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MP3+G or CDG... is there really a big sound diff...

if you listen to the CD and then to the MP3 in a comparitive test... yes, otherwise probably not.

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If the mp3 is ripped at a more quality rate (minimum 192 or higher is preferred), there will not be any major difference noticed - especially in a noisy bar atmosphere. Less than that & you can start hearing a difference, mostly in the higher frequencies to begin with.

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Actually with sound procs and playing at crowd levels there is no detectable difference. The improvements in CODEC 97 sound has been drastic in the last few years. Digital sound is a vast improvement over analogue.

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Also, from a longevity standpoint, MP3+Gs make more sense. You don't have to worry about losing or scratching those

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Just because I'm me: There is also absolutely no quality control for an MP3. A factory made disc is made from a master, itself under intensive quality control. From this master the the dupes are made. Constant QC, and a consistent product. Each one the same as the last. All quality is controlled. All done with instrumentation specifically made for the task.

An MP3 is ripped onto a drive after a format change. How good that MP3 is is dependant on the PC operator, and the PC( which is an instrument that is NOT specifically made for music- even with upgrades). In the the case of a home rip, ANYTHING is possible.

Now, lets say you are downloading music from another source. Take the previous statement, then add: The MP3 must now be transmitted ( uploaded) online, which means it is now traveling through another medium ( and subject to it's vagueries), at what may or may not be at an optimum rate. It must then be downloaded ( with another trip through a variable medium) to your PC, at what ALSO may or may not be at an optimum rate. It is then also subject to the quality of YOUR PC and skills.

Then, of course, you may wish to add a transfer to a player, or a burn to a disc....and so it goes...

Absolutely NO professional quality control.

In my oh so very humble opinion ( yeah, I know.. ) I would stick to factory discs. ...But that's just me...

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" Disc based and loving it..."

I don't know, I have some original discs from manus that sound like they were recorded straight from an mp3 file.

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That wouldn't surprise me, and I should have been more specific: I was discussing quality mfrs.

I also note that you posted that you have discs that SOUND like they were recorded from an MP3 file. Apparently, you can also hear the difference....

Admittedly, not everyone can. However, the percentage who DO hear the difference are important to my business as well....

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" Disc based and loving it..."

Well, let me chime in here. Use a variable bit rate, and the sound is awesome.... rip a track with a lower compression ratio and it sounds like crap.

Joe, just like you buy quality CDs, I buy quality downloads. I think I've made it clear how how I feel about SBI.... and Tricerasoft in general.

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I thought we were referring to professional MP3+Gs. Also, digital transfers are not subject to data loss when transferred over the internet. If you are downloading a file sequentially (or uploading a file) the file will be identical on both "sides". If you are talking peer-to-peer, though, with something like BitTorrent where the file is rebuilt in a non-sequential order, then yes, you could have some problems with data loss, but 99.9% of the time when you are obtaining a file online it will be a perfect copy of the source MP3.

That said, I totally agree with your statement that it depends on the original "rip". As someone else mentioned, VBR MP3s are quite good, but let's face it. A lot of the time the tracks published don't sound all that great, and for the majority of the sound systems used for karaoke, MP3s would do just fine.

This reminds me a lot of the old vinyl vs. CD debate

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Yeah I was talking some older SC discs that had some songs on them, some SBI customs - which stand to reason they would have the files in the computer, and a handful of Chartbuster songs that sound like they could have been mp3 originals.
I can tell an mp3 when it was compressed at low rates - usually 128 & lower. 160 is not as detectable but some songs can stand out. 192 & above is much better and in a bar setting (and other situations as well) you cannot tell the difference between an mp3 ripped at 192 or higher vs the cd original.

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Agreed, 192 is a great compromise between storage space and quality. I encode all of my CDs for personal use at 192 and the difference is hardly noticeable. There are those that claim they can REALLY tell the difference to the point of ruining the listening experience, but 192kbps has done me quite well.

If you are concerned there are some lossless formats out there, but I don't know if there is software support for any of them + CDG.

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Actually with the sizes of todays hard drives being so cheap these days, I will probably only buy downloads ripped at 320 in all honesty - I do not buy them now - I still prefer having a physical disc, but that may change someday. No point in sacrificing the sound anymore when the storage space is no longer an issue as it was even 5 years ago. When I first started running on computer the price of my 80 gb drive ran me almost $400, now they are pretty much giveaways & you can get a 1.5TB for $150 or less.

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