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Hi, first post here.
I'm making backing tracks using 2015 BIAB with real tracks, my tracks sound fine when I play them in BIAB on my computer, but when I export them to mp3 and transfer to my tablet they play flat for about 4 measures and eventually come back into tune. They don't slow down as far as I can tell just play flat just enough to sound out of tune.
I thought maybe exporting them at a higher r as te would help but it's still happening. Am I exporting them wrong or is my tablet not have enough power/memory? I'm not tech savvy btw.
Last edited by cb56; 09/08/21 03:20 AM.
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I'm thinking the issue maybe whatever MP3 encoder tool the computer is relying on during the export process. There is a test you can try to eliminate this possibility. Export a song as a wave file instead of a MP3 file. Every media player I know of can playback a wav file as easily as it can play a MP3 file. If the wave file playback doesn't glitch then you know the MP3 encoder is causing your issue. If I'm correct you'll likely want to replace your MP3 conversion tool. +++ HERE +++ is a link to a site with a downloadable encoder.
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The best way to get the results you want is a DAW ... there are several for free. I use Cakewalk, but you could use Reaper.
Once you finished a song, render it as a WAV file (for more tweaks to each track, you may want to choose 'Render Individual Tracks'. Once that's done, open up a DAW and import the WAV file. Within the DAW you can edit each track you want it to sounds like. If happy, use the DAW's export function to export the song to MP3 - I recommend 320kBps.
See if that helps.
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Thanks jim and mike I'll give those things a try. Would audacity be good enough? I can also convert to mp3 with a program called VLC which is what I'm using to play the backing tracks.
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Ok, the wav file sounds better. I'll try a couple different methods of converting to mp3.
Also don't know how this happened but I also got something called Audio_stretched_WAV
what is that?
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I'm making backing tracks using 2015 BIAB with real tracks, my tracks sound fine when I play them in BIAB on my computer, but when I export them to mp3 and transfer to my tablet they play flat for about 4 measures and eventually come back into tune One thought I had was, perhaps this is a Variable Bit Rate (VBR) handling problem on the player side. If you can encode the MP3s as Constant Bit Rate (CBR), that might help.
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Thanks jim and mike I'll give those things a try. Would audacity be good enough? I can also convert to mp3 with a program called VLC which is what I'm using to play the backing tracks. Yes, I convert all of my wavs to MP3s in audacity. Plus if you DL all of the effects for Audacity you can do a lot more with a wav file. Good luck.
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cb56,
I forgot to tell you in my first post but welcome to the forum! There is no way to determine which MP3 encoder installed on your computer Band-in-a-Box is using for the MP3 render. As Mark stated if the MP3 encoder gives you choices a constant bit rate is normally better than a variable bit rate. Also, if the choice is offered, the size setting makes a HUGE difference with most people preferring 192 or 320.
One other thought, if your tablet media player accepts wma audio files they typically offer smaller file size with better sound quality as compared to MP3.
But, if it was me, I'd stick with wave audio files if possible. Wave is a lossless file format so no audio information is lost. MP3 and WMA are lossy, compressed files which means some audio information is thrown out to reduce the size of an audio file.
An audio stretched wave file means the file data had been adjusted to match tempo, pitch or key signature. In your case that likely means the audio data of a RealTrack has been adjusted to match the chord sheet settings.
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cb56,
I forgot to tell you in my first post but welcome to the forum! There is no way to determine which MP3 encoder installed on your computer Band-in-a-Box is using for the MP3 render. As Mark stated if the MP3 encoder gives you choices a constant bit rate is normally better than a variable bit rate. Also, if the choice is offered, the size setting makes a HUGE difference with most people preferring 192 or 320.
One other thought, if your tablet media player accepts wma audio files they typically offer smaller file size with better sound quality as compared to MP3.
But, if it was me, I'd stick with wave audio files if possible. Wave is a lossless file format so no audio information is lost. MP3 and WMA are lossy, compressed files which means some audio information is thrown out to reduce the size of an audio file.
An audio stretched wave file means the file data had been adjusted to match tempo, pitch or key signature. In your case that likely means the audio data of a RealTrack has been adjusted to match the chord sheet settings.
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Ok, driving my ears crazy trying to hear the differences. Used audacity to convert wav to mp3 not sure I'm hearing much difference doing it in audacity.
wav file still is by far the best but takes up lot's of space on the tablet. I'll be having 40-60 songs on there.
Selected constant bit rate but it drops the quality from 320 to 192 no other choice available.
I'll check and see how wma files work later
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wma file seemed to improve. could be ear fatigue though. wav still sounds best. gonna call it a night. thanks for all the advice.If you think of anything else let me know. thanks
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I use either audacity or PG Music's Power Tracks Pro to render audio, depending on what I want to do with the music and use it for.
Memory is much cheaper than it used to be, so I never use VBR. Instead, I'll use a higher bit rate. VBR makes the playback app work harder.
I have over 600 backing tracks for my duo, all at 192kbps. I started doing this in 2002 when memory was more limited. If I were to do it again today, I might use WAV files or a higher bit rate.
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I have over 600 backing tracks for my duo, all at 192kbps. I started doing this in 2002 when memory was more limited. If I were to do it again today, I might use WAV files or a higher bit rate. A long time ago I encoded a bunch of old cassette tapes as MP3s at 128 kbps – a decision I've regretted many times. Unfortunately, to re-encode them at a higher bitrate, I'd have to play them again, and this is tape from the 80s that is probably degraded and might well disintegrate, even if I took the terrifying precaution of baking before playing. So I'm pretty much stuck with what I've got.
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These days I don't use mp3 format very much but encode to flac. Flac is a lossless format, not as small as mp3 but definately smaller than wav files. Being lossless the quality is really good. Most tablets nowadays can handle flac. Kevin
Last edited by Kevin Woolley; 09/07/21 05:47 AM.
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I generally encode to a 320 kbps MP3. It's nearly impossible to tell it from a WAV file, and you save about three-quarters of the file space. Constant bit-rate, definitely. Some players won't even read a variable rate file.
Kevin, I use MP3 primarily because my car player reads them, but I never tried a Flac file in the car (Subaru). I don't think it's supported. Something to try, though, since it will NOT read a WAV file.
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I also generally encode at 320 kbps, as Matt stated. For my ears, 320 and wav were not discernable (but at my age, there's that). Although 256 was still very good, I did start hearing some artifacts, likewise 192 was also pretty good. Definitely hear artifacts at 128.
I always render to wav from BIAB or RealBand, and then create an MP3 using a different tool (usually either Nero, Diamond Cut Audio Restoration Tools (DCArt), or MediaMonkey Gold). Sound is dead on to the originally created wav file.
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So.....
(1) Original poster, have you ironed out your flatness problem yet? Did CBR help? and
(2) Has anyone else ever heard of this particular problem, with an MP3 taking time to "get up to speed"? I certainly never have, and was just guessing about VBR because it sounded like maybe a signal training problem.
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Thanks, Mark, for bringing that back. No, I’ve never heard this problem, but I don’t use VBR since it’s not always compatible with players.
cb56, did you solve your problem?
ps I know the VLC player is very versatile and I use it for video files, but I never tried it for audio files.
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Yes, cbr at 320 seems to do the trick. I think it might have more to do with my tablet since no one else has this problem. Not sure.
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