I'm a digital DJ and am cleaning up my mp3s. I want to re-encode all my VBR MP3s into the best possible CBR alternative. Quality is the main issue. File size is not an issue. I am aware that I will be losing quality during this transcoding and am willing to lose some but as little as possible My reasons for doing this are as follows: 1) when using Final Scratch/Traktor/Serato I occasionally run into glitches on certain mp3s which are VBR 2) when using (and I rarely do this as mostly I spin Audio CDs) CDJ200's or 800's again VBR mp3s are often misread and timing is all screwy (A known issue with VBR) What is the best possible way to go about doing what I need with the least possible loss in quality? My thinking was to 1) use EncSpot to spot all my VBR mp3s 2) Separate the VBRs from the CBRs 3) Backup all the VBRs (Just in case) 4) Find and note Bitrate range for all VBR's - This is something I don't know how to do. does EncSpot do this? Another app maybe? I need to obtain like this: trackname.mp3 - High VBR: 192 Low VBR:128 5) Convert all my VBR's -> .Wav (going from lossy to lossless) 6) Re-encode all those .Wav into MP3 at the CBR based on the highest Bitrate from the VBR. such as trackname.wav --> trackname.mp3 192k (based on the above VBR mp3) 7) A/B my new CBR mp3's vs. the Backed up VBRs It's a process but I need to do it as I require the reliable timing and glitchless decoding CBR provides me. Also, am I forgetting anything? Should I be making note of Joint Stereo/Stereo and re-encoding -> dumping wavs in any particular way? I'm not new to encoding/decoding. I'm just new to doing it properly!! Any help (such as recommended tools - LAME? EncSpot? Etc..) in this hellish process would be greatly appreciated Thanks!
on a more serious note... I always use steinberg's wavelab for all things mp3 and wav related. Im an audio engineer and dj and it seems to do everything I need it to for dj'ing I use nothing else but vinyl. i tried using mp3's a couple of times but I hated it every single time! good luck anyhow!
With Serato you use vinyl (with Digital Timecode) which triggers mp3s through the mixer - dropping the needle wherever you want to cue points in the track... the only tricky thing is there's no grooves on the provided vinyl and you have to rely on the wave display onscreen to anticipate breakdowns etc. Best of both worlds. But - herein lies my issues. VBR doesn't always play nice although really this issue happens 1/50 times I throw a VBR its way. regardless 1 out of 50 is 1 too many if you're playing live.
yeah I get what your saying, its the quality factor that put me off entirely when using mp3's. its a bloody shame cos I have a library of thousands... I tried using two laptops with a mixer using a program that i think was called mixpro, it allowed the use of the pitch change which meant that each laptop would act like a turntable in its own right with no lag and no confusion just using the mixer as usual with both laptops connected to a LAN harddrive with the library on it, but i could never get my head around not having full control of the cueing. it just peed me off so i carried on with the vinyl! the major problem i had was quality of tracks not matching and volume levels not normalized. that prog your using looks kinda cool like i said - steinbergs wavelab is the best prog i've used for editing waveforms directly - have you tried this for your issue?
actually maybe im mistaken... im not sure i understand what a vbr is lol! but keep it up tho dude, mp3 mixing is deffo the way forward
