Consider the following analogy:

When you print a document out on a laser printer it looks sharp with no artifacts around the edges of text. That`s the uncompressed first-generation version. When you make a photocopy of that page it generally looks very good but a keen eye will distinguish the difference. That`s the compressed second-generation version. If you were to photocopy the copied page you would begin to see noticeable artifacting. You are essentially compressing an already compressed version, making it third-generation.

When you play music through BIAB using the compressed version you are hearing high quality second-generation audio. When you save that music as a MP3 or WMA file you are recompressing the compressed files, giving you third-generation audio. If you futher manipulate the music in a DAW and save it out again, you are compressing it even further.

Still, as Jim and Mike point out most people can not tell the difference.

When deciding on which edition to purchase, the driving consideration should be 'What is the intended purpose of the generated tracks?'

If your tunes are backing tracks for gigging or jamming with, or background music for videos, then the compressed version is completely adequate, in my opinion. If your needs are more professional, such as charging people to make demos, you should buy the Audiophile version.

If you plan on editing the tracks in a DAW then you would benefit from the uncompressed tracks of the Audiophile because there is more `headroom` in the files for the nuances of musical overtones and such. Naturally you would work in the realm of WAV as much as possible. (For the record, WAV files themselves are compressed and the concerns around recompression exist here, too.) CD quality is 16-bit, 44.1 KHz but modern recording is now done at 24-bit, 192 KHz to allow for more manipulation without artifacting.

"The un-compressed files sound better" is an accurate but lazy response. IMHO the response should be "The un-compressed files are higher quality samples better suited for further audio editing." Or something like that.



- Walter

BIAB 2016, build 427, i7-2600k, 10 GB RAM.