mp3 to mp3?

[MikeDVI]

Hi all, I think I know better, but here goes...

A customer sent me an mp3 of an old partially finished song and wanted a track added to finish it (Bass Guitar). He requested it remixed to sound as if it the bass was there all along (obviously), and sent back to him. So I added the requested track, mixed it, and sent him a .wav file. He is happy.

Today he is asking for a mp3 of it, but if I do that am not I compressing an already compressed file, so in effect double compressing it? I may try it to test but seems like it will be an automatic fail?

Customer does not know how to convert it himself, I'm sure you guys have run into that before...

Mike

[Mark Bliss]

IMO this is a question of expectations.

If he didnt know/care enough when he chose to work with/from an mp3, and doesnt know/care what he is working with now, will he notice/care if its an mp3 rendered from an mp3?

Probably not.

I often suggest to such people that there might be a better way...
And I often get a shrug, or a deer in the headlights look.

[TrevsAudio]

Or if you mixed it in Mixcraft (and still have it ) Just mix it down again to MP3

[MikeDVI]

Yeah Mark, I love putting time and effort in and sending the rough mixes out, and the response is something like "Sounds great man, I listened on my iPad". But at least they like it I guess LOL

trevlyns - exactly what I did. It seems to be OK, so I sent it to him and guess what response I got?

"Mike...I did not notice a difference in that one and that other wave one"

So back to my original question, if I have an mp3 on an MX track, and play an additional track along, mix down the whole thing to mp3, did I not just double compress the original track?

Mike

[comedians]

I would guess the original mp3 would not apply a 2nd compression if the rate is the same, rather like a zip file will not compress a zip file further than it is already compressed unless you change the compression level.

[jwarv]

Yeah Mark, I love putting time and effort in and sending the rough mixes out, and the response is something like "Sounds great man, I listened on my iPad". But at least they like it I guess LOL

trevlyns - exactly what I did. It seems to be OK, so I sent it to him and guess what response I got?

"Mike...I did not notice a difference in that one and that other wave one"

So back to my original question, if I have an mp3 on an MX track, and play an additional track along, mix down the whole thing to mp3, did I not just double compress the original track?

Mike

Doesn't it depend on the rate of compression already applied? In other words, if the original was 256 and you convert it to 320, it can only get better. Or at the very least, no effect at all. However, I would think the reverse would be a problem.