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A friend wants to send an mp3 then have me add vox + harmonies and send it back as an mp3. I guess this is possible but I don't think it will sound very good. Am I wrong??
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It all depends on:
(i) the quality of recording and mixing on the original song.
(ii) the quality of the recording of your added tracks and how well they're made to 'sit' within the first mix. Careful adjusting of EQs will probably be necessary as you won't be able to change the whole instruments mix that's already there.
(iii) and, most importantly, your expectations in terms of quality at the end.
It's audio so there shouldn't be any discernable degeneration as long as levels are managed, etc.
Obviously it would be better if you could do it all via WAV files rather than MP3, if that's not an issue in terms of up/downloading that might be involved, and ideally as separate tracks so that a remix can be done once the vocals are on board.
I've done 'for fun' collaborations where the backing track is an MP3 and I've added a guitar solo or vocals and the end result is fine. Not pro-studio quality of course, but fine.
John
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Is the mp3 at a constant beat rate? That's the biggest killer.
And is it in tune. Another breaker there. Bit rate to match you end? You should be able to figure that part out in the first 10 minutes. I'd use ACW to check on the beat issue.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Better way is for you to send him mp3's of only your vocals so he can mix those in with his original tracks.
This way his mp3 isn't decompressed, recompressed, over and over
Better yet is for him to send a you an mp3 to work with, but you send him .ape files in return for each vocal.
monkeysaudio - great freebie.
Works especially well on vocals. Probably end up about the same size as an mp3 of the vocals and he gets quality wave files to work with.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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320 kbps mp3's work just fine to mix into a project. Done it a bunch of times. I agree that sending the vocal mp3 to the originator if the project is the best way to go.
Cheers, Mike My Music * Asus ROG Strix G15CF 32 GB DDR4 4TB HDD + 1 TB SSD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB Win 11 AKAI EIE PRO Sound Interface. BIAB/RB 2024 UltraPak Build - Latest
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I gave a golden tip above
monkeysaudio for vocal tracks.
You end up with high quality wave for approx. same size... the original wave file actually, no loss at all.
For full mixes monkeysaudio only reduces a wave file size by half. With vocals, because of the silence between lines it compresses much more and decompresses to original wave.
Oh, and its free.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Since I have broadband I just send the SEQ file via transferbigfiles.com. No brainer for quality and no chance of mismatched tempo sync.
Russ Anyday above ground is a good day Computer is Hp Pavillion Vision 6 Ghz quad core AMD processor 8 Gig memory 1 TB hard drive 6 GB hard drive Windows 7 Premium Loose nut behind the keyboard 
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Maybe with 6 or 8 audio tracks, not when you got 28 to 30 .. There comes a point where it can be a big time saver, especially if the sone is going back and forth a few times.
I may actually right up a few tips on this, as this process can be pretty streamlined and efficient if you know some of the ins and outs.Not sayin you don't already know, Russ, but I'm sure this is a common question.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Thanks guys. I will look into the monkeyaudio. I hope you do write tips on this rharv. Russ, I don't think I could send the .seq because he doesn't use RB. Mike, I usually do 192 mp3's so I will keep that in mind. John, I hadn't even thought about bit rates. Do I need to know what bit rate he's using?
I'll be using RB and I think he's using recent version of cakewalk music creator.
So when I sing to his mp3 opened in RB, then I should send him back a separate mp3 (or ape file) of each vocal track. I'm assuming I should send him raw tracks with no effects so he can add those on his end.
These will then decompress into his daw so that he can mix it with the original tracks. Then after he does his final mix and recompresses back to an mp3 it should sound decent (depending on how well it was recorded and mixed of course).
Josie
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monkeys audio works for sure. I just had the first occasion of working cross-planet (collaborator is in Oz) and his 320 kbps 4-bar loops were 119.8 bpm, but should have actually been 120 bpm. When it absolutely has to be locked in, monkey's audio is the way to go. Pretty sure I turned on Bob to Monkey's Audio and others here at PG (well, I think Bob was the only one who paid attention) about 4-5 years ago. And to send those big files, nothing seems to work better for me than www.yousendit.com-Scott
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Thank you rharv for taking the time and sharing your tips on this subject in the tips and tricks forum!
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I never use mp3 or any other "lossy" compression on source material such as individual recorded tracks.
I only use mp3 for final distribution (like on iTunes) of a mixed and mastered song. Even then I hate it, because there are so many better sounding compression algorithms out there.
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