Use of MP3s in the Scene

Simon Jay/Visuale

There has been rather a furore recently about using MP3s for music in the scene. Several Hugi articles have discussed the pros and cons - mostly the cons - of cranking up the CODEC and MP3 encoding tracked music. This is a topic that I just couldn't keep my big mouth shut on anymore.

Personally, all my music is now MP3 encoded. Why? Because I no longer use tracker programs for scene music. I could write a whole article about that itself, but suffice to say that for several very good reasons, my music is now produced in my small but effective MIDI setup. Oh, and by the way, I still love tracked music, it's just that this is the way I personally prefer to work now. Well, gimme a break, I've only been using trackers intermittently for over 10 years *grin*. Of course, for the majority of that period I was neither releasing, or even worth listening to anyway, but you know...

Anyway, after I've finished using my few bits of MIDI gear (which by the way I literally starved myself last year to buy, so it's not like I'm some rich bastard), I have two options. One is to release the WAV file. Erm... well okay, realistically, I only have one option: to MP3 my stuff and do it like that. Without wishing to sound arrogant, I'd call that an effective use of MP3. I'd love nothing more than to be able to release my stuff in mod-style, less-than-1Mb sizes, but sadly, that just isn't possible if I want to maintain a quality above the sound of an untuned radio.

Other effective uses of MP3 include the oft-quoted example of encoding tunes with live vocal lines / guitar parts / bass parts, etc. This is also an effective use of the encoding, to get invaluable things such as vocals into as small a space as possible without recording them all at 8bit and 11kHz. MP3ing your tracks is, in fact, a good idea if you have to use any huge samples, the size of which absolutely can not be reduced any other way without drastically compromising the quality (note: "drastically").

This leads neatly to the main point I have to make. Most tracks that are MP3ed are supposedly done so to "improve the sound". Typically, the tracker might make a whole, hugely oversized tune out of gigantic 16 bit, 44Khz samples. Thinking "oh, it's almost as big as an MP3 anyway, another Mb won't matter", he/she then adds some almost undetectable EQ and a tiny hint of reverb, and then MP3s the track to 'preserve' these changes. Like in the tale of the Emperor's New Clothes, the trackers that do this then think they hear a huge difference in quality.

Well, if they actually listened, they would indeed hear a difference, although maybe not of the kind they expected: and this is because MP3 is a lossy compression. You know, as in "discards 9/10 of the original data". The artifacts of this are well known, and although subtle, can be heard; a slight loss of low level detail, some alteration of the top end and high mids, a slight alteration of the bass end, an ever-so-slightly "duller" sound.

Now of course, there are a million and one reasons to be grateful for this format, such as when a tune has those pesky vocals; a slight alteration in detail and frequency response is far better than recording them all in mega-lo-fi in order to keep the XM or IT file to a reasonable size. But to the "I MP3 to keep all my 44.1Khz, delicately EQed and reverbed stuff intact" people, the glaring irony of this situation never seems to become apparent: that almost all their mega-subtle "improvements" are lost in the encoding process!

The bottom line is simple: Before you reach for the "Encode..." menu option, think about whether additions you have made that require the tune to be MP3ed are worth it. By that, I mean not only the hassle of finding out they are almost totally lost in the encoding process, but also whether they are strictly necessary in the first place.

And most of all, I have had some stick for switching to using my little studio to make scene music. Please. If you're going to criticise me for this, it's up to you, but check your back catalogue very carefully for MP3 releases... you may avoid the stink of hypocrisy that way. After all, with an MP3, it doesn't matter how you made it; the file size per minute is the same: big. And in 99% of cases with tracked music, unnecessary.

Simon Jay/Visuale