Music Download –MP3 or WAV

[John Rofrano]

[Dave Petteruto] “What is better to download MP3 or WAV? I notice that the WAV files are considerably larger. What’s the difference between the two file types?”

Always download WAV files. They are uncompressed while MP3 is highly compressed to the point where it may alter the sound of the recording. You never want to use MP3 unless you have nothing else to use because while it might sound OK during playback, it will need to be rendered again and loose quality for the final video which is why you want to stick with uncompressed WAV files (unless you don’t care about your audio being good). 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Scott Simpson]

I’ll second what John said, and add another reason or two.

I’ve also downloaded production music from Videoblocks, and I like it. When I’m doing a video and want to add a backing track, I’ll go to my folder of production music and sort it by length, then check some files close to the length of my piece to make sure the music is appropriate for the content. From there, I can use Vegas’ time-stretching function to make the music match the picture perfectly.

Doing that with WAV ought to sound better than MP3 all the time.

Now, having said that, I’ve downloaded most of the items as MP3. This is a “do as I say, not as I do” example.

As for the difference between the two formats — WAV is a file in which the audio signal is sampled and represented at high fidelity…usually 44,100 times or 48,000 times per second. The files are large, because the WAV file stores the sample values at, what, 44k per second of audio.

MP3 allows for smaller file sizes because it analyzes the audio signal and completely gets rid of information that research has shown people supposedly can’t hear. What’s left after that throw-away process is then compressed further — you’ve probably used ZIP and RAR files, and those are data compression schemes, too.

So, because MP3 throws away so much information to achieve smaller file size, the only defensible reason for using MP3 is because file size is more important than quality. Logic suggests that if you’re doing video production, storage space is not your biggest concern. Thus, you’re probably going to want to get WAV files, always.

Canadian broadcaster brought up in analog, living in digital. Radio’s my career, audio-video-photography are hobbies that make a buck here and there.

[Dave Petteruto]

Thanks much for the information John and Scott. I figured that the larger WAV files would be better than the MP3, but just wasn’t sure. You have answered my question and I appreciate your time.

Thanks
Dave P.

Intel I7 950, 12GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 SE, Vegas Pro 10 (32bit/64bit), Windows 7 Pro 64bit, LG WH10LS30 10X Bluray Burner.

[John Rofrano]

You’re welcome Dave. Glad we could help. 🙂

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com