Hi guys, remember me and my bold 'quality of sound' statements? Well I'm making a NEAR full retreat! I've been working on my mp3 set up with On Stage Performer. Well the OSP is great, but this is my experience with mp3 backing tracks, and anyone can fight me if they think I'm wrong: You lose definition. I've been using the Tyros for over 2 years, and I can tell you the definition and separation of sounds is much better from the Tyros. I can't tell you why, but something happens in the render prosess that makes midifiles play better and sound better on the Tyros, than top quality VST's rendered to mp3.
I've done lot's of A/B comparison, believe me.
NEAR because:
Some songs however will never sound good as a midi file, for example Dire Straits melodies, and other songs with lots of dynamics and guitar based. Don't get me wrong, live recorded is always best as far as the sound of the instruments, but to play as mp3 through a PA has not impressed me. I'm back to the Tyros for back up for nearly most things:

------------------
Roy-Andrè

I agree with you!!!
I've told all people in my surrounding since many years that mp3 lacks. I remember the days when the CD standard was made. Many people thought that you'll loose quality in comparison to venyl records. At the beginning there were some early CD recordings made on 22.05 kHz at 8 bit sampling rate. I've told them "Wait! 44.1 kHz at 16 bit sampling rate will hit the ground!" and it happened!

The compressed format of mp3 files do not allow to save the whole music datas. So, I was wondering that the whole today's youth loved mp3 and I also didn't understand the fear of the record labels to loose income caused by mp3 exchange markets on internet. If I really want to hear the music with full satisfaction then I have to buy the original CD. IMHO No need for new law!!!

I'm using mp3 files only for archiving and informing. Inside a driving car you won't really notice the difference between wave and mp3 because the surrounding noises are killing the HiFi quality.

Modern synths are mostly using wave samples stored in ROMs by the manufacturer. So, in my opinion it's natural that MIDI files sounds better too. I would and will NEVER use a mp3 file as a sound source for my recordings. I only create mp3 files of my end products to put them into the WWW.

------------------
Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

What is this ON STAGE PERFORMER you are talking about? I have tried finding info on it and can not. Can you fill me in a little. Thx, Russ

Here you go: http://www.playwareinnovations.com/

Roy-Andrè... Altho I haven't used mp3 backings, I've heard others who have with very good results. Have you tried using a higher bitrate, say 192 or even 320 kbps? That should definitely improve your sound quality. Beyond that, since OSP also supports wav files, have you tried that route?

Glenn

Glenn,
Yes I will use wav for the songs impossible to midi ie. 'Brothers in Arms', and the likes, but songs tailored to the Tyros from Midispot, d.o.o and Yamaha sounds so good that studio backingtracks doesn't make it any better, and you get the text on the screen!