Shit
Ive just seen this thread.
Jon - my number 07710 637067.
If theres any problems like this in the future, or you have any doubt about anything regarding formats or anything at all - PLEASE CALL.
Mastering should NOT ever be done from MP3.
If for one of the releases you ONLY have an MP3, then convert it to WAV - it wont lose any quality.
Definitely do not convert the others to MP3, each one deteriorating in quality !!
It is quite plain from reading this thread that the Pieter K tune was converted to an MP3 incorrectly. It should have first been resampled to 44khz
Macc is bang on with this:
Macc Wrote:From the comments in this thread it seems as if whoever made the mp3 assumed that the aiff was at a sample rate of 44.1kHz. From the info in this thread it seem that Pieter K works at 48kHz. This would explain the tempo differences people are hearing - several windows media jobbies don't support sample rates above 44.1kHz. So those playing it back at 44.1kHz hear it [48/44.1 =] 1.088 times faster. Assuming an original tempo of 170, this means people are hearing it at 1.088x170 = 185 bpm. So if, as someone said, the new tempo is 190, the original is 175 (sorry, geekness took over there, I had to work that out ). This all seem to tally, unless I've made a balls up.
The point here is that whoever made the mp3 (mastering from mp3 btw? WTF??) didn't consider that Pieter K might work at a different sample rate, which all signs suggest he does. Had they opened the file in something like wavelab, either as raw pcm or by changing the file extension, they would have seen that sample rate was 48kHz and done the necessary conversion - no hassle.
Not doing this to nag or pick holes, but this is all very expensive for certain people (ie Statto mainly) and could very easily have been avoided, with a certain amount of thought and testing of resulting files. It only takes a minute to make a standard wav from an aiff.
a REALLY BAD mistake.
As for the Mastering Engineer.
He should have facilities to master from WAV or from AIF (or its alter-ego AIFF).
He should have facilities to master from 44.1Khz or 48Khz (or 88 or 96 etc)
He should NEVER have recommended that you use MP3, as it implies quality loss. This seems especially poor since it seems he did this just to make his life a bit easier.
I would ask for free remastering from the original WAVs / AIF files, as MP3 should never be acceptable. He should NEVER have recommended that.