a difference.  FLAC and proprietary formats is a can of worms I don't want to look at.

Unless your an audiophile, just go with mp3. 

[olds442]

WAV is better, but you wont hear the difference if the mp3 bitrate is high enough.  If you've bought a CD within the past 15 years, it was likely recorded at 24bit, 96khz in wav/pcm format.  It was then dithered down to 16bit, 44khz for CD production.  This is what you hear when you jam from the actual CD.  Mp3 compresses the data and introduces artifacts most noticeable in the hi-hats and cymbals if the bitrate is low enough.  I can tell a low bitrate mp3 by the "digital" sound of the cymbals.  Above 123kbps you won't hear a difference.  FLAC and proprietary formats is a can of worms I don't want to look at.

Unless your an audiophile, just go with mp3. 

im a audiophile