Originally Posted By: MarioD
Hi Pat, I think the only real answer is that can you hear the difference between a a compressed file and a wav file? You may want to find out what compression PGMusic is using and take a wav file, compress it, then see if you can hear the difference. I would do that with a number of different wavs.


Thanks for weighing in Mario! Hope you are doing well!

What got me thinking about this was Christmas carols. Somewhere along the line my wife ripped all her holiday CDs to mp3, and I was listening to the MP3s. The same songs on the CD sparkle. The MP3s, not so much.

When I'm learning cover songs from MP3, then listen to a better quality recording of the same song, I can frequently hear parts that are just not distinguishable in the MP3.

I wonder if asking "can *I* hear the difference?" might be the wrong question. I already know my own hearing is impaired. But my audience...? If my end product was a CD, then I'd need WAVs. But more and more, people listen to streamed music, which is compressed. Which leads to the argument about compressing a file that's already compressed. At the end of the logic, unless you are a hobbyist who has no audience, it makes sense to work with wavs, assuming the budget allows. If the song gets compressed later by a streaming service, at least that will be the first and only compression.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0