Topic: trade: minidisc = mp3/lossless?

[mr qpl]

did this happen to come from a Portugese taper, by any chance?

[DisturbedPyro]

It's lossy. 

Think of it this way, any lossless recording method in .wav format is gonna record at 44.1k or 48k samples per second.  That much data requires corresponding storage space.  A hi-md disc can hold about 1 gig of data, which is only an hour or two of recording.  Hi-MD recorders have a one-off mode that gets something like 7 hours on a single Hi-MD disc and the sound is still high quality sound, at least to the ears although maybe not when you look at it analyzed on a computer. EDIT BASED ON LATER POSTS I'm pretty sure that's one of the LP4 modes that is being spoken of.

I didn't look or listen to the links you posted, but does the source sound good?  Do you have reason to believe that he's telling you the truth about the source info being direct from the master? 

If the answer to both of these is 'yes', then it doesn't seem to me that there's any problem, even though TLH may have said so.  Just because it's missing some expected bits on the analysis data side doesn't make it a bad recording.  I've always subscribed to the concept that, if it's the best available original and if it sounds good...then it is good, but I think I may be in the minority on that point here in TS.com because lots of people will diss a lossy recording on that point alone...even if it sounds great.

oh no, im not saying its a bad recording. and i do believe this is his master. im just trying to figure out if its lossless or lossy. also its the only recording from this show. so im glad to have it. im not one to really care if its in lossless or mp3 format. as long as it sounds good thats all that matters. ive heard mp3s that sound better than lossless recordings. it depends on many more factors than just what format the file is in

all i am trying to do is figure out if this show is a lossless or lossy mp3 recording so i know how i should categorize it in my list of shows. also if theres any reason for me to keep in in flac (as he gave it to me) or convert it to mp3 since its a lossy recording anyway

now i know it is lossy. so i found out what i needed to know. thanks a lot everyone

did this happen to come from a Portugese taper, by any chance?

as a matter of fact...it does

[itook2much]

all i am trying to do is figure out if this show is a lossless or lossy mp3 recording so i know how i should categorize it in my list of shows. also if theres any reason for me to keep in in flac (as he gave it to me) or convert it to mp3 since its a lossy recording anyway

now i know it is lossy. so i found out what i needed to know. thanks a lot everyone

Don't convert it to mp3.  At the moment, the recording you have is "lossy" only in relation to the live show itself, or in comparison to "what could have been" if it was recorded to wave.

Still, it is the full spectrum that was recorded.  If you decode the flac to wave & encode to mp3, you will remove more due to the conversion.  The resulting mp3 will be lossy in comparison to what you already have.

[boojum]

This recording was ATRAC; lossy.  Transcoding lossy to lossy is always a bad idea as each new lossy recording is throwing away more data.  You can transcode lossy to lossless with no loss of data, but why make a big file out of a small file?  It will not sound any better, it cannot, and it will only take up more space.   

[sml42]

but why make a big file out of a small file?

Generally, with MD, you can't actually get the raw ATRAC data off the disc.

This has been discussed several times on here before, the concensus as I recall was that the best transfer you could do was to capture the digital/optical out from a MD player (yes, that is a real-time transfer). It obviously makes sense to convert the resulting wav file to flac.

If this is how the taper transferred the show, then be happy.

best regards,
stephen