Music recording format

[Jivemaster]

Something that is asked by a group I'm a member of, Maybe I can have a small range of ideas please.

 

What is a sound engineer's preferred format for a simple track for a performance group to arrive in -hoping the party planner has even mentioned it!

 

To be close to 100% should we take iPod, MP3 on USB stick, MP3 on CD, real CD (several). Should we take a player?

[jmdh]

Something that is asked by a group I'm a member of, Maybe I can have a small range of ideas please.

 

What is a sound engineer's preferred format for a simple track for a performance group to arrive in -hoping the party planner has even mentioned it!

 

To be close to 100% should we take iPod, MP3 on USB stick, MP3 on CD, real CD (several). Should we take a player?

 

I'm always filled with dread when presented with an mp3 to playback. It's very often noticably poor quality and playback on a PA system reveals things that simple home listening doesn't.

Assuming the CD master is decent, I'd take the original CD and an uncompressed .wav file on a USB stick (better, two - I've had some impressively broken USB sticks handed to me), and never decompress from mp3 to wav unless you have to (when you should mark it clearly as sourced from mp3! And make sure you leave enough time for them to load it into their playback system, check levels and cue points before show, especially if you suspect they aren't expecting it...

Bringing an ipod is probably a good backup too, in case they aren't expecting to do *any* playback.

[Oldradiohand]

Linear .wav @ 44.1 on data stick or data CD, Mpeg (NOT too compressed) or audio CD. Preferably .wav and CD just in case I didn't bring my laptop to play back on - my local amateur theatre doesn't have a PC for sound!

[TonyMitchell]

Something that is asked by a group I'm a member of, Maybe I can have a small range of ideas please.

 

What is a sound engineer's preferred format for a simple track for a performance group to arrive in -hoping the party planner has even mentioned it!

 

To be close to 100% should we take iPod, MP3 on USB stick, MP3 on CD, real CD (several). Should we take a player?

 

If there's a half decent engineer/technician there, he/she should be able to accommodate any of those formats within seconds.

A home burned CD is probably my least preferred format, as they are often presented minus case/sleeve, but with scratches, greasy fingerprints, food remnants, etc. and of course it is the technician's fault if it won't play or errors during the program.

The tatty mobile phone with sticky keys and 96k youtube downloads aren't pretty either.

A WAV file on a USB stick or original CD in a case are nice, albeit infrequent.

[jmdh]

Something that is asked by a group I'm a member of, Maybe I can have a small range of ideas please.

 

What is a sound engineer's preferred format for a simple track for a performance group to arrive in -hoping the party planner has even mentioned it!

 

To be close to 100% should we take iPod, MP3 on USB stick, MP3 on CD, real CD (several). Should we take a player?

 

If there's a half decent engineer/technician there, he/she should be able to accommodate any of those formats within seconds.

A home burned CD is probably my least preferred format, as they are often presented minus case/sleeve, but with scratches, greasy fingerprints, food remnants, etc. and of course it is the technician's fault if it won't play or errors during the program.

The tatty mobile phone with sticky keys and 96k youtube downloads aren't pretty either.

A WAV file on a USB stick or original CD in a case are nice, albeit infrequent.

 

Completely agree, although I'd always rip a CD before performance (if only so it's on a QLab stack, but to avoid read errors during performance). That assumes I'm expecting to do playback...

[paulears]

iPod, MP3 on USB stick, MP3 on CD, real CD (several). Should we take a player?

Yes. Not even joking! I'd even add MD too. Simply because the range of playback equipment changes so much between venues.

 

iPod - fine with us, we have a dangly cable with 3.5mm plug handy - we also have a rack mount player with big FF/RW/Play buttons that the iPod drops into - well dropped into until they changed the socket.

MP3 on a USB stick - also fine, and as long as the bit rate is reasonable, I have no quality issues - however, my X32 won't play them, of course, unless they're .wav at the right format.

