WAV or MP3

[ToddB]

Hey All-
Was just curious as to what format most people submit. WAV or MP3?

[Casey H]

Up until the recent Taxi website upgrade (2-3 years ago I think), mp3 was the only format you could upload. Now you can upload wav or mp3. All of the tracks on my page are still 192K mp3 and I really don't think it matters at all for submissions. An mp3 of at least 192K, 320K even better, is more than enough quality for reviewing a song. With very rare exceptions, if your song gets returned it won't be because you uploaded mp3 instead of wav.

Remember that if a library wants to sign your track, they will ask you for high res files then (wav or aif/aiff).

That being said, nothing wrong with uploading wav if you feel better knowing you uploaded the high res version. You have nothing to lose except a little time for the upload.

Casey

[ToddB]

Thank You Casey

[KayBur]

In my opinion, MP-3 is the most popular format. It is used in both phones and computers. In short, everywhere. The main thing is that the quality of the recording is good.

[cosmicdolphin]

It's very difficult to discern a WAV from a 320k MP3 for most people but the file size is 10x smaller

[Casey H]

It's very difficult to discern a WAV from a 320k MP3 for most people but the file size is 10x smaller

Nit-picky... About 4x smaller (44.1K 16 bit wav vs. 320K mp3).

What's most important is that people don't think that the reason they got rejected on poor production quality is mp3 vs. wav. It's 99.99% not the case. That is unless you exported a hi res mix that just plain bad to begin with and converted that to mp3. Remember, the file you upload to Taxi is for SCREENING/REVIEW first and foremost. Many or most libraries I work with screen by mp3 and if they accept, ask for wav or aif. I have over 50 songs with that "Critical" library. Every one if them was initially screened by them with a 128K mp3!

At the risk of a bad guitar pun... Don't fret about this.

Casey

[gitanosoy]

Always wav.

[MBantle]

Up until the recent Taxi website upgrade (2-3 years ago I think), mp3 was the only format you could upload. Now you can upload wav or mp3. All of the tracks on my page are still 192K mp3 and I really don't think it matters at all for submissions. An mp3 of at least 192K, 320K even better, is more than enough quality for reviewing a song. With very rare exceptions, if your song gets returned it won't be because you uploaded mp3 instead of wav.

Remember that if a library wants to sign your track, they will ask you for high res files then (wav or aif/aiff).

That being said, nothing wrong with uploading wav if you feel better knowing you uploaded the high res version. You have nothing to lose except a little time for the upload.

Casey

I agree with Casey - in particular for last minute uploads I definitely say mp3 makes sense

[pepeluis]

Hi folks,
Only disadvantage with using wav files is that it not possible to include metadata eg track ownership and artist contact details etc.
Having read numerous times about how important it is in order to avoid an unidentified track being passed up. Obviously this is less likely with taxi sourced libraries but have read about problems due to unlabelled tracks being unusable to producers for that reason. Can't fill out cue sheets without these details.
All the best, Pepe