Moderators MrKnobs Posted November 17, 2011 Moderators Share Posted November 17, 2011 Will some even play .wav files now? I'm asking because we started selling our albums at shows on thumb drives a while back and I've been using 192 kbps MP3s in addition to the standard .wav files which would sound just the same as the CD. We also toss in a few vids, some still pix, and the album art complete with lyrics since you can hardly find a thumb drive now that won't hold all that and still be mostly empty. So what's the MP3 bit rate limit on the popular devices, e.g. smart phones, iPods, other MP3 players, car stereos that accept USB drives, etc? Will 192 play on everything? Can I go 256 and still be sure everyone can play it? I saw Craig's post on CD obsolescence and it reminded me I've been meaning to ask this question for a while. Thanks! Terry D. P.S. We're also thinking about including HiDef files (96k/24 bit) on the thumb drives in case any cork sniffers attend our shows. The thumb drives are still expensive compared to CD blanks but then we save on the case and inserts and are currently packaging both albums on one thumb drive to keep the cost attractive. Would that be attractive to YOU if you were at a concert you enjoyed and wanted to take some music home? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 320 kbps never heard that any device wouldn't play the highest rate of 320 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MrKnobs Posted November 17, 2011 Author Moderators Share Posted November 17, 2011 320 kbps never heard that any device wouldn't play the highest rate of 320 Even older players? T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted November 17, 2011 CMS Author Share Posted November 17, 2011 Even older players? The player that I travel with is so old I can't even remember the brand. It says EMO in the file browser, which probably has something to do with the company name. It's 2 GB capacity and I've had it about 5 years. It plays 320 kbps MP3 files and 44.1 kHz 16-bit WAV files. I haven't pushed it beyond that. Are your fans smart enough to move the files from a thumb drive to their smart phone? Many don't know any other way to get loaded than to download using iTunes (something I've never used). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 Every iPod I've had will play .WAV files. This goes back to 2005 if not earlier. Current iPod/iPhone supported formats/resolution: AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bookumdano2 Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 Mine goes to 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MrKnobs Posted November 17, 2011 Author Moderators Share Posted November 17, 2011 Are your fans smart enough to move the files from a thumb drive to their smart phone? Many don't know any other way to get loaded than to download using iTunes (something I've never used). I'm thinking they might not be. Our thumb drives aren't exactly selling like hot cakes, people are still buying the CDs. Maybe that's one reason why. I don't know anything about iTunes, which is why I'm asking these questions here. Can't you just plug a USB thumb drive into your computer and import it into iTunes, and from there into an iPhone? Julie also decided to have some koozies made with her name on them. Turns out people think those should be free, since they're basically advertising. Then Julie went to plan B where she started putting up their pics with her koozie by their face and now they're selling. Terry D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BushmasterM4 Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 I do 320 on my old 60gig Ipod. It will do wave also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 Julie also decided to have some koozies made with her name on them. Turns out people think those should be free, since they're basically advertising. Then Julie went to plan B where she started putting up their pics with her koozie by their face and now they're selling. Brilliant! As long as you make it about them, that'll sell! It's amazing how many people want to have photos of themselves. "Here's me here. Here's me there. I'm gonna go traveling...oooooh, here's me in front of the Eiffel Tower! Here am I in front of the Taj Mahal!! Okay, here's me with my friends over here! Over there!" I'm not saying don't take a photo of yourself, just that people seem really preoccupied with this sort of thing! It shows too, when people send you photos of a party or a get-together. They'll only send you all the photos of you. I want photos of my friends and family too, but this doesn't seem to occur to a lot of people. This doesn't upset me at all...I just think it's kinda funny!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 sorry, was wrong, this brand new iPod doesn't play anything, but very nice for looking at Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 oh, and Knobs, if you are a hippie shopper you MUST have bamboo speakers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goobers Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 Then Julie went to plan B where she started putting up their pics with her koozie by their face and now they're selling. Koozie? So is that what the kids are calling it these days? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goobers Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 Are your fans smart enough to move the files from a thumb drive to their smart phone? Many don't know any other way to get loaded than to download using iTunes (something I've never used). I'd think more people "share" than download to iTunes, and speak both fluently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted November 17, 2011 Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 I'd think more people "share" than download to iTunes, and speak both fluently. The day it becomes standard that people can download potatoes, then one morning farmer Joe get out of his house and sees his fields already harvested, that saves him a lot of strenuous work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BushmasterM4 Posted November 18, 2011 Members Share Posted November 18, 2011 sorry, was wrong, this brand new iPod doesn't play anything, but very nice for looking at Id love to shove my ipod guts into one of those !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nerol1st Posted November 19, 2011 Members Share Posted November 19, 2011 My iphone plays pretty much anything wav included. Even aiff files work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted November 19, 2011 Members Share Posted November 19, 2011 My Android will play 320's. I was thinking about trying FLACs; it appears some Androids will play them natively? That said, I don't see the advantage as the converters in the phone are less than stellar. I did a pretty extensive shootout between my 2006 PC's mobo sound chip, my MOTU 828mkII, and my Android using my regular playback chain and the Android came in last. The gap between the PC and the Android was less than between the MOTU and the PC, though. I'd been using the mobo sound for casual playback until I switched to the MOG subscription service, which has all 320 kbps files; I thought I ought to just see how they sounded over the MOTU, which I'd previously mostly used for production, and I was kind of knocked back a bit by the difference. The jump from my old subscription services probably 160-192 kbps lossy files to the 320 was much more noticeable than I would have imagined, playing back over the MOTU. It started me on a more rigorous comparison and I realized I could pick 320s from 256s with statistical significance (by focusing on some tells). But over either the PC soundcard or the Android, the difference was not nearly as clear. Understood this is sort of well, duh stuff, but it highlights the fact that it's a good idea to vet one's assumptions. I'd done mp3 format comparisons before, typically at lower rates and not moving between platforms. It was quite interesting, as I hadn't really realized the gap between the MOTU and the PC sound was so striking, odd as that sounds. I mean, I knew the MOTU was better, and I just filed that away and went on listening to mp3 streams on the PC sound figuring it wasn't that big a deal. At lower qualities, that was true. But once I got up to 320, the difference really stands out. In fact, on occasion now I catch myself not having switched to the MOTU before listening to music and the sound difference is enough to actually catch my attention, even though I'm typically doing something like reading the paper (since it's most likely to happen first thing in the morning, since I still watch video at night over the mobo sound, so I can access the media controls via my IR remote). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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