MP3 on CD - OK, but only one of our players will handle it.

Real CD - absolutely fine, and loads of devices laying around.

Take a player - why not, as long as you also take leads with phonos, ¼" jacks and maybe even XLRs.

A DI box would be handy too!

 

We can also play SD cards, and other strange card based things, but never been asked.

 

At one show a while back, somebody handed our rather young member of the crew a cassette. He'd never seen one, and was fascinated by how it worked - honestly!

[top-cat]

In my experience the chosen format of the discerning event professional, is the mobile phone speaker held up to the microphone, streaming the audio direct from YouTube.

 

E2A: for best results the YouTube video should be recorded using a computer microphone held up to a mobile phone speaker, an accompanied by pointless and irrelevant pictures of cats.

 

 

Sadly I wish I was joking.

[Richard P-W]

Let's not forget 1/4" tape either..

 

In my early days a group turned up with all their music on a reel which was recorded on a quarter-track machine. Of course, played back on our 2-track meant that about a third of the way into the opening number something else appeared in the mix that they didn't even know was on there!

[revbobuk]

My recent experience is that CD seems to be waning fast; at a local community event all the stuff I was presented with was either on iPad or mobile phone - and some of it was of abysmal quality. Dance groups - staggeringly exaggerated bass, heavily compressed. Performers - one group really professional quality (on an iPad, nicely produced); another on a mobile, dreadful sound. But no CDs, no USB sticks. iPad definitely the most popular choice. One group not only had the tracks on a phone, but warned me that the battery was almost flat! Good thing I had a power brick charged and ready...

[timmeh2]

Hi

 

Very surprised that nobody has mentioned Minidisk yet.

 

OK, so the quality isn't studio-grade WAV but as a portable format it's pretty good, and those discs are far more reliable than CD.

 

It's still the preferred format for the majority of visiting cabarets that I see.

 

All the best

Timmeh

[kerry davies]

Some twerp just has to mention dance groups and another one cassette tapes. Swine.

 

Regional competition, 17 dance groups, 30 odd cassettes, brain boiling, final group dumps 4 C90s on the desk and says; "The first number is the Flower Song. It's halfway through side 2. Not sure which tape."

 

Just about anything is an improvement after an episode like that. I am over it nununununununununow.

[S&L]

can I venture that the question is upside down?

always contact an engineer in advance where you can to sort your channel list and play back needs.

always take your OWN quality player with a high quality play back format.

I put playlists together for between shows and if I am working on my x32 I put them in wav format on a stick - but if I am sat at an analogue desk and someone hands me a usb stick I ask where they would like me to insert it.

my point is that these days it's impossible to reliably predict what may or may not be available for playback - but you can predict that most engineers won't be wild about ipods and mp3's.

[top-cat]

always take your OWN quality player with a high quality play back format.

 

 

I was going to say, the safest bet is a music player of your own with a bag of cables and adaptors so that you can provide XLR, Jack or Phono. But also having a memory stick won't do you any harm, in case the venue has a playback system they prefer to use. Or a CD, in case of it being played back through the DJ system. Basically, my thought would be less "which format do I provide" and more "how many different formats is it practical for me to provide". The more options you have, the less likely you are to have a problem.

 

Personally I don't have any problems with an iPod using 192kbps mp3 or better. The rig is often more restricted in sound playback than the mp3.

[Jivemaster]

Yes I've been in the land of cassettes. I've seen minidisc come and I thought go away. The CDs are original retail so should be good. However I don't have a player with balanced out now.

 

The booker gets told that music comes from iPod BUT we all know how likely it is that the essential information will be transferred to the right people! I think that a couple of back ups are in order.

[paulears]

My sound guy is the same age as me and perfectly competent, but he has rheumatoid arthritis and he has poor feeling and control in his finger tips. He has terrible trouble with iPod controls. Pushing and turning is amazingly difficult.

 

 

I don't know why I missed MD? I agree it's still very popular, and long may it remain so!