Hummm... ok so I have two live gig type events to play in less than 2 weeks..... It's been years since I have played and haven't decided yet if I like this idea or not.  Playing live....

So I am looking for the easiest way to do this. Obviously planning to use my project tracks with vocals muted. 

So I thought.... load waves on my Sansa, but it seems it doesn't play waves.... so convert to 320 MP3 and play them.  So I thought I'd test it.  Tuned the guitar last night and played from the studio project...all is good.  Today, I plugged in the Sansa and played from there...... In the name of all that is holy!!!!   WHAT?  Seems the files have been dropped a few cents in pitch by the conversion process. At first I though maybe it's because the sansa is a battery powered device and the wheels spin a bit slower... then I thought about that...... nahhhhhh..... 

Back up plan... burn CD's and carry my guitar and a disk to the gigs. that is  much easier than using my lappy or the sansa it seems. 

I was not aware that converting waves to MP3 resulted in a pitch change. 

thoughts, observations, comments? 

Theoretically, it is possible that the "clock" on the Sansa varies enough from the "clock" in your DAW system for you to make note of a difference in final output.

That may seem unlikely yet seem probable.


If the difference remains consistent... then I would appreciate that as the quality to prioritize. Drifting would be a lot worse.

Good Luck.

I hope you have fun playing.

best regards,
mike

I wouldn't rely on just a burned CD Herb, I've seen that go horribly wrong. Wouldn't the laptop be a better option?

Guitarhacker

I was not aware that converting waves to MP3 resulted in a pitch change. 

thoughts, observations, comments? 

is it sharp or flat?

We used to use DAT tapes.

They never skipped, never sped up or slowed down, always sounded great ...

I know this doesn't help, but your thread reminded me of what we used to do and I thought I'd throw it out there.

If Herb is speaking of just a few cents, then it may be the case that just about any other digital device will have a variance of that sort.

That is why multiple devices are usually clocked to only one device's clock... so they are all on the same clock.

The classic workaround is to provide some tune up samples in the media so the players can tune to the actual sound provided by the playback system.

A practical real test would be to drag the .mp3 files back on to the original system to see if the files have drifted or if it really is a device specific issue.



Best regards,
mike

Did you convert the wav to mp3 via a different program, or did you directly export to mp3 from original project in Sonar?  I got nothin', but I'm curious.

And a "Sansa"... I don't know what that is?  As in Sansa Disk/memory stick?

Why not keep it simple and just do you and the acoustic guitar.

There's a tried and true technique performers use to cover up imperfections like playing out of key.  Backup dancers. 

It doesn't have to make sense.  More dancing = better music, roight?

Answering questions here....


Flat far enough that it is noticeably out of tune with a 440 tuned guitar

Sansa fuse less expensive MP3 player than the iPod.... and I exported to wave directly from the project..... converted in Wavepad in the same DAW.... it's all good in the computers.... it's only in the fuse that it goes flat. 

I don't have a DAT....but I do have a bunch of old 8 track tapes and one 1/2 master of some crappy studio efforts from back in the day.

I have considered using the lappy..... but I have seen this lappy suddenly decide to blue screen and reboot..... but I guess I could take the chance..... it's only a 10 minute set on gig #1 and about 60 minutes on gig #2 with time to kick around if it glitches.  I just didn't want to carry my lappy out to these 2 places.....but it's still an option.


Hummmmmm.... back up dancers....... 

straight acoustic is an option..... 



over all.... this is not a big deal.... I'll figure out a way to do both events..... but the whole flat thing kinda threw me a bit..... the clock being different is my favored theory as to why....